‘I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’

Matthew 2 v11-12

This is not the gentle Jesus, meek and mild – sanitised, an insipid god, safe for all. But the all-powerful One, who sits above all thrones and dominions, and in time will gather all into His threshing halls, the chaff separated from the wheat – for all time.

He is the kindest one, the most faithful friend, the most Holy one, burning with unquenchable fire. The great I AM. Before all things, containing all things, surpassing all things.

We take Him lightly at our peril. He is more real and more immediate than the sum of our time-bound reality – the star burning at the centre of the universe, and within every cell of our bodies.

He will not be denied, and on His day every knee shall bow and acknowledge Him as King.