War Club Tells the Good Story 3
3
DOING GOOD ON THE DAY OF RESTING
1Creator Sets Free (Jesus) then went to their gathering house to teach. A man was there with a shriveled and useless hand. 2The Separated Ones (Pharisees) kept a close eye on Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to see whether he would heal the man on the Day of Resting, so they could accuse him.
3Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to the man with the useless hand, “Stand up and come forward.”
4Then he turned to the Separated Ones (Pharisees) and asked, “On the Day of Resting, is it permitted to help or to harm, to rescue life or destroy it?”
They just glared at him and said nothing.
5There was fire in his eyes as he looked around the room. His anger turned to sorrow when he saw their hearts of stone. He turned to the man and said, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out, and it was the same as his good hand!
6The Separated Ones (Pharisees) stormed out right away and went straight to the Friends of Looks Brave (Herodians) to conspire with them about how to do away with Creator Sets Free (Jesus).
CREATOR’S CHOSEN SERVANT
7Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and the ones who walked the road with him left that place and went to the lake. 8Word about him drew large crowds from Circle of Nations (Galilee), Land of Promise (Judea), and Village of Peace (Jerusalem). They also came from Red Land (Idumea), from the territory beyond the river Flowing Down (Jordan), from Rock Land (Tyre) and Hunting Grounds (Sidon).
9He asked his followers to keep a canoe close by, in case the crowd pressed in too close and crushed him. 10His reputation as a healer had made the sick desperate to reach out and touch him.
11When the ones with evil spirits saw him, they would fall down at his feet and wail, “You are the Son of the Great Spirit!”
12But he warned them over and over again not to tell anyone who he was.
TWELVE MESSAGE BEARERS
13Creator Sets Free (Jesus) went up the mountain and gathered to himself some of his followers. 14-15He chose twelve of them to learn his ways by being with him, so he could send them out to tell the good story and to have the power to force out evil spirits. He called them his message bearers.
16Here are the names of the twelve he chose:
Stands on the Rock (Peter), the name he gave to One Who Hears (Simon); 17He Takes Over (James) the son of Gift of Creator (Zebedee) and his brother He Shows Goodwill (John), whom he also called Sons of Thunder; 18Stands with Courage (Andrew); Friend of Horses (Philip); Son of Ground Digger (Bartholomew); Gift from Creator (Matthew); Looks Like His Brother (Thomas); He Takes Charge (James) the son of First to Change (Alphaeus); Strong of Heart (Thaddaeus); One Who Listens (Simon) the Firebrand (Zealot); 19and Speaks Well Of (Judas), the one who would betray him.
HE HAS LOST HIS MIND
20Creator Sets Free (Jesus) then returned to his house in Village of Comfort (Capernaum). Just like before, a large crowd gathered there—so many that he and his followers were not even able to eat. 21When his relatives heard about this, they tried to take him away from there, because the people were saying, “He has lost his mind!”
ACCUSED BY THE SPIRITUAL LEADERS
22The scroll keepers from Village of Peace (Jerusalem) were there also.
“He stands with Worthless Ruler (Beelzebul),” they accused him, “for his power to force out evil spirits comes from the one who rules over them.”
23So Creator Sets Free (Jesus) gathered them around himself and spoke to them with wise sayings such as these:
“How can Accuser (Satan), that evil trickster, force out evil spirits? Can he defeat himself? 24If a nation wars against itself, that nation cannot stand. 25A family that fights against itself will fall. 26In the same way, if Accuser (Satan) rises up against himself, then how will he continue to rule?
27“No one can enter the house of a strongman and take away his goods, unless he first defeats him. Then he can take away his goods.
28“I speak from my heart, humankind will be released from all their wrongdoing and evil speaking, 29but whoever speaks evil of the Holy Spirit will not be released. This wrongdoing will follow them into the world to come and to the end of all days.”
30He said this because they were saying of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), “He has an evil spirit.”
ALL MY RELATIVES
31Then his mother and brothers came to him outside the house and sent word to him to come out to them. 32The crowd that was sitting in a circle around him said, “Look, your relatives are outside looking for you.”
33“Who are my relatives?” he asked them 34as he looked around at the circle of people. “Here they are! 35The ones who walk in the ways of the Great Spirit are all my relatives—my mother, my brothers and my sisters.”
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War Club Tells the Good Story 3: FNVNT
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