Tarrying and Teaching by the Seaside

151:0.1 (1688.1)BY MARCH 10 all of the preaching and teaching groups had forgathered at Bethsaida. Thursday night and Friday many of them went out to fish, while on the Sabbath day they attended the synagogue to hear an aged Jew of Damascus discourse on the glory of father Abraham. Jesus spent most of this Sabbath day alone in the hills. That Saturday night the Master talked for more than an hour to the assembled groups on “The mission of adversity and the spiritual value of disappointment.” This was a memorable occasion, and his hearers never forgot the lesson he imparted.

151:0.2 (1688.2)Jesus had not fully recovered from the sorrow of his recent rejection at Nazareth; the apostles were aware of a peculiar sadness mingled with his usual cheerful demeanor. James and John were with him much of the time, Peter being more than occupied with the many responsibilities having to do with the welfare and direction of the new corps of evangelists. This time of waiting before starting for the Passover at Jerusalem, the women spent in visiting from house to house, teaching the gospel, and ministering to the sick in Capernaum and the surrounding cities and villages.

The Third Preaching Tour

150:0.1 (1678.1)ON SUNDAY evening, January 16, a.d. 29, Abner, with the apostles of John, reached Bethsaida and went into joint conference with Andrew and the apostles of Jesus the next day. Abner and his associates made their headquarters at Hebron and were in the habit of coming up to Bethsaida periodically for these conferences.

150:0.2 (1678.2)Among the many matters considered by this joint conference was the practice of anointing the sick with certain forms of oil in connection with prayers for healing. Again did Jesus decline to participate in their discussions or to express himself regarding their conclusions. The apostles of John had always used the anointing oil in their ministry to the sick and afflicted, and they sought to establish this as a uniform practice for both groups, but the apostles of Jesus refused to bind themselves by such a regulation.

150:0.3 (1678.3)On Tuesday, January 18, the twenty-four were joined by the tested evangelists, about seventy-five in number, at the Zebedee house in Bethsaida preparatory to being sent forth on the third preaching tour of Galilee. This third mission continued for a period of seven weeks.

150:0.4 (1678.4)The evangelists were sent out in groups of five, while Jesus and the twelve traveled together most of the time, the apostles going out two and two to baptize believers as occasion required. For a period of almost three weeks Abner and his associates also worked with the evangelistic groups, advising them and baptizing believers. They visited Magdala, Tiberias, Nazareth, and all the principal cities and villages of central and southern Galilee, all the places previously visited and many others. This was their last message to Galilee, except to the northern portions.

1. The Women’s Evangelistic Corps

150:1.1 (1678.5)Of all the daring things which Jesus did in connection with his earth career, the most amazing was his sudden announcement on the evening of January 16: “On the morrow we will set apart ten women for the ministering work of the kingdom.” At the beginning of the two weeks’ period during which the apostles and the evangelists were to be absent from Bethsaida on their furlough, Jesus requested David to summon his parents back to their home and to dispatch messengers calling to Bethsaida ten devout women who had served in the administration of the former encampment and the tented infirmary. These women had all listened to the instruction given the young evangelists, but it had never occurred to either themselves or their teachers that Jesus would dare to commission women to teach the gospel of the kingdom and minister to the sick. These ten women selected and commissioned by Jesus were: Susanna, the daughter of the former chazan of the Nazareth synagogue; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas; Elizabeth, the daughter of a wealthy Jew of Tiberias and Sepphoris; Martha, the elder sister of Andrew and Peter; Rachel, the sister-in-law of Jude, the Master’s brother in the flesh; Nasanta, the daughter of Elman, the Syrian physician; Milcha, a cousin of the Apostle Thomas; Ruth, the eldest daughter of Matthew Levi; Celta, the daughter of a Roman centurion; and Agaman, a widow of Damascus. Subsequently, Jesus added two other women to this group—Mary Magdalene and Rebecca, the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea.

150:1.2 (1679.1)Jesus authorized these women to effect their own organization and directed Judas to provide funds for their equipment and for pack animals. The ten elected Susanna as their chief and Joanna as their treasurer. From this time on they furnished their own funds; never again did they draw upon Judas for support.

Going Through Samaria

143:0.1 (1607.1)AT THE end of June, a.d. 27, because of the increasing opposition of the Jewish religious rulers, Jesus and the twelve departed from Jerusalem, after sending their tents and meager personal effects to be stored at the home of Lazarus at Bethany. Going north into Samaria, they tarried over the Sabbath at Bethel. Here they preached for several days to the people who came from Gophna and Ephraim. A group of citizens from Arimathea and Thamna came over to invite Jesus to visit their villages. The Master and his apostles spent more than two weeks teaching the Jews and Samaritans of this region, many of whom came from as far as Antipatris to hear the good news of the kingdom.

143:0.2 (1607.2)The people of southern Samaria heard Jesus gladly, and the apostles, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, succeeded in overcoming much of their prejudice against the Samaritans. It was very difficult for Judas to love these Samaritans. The last week of July Jesus and his associates made ready to depart for the new Greek cities of Phasaelis and Archelais near the Jordan.

On The Way To Rome

On the Way to Rome 130:0.1 (1427.1)THE tour of the Roman world consumed most of the twenty-eighth and the entire twenty-ninth year of Jesus’ life on earth. Jesus and the two natives from India—Gonod and his son Ganid—left Jerusalem on a Sunday morning, April 26, a.d. 22. They made their journey according to schedule, and Jesus said good-bye to the father and son in the city of Charax on the Persian Gulf on the tenth day of December the following year, a.d. 23. 130:0.2 (1427.2)From Jerusalem they went to Caesarea by way of Joppa. At Caesarea they took a boat for Alexandria. From Alexandria they sailed for Lasea in Crete. From Crete they sailed for Carthage, touching at Cyrene. At Carthage they took a boat for Naples, stopping at Malta, Syracuse, and Messina. From Naples they went to Capua, whence they traveled by the Appian Way to Rome.

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'Our Religion'

 

'Our Religion'

131:10.1 (1453.3)After the great effort of putting together this compilation of the world religions' teaching on the Paradise Father, Ganid set to work formulating what he considered a summary of the beliefs concerning God to which he had come through the teaching of Jesus. The young man was in the habit of referring to these beliefs as “our religion. Here is what he wrote down:

131:10.2 (1453.4)'The Lord our God is one Lord, and you must love him with all your mind and heart, doing your utmost to love all his children as yourself. This one God is our heavenly Father in whom all things exist and who dwells by His Spirit in every sincere human soul. And we who are the children of God must learn to entrust our souls to him as to a faithful Creator. With our heavenly Father, all things are possible. Since he is the Creator and made all things and all beings, it could not be otherwise. Although we cannot see God, we can know him. And by living daily according to the Father's will, we can reveal him to our fellow men.

131:10.3 (1453.5)'The divine riches of God's character must be infinitely deep and eternally wise. We cannot fathom God with our knowledge, but we can know him in our hearts through our personal experience. Even though his righteousness is beyond all comprehension, even the humblest man on earth can receive his grace. As the Father fills the universe, he also dwells in our hearts. Man's consciousness is human, mortal, but man's spirit is divine, immortal. God is not only all-powerful, but also all-wise. If our earthly parents, yet inclined to evil, can love their children and bestow good gifts upon them, how much more must the good Father in heaven love his children on earth with wisdom and bestow appropriate blessings upon them.

131:10.4 (1454.1)'The Father in heaven will not allow even one of his children to perish on earth if that child has a desire to find the Father and truly desires to be like him. Our Father loves even the wicked and is always lenient toward the ungrateful. If only more people could know of the goodness of God, they would certainly want to repent of their bad ways of life and give up all known sin. All good things descend from the Father of the Light, in whom there is no mutability, nor hint of reversal. The spirit of the true God is in man's heart. His intention is that all men will be brothers. When people begin to grope for God, it proves that he has found them, and that they are seeking knowledge about him. We live in God and God dwells in us.

131:10.5 (1454.2)'It will no longer be enough for me to believe that God is the Father of all my people: from now on I will believe that he is also my Father. I will always seek to worship God with the help of the Spirit of Truth, who is my helper when I have become truly God-knowing. But in first of all, I am going to practice to worship God by learning to do God's will on earth; that is, I am going to do my best to deal with every fellow human being exactly as I think God would want me to. And when we live this kind of life in the flesh, we may ask many things of God, and he will fulfill the desire of our heart, so that we will be all the better able to serve our fellow men. And all this loving serving of the children of God, increases our ability to receive and experience the joys of heaven, the high pleasures of the service of the spirit of heaven.

131:10.6 (1454.3)'I will thank God every day for his unspeakable gifts; I will praise him for his wonderful works to the children of men. To me he is the Almighty, the Creator, the Power and the Mercy, but the most beautiful thing is that he is my spirit-Father, and as his earthly child I will go out once to see him. And my teacher has said that by seeking Him, I will become as He is. By faith in God, I have found peace with him. This new religion of ours is very joyful and brings lasting happiness. I trust that I will be faithful even unto death, and will surely receive the crown of eternal life.

131:10.7 (1454.4)'I am now learning to examine all things and to adhere to what is good. All that I would have people do for me, I will do for my fellow men. By this new faith I know that man can become a son of God; however, sometimes it frightens me to think that all men are my brothers, but it must be true. I do not see how I can rejoice in the fatherhood of God while refusing to accept the brotherhood of men. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If that is true, then all men must be my brethren.

131:10.8 (1454.5)'From now on I will do my good works in secret; also I will pray most when I am alone. I will not judge, so as not to be unfair to my fellow men. I am going to learn to love my enemies; I have not yet really mastered this exercise of being God-like. Although I detect God in these other religions, I find that in “our religion” his beauty comes out better, that here he is more loving, more merciful, more personal and more positive. But above all, this grand, glorious Being is my spiritual Father: I am His child. And by no other means than my honest desire to be like Him will I finally find and eternally serve Him. At last I have a religion with a God, a wonderful God, and he is a God who preserves forever.

A Thought for Consideration from The Urantia Book