The day is here!

          As I was reading Scripture this morning, I was reading in Mark chapter 1. I came across verse 9: “One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan river” (Mark 1:9, NLT). I was reading that, and I was thinking about Nazareth just a little. If you think about it, the people back then would have probably thought that their Messiah would come from Jerusalem rather than a little small village that really had no significance whatsoever. It reminds me of Jellico, here where I live. It is a small town of maybe 2,500 people if that. In the bigger cities people always say, “Nothing good ever comes out of Jellico.” That is because this little town is overrun with drugs. But I can see the people on the scene back then thinking that very same thing about Jesus and about Nazareth: “Nothing really good ever comes out of Nazareth.”

          And then another thing that really smacked me across the face was Jesus being baptized. Especially in a baptism for the repentance of sins. If Jesus needs to be forgiven of sins, then we are all very much in trouble. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For God made Christ, who never sinned to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” Shew! Thank goodness – that was a close one! So, Jesus participated in John’s baptism not because he needed to repent of his sins, but he did it to identify with us – sinful humanity!

          Wow! This is it! The time we have been waiting for is happening … Then the spirit descended on Jesus like a dove when he popped up out of that water verse 10. This verse took me all the way back to Genesis 8:10-12: “After waiting another 7 days, Noah released the dove again. This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone. He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back.” God’s promise to Noah of a new world was there! And it is here in Mark that we see the Messiah coming to fulfill the promise that God made to his people!

          Have you ever saw a dove? We had one hanging around the house here for a while. It was so gentle, just as Jesus the gentle servant who was coming to bring healing and restoration following a message or repentance by John. Israel was being asked to turn around. You are going the wrong way folks! Turn around from your disobedience and rebellion and start anew by turning to the Messiah – he is here!

          Hope you guys have a fantastic day. I was super blessed with my Bible study and I just had to share 😊

Be Encouraged, Chris