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Who
is this fellow called Jesus?
Jesus was born in an obscure town in Israel,
called Bethlehem, about 2000 years go.
During his first thirty years he lived an ordinary in an ordinary
home. For the next three years he went about teaching people about
God and healing sick people by the shores of Lake Galilee. He called twelve ordinary men to be his helpers.
He had no money. He wrote no books. He
commanded no army. He wielded
no political power. During
his life he never travelled more than two hundred miles in any direction.
He was executed by being nailed to a cross at the age of 33
Today over 900million people throughout the world worship Jesus as
divine — the Son of God. Their
experience has convinced then, that in the wonders of nature we see God as
our loving Father, in the person of Jesus we discover God as Son and in
our daily lives we encounter this same God as Spirit.
Jesus is our way in to finding God: we learn about Jesus by reading
the Bible, particularly the New Testament and we meet him directly in our
spiritual experience.
Jesus taught us to trust in a loving and merciful Father and to pray to
him in faith for all our needs. He
taught that we are all infinitely precious, children of one heavenly
Father, and that we should therefore treat one another with love, respect
and forgiveness. He lived out
what he taught by caring for those he met; by healing the sick — a sign
of God’s love at work; and by forgiving those who put him to death.
Jesus’ actions alone would not have led him to a criminal’s death on
the cross, but his teaching challenged the religious and moral beliefs of
his day. Jesus claimed
to be the only way to reach God. Above
all, he pointed to his death as Gods appointed means of bringing us
self-centred people back to God. Jesus also foretold that he would be
raised to life again three days after his death.
When three days after he had died on the cross, his followers did
indeed meet him alive again - frightened and defeated men, became fearless
and joyful messengers.
Their message of the good news about Jesus is the reason why churches
exist. More importantly, it
is the reason why all over the world there are Christians who know what it
means to meet the living Jesus. We
know that he is alive because we say hello to him in prayer every day.
We believe that he alone has the key to human life.
Death holds no fear for Christian’s because through Jesus death
and resurrection we, the children of God our Father, are promised eternal
life.
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