Devotionals

In the Groove

by PamFord Davis 
11/16/18
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Here’s a flashback for my Baby Boomer friends.

A favorite song was skipping while you were playing records on a phonograph. The vinyl 45, 33 (or maybe your parent's 75) record was stuck in a groove; the singer kept repeating the same thing over and over. From this, we get the idiom for when a person is repeating themselves; ‘sound like a broken record.’

John the Baptist was like a broken record. He had a one track message.

Repent! Repent!

“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’  For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight (Matthew 3:1-3 NKJV).” 

His message of repentance was clear.

“John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mark 1:4 NKJV).”

Jesus also came preaching messages of repentance.

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17 NKJV).”

Jesus did not mince His words. “There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things?  I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:1-3 NKJV).”