Matthew 3

In this short chapter God spoke a few things to me.

In verse 8 John implores us to "produce fruit in keeping with repentance".  True repentance is of the heart but it will be seen.  If you say you have Christ and have repented in your heart but you still live the same you are saying that God isn't powerful enough to change you.  That is a lie!  If you don't see the fruits of repentance check yourself and make sure you really have Christ in your life.  A corn label on a can of beans doesn't make corn.  You need real change and real change shows.

Also, we try to put Jesus in a box so we can make him a blonde-haired hippy.  He is not.  Look at verse 12.  Now tell me why, according to John, Jesus is coming to Earth.  Got it?  Jesus is coming to separate people. Yeah, he's coming to weed out the true believers from the posers.  Make sure you aren't posing for Jesus because he hates that and if you do you will be thrown into an unquenchable fire.  Don't want to get all Hell fire on you, but it's right there in the word.  Jesus is serious!  Are you serious about wanting him?

Finally, Jesus was obedient and was baptized even though he didn't need it.  Remember obedience is better than sacrifice.

So check yourself and produce fruit for Jesus today!