AFFIRM
I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven.
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he shows us his mercy. Psalm 123:1-2
TEXT
Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel‘s hair a wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”(ESV)
REFLECT
“In the physical universe the same laws are seen in the cell and in the farthest star. the universe has the marks of one creative God upon it—it is a universe and not a mulitverse. Then the plan for the universe must be one plan—valid and viral for all men everywhere. For we are discovering that humanity is one. Therefore there must be one plan for this one humanity… A universal man must come to reveal in himself the one universal God, and the one universal Kingdom, the kingdom of God.” E. Stanley Jones, The Unshakable Kingdom
DECLARE
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded
it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Psalm 24:1-2