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Author: Geoff
Geoff Waugh is the founding editor of the Renewal Journal and an author of books on renewal and revival and Christian living.
Jesus Revolution
Jesus Revolution:
I met the Jesus People
The Jesus Revolution movie, 2023, now in cinemas and available on DVD
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Jesus Revolution: I met the Jesus People
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TIME Magazine, June 21, 1971
By Ron Burnett, a Staff Reporter on the Townsville Daily Bulletin, who went to Seattle to join the delivery flight of the first Qantas jumbo jet, the Boeing 747B. He wrote three articles for September 1-3, 1971.
Scores of hippie-type youngsters frequently embraced me at a theatre in an American city recently. They sang in rock style about Jesus Christ – not as a Superstar, but as a Saviour. They invited me to a “love feast” – but by the time it happened I would be Australia-bound in the Qantas super jet, the Boeing 747B. I rubbed shoulders with “drug freaks”, sex devotees and dropouts as they pushed forward to embrace a new life. For four never-to-be-forgotten hours in Seattle, USA, I was caught up in a revolution. It happened when, following a chance encounter in a Seattle street, …
I met
The Jesus People
I should have been at a cocktail party in Seattle’s swank Hotel Olympic. I suppose it was discourteous to my hosts, the Boeing Company – but I didn’t mean it that way.
Seven hours earlier, in a lunchtime scroll through downtown Seattle, two girls, long-haired, long-frocked and bare-footed, had proffered a leaflet. I took one. It was beautifully printed, with a central motif of the risen Jesus Christ. There was a caption: “A CELEBRATION OF REURRECTION AND LIFE – at Moore theatre, Seattle.”
“Will you come?” asked one of the girls, a strikingly pretty blond.
“I might,” I replied non-committedly.
That night I went to the Boeing Company’s cocktail party in the Hotel Olympic’s sumptuous Georgian Room. But that earlier invitation kept nagging at my mind.
After five minutes I excused myself and asked a taxi driver to take me to the Moore Theatre, which turned out to be seven blocks away. I alighted from the cab just before eight o’clock.
And that’s how I came to be at a Jesus People rock festival.
There were small groups of long-haired, bare-footed people on the sidewalk. They fitted my conception of hippies.
But something was different.
Their faces glowed with a remarkable radiance – and, without exception, they carried Bibles.
But their clothes, their hair, their beards set them a world apart from me. They were of another culture. For fully three minutes I was afraid to approach them.
Timidly, I approached three of them, and introduced myself. I told them I was from Australia and that I loved Jesus.
EMBRACES
The effect was startling – like the utterance of a magic password. Each of them embraced me warmly and expressed praise to God.
Quickly the word spread. Others gathered and embraced me as naturally as if I were a long-lost brother – and indeed they called me “Brother”.
This was the start of a fantastic experience – a never-to-be-forgotten four hours with the Jesus People, the movement that’s taking America by storm.
These are the young people, largely of the Hippie culture, who were immersed, many of them, in the drug and sex culture – or lost in escapism – or hung up on revolution – or were just plain drop-outs.
Now, these members of the drop-out generation were embroiled in a revolution of a different kind – THE JESUS REVOLUTION. By the thousands, they are forsaking drugs, sex, violence and human vegetation. They say they have found the secret and the reality of the life and love in Jesus Christ. They speak of being “unhung” from the past, through lives linked up permanently and experientially with the very life of God – without the aid of any artificial stimulants, pills or medication.”
_________________________________________
| THE JESUS REVOLUTION – “GREATEST”
AMSTERDAM, August 31, 1971 (A.A.P. Reuter) Dr Billy Graham has said here that the Jesus Revolution in the United States supported by tens of thousands of Hippies, is the greatest movement America has ever known. “The Jesus Children … go out to preach the Gospel in the slums, the ghettos, theatres, and even the underground railway … this is taking place in America today,” the American evangelist said. The Hippies who supported the movement had rejected drugs and were studying the teachings of Christ, he said. Dr Graham was speaking at the opening of the weekend of a seven-day European Congress for Evangelism attended by 1,200 delegates from 35 countries. He said the church, which had always overcome critical situations in the past, was at present going through its greatest crisis in 400 years. Forces within the churches were undermining the Gospel, he added. _______________________________ |
SET FREE
Typical was the cry which came from one brother: “I was a homosexual, but Jesus set me free!” And the testimony of a wife: “We were saved! He (her husband) changed, and it’s getting better all the time.” …
The Jesus People love to “rap” (talk) about Jesus. Better than a rap is a “heavy” rap. (“Heavy means real profound,” one girl told me. “Heavy hits you in the heart. It really does something inside of you.”)
And they major on “heavy Bible drill” (intensive Bible study).
The Jesus People see themselves – and many conventional churchmen see them this way too – as the “shock troops” of “now Christianity … a spearheading force for the evangelisation of the world.”
They claim that Jesus is the answer not only to personal “hang-ups”, but to the hang-ups of the whole world.
They showed no evidence of despising the conventional churches – one, indeed, acknowledged that he had been “saved through the preaching of a straight minister.” And a Jesus People’s “decision” card has a space in which to enter “Church attending.” There are reports, too, of church young people’s groups caught up in the Jesus People fervour, and of home Bible-study groups of adults multiplying. …
But I gained the impression from this Seattle contact that the Jesus People “saved” from the Hippie culture are not flocking to the churches. They have their own meeting houses, and they regard their ministry as an outward thrust into the very heart of the community. But they welcome support from the churches, and indeed believe that churches which do not emulate their outreach will be “left behind”.
A heavy weight of the thrust is into the culture from which many of the Jesus People came – the “junkies”, the sex devotees, the drop-outs, the escapists, the revolutionaries, the no-hopers. But the Jesus Movement is also said to have swept many a university campus, and the Jesus People do not hesitate to address the message of Jesus and His love to people of fundamentally different cultures and age groups.
My own experience was convincing. Hippie-style boys and girls, many still in their teens, embraced me fervently, without a shred of reserve – me in the most conservative of plain dark grey suits, a short haircut, and more than double the age of many of them.
NO GAP
There was no culture gap … no generation gap.
And the outreach across cultural boundaries was reflected, too, in “The Truth”. This is the JESUS PEOPLE PAPER …
The Jesus People Paper carried testimonies by two top-line entertainers, Johnny Cash and Jeremy Spencer.
It told of the transformation of editor-publisher David Abraham in San Francisco. Abraham had published the mass circulation drug culture paper, “The Oracle”, in San Francisco. It featured sex, drugs, anarchy, Eastern religion and “eye-poppingly explicit photos” … But David Abraham was converted to Christ. He transferred all rights to his sex-peddling paper to a San Francisco commune of the Jesus People. He installed a former junkie and heroin dealer, Chris D’Allessandra, as editor. The paper is still called “The Oracle”, but “now it peddles Christ and salvation”, – and its circulation has jumped from 20,000 to 100,000.
The Jesus People Paper in Seattle featured the 12,000 decisions for Christ at a Billy Graham crusade in McCormack, and quoted the evangelist’s declaration that “Christ is the living God … He can fill the void in your heart. He can give purpose and meaning to your life.”
_________________________________________
HOW ENDURING?Just how substantial or enduring is the Jesus Revolution? Some say it’s a fad. Others believe it’s a movement of the Spirit of God, stirring the young people of a “lost” generation; and that the churches must embrace it and nurture it. Some say it’s emotionally excessive, too theologically superficial, and wide open to heresy. Others say the Jesus Movement has both strengths and weaknesses, and that it is unwise at this point either to commend wholeheartedly or to condemn. Many prefer to reserve their judgement. All this reporter can say is that … he met the Jesus People … He saw evidence of transformed lives, and the keynotes he heard were love, peace and joy – in the context of a startling and unprecedented religious revolution. _________________________________ |
THE KING
Under the heading, “Tacoma Meets the King”, the Jesus People Paper reported the amazing outcome of a seven-day Jesus People musical festival in Tacoma, south of Seattle, in July.
“Five hundred young people actually met Jesus … Several heroin addicts were instantaneously cured … Scores of young people were baptised in water … A ‘heavily sedated’ longhair finally decided that his life was more than just 60 years to blow. He threw his dope to a dumbfounded policeman and said that he was free.
“THE KING IS JESUS CHRIST,” the article explained. “This does not mean a form of religion, a philosophy of life, some theological brainburst, or a moral standard that is impossible to live up to. We aren’t talking about a way of life, we’re talking about life itself. We mean that Jesus Christ is alive today and that you can have a personal relationship with Him. Without this relationship, all philosophies, religions, drugs, and spiritual enlightenment are just more dust on a pile of decaying humanity. Only when you know the love of Jesus can you say without doubt that you’ve tasted life and it was good for living.” …
I learnt a little about the Jesus People coffee houses, with their distinctive Bible connections, dotting the land – for example:
House of Amos
House of Caleb
Earthen Vessel Coffeehouse
I AM Coffeehouse.
One may read on their signboards invitations such as the one in front of the House of Amos:
“STOP BY ANY TIME TO RAP, READ AND ENJOY GOD.”
_________________o0o_________________
Jesus Revolution movie, 2023
I MET THE JESUS PEOPLE – Part 2
CONVICTED OF SIN – on 30 Tabs of Acid
A YOUNG GIRL’S STORY ON A SEATTLE SIDWEALK
As I settled into my fascinating evening with the Jesus People, I had no difficulty in appreciating why journals of international repute have devoted many pages of prime space to this “extraordinary religious revolution” (as “Time” called it).
Or why Australia’s Rev. Alan Walker, just back from the U.S., referred to the Jesus Revolution as “the most startling development on the religious scene” … or why Billy Graham in Amsterdam last weekend described it as “the greatest movement America has ever known.”
I spent my first half hour with them on that Seattle sidewalk, outside the Moore Theatre. I asked questions – and my Jesus People friends, with utter frankness, told me stories of reclamation from futility and despair. …
I talked first with 19-year old David Potter, of Tacoma, who has been a “Jesus People” for eight months.
“I got saved at a rock festival in Portland, Oregon,” David said.
I asked David if he had been a drug user.
“I pushed drugs, and I took drugs,” he told me – “acid (LSD), mescaline, cocaine, speed – something like stay-awake pills; it’s concentrated, and you really get ripped out. It felt great. It was a release from worries and responsibilities.”
NO REALITY
But not, as David discovered, the key to reality.
Eventually he “started running into the Jesus People” in California. Moving up the coast, he found himself at the Portland rock festival, with the Jesus People. He wondered whether what they were saying about this person named Jesus was real, or a fantasy. They said He was alive, and that He was love.
“But the way I actually got saved was when a straight minister got up on stage and said, ‘I want you to listen. I want to share out of my heart. I want to share my Jesus. He’s life, and He’s love.’
“That was heavy,” David said.
“I had a preconceived idea about Christianity. It was all regulations – you can’t do this, you can’t do that.
“But this guy, when he rapped, he laid it down. Christianity is peace within, peace with my God.
“Now I know what Christianity is about. All you have to do is ask Jesus into your heart. I did, and I FELT THE POWER OF GOD come down. It was like a vacuum cleaner going through my body.
“It was just real heavy. I was in the middle of all those people and just got saved!”
David said that God led him to a Christian camp, where he “got into the Word of God” – or, as the Jesus People repeatedly call it, “heavy Bible drill.”
Was it a passing phenomenon?
David was definite enough. “After nearly a year, the Lord Jesus is better and more real every day,” he said.
He told me that God led him into a coffee house ministry in Tacoma.
REAL HEAVY
“We reach out directly to the long-hairs,” he said. “I present Jesus Christ in such a way that people don’t feel they’re being forced into it. It’s something you can’t force on people. It’s a real heavy thing when you’re rapping about Jesus.”
David reckoned that about 65 per cent of the Jesus People had been taking drugs, but had given them up to follow Jesus.
Several Jesus People estimated that about 70 per cent of the Jesus People reclaimed from drugs never returned to the practice. They said this was in contrast to the two per cent drug cures achieved by Government efforts.
A YOUNG MAN told how, having embarked on drug-taking, he went to the Catacombs, a Christian coffee house in Seattle.
“The people started telling me about Jesus – how real He is, and how beautiful life is,” he said.
“They invited me to the House of Caleb for dinner. I could see these Christians had something that I just didn’t have. I could sense it.
“Then they asked me to Calvary Temple. I was curious – I wondered what they had. I was getting restless, and when the altar call was made I got up and went down on my knees and asked for forgiveness. And I wept. After it was all over I just felt so beautiful. The Holy Spirit came down on me. It was so wonderful.”
Twenty-year-old MIKE BARD has also taken drugs. He told me, “I didn’t know Jesus could be so exciting. I got saved three months ago.”
I asked Mike if he had a job.
“I work with the Jesus People Army,” he said. That’s my job – going out to tell people about Christ. I go back to all my lost people and tell them what Jesus has to offer – and I tell them what He has done in my life. About 10 people have come over and eight have been saved.
Seventeen-year-old VALERIE ARENDS took up the story. She described her experience of being saved. “It was just like lifting a great burden off my shoulders. You can feel the weight lifting. I felt I was floating.”
JESUS NOW
“We have rock bands,” Valerie explained. “They sing shout Jesus Christ, and about God the Father, and about the Holy Spirit. They just let it be known. They put it in modern music that will reach the kids of today, because today’s kids don’t want things of the past. They want what’s right now – and the Bible says that Jesus was, and is, and shall be.
“They want Jesus now! They want someone who’s still as beautiful today as ever He was.”
I had gone to the Moore Theatre with a prejudice against rock music in a Christian religious setting. What I saw and heard changed my mind. It was impossible not to be impressed by the rock musicians’ deep sense of reverence as they played and sang about the love of Jesus; their faces radiant – devoid of the sensuous atmosphere that one might normally associate with rock bands.
There was no hint of the “Jesus Christ Superstar” idiom. And I thought it significant that the Jesus People Paper carried this paragraph by Billy Graham: “While the rock opera (‘Jesus Christ Superstar’) is supposedly based on the Bible, it lacks a clear compelling testimony of Scripture to the person of Jesus Christ. Over and over a chorus asks, ‘Who are you?’ and the opera does not supply the answer.”
The Jesus People themselves are not hesitant about shouting the answer – “Jesus is Saviour!”
Next, I talked to BECKY BARR, a warm-natured 23-year-old blonde who told me with face aglow, “I’ve been saved about four months – praise the Lord.”
Then Becky told her astonishing story.
“I Was convicted of sin on 30 tabs of acid,” she said.
“I just got a handful, and I don’t know just how many I stuck in my mouth.”
A TRIP
Becky had found life meaningless and hopeless. She had sought release in an “acid” trip.
“But it was horrible,” Becky said. “I was really scared. I thought I was going to die. I actually thought I was going to hell.
“The person I was with turned into the devil. For a couple of weeks I could see the devil. He kept coming after me.”
“And I kept seeing snakes. It was a sickening thing.”
She went to hospital, and ran away. Then, in Berkley, California, she kept hearing people say, “Jesus loves you.” She saw the same message written on walls.
Once more she took drugs, but felt horrid. She cried, “God, if you’re there, hear me.”
“I felt that God was just something out there, all ready to get you.” Becky said. “So I tried to get up and run away.”
“Then I had a sense of someone laying down his life. That’s Jesus. I didn’t know it then.”
Becky went to Seattle – and there was this message again, “Jesus loves you”, chalked on the sidewalk. Someone invited her to a revivao meeting. She felt the Holy Spirit “just fill that place with love”. But she resisted.
Becky told how she kept praying – “But then I just got crazy again.
“One night I thought I had to burn myself up. But I couldn’t do it. …
“I cried out, ‘Jesus is in my heart.’ And I was all right.”
Becky was led to “a guy’s house”. He invited her to church. There she poured out her heart: “Well, Jesus, if You really are the truth, I’m sold! I want it. I’ve messed up my life, and if you can straighten it out, I want you. I just can’t do it anymore.”
“Praise God. He’s real,” Becky said. I just kept on praying and praying. And all of a sudden the horrible snakes went away. There was just peace.
“My whole life was an ugly story,” Becky Barr finished. “But the only thing that’s beautiful is Jesus – and Jesus is mine.”
Mike Bard took up the theme. “I’ve found what people are looking for,” said Mike. “I have it, and there’s no way I’m ever going to give it up.”
I asked Mike to be more explicit. Just what were people looking for?
“What people really need,” this earnest and joyful young man told me, “is peace and joy and love. They want a oneness. They find it only in Jesus. That’s all I can say right now. There are no worries because you take everything to the Lord. Your life is in God’s hands, and He’s going to take care of you – eternally.”
Mike said that the conventional churches could learn something from the Jesus Movement.
“Many have already learnt,” he said. “Many more support field churches. We fellowship with them.
THESE ARE THE CHURCHES THAT ARE MOVING WITH GOD.
THE CHURCHES THAT ARE NOT DOING THIS ARE GOING TO BE LEFT BEHIND.”
As more Jesus People flowed into the Theatre, I asked my exciting new friends, “Who organised this rock festival?”
“The Holy Spirit,” Mike Bard said. “He organises everything.”
“I’ll tell you how the Holy Spirit set this up,” Mike said in reply to my further questioning. “We didn’t have any money when we rented this theatre. But we did it in faith, and we prayed, and the day we had to write the cheque, six hundred dollars came in – the amount we needed.
“We prayed for food, too, because we were running really short. Then all of a sudden, money came in for food. Last night we ate roast beef!”
I learnt, too, that the Jesus People needed a festival headquarters. They said that the Holy Spirit moved – and a Seattle gentleman gave them a three-storey mansion for the purpose.
And the Jesus People Paper! “We pay $950 to get each monthly issue printed,” Mike said, and we don’t know where the cost comes from.”
When I remarked anew on the absence of any obvious sign of organisation, Mike explained, “The reason it’s so unorganised is because it’s not an organisation. It’s not a business: it’s the body of Christ.
ORGANISER
“People look at us as if we’re kind of goofy – but the Holy Spirit is the organiser. For example, six people, working independently on the paper, found when they came together that they all had the same theme. That’s the Holy Spirit at work.
“Wherever Jesus People meet, they’re printing newspapers,” Mike continued. “They’re telling about Jesus on the street corners. We’re speaking to whoever the Lord leads us to. We want to speak to the younger kids, but at times I’ve had real heavy raps with adults – and they’ve been really convicted.”
________________o0o________________
Jesus Revolution movie, 2023
I MET THE JESUS PEOPLE – Part 3
AN EXBODYGRUARD OF THE HEAD BLACK PANTHER PLAYED REVERENT GOSPEL ROCK AT A JESUS PEOPLE HAPPENING. I SAW AND HEARD IT IN SEATTLE. IT’S PART OF THE FINAL ARTICLE IN A SERIES OF THREE, DESCRIBING HOW “I MET THE JESUS PEOPLE.”
“I’M FOR REVOLUTION” cried the Jesus People Preacher Girl
As I ‘rapped’ with the Jesus People on the Seattle sidewalk. a steady stream of people – most of them young, long-haired and bare-footed, but some older and in ‘straight’ dress – flowed into the Moore Theatre.
I entered the lobby. More Jesus People. When they heard I was a newspaper-man from Australia and a Christian, there were fervent embraces. It was uninhibited love.
Mike Bard sat with me in the theatre, which by now held about 2,000 people, with room for hundreds more – and still they came.
Mike told me that the drummer who helped beat out a beautiful and reverent rock gospel melody called “I am your Captain” was an ex-bodyguard of the head Black Panther.
The organist was a graduate of one of the nation’s finest music schools.
The most electrifying (and heart-piercing) feature of the Jesus People rock festival was soon to follow.
A slender, pretty girl, with finely groomed long hair, gowned in what I would call a multi-coloured patchwork polka-dot ankle-length dress, moved to the microphone. With a contagious joy and enthusiasm, she welcomed us to “the fastest growing movement in America, soon the fastest growing movement in the world, the Jesus Movement.”
This was Linda Meissner, founder of the Jesus People Army, publisher of the Jesus People Paper, and Jesus People Preacher extraordinary.
“Give me a J! . . .” cried a radiant Linda – somewhat incheer leader fashion, yet infinitely more profound.
“J” roared the throng.
“Give me an E!” … “E”
“Give me an S!” … “S”
“Give me a U!” … “U”
“Give me an S!” … “S”
“What does that spell?”
“JESUS” – a mighty chorus from 2,000 throats.
“Who is He?” – “JESUS”
“What’s that, you say?” – “JESUS”
“Who’s our Saviour?” – “JESUS”
“Who’s alive right now?” – “JESUS”
“There’s so many Jesus People in Seattle now, it’s not hardly safe for sinners to go into the streets,” the vibrant preacher cried. (A fresh chorus of God-praising phrases). “It’s so beautiful to be part of the heavy Jesus Movement. Don’t give me any of that hog-wash about what’s going to happen 20 years from now. HIS time in now!”
STICK AROUND
“Tonight, before this festival’s over, there’s going to be hundreds of miracles. If you’ve never seen a real miracle, stick around!”
Expecting a massive response to the Jesus message, Miss Meissner announced there would be a mass baptism on the coming Sunday afternoon.
“Support the good news of Jesus Christ this week-end in Seattle,” she continued. “Go our in Christian warfare, shooting your little guns at peope, ‘I love you, I love you, Ilove you’!” – pointing an imaginary gun at the audience, the words rapping from her lips in staccato fashion. “Our ammunition is God’s Word.” …
Linda said that God had given them “a fantastic huge Jesus Movement headquarters” (the three storey mansion). God had also moved in the provision of kitchens, meeting places, clothing and food.
With emergency kitchens, said Linda, the Jeus People Army would be out feeding the poor. …
FILL THEM
“We have the facilities to feed the poor,” the preacher girl went on. “Other groups feed them, and that’s beautiful. But the Jesus People can fill them.
She asked for “adult participation” too. In the back was a table where people could “sign up for the Jesus Revolution now”, give their professional or trade services, and become active as Bible teachers and counsellors.
She urged an outreach to high school kids and to the University of Washington. “Let them all know that Jesus Christ is alive.”
Linda Meissner held the audience (and an Australian reporter) captivated as she sang with soulful intensity the Jesus People song –
‘Jesus, Jesus, can I tell you how I feel?
You have given me Your Spirit;
I love you so’
There was an intermission, and a “straight” minister who had earlier joined us took me back-stage, where briefly I met a shining-eyed Linda Meissner.
She told me she was 30. He looked more like 20. She had been “saved since I was 17.”
“Jesus has shown me a vision that He’s going to raise up a Last Day Army of full-time dedicated disciples who will fulfil in this generation the great commission to evangelise the world,” Miss Meissner said.
Linda had been an Iowa farm girl. In college, she heard a challenge by David Wilkerson, gave her life to Christ, and joined Wilkerson’s Teen Challenge in New York City. Later she travelled to Seattle to start Teen Challenge in the north-west. For a time the response was poor. But she “began to pray and seek God, and God opened up the Jesus People Army.”
The “straight” minister was the Rev. David DeMoss, pastor of a church in Tacoma, Washington. His hair-style and dress, like mine, were strictly conventional – but neither of us felt out of place in the warm atmosphere of Jesus People Love.
David DeMoss is enthusiastic about the work of the Jesus People – “but I’m not ducking out of my own church.”
He saw the Jesus People’s Army as “the combat troops” of the “new” Christianity. The indigenous church could be a vital part of the Jesus Revolution. The task of the older generation in the church was to “keep open the limes of supply for the vital young people going into the Christian battle” – “to give faith support, financial support, spiritual support, and to provide the wisdom and understanding of years – the knowledge that comes through experience.
I believe the churches will feel this burden and accept this tole when they see the reality of what’s happening right now – this manifestation of the power of God,” Pastor DeMoss declared.
LOVE
He said it was love that made the difference. “These kids go out, and they don’t talk love, the live it.” …
“These kids are living it every day, demonstrating it in everything they say and do. That’s what the church has got to come to.”
I hurried back to my seat in the theatre. Linda Meissner had begun to preach. In the Jesus People idiom, it was “heavy”.
“You can carry what banners you want,” Miss Meissner told would-be revolutionaries. “But these are the heaviest words – ‘I am the life” …
“We are on the edge of a precipice – one of the heaviest storms the world has ever seen. Society is struggling for love and happiness. We can feel our whole country cracking at the foundations, and we’re scared. Where can we jump to? What can we cling to? …
“You can say you don’t need God. You may say this Book’s a bunch of garbage – or you can listen to the words of Jesus who says, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ …
“Try Jesus, and your search will be over. It’s the inside of man that needs to be changed.
“That’s why I’m for revolution, because I can’t stand a continuation of ‘business as usual’. I can’t stand the thought of thousands in the streets doping it up, selling their bodies to prostitution, killing themselves, dying of hunger, in pain and sickness – the suffering humanity of the world.
“You may be able to sit comfortably in your room and watch TV, but I can’t stand the thought of so many people on a fast-moving train heading down the track towards the precipice. …
“Will you let the world perish while you chew gum and buy paper dolls? I want to do something.”
The preacher warned that a “head” knowledge of Jesus Christ was futile.
GUT LEVEL
“It has to start from gut level inside” – somehow the term, coming so earnestly from Linda Meissner, did not seem crude. “And you look up and see it’s not a stupid fairy tale. Because you look up and see the cross. And there’s God’s Holy Son bleeding and dying there – dying for you!
“You feel your sins covered with blood … and they’re gone! About 18 tons of garbage and guilt is taken away, ad you can’t help but say His name again – and it’s joy and peace and love.
“And before you know it, you’re just grabbing that brother and sister around you ad saying, ‘I love you’. And you say, ‘I mean it. I have met God’.
“This is the answer for the world. Before you know it, people start loving each other. They bring goods and clothes. In the early Christian church, everybody shared. And they took the good news throughout their world.”
Linda Meissner had spoken of the train heading for the precipice. Now she said, “There’s another train a-comin’. It’s the Gospel Train. And the engineer has conquered death, hell and the grave. His love has conquered history. He not only died on that rugged cross, but He rose again from the dead.
“He’s alive,” she cried triumphantly. “He said, ‘Be of good courage. I’m coming back’.”
She launched into a Jesus People gospel song again. …
“We’ll spread the good news
That God is in our land,
And they’ll know we are Christians by God’s love.”
And from hundreds of throats – “I love you Jesus”.
A sweet girl named Mary Norman sang with haunting sweetness “The Last Supper” – and Linda Meissner invited people to “come to Jesus”.
“Jesus says, ‘Come, the supper’s ready’. ‘No, I’m not worthy’, you say – and besides, I don’t have the money’. And Jesus smiles and says, ‘It’s free.’ It’s supper with the King – and it’s free.”
Linda launched reverently singing “The Lord’s Prayer”. Hundreds of voices rose in unison with hers.
Flourishing a tambourine, she sang a soul-piercing Gospel invitation –
‘Come to Jesus!
Come to Jesus!
Come to Jesus right now!’
“Just pray to Jesus, and you’ll have a Jesus happening,” Linda told them.
By now, dozens of people had poured to the front to have “supper with the King.”
IRRESISTIBLE
I went with them. The sweep of that moment was irresistible. I didn’t count, but I think more than a hundred stood there, some weeping, some praying, and all praising Jesus.
Then an electrifying moment.
“Jesus loves you. You love Jesus. And you all love each other,” Linda Meissner told the converts. “Now, everybody turn and love the person next to them.”
I was enveloped in the embraces of people with long hair, people with short hair, people in hippie garb, people in “straight” dress, young people, old people. Unashamedly I returned their embraces and echoed the affectionate “I love you” that each poured out on me.
Linda Meissner told the converts they would be counselled by Richard McNair. She described him as a young man who had spent “four years on drugs and scheming against fancy ladies”. He had been saved in gaol. Presently as we sat on the floor in the basement, “Rich” was telling us in warm but gentle tones of the need for daily Bible study “to get strong in the Lord”; for constant prayer; and for fellowship with other Christians.
SURVIVAL KIT
He handed to each of us a “basic survival kit” containing these emphases.
Elsewhere, hippie-style people (and others too) sat on the floor in groups of three of four, open Bibles in their midst.
As I made ready to leave, I found myself lingering in the foyer of the theatre. I was reluctant to leave my exciting new friends, the Jesus People. And it seemed the reluctance was mutual. There were more embraces, declarations of love, a promise to exchange letters and to pray for each other.
It was after midnight. I prepared, with a twinge of sadness, to walk the seven blocks to my downtown Seattle hotel. The Jesus People would not hear of it. Soon I was sitting with seven of them in a big car, and we rapped” about Jesus as we drove back to the Hotel Olympic.
More embaces. More lingering farewells. I stepped slowly from the car to the sidewalk, turned and waved. Seven sets of arms waved back vigorously. The car pulled slowly away from the kerb. Soon it was lost in the stream of traffic.
My Jesus People had gone.
But they left an unerasable memory.
___________________________________________________
PS: Comment by Ron Burnett (included in this article in The Jesus Revolution booklet printed in 1972 in Brisbane).
My encounter with the Jesus People in Seattle was exhilarating. Never have I experienced such a tremendous outpouring of warmth and power and love. I truly believe that to me was given the privilege of seeing, hearing, and feeling a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God.
I do believe, too, that whether we be convinced or sceptical of the substance of the Jesus Revolution (I, for one, am convinced), God is saying something to us all through this movement. The message is that God is not limited. Jesus is being exalted as Saviour and Lord, the Son of the living God, in a culture which we as “conventional Christians” probably could never have penetrated. Jesus is being presented in all His love, joy, beauty, majesty and power as the one Way – the one answer to the need of individuals and nations for peace and purpose.
In the Jesus Revolution, revival has happened and is happening in a way that many of us did not expect, among people to whom we least expected it to happen. The Holy Spirit is not limited.
_____________________________________
Editorial comment: Note the lasting impact that this movement had in church and community life – from formal to informal dress; from organs and hymn books to bands and screens; from monologues to dynamic encounters.
Links to the Jesus Revolution movie trailer, 2023
Jesus Revolution baptism scene 2023 movie
Jesus People film 1972
See also 1970 report – Asbury Revival
See A Surprising Work of God in Asbury Chapel, 2023
Blogs Index 1: Revivals (briefer than Revivals Index)
Blogs Index 2: Mission (international stories)
Blogs Index 3: Miracles (supernatural events)
Blogs Index 4: Devotional (including Testimonies)
Blogs index 5: Church (Christianity in action)
Blogs Index 6: Chapters (Blogs from Books)
Blogs Index 7: Images (Photos & Videos)
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Jesus Revolution: I met the Jesus People
A ‘surprising work of God’ in Asbury chapel
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Fresh Outpouring at Asbury University
Fresh Outpouring at Asbury University
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Fresh Outpouring at Asbury University
A ‘surprising work of God’ in Asbury chapel
A student witness to the extraordinary revival at Asbury University
Renewal Journal – a chronicle of renewal and revival: www.renewaljournal.com
Dutch Sheets describes his open vision about revival: Video
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=flashpoint+dutch+sheets+revival&view=detail&mid=65AAD5E962FC76EB8A9D65AAD5E962FC76EB8A9D&FORM=VIRE
Permission: you can freely reproduce and share these resources and books, including in print, eg., uploading to your Amazon Kindle, etc. (just include the source)
Revival reported at Asbury University in Kentucky 50 years to the month after the previous outpouring.
Kim Roberts : Feb 10, 2023 Ministry Watch
“I just received word that what started yesterday at Asbury University has now also spread to Ohio Christian University! Students started praying and worshipping in chapel yesterday at 11 am and it’s continued! Asbury cancelled classes today and there are still dozens of students in the chapel leading non-stop prayer and worship! Those who remember will tell of the revival that broke out there in 1970 exactly to the week of what is happening now! There is a hunger in America for the move of the Holy Ghost with a tangible manifest presence of God!”
(Kentucky) — [MinistryWatch.com] Reports from Asbury University say that a revival has broken out in the chapel of the small Christian college campus in Kentucky. (Image: Facebook-Matt Barnes)
On the morning of February 8, a seemingly normal chapel service took place at the campus’ Hughes Auditorium. It included a message about confession and repentance, according to reports. After the service was over, a group of students stayed behind to continue worshiping. Then more joined them.
According to reports being shared on social media, students have been in the chapel for over 24 hours reading Scripture, praying, singing, and sharing personal testimonies.
“God began pouring out his love among the students in a profound way. The students continued praying and worshiping even though chapel had concluded,” Asbury Theological Seminary Vice President of Formation Matt Barnes wrote on Facebook. (Screengrab image: Facebook-Matt Barnes)
Asbury December graduate Elle Hooper told the Asbury Collegian, “I am one of many who have been praying for this since my freshman year. To be here and witness to this is life-giving.”
Senior Ashley Schumacher told the college paper she felt “the weight of the Holy Spirit” when she re-entered the Hughes Auditorium after the chapel service was dismissed.
Pizza, snacks, water, and coffee were provided at dinner time on February 8 for those who wanted to stay and continue participating in the revival.
Asbury’s Facebook page didn’t have any accounts of the chapel service or revival posted. Asbury did not reply to a request for comment before time of publication.
Well-known author and pastor John Piper describes revival as “a fresh outpouring of God’s live-giving Spirit on His people.” He added that historically it has referred to “many Christians [being] lifted out of spiritual indifference and worldliness into conviction of sin, earnest desires for more of Christ and His Word, boldness in witness, purity of life, lots of conversions, joyful worship, [and] renewed commitment to missions.”
Some are reminded of a revival that took place over 50 years ago at the college.
The Asbury Revival of 1970 also occurred in February that year after Dean Custer B. Reynolds invited students to share personal testimonies during the chapel service. What started was a revival that lasted for 144 hours. The chapel was filled with rejoicing people. Classes were canceled for a week. Even after classes resumed on February 10, Hughes Auditorium was left open for prayer and testimony.
It is also reported that 2,000 witnessing teams were sent out from Asbury to churches and colleges across the country.
Many pray similar results will follow this week’s Asbury revival. (Image: Facebook-Matt Barnes)
“Praying this spark of revival at Asbury will ignite a flame on campuses across the globe,” wrote Byron Paulus, founder and executive director of OneCry, a group calling for a nationwide revival and spiritual awakening.
“I have prayed all my adult life that God would let me see one more great awakening before I leave this world. I am praying harder than ever that this is the beginning. Join me in praying, ‘Do it again, Lord. Do it again!'” wrote Rick McKinney, a former pastor who lives in Kentucky.
Asbury is a Christian university with about 1,600 students located about 20 minutes southwest of Lexington in Wilmore, Kentucky.
On its website describing the spiritual vitality on campus, it reads “Asbury University stands in the Wesleyan theological tradition—believing that an act of God’s grace upon which one receives the offer of salvation through the sacrificial life of Jesus Christ can indeed transform a human heart in such a way that through His mercy they can experience holiness of life, have a heart that exhibits His love, and become an agent of His grace for the advancement of God’s Kingdom on earth.
See 1970 report – Asbury Revival
Move of God moves off campus
After a weekend of massive crowds at Asbury University, a big change takes the revival off campus. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000+ people attended services over the weekend, February 18-19, at Asbury with 5 overflow buildings and a grass lawn filled. There was a 2.5-mile backup of cars going into Wilmore Kentucky which normally has a population of 6,000. The number of people wanting to participate in the meeting caused the university to expand its worship services to five overflow buildings. Wilmore City officials decided to reroute traffic due to the flood of people descending on the small town to experience the move of God. But the staying power of the Asbury outpouring is about to be tested in a big way. The university has announced that public worship services in the school’s Hughes Auditorium will end.
Beginning Tuesday, February 21, services available to the public are being held at another location in the central Kentucky area. “As part of Asbury’s intention of encouraging and commissioning others to ‘go out’ and share what they have experienced, all services will be hosted at other locations and no longer held at Asbury University. We encourage guests to utilize these other designated facilities for worship and gathering. More information will be shared,” the school posted on its website. Asbury President Kevin J. Brown, Ph.D. also posted a four-minute video update posted to Twitter calling these last few weeks at the Christian school, “unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life.” “Whether you call this a revival, a renewal, an awakening or an outpouring, what we have experienced on our campus these last few weeks is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” Brown said.
Brown said he believes Asbury is not the keeper or source of this movement, saying it has already gone to other campuses across the U.S. “People are hungry for something more,” he said, quoting Jesus in the New Testament’s Matthew 5:6. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” “We look to other schools, other churches or ministry communities as co-commissioners in this movement that’s taking shape for us,” Brown said. “Whatever happens from here, our deep desire is to see a life-transforming renewal of our younger generation to faithfully serve their communities, their schools, their churches, and their professions. To see them go into the difficult and dark places in the world and to be light.” In closing, Brown thanked people for praying and asked them to continue to pray that what is happening at Asbury would continue to move across states, countries, and continents so that all may see Christ” he said.
How It Started: The Asbury Collegian reported that it began during a call to confession on Wednesday, February 8, when at least 100 people fell to their knees and bowed at the altar. Since then it has turned into a Holy Spirit outpouring that has only grown larger and larger each day with visitors pouring in from around the U.S. and the world. It is being compared to the culture-changing revival at the same college in 1970, but there’s something different this time. The new non-stop prayer and worship awakening has had social media as a powerful ally that wasn’t available in previous historic campus renewals. The impact has been so powerful that this ongoing Spirit-led event has even drawn the attention of major media outlets. But it’s also drawing a wider worldwide audience, particularly of young people, to witness what is happening through firsthand accounts, photographs, and videos with many of these posts going viral.
Numerous reports reveal the Holy Spirit has ignited several other flames that are now burning brightly at other universities and colleges around the country, bypassing denominational boundaries. It first spread to Lee University, a school with Pentecostal roots in Tennessee. But students at Baptist schools like Cedarville and Samford Universities have also been experiencing the power of God. Over the weekend, there were reports the Holy Spirit-led meetings were still going strong at Samford, a private Christian school located on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. Students are in Reid Chapel (Samford University) in complete awe of God. Praying, worshipping, reading Scripture, according to eyewitnesses. Meanwhile, early reports are coming in that students at Baylor University are also seeking God for a move of His Spirit.
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Blogs Index 1: Revivals (briefer than Revivals Index)
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Blogs Index 3: Miracles (supernatural events)
Blogs Index 4: Devotional (including Testimonies)
Blogs index 5: Church (Christianity in action)
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Fresh Outpouring at Asbury University
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See also
The Life of Jesus – Blog
The Life of Jesus – PDF eBook
Amazon link – paperback, hardcover, Kindle
Renewal Journal – a chronicle of renewal and revival:
www.renewaljournal.com
The Life of Jesus in Pakistani Punjabi
The Life of Jesus – in Pakistani Punjabi
History’s Great Love Story
Share good news – Share this and any page freely. Over 100,000 views of blogs annually.
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Renewal Journal – a chronicle of renewal and revival: www.renewaljournal.com
Permissions: You can reproduce this and any Renewal Journal resource freely, including in print.
The Life Of Jesus in Pakistani Punjabi – PDF
The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – English Blog
The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – PDF – English
Renewal Journal and WestBow Press versions
Blog: The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – English
The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – PDF – English
Now available from the Renewal Journal and from WestBow Press (a division of Zondervan and Thoms Nelson)
Translator: Nabeel Sharoon
Nabeel Sharoon in Pakistan has translated my book The Life of Jesus into 5 languages:
Hindi, Indian Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi, & Pakistani Punjabi. Free PDFs are on this page, including links to the English versions and PDFs.
See The Life of Jesus – in 6 languages for more information about Nabeel Sharoon
Other Translations
Hindi
The Life of Jesus in English and Hindi – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Hindi & English Headings – free PDF
Indian Punjabi
The Life of Jesus in English & Indian Punjabi – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Indian Punjabi & English Headings – PDF
Urdu
The Life of Jesus in English and Urdu – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Urdu & English Headings – PDF
Sindhi
The Life of Jesus in English & Sindhi – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Sindhi & English Headings – PDF
Pakistani Punjabi
The Life of Jesus in Pakistani Punjabi – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Pakistani Punjabi & English Headings– PDF
The Life of Jesus in Hindi, Indian Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi, & Pakistani Punjabi.
The Story of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – Blog in English
The Life of Jesus in English and Hindi – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Hindi & English Headings – PDF
The Life of Jesus in Indian Punjabi – Blog
The Life Of Jesus in Indian Punjabi & English Headings – PDF
The Life of Jesus in English and Urdu – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Urdu & English Headings – PDF
The Life of Jesus in English & Sindhi – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Sindhi & English Headings – PDF
The Life of Jesus in Pakistani Punjabi – Blog
The Life of Jesus in Pakistani Punjabi & English Headings– PDF
You can freely reproduce, translate, and print these PDF books
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Renewal Journal – a chronicle of renewal and revival: www.renewaljournal.com
Geoff Waugh – founding editor of the Renewal Journal
This book is available in from WestBow Press, a division of Zondervan with this cover:
The Life of Jesus – Blog
WestBow Press version – The Life of Jesus
The Life of Jesus – WestBow Press – PDF
Amazon link – paperback, hardcover, Kindle
Also available as:
* This is a very informative, amazing, and powerful book. Thanks to the author for investing hours of research, expressed with his masterful command of language. ~ Alex Johnson (5-stars)
* Be enriched. A most helpful telling of the life of Jesus using the biblical text and adding some background and charts. Anyone using this book will be enriched. ~ Rev Dr John Olley (Amazon 5-stars)
* Geoff Waugh has written a very helpful devotional book about the Saviour of the world who is also the loving presence in believers. Having known Geoff for over sixty years I can testify that every word written proceeds from his own heart of love for Jesus and for all God’s children. Geoff has avoided trying to manufacture some theory or new twist to make the book more colourful. He has used Scripture as his main source and has been faithful to both the divinity and humanity of Jesus as expressed in the Gospels. His use of chronology for headings and the many sub-headings makes the book simpler to absorb, even for an enquirer or new believer. It reminds me a little of Leon Morris’s beautiful book The Lord from Heaven. I warmly commend this book. ~ Rev Dr Tony Cupit, Former Director of the Baptist World Alliance.
* The book is beautifully written and I have learned and understood a lot. I am recommending this book. ~ Kattie Mayson (Amazon 5-stars)
* I read your book last night. This is a great book. Thanks for writing this for all of us. ~ Nabeel Sharoon (Pakistan)
* Be enriched. A most helpful telling of the life of Jesus using the biblical text and adding some background and charts. Anyone using this book will be enriched. ~ Rev Dr John Olley (Amazon 5-stars)
* Geoff Waugh has written a very helpful devotional book about the Saviour of the world who is also the loving presence in believers. Having known Geoff for over sixty years I can testify that every word written proceeds from his own heart of love for Jesus and for all God’s children. Geoff has avoided trying to manufacture some theory or new twist to make the book more colourful. He has used Scripture as his main source and has been faithful to both the divinity and humanity of Jesus as expressed in the Gospels. His use of chronology for headings and the many sub-headings makes the book simpler to absorb, even for an enquirer or new believer. It reminds me a little of Leon Morris’s beautiful book The Lord from Heaven. I warmly commend this book. ~ Rev Dr Tony Cupit, Former Director of the Baptist World Alliance.
* The book is beautifully written and I have learned and understood a lot. I am recommending this book. ~ Kattie Mayson (Amazon 5-stars)
* I read your book last night. This is a great book. Thanks for writing this for all of us. ~ Nabeel Sharoon (Pakistan)
Facebook Links:
https://www.facebook.com/LifeofJesus.GeoffWaugh
https://www.facebook.com/HistorysGreatLoveStory
The Life of Jesus provides a brief overview of history’s great love story. It gives a summary of the birth and boyhood of Jesus and describes his ministry through three Passover Festivals.
The book includes a detailed chart of a chronology of Jesus’ life and ministry and examines why such a popular, loving, and compassionate young leader would encounter intense hostility and opposition causing his crucifixion.
The mystery and wonder deepen because his resurrection transformed his followers and millions of lives. We date our diaries and calendars from the time of his birth.
Contents
Preface [see below]
Introduction [see below]
1 Birth and Boyhood
2 Ministry Begins
3 First to Second Passover
4 Second to Third Passover
5 Passover to Pentecost
Conclusion
Discussion Questions [see below]
Appendix 1: Chronology Chart
Appendix 2: The Feast Days
Appendix 3: The Gospels
Appendix 4: Alternative Chronology
Appendix 5: The Shroud of Turin
Appendix 6: Publications
Model of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time
Preface
Why would such a good man who loved so profoundly and helped so many people be killed? Why did he provoke opposition?
If God walked among us in the person of his Son, why would people want to kill him? Why did so many vehemently oppose him?
That puzzled me as a boy. It still does.
The greatest love story the world has ever seen led to the excruciating death of crucifixion.
Many people have given their lives for other people as soldiers do in war. They die for others, defending home and country. But Jesus’ death was different. God’s Son chose to die for us because of his immense love for us. He took our place. His death gives us life. He is the perfect, sinless, eternal sacrifice for us. His blood cleanses us from all our sin as we trust in him. We are forgiven.
But why did so many good people, good religious people, hate him? That puzzled and fascinated me, so I explore that mystery in this book. I wanted to write a summary overview that people of all ages could read.
I always believed in Jesus. Even as a small boy I loved to hear and then read stories about him. He was so unique, so different. I believed his story as a boy and trusted in him. I still do and I hope you do too.
Jesus did what was good. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, set people free from addictions and evil, performed miracles, and even raised dead people. Huge crowds followed him and wanted him to be their king.
Now billions follow him, captivated by his love, the greatest love story of all. You can do that also. I invite you to simply pray something like this: Thank you Lord for all you’ve done. Forgive me for any wrong in my life. I trust in you and give my life to you.
Introduction
The year on our calendar or diary reminds us of when Jesus was born, approximately. We count the years from his arrival. So when you look at your diary or calendar you can be reminded again of Jesus.
They called him Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus) of Nazareth, the same name as Moses’ famous general who led God’s people into their Promised Land. Yeshua means God saves, or God is salvation.
That name comes to us in English through many translations from Yeshua or Y’shua in Hebrew and Aramaic, then translated into Iesous in Greek, then to IESVS in Latin and later as IESUS as printed in the first edition of the King James Bible in 1611. Later that century ‘J’ replaced the ‘I’ so the English name became Jesu (vocative) and Jesus (nominative) but eventually just Jesus in English. Other languages have translations such as Jesu, Yesu, and Isa.
English translations of the Bible used the name Jesus for Joshua/Jesus of Nazareth, and the name Joshua for others with that same name.[1] So in English, the name Jesus became unique and sacred for Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. The angel Gabriel announced his name before his birth to both Mary his mother and to Joseph who married Mary.[2] Gabriel explained that Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus) had that name because he would save his people from their sins.
The great love story had begun. Jesus came to save us and give us eternal life.
His followers recorded the story of his life and his love in the good news of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The rest of the New Testament explores the mystery and wonder of that amazing life and love.
Scholars have a bewildering array of theories about the Bible and about who wrote what, and when, and where, and why. I’m content to run with traditional explanations that have been used throughout most of history.
Jesus’ unique and wonderful life, his brutal death for us, and his powerful resurrection, all reveal his and God’s eternal love for us all. You could pause and thank him right now even as you read this.
John’s Gospel emphasizes God’s eternal love revealed in Jesus. It includes the most famous passage in the Bible:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16-17, NKJV).
That love, powerfully shown on the cross, has transformed billions of lives, restoring believers to an intimate and eternal relationship with God and with others.
Three physical metaphors help me to be constantly aware of, and grateful for, God’s presence with us always:
(1) Light surrounds you. By it you can read this. The sun always shines, even when it’s hidden from us. Light shines around us though we may be unaware of it. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. We can live in his light.
(2) Blood pumps through your body right now, cleansing and healing. We may be unaware of it until reactions like alarm alert us to our beating heart. Jesus’ blood cleanses from all sin, always. We can trust him for he is with us.
(3) We may breathe without being aware of it, or we can be aware and take deep breaths, as you may have done just now! Breath purifies our lungs and body. God is Spirit and like breath or fresh breeze, he can purify us.
May the light of God’s love breathe life into you right now.
We’ve been made in God’s image to have an eternal, loving relationship with him that even transcends death. We can know and experience God’s unconditional love no matter how far we stray from him. Those who stray most are often the most grateful for his forgiveness and love. We all stray in many ways and we all need forgiveness and we can and should be truly grateful.
God knows and loves us as we are. That makes praying or talking to him easy because he already knows our failures and struggles and welcomes us just as we are. The more honestly we come to him the more he can transform us.
If we have trouble believing we can at least say, “God, if you’re there, help me.”
Some thoughts may get in the way when we pray or want to talk to God. Just give him those thoughts. He already knows all about it and loves us as we are.
If we reject God’s love and mercy by ignoring him and going our own way, we condemn ourselves to eternal darkness away from his light and love.
If we accept his love and forgiveness by believing in him, by trusting him, he gives us life, his eternal life. That makes us new. We are transformed.
Vast numbers of people worldwide of all faiths, and of none, have prayed the prayer in the popular hymn by Charlotte Elliot, ‘Just as I am’ which includes these adapted verses:
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Your blood was shed for me
And that You bid me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fighting and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
God welcomes us and we can all pray that prayer. A title for Jesus, as in that song, is the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away our sin.
The Life of Jesus is a vast topic with millions of books written about it. I hope my small contribution gives you a helpful overview. I quote from the New Revised Standard Version unless indicated otherwise, and include many footnotes that you can explore to discover more.
Best of all, of course, are the inspired Gospels now in over 700 different languages in Bible translations and a further 3,500 languages have Bible portions, especially the Gospels. Read and respond to those Gospels.
[1] Iesous (Yeshua) is translated as Joshua in these verses: Luke 3:29; Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8.
[2] Luke 1:31; Matthew 1:21.
Start of Chapter 1
It began at the beginning, this great love story, for “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”[1]
Why did he do that? For us.
He did it for you. He loved you so much he created you to know and enjoy him now as you read this, and forever. He offers you intimate, infinite love. He created you through the wondrous union of your parents’ ecstasy.
He made the earth for us to inhabit and care for and rule. He made the heavens (plural) for us to inherit, the physical firmament and also the realms of vast, eternal glory prepared especially for us.[2]
He created us free to accept or reject his astounding love. Sadly we went our own way. We all, like sheep, went astray. We all turned to our own way. So God laid on his Servant, his Son, all our iniquity.[3] God saves us through his Son in their great love for us all. You could pause and thank him now as you read this.
In the beginning, Adam and Eve enjoyed intimate, unashamed relationship with God and each other. Then, like us, they believed lies and went their own way, losing Paradise. But God still blessed and sustained them and their descendants who chose to love him and live for him. Sadly only a few did.
Noah and his family loved and obeyed God and he rescued them from the great flood. People ridiculed him for obeying God and building a huge boat on dry ground – not even in a dry dock. The rainbow became the sign of God’s covenant to Noah and his descendants including us.
Abram, a wealthy sheik from the wide fertile Tigris and Euphrates valleys in western Asia, north-west of the Arabian Peninsula (now Iraq), loved and obeyed God. Renamed Abraham (God’s friend) he journeyed to the Promised Land, now called Israel, from the name given to his grandson who wrestled with an angel or with the Lord.[4] Circumcision became the covenant sign for them and for their descendants through whom God would provide his salvation for us all.
Abraham and his descendants walked that verdant Promised Land, as did Jesus and his followers. So did our family for a month in December-January, 1981-82.[5]
[1] Genesis 1:1.
[2] John 14:1-6; 1 Corinthians 2:9.
[3] Isaiah 53:6. See Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the fourth Servant Song, along with Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-7.
[4] Genesis 17:5; 32:28; 35:9-10.
[5] See Exploring Israel in General Books and Biography on renewaljournal.com
Conclusion
The life of Jesus is history’s great love story. The overview in this brief book points you to the great good news of who Jesus is and what he did. That story is told best in the Bible, God’s inspired word.
I hope this brief commentary points you again to that God-breathed living word. It gave me fresh insights as I researched the harmonized story of these gospels.
Many writers discuss the popular five love languages: affirmation, service, gifts, time, and touch. Jesus demonstrated all these in various ways.
He affirmed and admired faith, especially faith in him for healing and help.
He served daily and showed it dramatically by washing his disciples’ feet.
He gave his life for us and ultimately he gives eternal life to all who believe.
His three years of quality time with his followers prepared them to serve.
His touch brought physical and spiritual healing and freedom to multitudes.
I love the way John summed up the reason for writing his Gospel: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)
That is my prayer for you, my reader. Here is my echoing sonnet, penned over fifty years ago.
Sin stalks the soul, and permeates the whole
Of life lived here where we, while bound by fear,
Hunt far and near for freedom to appear
From pole to pole with our minds in control.
That worthy goal seems mockery. Sin stole
Our freedom dear, left pain and woe to sear
Each life, a mere heartache, or sob, or tear,
Like a lost mole, blind, dirty in its hole.
God’s love stepped in to fight and conquer sin
Through Christ who bled and died and rose as Head
Supreme of all who claim Him Lord. Our fall,
Clamour and din may end in Him. We win
Release from dread, freedom, life from the dead,
Unbound from gall, in answer to His call.
Discussion Questions (for use in groups)
Chapter 1: Birth and Boyhood
1. What is one of your favourite Christmas carols and why?
2. What surprises you most about the Christmas story?
3. What challenges you about the boyhood and youth of Jesus?
What would you like people to pray about for you?
Chapter 2: Ministry Begins
1. Why do you think Jesus’ public ministry began after his baptism?
2. What puzzles you most about Jesus’ ministry? (eg casting out spirits)
3. What challenges you about being a disciple of Jesus?
What prayer would you appreciate receiving?
Chapter 3: First to Second Passovers
1. Why do you think John 3:16 is so popular and well known?
2. Who can you identify with in Jesus’ early ministry (eg Nicodemus, Samaritan woman, disciples, religious leaders)
3. What do you think challenged Jesus’ disciples?
What prayer would encourage you just now?
Chapter 4: Second to Third Passovers
1. What impresses you most about Jesus?
2. What challenges you most about Jesus?
3. What surprises you most about Jesus?
What prayer would help you just now?
Chapter 5: Passover to Pentecost
1. What shocks you most about the crucifixion?
2. What helps or challenges you about Jesus’ death and resurrection?
3. What interests you most about the Holy Spirit?
What prayer support would you like now?
Map in the book
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(7) The Lion of Judah – Blog
The Lion of Judah – PDF
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* Looking for a great book to help you meditate on the wonder of Jesus in all his richness and grandeur and love? Geoff Waugh has helpfully and thoughtfully brought together wide-ranging biblical passages… Read this book prayerfully and you will not be the same! ~ John Olley.
* This book is full of information, biblical information. I have learned so much from it … If you want to learn more from the Bible, this is the book to read. ~ A. Aldridge
*
Crucified and Risen – Blog
Crucified & Risen – PDF
The Easter Story
Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection – Blog
Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection – PDF
3 books in 1
Christian Passover Service – Blog
Christian Passover Service – PDF
A Retelling of the Last Supper
RISEN: long version – Blog
Risen! –_PDF
12 resurrection appearances
Mysterious Month – Blog
Mysterious Month – PDF
Jesus’ resurrection appearances & our month in Israel
Kingdom Life in The Gospels – Blog
Kingdom Life in The Gospels – PDF
4 books in 1
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The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story
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Christians transforming ecology
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Perhaps it’s a responsibility for Europe to address the ‘push-factors’ of forced-migration, Gnacadja suggests. “Drylands are not marginal regions, they represent one third of the world’s land mass and population, nearly half of the world’s food production, half the world’s livestock and are home to the largest diversity of mammals.”
American revival reports – 2023
American revival reports – 2023
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American revival reports – 2023
Whole Native American Communities touched by “Fire of the Holy Spirit” experience powerful revival
Mark Martin : Jan 31, 2023 CBN News
One southeast Montana tribe passed a 2013 legislative resolution “to honor God for His great blessings upon the Crow Tribe and to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of the Crow Indian Reservation.” They also fly the flag of Israel next to the sign.
[CBN News] – In some respects, the plight of Native Americans hasn’t changed. They face troubling circumstances with issues ranging from substance abuse to a massive COVID-19 impact, to an alarming number of missing and murdered women. (screengrab Image)
“There’s a lot of broken areas, broken communities, and our communities are rampant with drugs,” Crow Tribe member Donna Stands-Over-Bull told CBN News.
God is Moving
Yet, in the midst of the suffering, Stands-Over-Bull and her husband Russell say God is on the move.
“We can feel and sense the rumblings of revival, and when I say revival I mean people’s hearts turning back to God,” she shared.
“We’ve been having healing revivals over the online Church. God’s been healing people through social media. People are giving their hearts to the Lord,” explained Russell Stands-Over-Bull.
The senior pastors of Arrow Creek TV e-church said God called them to start the online fellowship in 2018.
“We couldn’t even comprehend what that would look like, but God put it on our hearts, and we began to establish Arrow Creek TV,” Russell told CBN News. “And Millennials started coming to the church, and I’m so proud of my congregation. We’ve got the best. We’ve got five continents represented.”
“We probably represent the biggest church in the Indian community throughout the U.S.,” he continued.
Deep Revival Roots
Russell said the Pentecostal roots of revival run deep in his family and the Crow Nation. His mother, Sharon Stands-Over-Bull, is also a pastor and Crow elder. She recalled how in 1906, her grandmother attended the Azusa Street Revival in California.
“While they were there, they were privileged to receive the Holy Spirit, and they came back to the Crow Reservation, proclaiming that God is Lord over the Crow Reservation,” Sharon told CBN News.
“Whole communities were touched by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the Crows eventually became known throughout Indian Country as the center for Pentecost,” explained Russell. “This was the capital for Pentecost, and still is considered that by many neighboring tribes.”
‘Jesus Christ is Lord’
Leaders of the Crow Tribe have even put up a sign which boldly proclaims that “Jesus Christ is Lord on the Crow Nation”. It also has a Scripture that reads, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.” – Psalm 33:12 KJV
In addition, the southeast Montana tribe passed a 2013 legislative resolution “to honor God for His great blessings upon the Crow Tribe and to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of the Crow Indian Reservation.” They also fly the flag of Israel next to the sign.
“The Scripture says that as we stand with Israel, we are a blessed nation, so we held that,” Sharon Stands-Over-Bull said. “And so today, there are ministries throughout the reservation, and people have been saved and healed and shouting the victory.”
“So, I’m just so glad that in my lifetime, I got to be a part of it, and it’s still ongoing,” she added.
‘Please Save Me’
On Montana’s Blackfeet Reservation, Windy Cross Guns shared how God delivered her of meth addiction.
“I had a little granddaughter born. One day my house got busted. It was surrounded by cops, and I stood by, and I watched,” she said. “I didn’t care about anything except for the drugs in my hands.”
“And just once, I turned around and looked and remembered that little baby was in there, and that was the beginning of me thinking of my future, my family, my community, and what I wanted to do,” she continued.
“And basically, I just looked to the sky and asked God to help me – if He was real, please save me,” Windy shared.
Cross Guns said she, too, and her family is experiencing a revival.
“Them, and friends and fellow addicts in this community have seen my recovery, and they believe what I believe in now. I mean they saw it,” she explained. “My whole family converted; they’re now Pentecostal Christians, too.”
Sustaining Revival
Patrick Matt, Jr., is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation in western Montana. A preacher’s kid, he calls himself a product of a 20th-century Pentecostal Christian movement.
“If I can shine as a light to my people, to say God is doing something with me. God is changing me. God is doing mighty things in my life, in my family’s life, He can do it for you!” he exclaimed. “Then, amen! Amen and amen.”
Russell Stands-Over-Bull said the goal now is teaching his Church to “sustain revival” through fasting and prayer.
“So, when we host the Presence of God, Heaven comes down, and there’s no sickness in Heaven. There’s no poverty in Heaven. There’s no lack in Heaven,” he explained. “So, when we invite the Kingdom of God, that’s how we sustain revival, and that’s our quest, is to keep this revival fire going.” Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here
https://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=36849
Revival fire continues at rural Kentucky church
For over 88 nights in a row, a small country church in Kentucky has been the site of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as many are being saved, baptized and set free from addictions and bondages.
The North Main Community Church in Heidrick has been packed with roughly 300 hungry people every night, which has left Pastor Scott Phipps searching for ways to expand their facility. The town of Heidrick has a population of about one thousand, according to Pastor Phipps.
“The aisles are full every night,” Pastor Phipps told God Reports. “It was the end of the 54th night when I really realized things had changed. Last night you could also feel a shift come in the church. A man was praying for healing. We were praying for him, and I went numb all over. You could feel the power of God in such a way and even the lead evangelist looked at me at the same time.”
Pastor Phipps and his wife, Tammie, were saved out of drug addiction 29 years ago. “I was deep in drug addiction and trafficking in drugs and had a store with a 24-hour game room and a lot of other illegal activities going on,” he recalled.
“A backslidden preacher come in one night and lost all his money in one of the poker machines,” he says. Somehow, Scott and Tammie ended up with the preacher’s rusting Chrysler LeBaron convertible, leaking through the roof. They found a rain-soaked Bible in the back of the car.
“My wife was drying the Bible out and she started reading it,” he reports. The power of the Word and the Spirit grabbed Tammie’s heart and she visited a church nearby. “She went one night and God delivered her of almost seven years of opiate addiction and saved her.”
Phipps was shocked when Tammie returned from the church and said, “Honey, God saved me. I don’t want to do drugs anymore, and I love you now.”
He didn’t like the change. “I got upset over it. She wouldn’t get high on drugs. I mean, that was our life and I thought, Well, I’ve always been the leader in her life; she’d been with me since she was 13.”
After a few sleepless nights, Phipps made his way to a church, fell to his knees at the altar, and was born again. “I realized I was blind. Looking back now, I didn’t know how miserable I was. You’ve got to realize that me and my wife had no experience in church. We wasn’t raised in Christian homes. Her dad was shot and killed when she was three in a bar that got robbed. I was introduced to drugs by my own father. And so, we were the opposite of being raised in a Christian home.”
They left their old life behind and went to Lexington, temporarily homeless, living in a Super Eight motel with their twin, one-year-old boys.
After he found work, they lived in Lexington for two years, then returned home and felt called by God to plant a church. “It had one his and hers outhouse, a potbelly stove in it for heat, and held about 40.”
“We planted the church in 1998, which wasn’t long after we found the Lord. I knew nothing…I had flashcards many times, with a story you hold up and you read them off the back. I knew nothing about preaching.”
After several years, they moved into their present location. They also run one of the area’s largest addiction recovery centers, Hope City and Redemption Road Recovery,
“It’s a dark hour and a lot of people are just lost,” he observes. The area is inundated with drugs, mainly cheap Methamphetamine and heroin. “Now an ounce of meth is $200. People are trading their lives for it.”
Many filling the church are escaping the emptiness of drugs. “Eighty percent of our church is people coming out of addiction like us and then other people that just didn’t know a lot about church, and others who lost that first love,” he says.
“I’ve been blessed with a group of people that truly love much because they’ve been forgiven much. They love much, and they feel they owe their life to Christ. The world says there’s no hope for people like this, there’s nothing for them. People are just coming from everywhere. A lot of them say they’ve been waiting for this.
“Only God can take the ashes of a life and make something beautiful out of it. Only God can do that.”
https://www.godreports.com/2023/01/revival-fire-continues-at-rural-kentucky-church/
Fresh Outpouring at Asbury University
Livestream from Asbury University – February 2023
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Fresh Outpouring at Asbury University
A ‘surprising work of God’ in Asbury chapel
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Revival reported at Asbury University in Kentucky 50 years to the month after the previous outpouring.
Kim Roberts : Feb 10, 2023 Ministry Watch
“I just received word that what started yesterday at Asbury University has now also spread to Ohio Christian University! Students started praying and worshipping in chapel yesterday at 11 am and it’s continued! Asbury cancelled classes today and there are still dozens of students in the chapel leading non-stop prayer and worship! Those who remember will tell of the revival that broke out there in 1970 exactly to the week of what is happening now! There is a hunger in America for the move of the Holy Ghost with a tangible manifest presence of God!”
(Kentucky) — [MinistryWatch.com] Reports from Asbury University say that a revival has broken out in the chapel of the small Christian college campus in Kentucky. (Image: Facebook-Matt Barnes)
On the morning of February 8, a seemingly normal chapel service took place at the campus’ Hughes Auditorium. It included a message about confession and repentance, according to reports. After the service was over, a group of students stayed behind to continue worshiping. Then more joined them.
According to reports being shared on social media, students have been in the chapel for over 24 hours reading Scripture, praying, singing, and sharing personal testimonies.
“God began pouring out his love among the students in a profound way. The students continued praying and worshiping even though chapel had concluded,” Asbury Theological Seminary Vice President of Formation Matt Barnes wrote on Facebook. (Screengrab image: Facebook-Matt Barnes)
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The Life of Jesus – in Sindhi
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History’s Great Love Story
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Nabeel Sharoon in Pakistan has translated my book The Life of Jesus into 5 languages:
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See The Life of Jesus – in 6 languages for more information about Nabeel Sharoon
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The Life of Jesus in Hindi, Indian Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi, & Pakistani Punjabi.
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* This is a very informative, amazing, and powerful book. Thanks to the author for investing hours of research, expressed with his masterful command of language. ~ Alex Johnson (5-stars)
* Be enriched. A most helpful telling of the life of Jesus using the biblical text and adding some background and charts. Anyone using this book will be enriched. ~ Rev Dr John Olley (Amazon 5-stars)
* Geoff Waugh has written a very helpful devotional book about the Saviour of the world who is also the loving presence in believers. Having known Geoff for over sixty years I can testify that every word written proceeds from his own heart of love for Jesus and for all God’s children. Geoff has avoided trying to manufacture some theory or new twist to make the book more colourful. He has used Scripture as his main source and has been faithful to both the divinity and humanity of Jesus as expressed in the Gospels. His use of chronology for headings and the many sub-headings makes the book simpler to absorb, even for an enquirer or new believer. It reminds me a little of Leon Morris’s beautiful book The Lord from Heaven. I warmly commend this book. ~ Rev Dr Tony Cupit, Former Director of the Baptist World Alliance.
* The book is beautifully written and I have learned and understood a lot. I am recommending this book. ~ Kattie Mayson (Amazon 5-stars)
* I read your book last night. This is a great book. Thanks for writing this for all of us. ~ Nabeel Sharoon (Pakistan)
* Be enriched. A most helpful telling of the life of Jesus using the biblical text and adding some background and charts. Anyone using this book will be enriched. ~ Rev Dr John Olley (Amazon 5-stars)
* Geoff Waugh has written a very helpful devotional book about the Saviour of the world who is also the loving presence in believers. Having known Geoff for over sixty years I can testify that every word written proceeds from his own heart of love for Jesus and for all God’s children. Geoff has avoided trying to manufacture some theory or new twist to make the book more colourful. He has used Scripture as his main source and has been faithful to both the divinity and humanity of Jesus as expressed in the Gospels. His use of chronology for headings and the many sub-headings makes the book simpler to absorb, even for an enquirer or new believer. It reminds me a little of Leon Morris’s beautiful book The Lord from Heaven. I warmly commend this book. ~ Rev Dr Tony Cupit, Former Director of the Baptist World Alliance.
* The book is beautifully written and I have learned and understood a lot. I am recommending this book. ~ Kattie Mayson (Amazon 5-stars)
* I read your book last night. This is a great book. Thanks for writing this for all of us. ~ Nabeel Sharoon (Pakistan)
Facebook Links:
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The Life of Jesus provides a brief overview of history’s great love story. It gives a summary of the birth and boyhood of Jesus and describes his ministry through three Passover Festivals.
The book includes a detailed chart of a chronology of Jesus’ life and ministry and examines why such a popular, loving, and compassionate young leader would encounter intense hostility and opposition causing his crucifixion.
The mystery and wonder deepen because his resurrection transformed his followers and millions of lives. We date our diaries and calendars from the time of his birth.
Contents
Preface [see below]
Introduction [see below]
1 Birth and Boyhood
2 Ministry Begins
3 First to Second Passover
4 Second to Third Passover
5 Passover to Pentecost
Conclusion
Discussion Questions [see below]
Appendix 1: Chronology Chart
Appendix 2: The Feast Days
Appendix 3: The Gospels
Appendix 4: Alternative Chronology
Appendix 5: The Shroud of Turin
Appendix 6: Publications
Model of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time
Preface
Why would such a good man who loved so profoundly and helped so many people be killed? Why did he provoke opposition?
If God walked among us in the person of his Son, why would people want to kill him? Why did so many vehemently oppose him?
That puzzled me as a boy. It still does.
The greatest love story the world has ever seen led to the excruciating death of crucifixion.
Many people have given their lives for other people as soldiers do in war. They die for others, defending home and country. But Jesus’ death was different. God’s Son chose to die for us because of his immense love for us. He took our place. His death gives us life. He is the perfect, sinless, eternal sacrifice for us. His blood cleanses us from all our sin as we trust in him. We are forgiven.
But why did so many good people, good religious people, hate him? That puzzled and fascinated me, so I explore that mystery in this book. I wanted to write a summary overview that people of all ages could read.
I always believed in Jesus. Even as a small boy I loved to hear and then read stories about him. He was so unique, so different. I believed his story as a boy and trusted in him. I still do and I hope you do too.
Jesus did what was good. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, set people free from addictions and evil, performed miracles, and even raised dead people. Huge crowds followed him and wanted him to be their king.
Now billions follow him, captivated by his love, the greatest love story of all. You can do that also. I invite you to simply pray something like this: Thank you Lord for all you’ve done. Forgive me for any wrong in my life. I trust in you and give my life to you.
Introduction
The year on our calendar or diary reminds us of when Jesus was born, approximately. We count the years from his arrival. So when you look at your diary or calendar you can be reminded again of Jesus.
They called him Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus) of Nazareth, the same name as Moses’ famous general who led God’s people into their Promised Land. Yeshua means God saves, or God is salvation.
That name comes to us in English through many translations from Yeshua or Y’shua in Hebrew and Aramaic, then translated into Iesous in Greek, then to IESVS in Latin and later as IESUS as printed in the first edition of the King James Bible in 1611. Later that century ‘J’ replaced the ‘I’ so the English name became Jesu (vocative) and Jesus (nominative) but eventually just Jesus in English. Other languages have translations such as Jesu, Yesu, and Isa.
English translations of the Bible used the name Jesus for Joshua/Jesus of Nazareth, and the name Joshua for others with that same name.[1] So in English, the name Jesus became unique and sacred for Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. The angel Gabriel announced his name before his birth to both Mary his mother and to Joseph who married Mary.[2] Gabriel explained that Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus) had that name because he would save his people from their sins.
The great love story had begun. Jesus came to save us and give us eternal life.
His followers recorded that story of his life and his love in the good news of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The rest of the New Testament explores the mystery and wonder of that amazing life and love.
Scholars have a bewildering array of theories about the Bible and about who wrote what, and when, and where, and why. I’m content to run with traditional explanations that have been used throughout most of history.
Jesus’ unique and wonderful life, his brutal death for us, and his powerful resurrection, all reveal his and God’s eternal love for us all. You could pause and thank him right now even as you read this.
John’s Gospel emphasizes God’s eternal love revealed in Jesus. It includes the most famous passage in the Bible:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16-17, NKJV).
That love, powerfully shown on the cross, has transformed billions of lives, restoring believers to an intimate and eternal relationship with God and with others.
Three physical metaphors help me to be constantly aware of, and grateful for, God’s presence with us always:
(1) Light surrounds you. By it you can read this. The sun always shines, even when it’s hidden from us. Light shines around us though we may be unaware of it. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. We can live in his light.
(2) Blood pumps through your body right now, cleansing and healing. We may be unaware of it until reactions like alarm alert us to our beating heart. Jesus’ blood cleanses from all sin, always. We can trust him for he is with us.
(3) We may breathe without being aware of it, or we can be aware and take deep breaths, as you may have done just now! Breath purifies our lungs and body. God is Spirit and like breath or fresh breeze, he can purify us.
May the light of God’s love breathe life in you right now.
We’ve been made in God’s image to have an eternal, loving relationship with him that even transcends death. We can know and experience God’s unconditional love no matter how far we stray from him. Those who stray most are often the most grateful for his forgiveness and love. We all stray in many ways and we all need forgiveness and we can and should be truly grateful.
God knows and loves us as we are. That makes praying or talking to him easy because he already knows our failures and struggles and welcomes us just as we are. The more honestly we come to him the more he can transform us.
If we have trouble believing we can at least say, “God, if you’re there, help me.”
Some thoughts may get in the way when we pray or want to talk to God. Just give him those thoughts. He already knows all about it and loves us as we are.
If we reject God’s love and mercy by ignoring him and going our own way, we condemn ourselves to eternal darkness away from his light and love.
If we accept his love and forgiveness by believing in him, by trusting him, he gives us life, his eternal life. That makes us new. We are transformed.
Vast numbers of people worldwide of all faiths, and of none, have prayed the prayer in the popular hymn by Charlotte Elliot, ‘Just as I am’ which includes these adapted verses:
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Your blood was shed for me
And that You bid me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fighting and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
God welcomes us and we can all pray that prayer. A title for Jesus, as in that song, is the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away our sin.
The Life of Jesus is a vast topic with millions of books written about it. I hope my small contribution gives you a helpful overview. I quote from the New Revised Standard Version unless indicated otherwise, and include many footnotes that you can explore to discover more.
Best of all, of course, are the inspired Gospels now in over 700 different languages in Bible translations and a further 3,500 languages have Bible portions, especially the Gospels. Read and respond to those Gospels.
[1] Iesous (Yeshua) is translated as Joshua in these verses: Luke 3:29; Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8.
[2] Luke 1:31; Matthew 1:21.
Start of Chapter 1
It began at the beginning, this great love story, for “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”[1]
Why did he do that? For us.
He did it for you. He loved you so much he created you to know and enjoy him now as you read this, and forever. He offers you intimate, infinite love. He created you through the wondrous union of your parents’ ecstasy.
He made the earth for us to inhabit and care for and rule. He made the heavens (plural) for us to inherit, the physical firmament and also the realms of vast, eternal glory prepared especially for us.[2]
He created us free to accept or reject his astounding love. Sadly we went our own way. We all, like sheep, went astray. We all turned to our own way. So God laid on his Servant, his Son, all our iniquity.[3] God saves us through his Son in their great love for us all. You could pause and thank him now as you read this.
In the beginning, Adam and Eve enjoyed intimate, unashamed relationship with God and each other. Then, like us, they believed lies and went their own way, losing Paradise. But God still blessed and sustained them and their descendants who chose to love him and live for him. Sadly only a few did.
Noah and his family loved and obeyed God and he rescued them from the great flood. People ridiculed him for obeying God and building a huge boat on dry ground – not even in a dry dock. The rainbow became the sign of God’s covenant to Noah and his descendants including us.
Abram, a wealthy sheik from the wide fertile Tigris and Euphrates valleys in western Asia, north-west of the Arabian Peninsula (now Iraq), loved and obeyed God. Renamed Abraham (God’s friend) he journeyed to the Promised Land, now called Israel, from the name given to his grandson who wrestled with an angel or with the Lord.[4] Circumcision became the covenant sign for them and for their descendants through whom God would provide his salvation for us all.
Abraham and his descendants walked that verdant Promised Land, as did Jesus and his followers. So did our family for a month in December-January, 1981-82.[5]
[1] Genesis 1:1.
[2] John 14:1-6; 1 Corinthians 2:9.
[3] Isaiah 53:6. See Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the fourth Servant Song, along with Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-7.
[4] Genesis 17:5; 32:28; 35:9-10.
[5] See Exploring Israel in General Books and Biography on renewaljournal.com
Conclusion
The life of Jesus is history’s great love story. The overview in this brief book points you to the great good news of who Jesus is and what he did. That story is told best in the Bible, God’s inspired word.
I hope this brief commentary points you again to that God-breathed living word. It gave me fresh insights as I researched the harmonized story of these gospels.
Many writers discuss the popular five love languages: affirmation, service, gifts, time, and touch. Jesus demonstrated all these in various ways.
He affirmed and admired faith, especially faith in him for healing and help.
He served daily and showed it dramatically by washing his disciples’ feet.
He gave his life for us and ultimately he gives eternal life to all who believe.
His three years of quality time with his followers prepared them to serve.
His touch brought physical and spiritual healing and freedom to multitudes.
I love the way John summed up the reason for writing his Gospel: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)
That is my prayer for you, my reader. Here is my echoing sonnet, penned over fifty years ago.
Sin stalks the soul, and permeates the whole
Of life lived here where we, while bound by fear,
Hunt far and near for freedom to appear
From pole to pole with our minds in control.
That worthy goal seems mockery. Sin stole
Our freedom dear, left pain and woe to sear
Each life, a mere heartache, or sob, or tear,
Like a lost mole, blind, dirty in its hole.
God’s love stepped in to fight and conquer sin
Through Christ who bled and died and rose as Head
Supreme of all who claim Him Lord. Our fall,
Clamour and din may end in Him. We win
Release from dread, freedom, life from the dead,
Unbound from gall, in answer to His call.
Discussion Questions (for use in groups)
Chapter 1: Birth and Boyhood
1. What is one of your favourite Christmas carols and why?
2. What surprises you most about the Christmas story?
3. What challenges you about the boyhood and youth of Jesus?
What would you like people to pray about for you?
Chapter 2: Ministry Begins
1. Why do you think Jesus’ public ministry began after his baptism?
2. What puzzles you most about Jesus’ ministry? (eg casting out spirits)
3. What challenges you about being a disciple of Jesus?
What prayer would you appreciate receiving?
Chapter 3: First to Second Passovers
1. Why do you think John 3:16 is so popular and well known?
2. Who can you identify with in Jesus’ early ministry (eg Nicodemus, Samaritan woman, disciples, religious leaders)
3. What do you think challenged Jesus’ disciples?
What prayer would encourage you just now?
Chapter 4: Second to Third Passovers
1. What impresses you most about Jesus?
2. What challenges you most about Jesus?
3. What surprises you most about Jesus?
What prayer would help you just now?
Chapter 5: Passover to Pentecost
1. What shocks you most about the crucifixion?
2. What helps or challenges you about Jesus’ death and resurrection?
3. What interests you most about the Holy Spirit?
What prayer support would you like now?
Map in the book
See also Devotional Books
The Lion of Judah – Blog
The Lion of Judah – PDF
6 books in one volume
* Looking for a great book to help you meditate on the wonder of Jesus in all his richness and grandeur and love? Geoff Waugh has helpfully and thoughtfully brought together wide-ranging biblical passages… Read this book prayerfully and you will not be the same! ~ John Olley.
* This book is full of information, biblical information. I have learned so much from it … If you want to learn more from the Bible, this is the book to read. ~ A. Aldridge
*
Crucified and Risen – Blog
Crucified & Risen – PDF
The Easter Story
Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection – Blog
Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection – PDF
3 books in 1
Christian Passover Service – Blog
Christian Passover Service – PDF
A Retelling of the Last Supper
RISEN: long version – Blog
Risen! –_PDF
12 resurrection appearances
Mysterious Month – Blog
Mysterious Month – PDF
Jesus’ resurrection appearances & our month in Israel
Kingdom Life in The Gospels – Blog
Kingdom Life in The Gospels – PDF
4 books in 1
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The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story
Renewal Journal – a chronicle of renewal and revival:
www.renewaljournal.com
JESUS film now dubbed into 2000 languages
JESUS film now dubbed into 2000 languages
The JESUS Film has been seen by more than 10 million people around the world and remains the only film to be dubbed into more than 2,000 languages.
According to the Jesus Film Project website, more than 490 million people have come to faith in Jesus Christ after watching their films.
The JESUS film, the most translated film of all time, has now had its 2,000th translation from English into another language. A production of Jesus Film Project, the film has now been translated into Zo, a language spoken by approximately 65,000 people globally, including refugee and immigrant communities in 28 U.S. cities. Primarily spoken in the country of Myanmar, many speakers of the Zo language are scattered around the world. Recently, The JESUS Film marked its debut in Zo by hosting screening events for local Zo refugees and immigrants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Fort Wayne, Indiana; all of which have large Zo communities. Even though a Zo translation of the Bible was completed in 2019, it hasn’t been printed in Myanmar yet, and many of the Zo people are unable to read. This translation of “JESUS” provides a way for Zo speakers to have access to the story of Jesus in their language in a format they can understand.
“Being able to release ‘JESUS’ in Zo is the payoff of years of innovation and dedication,” said Josh Newell, executive director of Jesus Film Project. “The most dignified thing that we can do is share the story of Jesus in a way that people can understand, and in a way that doesn’t need any translation. We’re excited for what the future holds as we continue to translate this life-changing story.” First released in 1979, JESUS gives an authentic portrayal of one of the most influential figures in human history. Since then, Jesus Film Project has partnered with thousands of translators, recording teams, voice actors, and partners to make JESUS and other Jesus-centric videos available to everyone, everywhere, in every language. The JESUS Film has been seen by more than 10 million people around the world and remains the only film to be dubbed into more than 2,000 languages.
According to the Jesus Film Project website, more than 490 million people have come to faith in Jesus Christ after watching their films. Here’s just one example of one of the JESUS film’s testimonies. It’s about Saudi, who watched clips of the JESUS film on Facebook. Even though he was a follower of another religion, this led him to begin chatting with missionaries online who explained more to him about Christianity and salvation through Jesus Christ. Through this interaction and studying his Bible, Saudi declared Jesus as his personal Lord and Saviour.
Another example is Carla. Carla was going to become a suicide bomber. Before this happened, a man appeared to her in a dream, and told her, “I am the way, the truth and the life. Follow me and you will preach the gospel.” After having the dream, she asked a Christian about this dream and learned about Jesus. Soon after, the man appeared to her again in a dream, telling her to, “Go and share this good news with the regional commander.” This leader led a radical group responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Carla met with the commander who shared that he too had a dream in which Jesus told him he was on a path to destruction. “I must change my ways,” he told her. “Or I will be destroyed.” After they both believed in Christ, the commander wanted his officers to hear the good news. Carla connected with Jesus Film Project staff and received electronic tablets containing the film. Many officers and other members of this radical group gave up their lives as terrorists to follow Jesus after seeing the film.
For more information about JESUS and Jesus Film Project, visit www.jesusfilm.org You can also download the free app that contains a library of more than 200 full-length movies, mini-series, and short films.
Source: CBN News
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