Matthew 3
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' "[a]
4John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11"I baptize you with[b] water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12His 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."
The Baptism of Jesus
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
15Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.
16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
S Verse 9 - Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
ReplyDeleteO One particular trait that I feel my parents instilled within me was the fact that we (as people) are not better than others around us due to what we have, ie. money, cars, big house, etc. They had said that what makes us better is who we are as people. I'm going to take that a step further and say that "We are who we let God make us". Through this, our actions should show an outpouring of God's love and place in our lives.
A This verse is a good reminder to me, that it doesn't matter who we are, or what we have. We are not entitled to 'anything'. We don't get a free ride of passage because of our family lineage. The verse states "Do not presume to say to yourselves". I feel like John is trying to say that we lie to ourselves first, letting our pride and right of entitlement get the better of us. From that we portray who we think we should be, (which is a lie) not who God wants us to be.
P Lord, I pray that my life would not be a reflection of my own pride and right to feel entitled but, that I would look to you for my guidance and Way. I am entitled to nothing on Earth. Out of grace you created me and out of love you have saved me. Please work through me that I may "pass" on that love to others in my life. I love you, Amen.