Good Friday morning! Thank you for the opportunity to write to you once more on this sunny morning! I feel like I'm accepting some kind of award after that last sentence. :-) We had a stormy night last night, but, with praises to God, I didn't see or hear any of that 3 inch hail they warned us about. Today and tomorrow we are under a flood watch and that's no joke if you have seen the level of our one and only river up to the north of us. We have lots of high hills to park on if things get too bad though.
I helped build the East Grand Forks, MN store back in the day after the Red River flooded in the late 90's. Their terrain doesn't help the flooding problem. Once the banks of the river are crested, the water in that area can spread out just dern near forever... which is just what happened to them in the big flood. I can testify about the rebuilding effort, but my knowledge of their flood comes from stories and photographs. What about this baptizing fellow, how did he know what Jesus would do since at the time of his testimony Jesus had not even started his ministry?
John 1:15 - John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds: "This is the one I was talking about when I said, 'Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.' "
We often testify about things we have seen or experienced, and even things we have read in books, but John testified about someone still to come. This is one of the times when a prophet testified about someone who literally came to stand right in front of him. God had sent many prophets hundreds of years before Jesus arrived, but John got to stand on the river bank just as the flood crested the levees. We tend to think that prophecy means "way out there in the future." John said, "... and here he is!"
John is a special prophet in that his prophecy walked up to him. But then he testified that Jesus had existed long before... Wait, we read in the Bible that Elizabeth was six months along when Mary showed up with her own good news. The people of Nazareth and Elizabeth's home town would have known that too. It seems that both John the Baptist and John the Gospel writer knew that Jesus wasn't just the young child born to Mary. John, who doesn't refer to himself by name in his gospel, may have been a disciple of John the Baptist or at least went to see him at the Jordan, perhaps even at the moment John the Baptist saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus. We have quite a testimony from both men named John.
John the Baptist knew that Jesus was far greater than himself, and from the testimony of the Gospels, the prophecy of Revelation, and the wisdom of the epistles, we too know something of how great Jesus is. Our testimony is much the same as John's or Paul's, "look what Jesus has done for me!" We don't need to dazzle someone with our deep Bible knowledge and scriptural recall. We can tell our story - and most everyone does like to tell his or her own story - and communicate what Jesus has done in our own life. Your story is a fantastic testimony, be sure to let someone know.
Have a great weekend in Christ!
Bucky
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