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If this is the first page you clicked on check back to the first day of the ninety-two day chronological reading plan of the New Testament. "DAY ONE" If you want the whole plan day by day and not wait find it here at Shalom in the wilderness 

Day Four: Matthew 3:;Mark 1:;Luke 3
Today was a long reading but what made it nice was a lot of it was the three gospels being parallel in what the message was and the events that unfolded. As we learned on day one. John was born to prepare the way of the Lord. Here we learn more about that. Today's mention is repentance and healing through faith. Similar verses will be mentioned through out all the readings. John baptized many people from all over who confessed their sins and believed in his message which took faith on their part because they heard the message yet did not see anything to prove to believe what he was saying was true other then prophesy.
Matthew 3:11-12 note similar passages Mark 1: 7-8 and Luke 3:17-18. I chose Matthew's passage to show that he baptized with the water of repentance. He calls people out and brings them a way to the lord with this baptism of repentance.

 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

The cool thing about when Jesus and John meet up together is that John feels so unworthy that he feels like he should be the one who is being baptized. But being that John's purpose was to set the path before the Lord he was called to baptize Jesus to fulfill all righteousness. If Jesus were to have baptized John without then the prophesy would not be fulfilled since John was called to make the way for him. Since Jesus too needed to be baptized by John just like everyone else needed to be baptized. In Matthew 3:15-17, Mark 1:9-12, and Luke 3:21-23 Shows that this is to fulfill God's will and with the Baptism of Jesus we see the spirit of God descend on him like a dove and take him away to the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy.

 15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.

John was arrested while Jesus was in the wilderness being prepared for his ministry. It is said he was around 30 when his ministry began. He called his disciples after his 40 day excursion of fasting and praying in the desert and all who he chose to be as his disciples dropped everything and followed him. Mark 1:

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18 At once they left their nets and followed him. 19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

In Mark 1 we find many accounts of healing and expelling evil from man, and also we see here even evil admits that Jesus is the Son of God. People come from all over and his message spreads like a wild fire of his authority and everyone is amazed and confused all at once since no one has ever seen this teaching.

22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!" 25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly."Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching--and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. 

There is a lot of healing and expelling going on and we witness some accounts of faith of those who ask and receive because Jesus is willing to give what they believe he is capable of. We will notice in some accounts he asks those he has healed to remain silent or go exclaim. Sometimes when he is saying remain quiet about it the people do not listen and still shout that he has healed them. It was very dangerous in those times for Jesus and his followers and he often had to leave quickly and preach other places because it was not safe for his ministry. We see this now a days too. More so in some countries than others. Sometimes I feel like I am more quiet than I would like to be because my heart says if I am going to bring people to the Lord I need to do it in actions and not so many words since I have a lot of people in my life who are indifferent or unsure of the truth. Sometimes we can not simply tell our testimony when there is the spirit of confusion or doubt.

We see some genealogy in the end of Luke 3 again. What I thought was really cool is that the lineage went all the way back to Adam being the Son of God. Also for the first time here I noticed something different. I noticed that God chose Judah out of all the sons of Jacob because he knew that out of his clans would be his son who would redeem the world of sin, or who ever would turn from sin and repent. I never understood why Judah, since Judah wasn't such a nice man he wasn't even a first fruit but all will be revealed in its time, we can gather that he was the 4th born of Jacob and the 4th son of him and his first wife Leah. His full bothers were Ruben, Simeon and Levi who were all older then him.