“ True Believers Like Wheat ” and “ The Wicked Like Chaff ” “John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire’” (Luke 3:16–17). Let us meditate on this passage and receive its spiritual lessons: (1) When the people, who had long awaited the coming of the Messiah, began to wonder in their hearts whether John the Baptist might be the Messiah (Luke 3:15, Modern Translation ), John testified clearly that he was not the Messiah, but that the One coming after him was. (a) John 1:8 says: “He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light” ( Modern Translation : “He was not the light himself but came only to bear witness to the light”). (i) The purp...
우리에게 재앙을 내리셔서라도 진흙이 토기장이의 손 안에 있는 것처럼 우리도 하나님의 손 안에 있습니다 . 마치 토기장이가 만들던 물건이 망가지고 제대로 나오지 않으면 그것을 다시 주물러 자기가 원하는 대로 다른 모양의 그릇을 만들듯이 하나님께서는 하나님 앞에서 악을 행하고 하나님에게 순종하지 않으면서 우리 마음의 악한 고집대로 하겠다고 하는 우리에게 재앙을 내리셔서라도 우리를 모두 악한 길에서 돌아서게 하시고 우리의 태도와 행실을 바르게 고치십니다 ( 예레미야 18:4, 6, 10, 11, 현대인의 성경 ).