My day of execution had come. I was not really that bad. I was just a victim of my society. No one would hire me with my record. The only way for me to live was resort to stealing. Since I had helped myself to a few more times than I should, I had accepted my sentence and resigned myself to the ultimate. My partner and I were to be hung on crosses outside Jerusalem as a reminder that crime did not pay. Only on this particular day, we ended up as the sideshow. All the attention was focused on a man called Jesus. We had heard that He was a man of peace and good will. The people liked Him but the leaders were afraid of Him. Still, He had done nothing wrong. What was He doing here? What did anybody have against Him? I began to watch and listened and came to the conclusion that there was absolutely no justice in this world and that it would be a pleasure to enter eternity with this humble and unassuming man from Galilee. It was a perfect example of not having a reason to hate someone.

I am Jairus and a headmaster of a school. My daughter was at the point of dying. This was not a time to debate whether Jesus was who He claimed He was or what people believed He was. I needed His help. When I heard that He was coming our way across the lake, I hurried to meet Him and threw myself at His feet and begged, "My little girl is dying. Please come and lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live." Without a word, He pointed to me to lead the way. We had walked a short distance when Jesus stopped and asked who had touched Him. There were all kinds of arguments until a woman confessed and gave her account that seemed endless to a man whose child was dying. When at last He dismissed her and blessed her, a messenger from my home arrived and told me not to bother the teacher any longer for my daughter had passed on. My heart sank into my knees and I must have looked as if I too had died. But Jesus paid no attention to my messenger's report and said, "Don't be afraid, just keep on believing."

John wrote, "In Him was life, and that life was the light of man" (1: 4). When darkness fell on the land during the crucifixion, even the Son of God had to cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mt.27: 46). "If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" (Mt.6: 23). Regarding the people that rejected Jesus, Paul recalled Deuteronomy 29: 4 and Isaiah 29: 10. "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so they could not see and ears so they could not hear, to this day" (Ro.11: 8). A similar darkness has fallen upon us.

I was fourteen when we became refugees for the second time. We ended up in the heart of Germany where arable land was scares. People with two or three sheep entrusted them to a shepherd. He had a wagon, light wooden fences to shelter the sheep at night and one or two dogs. Some shepherds had their dogs bark only at the sheep. Others had their dogs nip at them and hurt them.

I was a widow and lived in Nain. It was a pleasant and delightful hamlet. It was located on a small hill and compared with the blessed Mount Hermon - the Mountain of the Gods. There was something mysterious and secret about that huge mountain. Especially it's early dew contained magical powers of growth. Our small mountain was equally blessed with dew that watered our vegetation and fruit trees. We also had groves of olives and fig trees watered by a spring. While my husband was alive, we had it good. But when he was taken from us in his prime, things changed drastically. My husband owed no property. And without collateral, no man would marry me. But as long as my son was healthy and able, we did manage to meet all our needs. One unexpected day, death took my son and left me in shock. What had I done wrong to be punished so harshly? For this was the way people believed.

It was the Sabbath and I had an urge to go to the House of Prayer. I had a condition that did not let me stand up straight. It was believed that God was punishing me for my sins and therefore I was not welcome in the Synagogue. Of course, I could not lay my finger on what I had done to deserve being punished; but since everyone regarded me as being duly chastised, I carried my lot patiently and willingly. On this particular Sabbath, I was not expected to be there, nor did I anticipate that I would become the cause of a disturbance over our precious Sabbath. Now that I look back on the incident, I feel strongly that the Lord did love me and that it was His Spirit that drew me to the Synagogue on that particular Sabbath. It was to be my day to prove to the people with perverted views that in God's eyes I, too, was a daughter of His chosen people and not some notorious sinner. He wanted me to meet His Son Jesus who would alter my life. In His eyes, I was worth more than an ox or a donkey that could be rescued on a Sabbath.

Thirty-eight long years I lay near the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem and no one would help me. There were five covered shelters and they were all filled with sick and handicapped like me. It was believed that an angel stirred the water in the pool and who ever managed to enter first was healed. There were many under these five roofs, but I was there the longest. I was an invalid that resulted from an error on my part. I was laid up because of my sins, but I would not admit it. I was bitter and blamed others for my misfortune. Perhaps that was why no one helped me. One Sabbath day a Stranger asked me somewhat of a puzzling question, "Do you want to be healed?" At first I wanted to answer back with another question like, "Who in this place does not?" Instead I complained, "Sir, I have no one who will help me. By the time I get up and start crawling toward the pool someone else has already been healed.'' To my surprise, the Stranger ordered me to, "Get up! Take my stretcher and walk."

We have seen many attempts to make us belief that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have much in common. Just how much commonality is there between the three Religions?" Jesus raised this question, "Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but every bad tree bears bad fruit" (Mt.7: 16-17).

Simon, the Great, had gained fame with his magic. When he could not do what Peter did through the Spirit of God, Simon attempted to buy into the power of God's Spirit. Peter rebuked Simon severely and said, "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money" (Ac.8: 20). Simon realized his error and repented for trying to buy his way into God's favor.

I lived near the village of Bethsaida. It was founded by a fisherman and named for his home; namely, the house of the fisher. It was located on the Northeast corner of the lake of Galilee. It was that part of Galilee east of the Jordan River located in Greek territory. It was a mixed population of Gentiles and Jews that lived off the fishing industry. Jesus had come to Bethsaida many times, but found little acceptance. He had blessed them with healing and mighty works, but they refused to repent of their sins. They were a stubborn people and not much inclined to change. Jesus told them once that if He had done what He did for them in Sidon and Tyre, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. For that reason the Gentile towns would fare better on judgment day than Capernaum and Bethsaida. That forward warning hardened the inhabitants of "Fisher's Town" even more. Jesus, at that time, was spending more time in these two places than anywhere else in all of Galilee and Judea. He had even chosen three followers that came from Bethsaida: Simon Peter, Andrew brother to Peter and Philip.