"I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork in in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:11-12) I grew up in … [Read more...] about The Reward of Repentance
John the Baptist
The Fruit of Repentance
"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father," for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid … [Read more...] about The Fruit of Repentance
The Haunting Question
"Then in Jerusalem and Judea and all the region about the Jordan were coming out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." (Matthew 3:5-6) Recently, I explored the haunting question asked of Elijah by God as he was hiding out in a cave on Mt. Horeb: "What are you doing here?" (1 Kings 19:9) I say that it is "haunting" because it … [Read more...] about The Haunting Question