Mark Photos - 1:1-8 - Guide
Mark 1:1-8 - The Proclamation of John the Baptist
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
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And so a new journey begins…It begins with a proclamation of one preparing the way and showing the direction. Throughout the day today, we were relying upon the directions in our atlas and provided by our phones (thank you Google and Waze). At one point, Google wanted to reroute us without telling us why - we quickly realized that there was an accident up ahead and if we stayed with the course we were following, we would have added at least an hour or more to our trip down to Orlando today. While we were thankful for that bit of electronic wisdom, I do wonder about who we listen to today? If we had someone come across our path like John would we listen or would we run away from this crazy looking guy wearing camel hair and with a bag of honey coated locusts hanging from his belt? Who are our prophets today and are we listening?