Matthew 3

Hmm...locusts and wild honey...yum! LOL Matt. 3 is where we meet John the Baptist. He was staying in the wilderness of Judea. I wonder why in verse 4 the Bible tells us what he is wearing: a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt about his waist. Anyone know the significance?

Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance; v 8. Seeing us produce fruit, ie: showing signs of a changed life, as someone who has truly repented and given their life to Christ is something that comes up a lot in the new testament. This fruit bearing thing is a tough one. Looking back over my life has there been fruit? There has but not consistently. This is something we will address more as I go through my weeks here. I like this verse because it is a command...bring forth fruit! And I can also tell you that fruit never comes by sheer will, you need to be engulfed in your relationship with Christ for fruit to be seen. You can not magically make fruit appear in your life just like a tree can not 'poof' out an apple if it is not deeply sunk into the soil and watered appropriately...part of the reason I am spending a year in God's word.

More tonight.

Tonight...a bad night. A great day but then tonight I am inundated with malfunctioning electronic equipment: my new Nook (electronic reader), netflix and our DVD player...I'm so done. I want to go back to...pause...what? The 70's, the 50's the 1800's? The truth is we can not go back. We need to deal with the challenges of our day. Back in the 70's you never got mad at your computer for crashing but you did get mad when you couldn't find a pay phone when you needed it and have it working. Right? Etc. It's all relative.

Back to the text: v. 11 John says that Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Fire...wow. I looked at Mal.3:26 "For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap". He purifies then cleanses. Yep, that's it. Think of your last deep scrape and how you had to clean it out - remember Bacteen - ouch!, clean it out before it could heal and be perfect. Sometimes even, when you break a bone and then a doctor sets it, it is even stronger than it was before it was broken. Too cool. I've only got a couple times in my life that I recognized the fire and appreciated it and saw the good on the other side. The other times I was just fighting it. But all in all you get where God wants you.

Refiner's Fire
My heart's one desire
Is to be Holy
Purified by you my master
Ready to do Your will.