“After me [John the Baptist] will come one who is more powerful than I [Jesus], whose sandals I am not fit to carry…His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11–12, NIV 1984).
My Musings – Had He not come, we would all be “chaff” condemned to burn in the “unquenchable fire.” With no “wheat” to be gathered into His “barn.” It was “for this reason [He] was born, and for this [He] came into the world, to testify to the truth.” (John 18:37, NIV 1984). In HIs own words, the truth is “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again…For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:3, 16–18, NIV 1984).
My Advice – Are you “wheat,” that is “not condemned,” or are you “chaff,” that “stands condemned already?” He came to save, not to condemn, “whoever believes in him.” He’s done His part. Won’t you do yours? Once you do, you will no longer see it as a barn. You will “see [it as] the Kingdom of God.” And there is plenty of room. “For, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13, NIV 1984).
The Brew Is A Musing 