{"id":1627,"date":"2021-01-12T11:40:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T11:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1627"},"modified":"2021-01-12T11:40:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T11:40:18","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-27-sunday-10th-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1627","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 27- Sunday 10th January"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope and pray this letter finds you well\nand warm in these cold days.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;We\nreturn once again to the ministry of John the Baptist this week focussing on\nhis ministry of baptism.&nbsp; Baptism is an\nincredibly special event in the life of any person and one which signifies that\na person has committed his or her life to the following of our Lord.&nbsp; Can you remember your baptism?&nbsp; It is highly likely if you, like me, were\nbaptised as a baby, you will not remember a thing and, in that case, can you\nremember your confirmation when you took on the baptismal promises made by your\nparents for yourself?&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John the Baptist, had a ministry of preaching\nin which the central message was one of repentance, calling people to come back\nto God.&nbsp; John appeared aesthetically different\nto the \u2018normal\u2019 people of the day and for this reason he stood out from the\ncrowd.&nbsp; His early ministry is described\nin Mark 1: 4-11.&nbsp; John also proclaimed\nthat his baptism was one of water but soon a greater one was coming who would baptise\npeople with the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John considered himself, unworthy, and\nclaimed that he was unworthy even to untie the sandal straps of the one who was\ncoming.&nbsp; Despite Jesus being John\u2019s cousin,\nhe was still the Saviour of the World.&nbsp; Therefore,\nJohn is so surprised when Jesus explains that it is John himself who should\nbaptise Him.&nbsp; Mark explains the baptism\nof Jesus wonderfully when he states that \u2018just as Jesus was coming up out of\nthe water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like\na dove.&nbsp; And a voice came from heaven: \u201cYou\nare my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.\u201d\u2019&nbsp; How amazing is this imagery, you can almost\nimagine it in your minds eye, Jesus rising out of the water, as the sun glistens\non the surface and the Spirit of love, peace and power descends on Jesus like a\ndove.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This event shows us that Jesus has come\ninto the world from His heavenly Father to begin His earthly ministry with the\nfull backing and support from God Himself.&nbsp;\nIt also shows us that Jesus has been given power from on high to assist Him\nin the task of bringing the Good News to everyone.&nbsp; Baptism is a fresh start in which we are forgiven\nfor the sins of the past and taken into a new phase of our Christian life to\nlive and work for God.&nbsp; This new year is\na fresh start for us all after an extremely difficult and challenging\n2020.&nbsp; Let us use this account of hope\nand a fresh chapter in the life of Jesus as our inspiration and start this new\nyear with God and the positive news that things can only get better.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year let us begin with hope and claim\nwith confidence that in Jesus we have the victory.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah sent by God, bless us now and always, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear all, I hope and pray this letter finds you well and warm in these cold days.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;We return once again to the ministry of John the Baptist this week focussing on his ministry of baptism.&nbsp; Baptism is an incredibly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}