June 15

Tidings of the wilderness prophet and his wonderful announcement, spread throughout Galilee. The message reached the peasants in the remotest hill towns, and the fisher folk by the sea, and in these simple, earnest hearts found its truest response. In Nazareth it was told in the carpenter shop that had been Joseph's, and One recognized the call. His time had come. Turning from His daily toil, He bade farewell to His mother, and followed in the steps of His countrymen who were flocking to the Jordan.

          Desire of Ages, page 110 from the chapter, 'The baptism'

    If you came to the baptism today at the Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nottingham – thank you. I could suggest that you came because we asked you via an email. You see, I had a plan. I wanted you to come, so did Sheilla our Elder. There was a plan to get you to come along. You came.

     Jesus had a plan. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit sat around working out how to deal with the possibility that man might drop out of relationship with the whole family of God. There were the lines of historical prophecy developed to make sure that man could know in advance what was to happen and so that man could have assurance after the event of what had happened.

     Then there were the prophets to set in place and to train beforehand. The family of God decided where each one was to live so as to have the best education and to be in place to reach the people God wanted to talk to.

      Then there was Jesus. The right family, the right place, rough old Nazareth so he would not be misled by the formalism of the leaders up in staid old Jerusalem.

     And then there was John. The right parents, the right place, the right education – and a home miles away from Jesus. They were not to meet often, for the reasons given above. We will look in detail at the meeting by the Jordan in a little while.

     However there is the thought God put into the meeting. We don’t want people thinking ill of either Jesus or John. When it comes down to it think of the planning God has done to bring us to where we are – and then think that God has done all this so that we can have the utmost confidence in Him.

      You can imagine yourself in an old American church with the pioneers of the faith singing, ‘Revive us again.” A very good choice from Bryn, beautifully sung - on a Bill and Gloria Gaither video. Please click on the picture to listen