Matthew 3:17

"The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit — it looked like a dove — descending and landing....."

"After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him...."

'Jesus is my beloved Son. What he says not only pleases me, but it is my fullest truth.' Phil Ware reminds us that God said almost exactly the same words to his Son twice, yet he spoke the first time to affirm his Son and the second time to let us know we must listen to the Son.

Because he knew the true and living God, the heart behind the Scriptures, he could recognize the forger, the fraud — Satan — who tried to distort and misuse truth and Scripture. James Nored and Phil Ware discuss the temptations and trials of Jesus and why they are important to us and what they have to say to us as people who are part of God's story.

Jesus said this was the right thing for him to do! James Nored and Phil Ware remind us of an important reason to be baptized: not only was Jesus baptized, he also said it was the right thing to do and called on all his disciples to be baptized and baptizers.