Who is John the Baptist?

¹⁹ Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰ He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, 

“I am not the Messiah.”

 ²¹ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

  

 He said, “I am not.”

   “Are you the Prophet?”

   He answered, “No.”

²² Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

  

²³ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

 ²⁴ Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵ questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

 ²⁶ “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷ He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

 ²⁸ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

A Witness to the Light

John 1:6-18
 ⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
 ⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
 ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 ¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

In the beginning was the Word

John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

We will start here. This verse is incredibly deep and strikes me as one of the best places to start a conversation about Jesus, God, Creation, the Trinity, Man and our relationship with God.

I'm going to leave it open for the moment. What strikes you about this verse??

What's this all about?

For one reason or another, we are separated. You have in one way or another deepened an enriched my faith. So I had an idea. Not a very original idea, but an idea none the less. I would like to carry on faith discussions on this blog. As I am in transition right now, it would mean so much to mean to have a place that is vibrantly spiritual to go to to recharge. You have words that push me me to grow and I'd be grateful if you could dialog a bit.

I've invited a number of people to share their thoughts and ideas here. Some are staunchly conservative, some are wildly liberal. Some have deep conviction about what they believe and others unsure and agnostic.
To me  -- and Ulrich for that matter -- what makes a good spiritual discussion are multiple points of view, a safe place and interesting, deep questions. 

So, that means that openness, honesty and respect are all key to making this work.

With that, I'd like to start the discussion with the title -- what does rûach awakening mean to you? Is it a good title for this? Would you have other names?