Good News!

Mark 1: 1-8 v “I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

This is God’s Good News! It began with “a voice shouting in the wilderness.” The voice was John the Baptist. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. He announced “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am. “I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We know from the stories of Advent that the mothers of John the Baptist and Jesus met when both were pregnant and even in the womb, John jumped for joy when they met! They grew up in different families with different paths, John by his clothes and his eating habits did not follow the traditional Jewish path, unlike Jesus who followed in His earthly Fathers footsteps learning the trade of being a carpenter. But despite their differences they both followed the path that they were conceived for. To begin following Jesus and therefore be baptized with the Holy Spirit we first must repent. Rich or poor, happy or sad, content or anxious, everyone has to be aware that we can do better. If we didn’t make the right choice today, then we must make the next right choice. Living humbly knowing that God is watching us, opens us up to the power of the Holy Spirit through the grace of God. Only Jesus baptizes you with the Holy Spirit.

Prayer: Heavenly Father we are sorry for all the poor choices we make each day. Please open our eyes to the road you want us to travel, and to listen to the Holy Spirit as he guides us, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.