A man named Mark was one of the special helpers of Jesus. After Jesus died and came back alive again, Mark wrote down words from God about Jesus, the Son of God, and the stuff He did. This is the start of the good stuff about Jesus, the promised One, the Son of God. It was written down in the special writings from God long ago that a voice would come in the wild land telling, It is time for the promised One to come, Everyone get ready for Him.

John was the voice calling out the special time. He was at the Jordan River dunking people under the water as a sign for turning to God in the new way. Lots of people were coming to the river to be dunked.

The leaders came to John and said, Are you the promised one? John told them, I dunk in water, but One is coming behind me who is way better than me and He will fill up people with His Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God.

Then Jesus came to John at the river and wanted John to baptize Him. John said, I need you to baptize me and you want me to baptize You? Jesus said, We need to do everything the right way. So John dunked Jesus under the water and when he brought Jesus up out of the water, the Holy Spirit of God from the Father in heaven came down on Jesus and stayed on Him.

Then the Spirit took Jesus up into the wild lands and kept Him there for 40 days, letting the bad one test Him to show that there was nothing from the bad one in Jesus. Jesus only had stuff from God in heaven inside Him. After the testing, the angels came down from heaven and gave Jesus food and everything that He needed.

Then Jesus went out saying, It’s time for the kingdom of heaven to start in this world! Turn back to God and believe all the good stuff about Him.

Then Jesus went walking by the sea and called men to be His special helpers. He said, Come follow me and I will make you catch men for the kingdom of heaven instead of catching fish. He called James and John who left their dad in his fishing boat to go with Jesus.

Jesus went into the church house in Capernaum and taught the people the real true words from the Lord God of heaven and the people were so amazed because he taught them like he had all the power.

A man was in the church house who had a bad one living inside him. The bad one said, Stay away from us Jesus, we know who you are. Did you come to kill us? Jesus told him, Be quiet! Come out of him. And the bad spirit yelled really loud and came out. All the people there were amazed and said, What is this all about? He even tells the bad ones what to do. And the people all told everyone about Jesus.

When they left the church house they went to Simon and Andrew’s house and their mom was in bed sick with a temperature. Jesus went in and took her hand and lifted her up and she was suddenly all better and she went and cooked dinner for them.

When the evening came people brought to Jesus sick people from everywhere and he made them all well. And he made the bad ones get out of people and wouldn’t let them talk.

The next day, real early before the sun came up Jesus went out to a quiet place to be alone with His Father in heaven and talk to Him. Simon and the others followed Him and said, Everyone is looking for You.

Jesus said, Let’s go to the other towns so I can talk to them and help them too. So they went around to the towns telling God’s good words to people and making them better from sickness and getting bad spirits out of people.

A really sick man came to Jesus who had a sickness that was eating up the skin of his body and he said to Jesus, If you want to, You can make me all better from this.

Jesus told him, I want to, Be clean. And right when the words came out of Jesus’ mouth the sickness disappeared forever. Jesus said, Don’t tell anyone about this and then He sent the man away. But the man ran around telling everybody so that Jesus couldn’t go into cities anymore because so many people were wanting Him. So Jesus stayed out in the desert and people came to Him from everywhere.

After a few days Jesus went back to the first town and many people were crowding around Him so that there was no place to be. Some men brought a friend to Jesus who was too sick to walk and had to let the man down through the roof in front of Jesus because of the big crowd of people. Jesus told him, Son, your bad stuff is forgiven. The leaders heard Jesus say it and thought, How can this one forgive sins?

Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, Is it easier to forgive sins or make him get up and walk? I do this so you will know that the One the Father sent has the power to forgive sins. And Jesus made him all better. He got up and walked and all the people were amazed and said, We never saw anything like this.

Jesus went out by the sea and many people came and He taught them lots of stuff. Then Jesus went by a tax booth and said to the man there collecting the tax money, Come and follow Me. The man got up and followed Jesus.

Jesus went and ate supper with that man when the day was over and the leaders saw it and asked Jesus followers, Why does He eat and drink with bad ones. When Jesus heard it He said, Only sick ones need to be made well.

Some of John’s followers and the leaders did hard things to try to be close to the Lord God, like not eating or drinking. The leaders asked, Why do we do this hard stuff, but you don’t? Jesus told them, Why do hard stuff be to close to God when I’m right here? When I’m gone you will do that stuff.

This is a new time and we do stuff a new way. If you put new wine in old bottles it will break the old bottles.

Then later they were walking through the field of grain and Jesus followers were hungry and started picking the corn and eating it. The leaders said, You can’t do that. It’s the day for only resting. You are breaking the rules. Jesus told them, Didn’t you ever read how David went into the temple and ate the special bread when he was hungry. My rules are to help people not to be the boss of them. I am the boss over all the rules.

When Jesus was in God’s house on a rest day called the Sabbath He saw a man there whose hand was all shriveled up so bad the man couldn’t use his hand. The leaders were watching Jesus to see if He would heal the man’s hand so they could arrest Him for doing work on the rest day. So Jesus said to the man, Stand up here. Then Jesus looked around at all the leaders and asked them, Is it ok to do good stuff on the rest day? But they didn’t say anything.

Jesus was sad because their hearts were so mean. He told the man, Stretch out your hand. When the man stretched out his hand it was made good as his other hand.

The leaders went out and made plans to kill Jesus but Jesus went away to the ocean and people followed Him, lots of them from all around because they heard about the great stuff He did.

He healed them all and threw the bad spirits out of them that fell down in front of Jesus saying, You are the Son of God!. Jesus told the people He healed, Don’t tell anyone about it.

Jesus called some special helpers to him and they went with Him up a mountain, but soon there were so many people there that they couldn’t even eat their food. Jesus friends heard about it and said, He’s losing His mind. The leaders said, He has a spirit of the bad one inside him. Jesus said to the ones that said that, Would the bad one throw himself out? (it was silly talk)

Jesus said, I tell you the truth, All sins and bad things will be forgiven and let go except bad stuff you say about the Holy Spirit. If you say bad stuff about the Holy Spirit you shut the door to your heart and that keeps out all your forgiveness and God’s good stuff for you for always.

When a big bunch of people were sitting around Jesus, someone came and said, Your mom and brothers are outside asking for you. Jesus looked around at the people sitting with Him and said, These ones are My family.

Then Jesus was teaching by the sea and there were so many people that He got into a ship and sat out in the water with all the people on the land listening to Him. He taught them true things by telling them stories.

He said, A man went out to plant seeds and some of the seeds fell beside the road and some fell on rocks and some fell in the stickers and some fell in the good ground and grew up strong making lots of food. Everyone who hears, know what this means.

Later, His helpers asked Him, What does that story mean? Jesus told them. This story shows what all the other stories mean. The seed is the special words from God that God plants in people’s hearts. The ones beside the road hear the special words and the bad one is like the birds that come and eat the seeds before it gets a chance to grow.

The seeds on the rocks are the people that hear and are happy but don’t have a root inside themselves and turn away after a while when trouble comes.

The seeds in the stickers are the people who hear and the things in life hurt and choke the plants so they don’t grow up and make fruit. The ones on the good ground are the ones who hear God’s special words and grow up to make lots of good fruit.

If you light a candle and then put it under a basket or under the bed, will you have light? No, you put it on a candlestick so it will give light all around the room. Nothing is hidden away that won’t be shown. The ones who hear the special words will get more.

The kingdom of God is like a man who put good seed in his ground and in the night the plants grow up, we don’t see how it happens but first the little leaf springs up out of the ground and then gets bigger and more leaves and then makes the fruit. And when it is ready, the man cuts it and makes food because it is time.

The kingdom of heaven is like the tiny little mustard seed. When you plant it in the ground it grows into the biggest of trees and the birds come and live in its branches.

Jesus told the people lots of stories and then later told His special helpers what the story meant.

Later that day they went across the sea. And while they were going Jesus was asleep in the back of the ship on a pillow. A big storm came up and was about to fill the boat with water.

Jesus helpers came to Him and said, Get up! Don’t you care we are about to die! So Jesus got up and said, Peace, be quiet! to the storm and it got real quiet. Then He asked His helpers, Why are you so scared? Why don’t you trust Me?

The followers were real amazed and scared and said, What kind of man is this that even the wind and the sea does what He says?