Luke 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV) “and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

1 Peter 3:15 English Standard Version (ESV) but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

The heart prepared needs to have the message of hope explained in a way that is both gracious and honest. There is no respect in making light of the emotional turmoil of a heart that is suffering.  Allow them to speak about their pain without judgement.

When they repent and confess Christ will come to them. It is at this point that they will need to surrender to His Lordship. That surrender has to be heartfelt and a matter of relieving themselves of the pain they feel and not the guilt that has been justified by God.

Self-preservation is at the heart of salvation. They want to be saved from the pain that already exists in their hearts. What tells us how to treat the tender heart on the edge of salvation?

Our own tragic story.

Paul’s witness about his encounter with Christ is a one in a billion case. What we went through in meeting Christ at our moment of repentance and confession will be closer in reality to what is going on for that lost soul on the edge of salvation.

That witness is the defense of our faith placed in Christ. We should all have a clear understanding of what that process was in our own case and a clear and simple way to explain what happened to us. We should make it sincere and easy to understand.

Leviticus 19:14 English Standard Version (ESV) You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

If we believe that God is going to come to us then the stumbling block that is in our path is not one which trips us but rather blocks God’s access to us.

Ezekiel 7:19 English Standard Version (ESV) They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.

Our iniquity is what blocks God from coming to us. This is what John the Baptist did to remove the stumbling block that was preventing God from coming to us.

Matthew 3:1-2 English Standard Version

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

¹ In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

John preached repentance.

⁵ Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, ⁶ and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Repentance and confession happened and then Jesus came to them.

Repentance will only come to those who realize that they were wrong.

Luke 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV) “and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

1 Peter 3:15 English Standard Version (ESV) but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,