Tuesday August 29, 2023

Mark 6:17-21

The beheading of John The Baptist

So the king at once sent one of the bodyguard with orders to bring John’s head. The man went off and beheaded him in prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

I looked at the reading of this feast and I was very uncomfortable. I want to preach good news not stories like this. So I put the Bible down, went to sleep. Then as I was on my daily run, the question arrived in my soul. How many times have you been beheaded? It must be 5 or 6 times in the church alone. I have been cut off like I don’t exist by some friends too. And yet you live Chibundi. In death life does not end, life changes.

John did not stop building the kingdom even though he was cut off. God found a way to continue to use him. I was speaking to another friend who had been excommunicated and he said “I miss how things were, how we would go on vacations, but life is a beautiful thing now I preach to a different crowd.”

So don’t think John lost his life, he changed! How about you? Are you the same person you were 10 years ago? Are there people who don’t talk to you today but you were inseparable just a few years ago? Someone told me that women reinvent themselves every 10 years or so. They are constantly cutting things off so they can become more. Sometimes life gives you an ultimatum and brutally takes a life or lifestyle away. You my friend are breathing… you are preaching.