God’s Spirit led Jesus out into the wild lands where no people lived to let the bad one test Him. For 40 days the bad one tried to get Jesus to do something bad. Jesus didn’t eat any food for those days and when the 40 days were over He was really hungry.

The bad one knew that Jesus was the Son of God and had all the power so he tried to trick Jesus to do some stuff that the Father God in heaven didn’t want Jesus to do. The bad one knew Jesus was hungry and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to turn into bread. Jesus told the bad one, It is written in the special words from God, Man doesn’t live only by eating food, but by all the words that come from God.

Then the bad one took Jesus up a high mountain and showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world all at once. Then the bad one said to Jesus, I will give you all the power and all the good stuff of these kingdoms if you will bow down to me. Jesus told the bad one, Get behind me. It is written in the special writings from God, You are to bow down to the Lord God and only be for Him.

Then the bad one took Jesus into Jerusalem and set him on the top of the temple and said, Throw yourself down from here because it is written in the special writings, The Lord will give his angels to watch over you and catch you if you fall or trip. Jesus told the bad one, It is written in the special writings from God, Don’t test God.

When the bad one was done testing Jesus, Jesus went back to Galilee full of God’s Spirit and His power. He went to the town where He grew up and went into the church house on the rest day and stood up to read the special writing. The reading said, The Spirit of the Lord is on Me because He sent me to tell the good news to the poor and to heal the broken hearts, and to let go the captured ones and to make the blind one see and to let go the hurt ones and to tell the right time that the Lord comes. Then Jesus closed the book and sat down and everyone was just quiet, looking at Him. He said, Today this writing happens. Everyone looked at Him and was amazed because of the special words coming out of His mouth.

But the people didn’t believe that He was the promised one from God. Jesus told them, It was the same in Elijah’s day when there was no rain. Jesus was showing them their hard hearts and they got real mad and took him up a hill to throw Him off and kill Him, but Jesus just walked away through them.

He went to another city to teach them on the rest day and the people there were amazed at His words because they were full of power. Jesus threw a bad spirit out of a man and told him to keep quiet because the bad spirit knew that Jesus was the Holy One from God. The people were all amazed that he could tell the bad spirits to go away and they obeyed.

Peter’s mom was sick with a temperature and Jesus was in Peter’s house and Jesus told the temperature to go away and it went away.

As the sun was going down, they people brought all their sick ones to Jesus and He made them all well. The bad ones came out of people yelling, You are the promised special Son of God.

 

After the day was gone, Jesus went to the desert but the people came to get him to stay. He told them, I must go tell the good news about the kingdom of God in the other cities too. That’s why I came.

Then by the lake, so many people were crowding around to hear Jesus that Jesus took a fishermen’s boat and sat in it to talk to the people. It was Peter’s boat and when Jesus was done talking, Jesus told Peter, Take the boat out into the deep water to catch a big bunch of fish. Peter told Jesus, We tried all night and didn’t catch any fish, but I will do what you say. So many fish came into their net that the net was breaking so they called their friends to come help. Both boats were filled up so much that they started to sink.

 

 

Peter was so amazed at what Jesus did that he fell down at Jesus feet and said, Go away from me. I did lots of bad stuff. Jesus told Peter, Don’t be scared, from now on you will catch men for My Father’s kingdom instead of fish.

As they were going into a city, a man came and fell down in front of Jesus who was full of poison sores on his body. He told Jesus, If you want, you can make all this go away. Jesus said, I will, be clean. And all the poison sores disappeared. Everyone heard about Jesus and came to get healed and to hear His words. Then Jesus went out into the wild lands and prayed.

Then another day, when Jesus was teaching the leaders and doctors were sitting there and the power of the Lord God was there to heal them.

Some men brought their sick friend on a bed because he couldn’t walk. The people were crowded around so the couldn’t get through so they went up and took off part of the roof and lowered him down through the roof into the room in front of Jesus. Jesus said to the sick man, Your sins are erased. The leaders thought, This man is saying bad stuff about God.

Jesus asked them, What is more easy, to erase bad stuff he did or make him well so he can walk? Then Jesus said, Get up and take your bed and go home. The man was made well that minute and got up and left to go to his house with His heart full of happiness to God for making him better. All the people watching were amazed and said, We have seen wonderful stuff today.

Then Jesus was walking down the road and saw a tax collector sitting at the tax booth and said, Come with Me. So the tax collector got up and left the moneybags and went with Jesus. They went to the man’s house and the man made a big party for Jesus and lots of people came to eat with them.

The leaders asked Jesus helpers, Why is He eating with bad ones? Jesus told them, Ones who are well don’t need a doctor, but ones who are sick. I came to the make the sick ones well.

Then they asked, Why don’t your helpers do the right stuff? Jesus told them, The One they do the stuff for, is here with them, so they don’t need to do it the old way. It is a new time so we don’t do it the old way.

On the rest day, Jesus was going through the fields with his followers and they picked corn and started eating it. The leaders saw it and said, You can’t do that on the rest day! Jesus told them, Didn’t you read in the special writings from God about what David did when he was hungry. He went into the house of God and ate the special bread that was only for the priests? I am boss over even the rest day.

Then Jesus went into the house of God and taught the people special things about God. The leaders were watching Him real close to see if He would heal someone so they could arrest Him. Jesus knew what they were thinking and so He healed a man with a hand that was all shrunk and wouldn’t work. Jesus put him in the middle and said, Is it right to help someone on the rest day or not? Then Jesus told the man to stretch out his fingers, and the hand was made all better. The leaders got real mad at Jesus and made a plan to kill him.

Then Jesus went up a mountain to pray and kept talking to His Father God in heaven all night long. Then He picked 12 special helpers to stay close to Him do what He was doing.

 

 

 

When they came down the mountain big bunches of people were there waiting and power from God the Father went out from Jesus and healed every one of them.

Jesus looked up and said, Happy are you who are hungry in your heart now, because you will be filled up. Happy are you if you cry now because you will laugh. Happy are you when people hate you and go away from you and say bad stuff about you because you believe in Me. Jump for happiness then because your reward in heaven is really big. They hated and were mean to God’s other helpers all through all the years.

Cry for sadness you who are rich because you already got your good stuff. Cry for sadness you who are laughing now, you will be crying. Cry for sadness if people like you now, that’s what they did to the bad ones.

Love the ones who hate you and do good stuff to them who do bad stuff to you. If they hit your cheek, turn to let him hit the other side. If someone takes your shirt, give him your coat too. If you love the ones who love you, that’s all the bad ones do. And if you help the ones who help you, what good will that get? Bad ones do that too.

If you give stuff to people, hoping to get stuff back, what good will that get for you? But love the ones who hate you and do good, not hoping to get stuff back. Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Highest God because He is kind to the ones who are mean to him and the bad ones. So be kind and full of love as your Father is kind and full of love.

 

 

 

Don’t play the judge and you won’t be judged. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and lots of good stuff will be given back to you. As you do, it will be done back to you.

Then Jesus said, Can blind ones lead blind ones? Won’t they both fall into the hole? The helper isn’t better than his Master but if you are right you will be like Him. Why do you try to get the speck of dirt out of someone else’s eye when you have a big stick in your own eye. First take the stick out of your eye and then you will see right to take the speck of dirt out of your brother’s eye.

A good tree doesn’t make yukky fruit. Every tree shows what it is by the kind of fruit that it makes. Do figs or grapes grow on sticker bushes? Good stuff comes out of ones with good hearts and bad stuff comes out of bad hearts.

Why to you call Me Lord and then don’t do what I say? The ones who come to Me and hear what I say are like a man who builds his house on a rock and when the floods of many troubles come the house stands strong.

But the one who doesn’t hear what I say, Jesus told them, is like a man who build a house on sand and when the storm came it fell flat and was all washed away.

After Jesus said all this stuff He went to the city called Capernaum and a soldier’s helper was sick and about to die. When the soldier heard about Jesus he sent the leaders of the people to beg Jesus to come heal his helper. The leaders came and told Jesus the soldier had done lots of good stuff for God’s people. Jesus went with them to see the soldier. The soldier told Jesus, I am not good enough for you to come to my house. But just say it and my helper will be healed. I also have power and if I say to someone to go do something, he does it.

Jesus was amazed that the soldier knew how much power Jesus had. Jesus told the people, I haven’t seen anyone in Israel with so much trust in God as this. When the soldier got home he saw his helper was all better.

When Jesus was going by a city called Nain, people were carrying a dead young man whose mom didn’t have any other kids. Jesus saw her and loved her and said, Get up, young man. And the dead one came back to life. The people all got real amazed and scared and said, God has come to see His people.

John, the one who baptized people, sent two of his helpers to ask Jesus, Are you the promised One or should we look for someone else? When they got to Jesus and talked to Him, Jesus said, Go tell John what you have seen and heard here. The blind are seeing and the crippled ones are walking and the dead are coming back to life and the good news of God’s love is being told to the poor ones. Happy is each one who doesn’t turn away from Me.

 

 

Then Jesus told the people how great John was. He was the one sent to get everything ready for the promised One to come into the world. But the littlest one in the kingdom of heaven is greater than him.

 

The people were all hearing Jesus and being amazed but the leaders turned away and wouldn’t hear Him.

Jesus told them, You people are like kids sitting in the market. We play music but you won’t dance. We are serious and sad, but you won’t cry. John came not eating or drinking and you say, He has a bad one in him. The Son of man from heaven came and you say, He eats too much and drinks too much and likes to be with the bad ones.

But being wise and doing the right thing has many children anyway. All these children show that this is the right way.

One of the leaders asked Jesus to come eat at his house so Jesus went with him. When they sat down a lady come who like lots of other ladies husbands.  The lady knew that Jesus was the promised One who was taking all her bad stuff away from her forever, and she loved Jesus a lot for that. She poured very special perfume on His feet that cost lots and lots of money.

The leader thought, If this was the promised One, He would know the bad stuff this lady did. Jesus told the leader, There was a man who owed lost of money but didn’t have any money to pay back and another  man who owed just a few pennies but couldn’t pay it back, so the man was let go both from the money they owed. Which man will love the man the most?

The leader said, I guess the one who owed the biggest pile of money. Jesus said, That’s right. She did lots of bad that is let go, and loves me lots and you did little that was let go and love me little. Jesus told the lady, Go in peace, Trusting God saved you.