Millbrook Baptist Church Blog

Verse one of Mark’s gospel reads, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.” This beginning includes a messenger. Way out in the wilderness, a fiery prophet named John the Baptist preaches a message of repentance, and forgiveness, and ultimately, one of hope. The crowds flock to John. He invites them into baptismal waters. And John tells them, “I am baptizing you with fire, but pretty soon, somebody’s coming who’s gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

More than four hundred years ago, the earliest Baptists that emerged in England and Holland, held tight to the idea of a believer’s baptism. Back in those days, the Church and State were one entity. To be baptized into the Anglican Church was to become a citizen of England.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We hear about mustard seeds, too. Remember this isn’t a scientific parable, so there’s a bit of room for exaggeration. The mustard seed may not be the smallest of all seeds, but it is very tiny, and if it was much smaller, you’d need a microscope to examine it.

It’s Graduation Sunday, a day when we look back with fondness on the people and the places that have shaped us, and through the eyes of our graduates we exude hope for the world that will be.

Imagine you are a poor fisherman, or a day laborer, or just someone who we’d identify as food-insufficient in 2024 – that means you are someone who isn’t 100% sure where your next meal is coming from. And imagine you’ve been walking for days, traversing the hilly countryside of the Golan Heights.