daringdevotion

Welcome to Daring Devotion #2

Welcome back! Today we are looking again at the book of Matthew.

Before we start today's devotion, take a minute to prepare your heart to receive God's words for you.

Have you ever heard about John the Baptist? John was a man who lived at the same time that Jesus lived. John and Jesus both lived nearly 2,000 years ago!

John was an unusual man and he didn't look like everyone else. John lived in the wilderness and he ate locusts and wild honey. John didn't wear clothes like everyone else did at the time he was alive. John wore clothes of camel's hair and a leather belt.

John went around saying, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near!" John told the people that he was a messenger from God but he sure didn't look like a religious leader. People came from all over to listen to John talk.

The Jewish people did not understand what John was talking about! The Jewish people did not understand why John would be telling them to repent because they were descendants of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. They felt that being their descendants was enough to get them into heaven.

John baptized the people that did as he instructed in a river to symbolize that their hearts had been made right with God. One day while John was baptizing people in the river a man named Jesus came to be baptized. John recognized this man as the one he had been preaching about! John was so amazed that this man named Jesus wanted John to baptize him.

John said to Jesus, "Lord, I need to be baptized by You, yet You come to me?" Jesus told John, "permit it at this time, for it is necessary to fulfill all righteousness."

When Jesus allowed himself to be baptized, He was identifying with ALL sinners even though He had committed NO SIN! When Jesus came up out of the water the heavens splits open and the Spirit of God came down from the heavens in the form of a dove. The dove landed on Jesus and God spoke from heaven, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!"

Get out your Bible and look up the verses in
Matthew 3: 1-17 and read it. Take special notice to verse 17. How does God feel about Jesus?

By God showing his approval of Jesus, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks! There is NO opinion GREATER than Gods.

Do you think it was necessary for Jesus to be baptized?

Jesus did not need to be baptized for His own sins or to show that He Himself had repented. Jesus had committed NO sins. Jesus was giving His stamp of approval to John the Baptist's message when he allowed Himself to be baptized. Jesus was willing to take the sins of the world on Him so that we could live eternally in heaven with Him.

Something Cool To Do!
Are you keeping your prayer journal that we talked about in our last devotion? I hope so! If you have already started a record of your prayers, then you probably have seen God answering your prayers! A VERY COOL thing to do is to also offer to pray for others. If you know of friends who don't know about Jesus or if you know someone who is sad, lonely, or sick, you should pray for them too! Let them know that you are praying for them and write it down in your journal! God is always near you and watching you and thinking about you. It is very important for you to "talk" to God and thank Him for all your blessings as well as to ask Him to forgive you for the things that you have done wrong. God tells us that He will forgive us if we ask him to. Talk to God in prayer and He will listen because He LOVES YOU!