in the Jordan River was to symbolize the forgiveness of sins. Even though John recognized that Jesus was a more powerful and important prophet than he, the Son of God still insisted that John baptize him instead of reversing their roles.
Jesus spent the next forty days and nights being tempted by the devil alone in the wilderness. Then the miracles along with His messages started multiplying. It seemed to become almost commonplace for Jesus to heal cripples, give hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind and even raise the dead. He also fed thousands of His followers a feast when a few fish and loaves of bread multiplied to stop the hunger they felt. Jesus used these displays to satisfy his disciples’ needs. He even commanded a fig tree to wilt and wither away, and He walked on water, but He refused to use His talents to prove to outsiders that he wasn’t a false prophet.
All in all, there are twenty-three recorded healing miracles mentioned by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as nine commandments over the forces of nature, and on three occasions Jesus was witnessed bringing the dead back to life. But none of these miracles mattered to the masters of the masses after He threw the money changers out of the temple.
As His ministry taught the sick and discouraged masses that better days would come their way, His popularity became a thorn in the side of the Roman and Jewish authorities in charge of state and church affairs. Although He continued to discourage or deny being the Messiah to the masses, to His disciples He admitted that He was more than just a prophet. After Jesus affirmed that He was the Son of God, He also told His closest disciples that He would be crucified and rise from the dead after three days of lying in a tomb.
Although His faithful followers were slow to believe His words, soon the authorities conspired to have Jesus nailed to a cross. His death demoralized His disciples, but His resurrection stirred their souls and instilled substance in their spirits.
Jesus’ teachings were recorded by the four gospels that emphasized how the kingdom of heaven will fulfill the prophesies of His prophets, and these words were spread near and afar by His chosen twelve disciples. As these twelve bore witness to what they heard and saw, they committed their knowledge to writing the books of His acts.
Jesus charged his apostles to go forth into the world and tell His story. After His crucifixion and resurrection, they went town to town undertaking this dangerous task which could result in persecution, imprisonment and death.
Mouth to mouth the words of Jesus spread and soon Gentiles as well as Jews began to receive the Messiah’s message. When a Pharisee named Saul was enlightened by a brilliant light, he then stopped opposing and persecuting the disciples and became the apostle Paul. He had an extensive knowledge of the scriptures, and God called him into service to spread the good word to both the Gentiles and Jews.
Saul traveled throughout the land preaching the message to all men which was equally received with humility or hostility. He created a system of teaching centers whose elders, overseers and pastors spread the Lord’s lessons into each surrounding region. Once done he would move to the next city and start all over again. After opening the faith of ancient Israel to all of the world, the book of Acts ends with him under arrest in Rome, which was then considered the center of the world.
By the power of his conversion, Saul who became the apostle Paul proved to the world by his preaching the words of Jesus Christ and teaching the vision of the kingdom of God, that monotheism would always conquer polytheism and that only one God was the true and forever loving deity.
The letters of the apostles would now become the media to spread their messages. The persecution, imprisonment and incarceration the apostles faced gave them the time to minister their message by the written word. These communications were hand delivered by apostolic helpers who were the mailmen to pass the messages forward to many different communities.
Although the messages deal with specific problems that plagued each city, such as the ever-increasing problem of false teachers, collections for the poor, motives of the messengers, encouragement of good acts, to treat each other as brothers, of sustaining faith, hope and a love in every day living … all of the messages which were read in public to the congregations contained the same common pattern and moral guidance. God loves us and we all ought to love one another.
I added a personal note at the end of the condensed version of the Bible’s story saying, “If there is only one thing to be learned from this history, it is that faith cannot be destroyed. It can only be redirected to another cause or church. Faith is another form of energy that cannot be killed. It can only change in shape, size or scope. Faith cannot be abandoned anymore so than our astral awareness. It can only be forgotten until another force brings it back into focus. It is our job to find that focus.”
NEW MESSAGE
As the Old and New Testaments charted the future fate of its followers, the new message of our time would tell not what life is, but what it isn’t.
Our lunch meeting was much more alive than our first morning meeting which was only intended to help form our team and solidify our spirit. Several of the team of twelve had complained of feeling slightly seasick and nauseous, which after a quick trip by the ship’s doctor they were reassured that a little Dramamine, or for the naturalists in our group some ginger-root would settle their stomachs. Some of the others expressed how great they felt, which was ruled caused by the fresh sea air and the emotional relief of being on a great cruise instead of battling the traffic and masses of the great unwashed back home. No one thought they were brainwashed or drugged. All or almost all of the authors did believe that this was the most enjoyable and highly profitable piece of work they had ever been associated with.
This meeting was held by the pool with a long table to the side filled with food and drink and thirteen overstuffed deck chairs placed about in a circle with clipboards and pens next to each on a small cedar side table.
Everyone was on time, because each had been escorted by their own personal assistant who also functioned as a handler. When all were comfortably settled in their surroundings, with drinks by their sides, I started off this meeting with the same silent prayer I would say for the next thirty days.
“Please, God, guide our hearts, heads and hands in the righteous path to create a paradise.” Although I am sure that some of the writers closest to me might have seen my lips moving to my words of worship, no one questioned me as to the what or why fores.
“Gentlemen, we are gathered here to start the creation of a new book.” I looked each man in the eye as I spoke and saw none of the drugged delirium that accompanied my earlier delivery, but everyone did wonder what the orange nerf ball in my hands was about. As I squeezed the ball’s soft surface I explained, “You twelve are without a doubt the highest selling and now the highest paid authors of the world and as such deserve the service and surroundings you are now ensconced within. But to maintain some sense of decorum, direction and discipline at these meetings, only the person holding the ball is allowed to speak. I know that to some of you this might seem silly, but each and every one of you has valuable contributions to make in the direction and style of our endeavor, and I want all of us to be able to fully appreciate what each other has to say. So please don’t think of me as a lecture hall disciplinarian, but more of a coach who wants to hand off this ball.
And as I saw in their eyes the sense of the game, I first threw the soft ball to Philip the Evangelist who was sitting to the right of me. His leg was still in a cast from the car accident that broke it while he was walking by the side of the road and had been struck by an automobile. He had sold more books than anyone else in the world, and we really didn’t know how he would take to playing second fiddle to a story line that had already been set to musical movement. His voice was well trained from his earlier years of teaching high school English as he said, “First of all, I want to thank our benefactors for me being here with my wife, family and amongst friends. This is a long way from Maine or our home in Florida and we all are very happy and for a change feel absolutely safe.
His sense of graciousness sort of surprised me because I always imagined he would be a bit stuck up due to his success. But then he smiled at me as if he could read my thoughts as he continued on.
“I’ve worked on joint