1.1 John the Baptist

This is the start of the blog about Jesus, you know the one who claimed he was the son of God.

Isaiah (who was a bit of a prophet), said a lot of stuff years before Jesus was born, one of them was about John the Baptist:

"I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way — a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "

And so along came John, baptizing people in the desert area and preaching that if you said sorry for the mistakes you had made God would forgive you!

The whole area of Judea and Jerusalem came to see him. After declaring all the stuff they have done wrong, they were baptized by him in the River Jordan. John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his ongoing message:

"After me will come one more powerful, whose shoe laces I am not worthy to untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with supernatural power called the Holy Spirit."

1.2 Jesus gets Baptised

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

1.3 The Jesus Team call-up

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.

When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

1.4 Jesus gets serious

We have now moved onto Capernaum, and today being the holy day of the week (we Jews called it Sabbath), Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were blown away by his teaching, because he taught them as if he had authority, not as they were used to from the regular teachers.

If that wasn't enough for one day a really weird man (must have been demon-possessed) cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!". Jesus was really quick and said "Be quiet! Come out of him!" The man shook violently all over the floor and then a piercing shriek came out of him and he was still - wow!

The synagogue regulars started talking all at once, saying things like, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." It seems like Jesus has now become famous all round the area of Galilee.

[hope my Mum's proud that I am hanging out with him - M]

1.5 Healing Time

That was this morning, this afternoon we went (with James and John) to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon had told Jesus that his mother-in-law was in bed with a fever so he went to her, took her hand and she was better. The fever left her straight away and [get this :o) ] she then insisted we stayed to enjoy a hearty meal.

We needed it because no sooner had we finished our last mouthful, then people were knocking on the door asking Jesus to heal the sick and sort out the demon-possessed. It was like the whole town were on the doorstep.

Jesus healed loads of different diseases [some I hadn't heard of and can't even pronounce], he also cleared up the demon possessed telling the evil spirits not to say who he was.

[I couldn't understand this bit - why would it matter if they told people? "Truth will out", my Gran used to say...]

1.6 Jesus Prays solo

Before we got up this morning, in fact before the sun had risen, Jesus went off by himself to pray. We all went looking for him and eventually Simon found him and told him we had spent half the morning looking for him.

Then Jesus said, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." So it was goodbye to Capernaum and time to start travelling around the area of Galilee. As we travelled Jesus preached his message in all the synagogues we came to and sorted out loads of people with evil spirits.

1.7 Unclean!

Last week a man with leprosy [he looked well rough] came to Jesus and dropped to his knees and started begging him saying, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus seemed to like the way this guy asked and so he just reached out a hand and touched him [you wouldn't catch me touching a leper - M] and said "I am willing, be clean!" Instantly, before you could say "Jesus of Nazareth" he was better, his skin was absolutely perfect.

Again Jesus warned him: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." [I still don't get the not telling anyone bit, but a little scared to ask in case I look stupid!]

As it turned out the ex-leper had selective hearing and told EVERYONE he could find. The knock on effect was Jesus couldn't go into the town as it would have caused a riot, so we had to stay in the countryside which didn't really change anything - wherever Jesus went people found him.