not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus died to save me, you and all of us.
It was back when the Greeks bathed in public bath houses.
The Romans lived in City states and ruled Israel.
Jesus grew up in Nazereth, as the son of a carpenter, Joseph.
He was in the Royal line of King David,
but he did not even attend the prestigious temple schools of
the priests. His mother, Mary, home schooled him.
He was the kind of kid that liked picking flowers
and playing with animals. He was careful, courteous, obedient and cheerful.
He liked everyone and tended to seek out the unpopular kids that were left out.
Jesus was a great kid. He helped the elderly with their chores.
He worked with his father, Joseph, in his carpenter shop and learned to be a
carpenter too. He became a responsible young man.
When Jesus went to be baptized by his cousin, John, who most likely knew him well,
he was surprised and didn't feel worthy of the honor of baptizing Jesus.
That is because Jesus is the Son of God.
John was telling everyone that soon the Son of God would save them.
Lots of people listened. They saw the Dove that came down from heaven
and they heard the voice of God, that said,"This is my beloved son,
in whom I am well pleased. "
Jesus picked twelve normal men to help him do good, amazing things and teach all the people he met
how to live lives that God wanted them to live.
He told them the truth about the priests and the deceitful ways that they tricked and lied to the people.
The priests were jealous and scared of the influence that Jesus had with the people.
After all, they knew he was of the royal line of David.
Didn't David go from being a shepherd to being a king?
Even Jesus' own desciples, dreamed of the day that
Jesus would ascend to the throne of David and
over throw the Romans.
When the Governor was Pontius Pilate,
Judas agreed to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
He led the soldiers straight to the garden where Jesus prayed.
The others ran for their lives in fear.
Jesus,
strong from a whole night of prayer, accepted the suffering in front of him .
The trial was a criminally wrong affair
where paid witnesses lied about Jesus. and then they took him to Pilate.
Pilate ignored the pleas of his wife to pardon Jesus and Pilate was no fool.
He saw the truth that Jesus was no criminal and did not deserve to die.
He feared alienating the priests and jewish leaders,
so he finally caved and allowed Jesus to be beaten
and agreed to crucified him with criminals.
Jesus carried his own cross
past the people he had dedicated all his time and energy to teach and heal.
The soldiers nailed him to his cross
and raised and dropped it into the spot between the criminals.
Jesus died of a broken heart,
not suffocation, like other victims of crucifixion.
He just said, "It is finished, " and died.
Jesus died to save those people,
all the people before he lived and all the people who will ever live.
He died to save us
from our bad choices, our secret habits and our selfish desires.
He died for you and
he died for me.
Jesus is a real person who was born on Earth and now lives in Heaven.
Ask him to forgive you and accept that he loves you
more than you are capable of loving yourself. Jesus will give
you a second chance and a third and a fourth, as many as you need,
but one day he will close the book of life
and every person who will ever lived
will have decided on what side of the war of good and evil they stand.
Stand with Jesus. He already won.
All you have to do is say, "yes
or oops! I got distracted by all the fool's gold and I now
I would like to have the real thing. He is the real thing. He is
better than Coca-cola!
Hey, you, Jesus loves you!
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