Christmas – The Rest of the Story – Excerpt #1

by Rick Renner

John 1:29 tells us that John the Baptist declared, “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In addition to speaking by divine revelation, John the Baptist was Jesus’ relative and had spent time with Jesus as the two of them were growing up. All his life, John had heard from his parents that one day, he would prepare the way for Jesus. John had no doubt heard the miraculous stories about Jesus’ appearance at the time of His own birth as the Lamb of God who would “take away the sin of the world.” Even at John the Baptist’s birth, his father Zacharias was told by an angel that John would be born with the divine destiny to prepare the way of the Lord (see Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4).

John’s parents instilled it into him as a young man that he was born to fulfill that divine destiny. This shows the power of parents to guide a child to God’s calling on his or her life. If you do not know the destiny of your own child, ask God to give you guidance about how to prepare your child to fulfill his or her purpose in life. John the Baptist knew that he was called to introduce Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

Rick Renner