The Books of the Bible New Testament for Kids | Page 6

Day 1  •   Luke-Ac ts, part 1  11
Then God w
­ ould for­give them. Here is what is writ­ten in the book
of Isa­iah the proph­et. It says,
“A messenger is calling out in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord.
Make straight paths for him.
Every valley will be filled in.
Every mountain and hill will be made level.
The crooked roads will become straight.
The rough ways will become smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation.’ ”
John s ­ poke to the ­crowds com­ing to be bap­tized by him. He said,
“You are like a nest of poi­son­ous ­snakes! Who w
­ arned you to es­
cape the com­ing of ­God’s an­ger? Live in a way that s ­ hows you have
turned away from your sins. And ­don’t ­start say­ing to your­selves,
‘Abra­ham is our fa­ther.’ I tell you, God can r ­ aise up chil­dren for
Abra­ham even from t ­ hese ­stones. The ax is al­ready ly­ing at the
roots of the t ­ rees. All the t ­ rees that d
­ on’t pro­duce good f ­ ruit will
be cut down. They will be ­thrown into the fire.”
“Then what ­should we do?” the c ­ rowd ­asked.
John an­swered, “Any­one who has ex­tra c ­ lothes s ­ hould s ­ hare
with the one who has none. And any­one who has ex­tra food
should do the same.”
Even tax col­lec­tors came to be bap­tized. “Teach­er,” they ­asked,
“what s ­ hould we do?”
“­Don’t col­lect any more than you are re­quired to,” John told
them.
Then some sol­diers ­asked him, “And what ­should we do?”
John re­plied, “­Don’t ­force peo­ple to give you mon­ey. D
­ on’t ­bring
false charg­es a ­ gainst peo­ple. Be hap­py with your pay.”
The peo­ple were wait­ing. They were ex­pect­ing some­thing. They
were all won­der­ing in ­their h
­ earts if John m
­ ight be the Mes­si­ah.
John an­swered them all, “I bap­tize you with wa­ter. But one who is
more pow­er­ful than I am will come. I’m not good e ­ nough to un­tie
the ­straps of his san­dals. He will bap­tize you with the Holy Spir­it
and fire. His pitch­fork is in his hand to toss the ­straw away from
his thresh­ing f ­ loor. He will gath­er the ­wheat into his barn. But he