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A Thousand Days To Change The World
A Thousand Days To Change The World
A Thousand Days To Change The World
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A Thousand Days To Change The World

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So little is known about Jesus of Nazareth before he started his ministry at the age of 30. His ministry only lasted three years, of which much has been written, but vital information about Jesus, the man, if it ever was written, has not survived. This either intrigues believers, or they just gloss over it, saying that it is unimportant; what matters is who he was and what he achieved. If we want to know more about Jesus as a person, to try to understand more fully how and why he did the things he did, we are in the realms of fiction. This is a fictional account of one part of that life; the forty days and nights he spent in the wilderness prior to commencing his ministry. What was it like? How did he survive the fasting and the solitude? What was he doing and thinking all this time - because it is a long time?
This is a 'first-person' account of his coming to terms with the work that lay ahead of him; his preparation; his internal struggle between his human and divine nature. How much of this did he know before? How much did he know about what lay ahead, and that he only had about one thousand days to achieve it? All we know for certain is how he dealt with the temptations, but what other issues were there to contend with? This story is like that of a chrysalis as it goes through that miraculous stage prior to the emergence as a beautiful butterfly. It is a struggle for life itself, but with a spectacular ending and freedom.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 15, 2015
ISBN9781310325137
A Thousand Days To Change The World
Author

Greville Mills

I'm a lay preacher in the Methodist church, in Bath (UK) where I have lived with my wife for over 30 years. We have three children who have all left home and living in various towns around the UK. My interests, outside the church, include orienteering and fell running (although not too much of this lately) and singing in a local a cappella choir.

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    Book preview

    A Thousand Days To Change The World - Greville Mills

    A thousand days to change the world

    By Greville Mills

    Edited by Howard H Thomas

    Acknowledgments:-

    Thank you to:-

    My Beta readers – your input has been invaluable

    Howard who ensured you can read the ‘words wot I rote’

    Tricia for her never-ending love and support

    This book is available as a free download, but if you feel inclined, you are invited to make a donation to LWPT (Leaders of Worship and Preachers Trust). The price of a cup of coffee is all that is asked. How reasonable is that, even if you didn’t like the book?

    LWPT was formed in 2005 as a charity to provide support for all preachers and leaders of worship, aiming to provide not only financial support but also preaching resources, events and information. It is an ecumenical charity seeking to reach a wide denominational spectrum and relies totally on grants and personal donations for its work. 

    LWPT started life in 1849 as The Methodist Local Preachers Mutual Aid Association (LPMA), which provided financial and other assistance to Methodist and Wesleyan Reform Local Preachers and their families. It became a lifeline for many and was supported faithfully and generously by its members through the years.

    For more information or to make a donation, visit their website at http://lwpt.org.uk/donate/

    Greville Mills © 2015

    V2

    Preface

    A thousand days is roughly the time it takes for young people to get a university degree. Think about what happens in this time. For many it’s the first prolonged time away from the family home. It’s a time to make new friends and learn to become more independent; a time to learn without the encouragement of parent or teacher; a time to discover what sort of a person they have become. During this time there is an exponential learning process going on which can be seen in how much they have changed by the time they graduate, emerging into the wide world with a degree from which to launch their independent life. It’s not a long time, but it sure is busy.

    A thousand days is also the approximate amount of time that Jesus of Nazareth had as a time of ministry; a time to get his message of love and his teaching on how to live in the new kingdom across to the people living in that part of the world at that time.

    So very little is known about the life of Jesus from just after his birth until he’s about 30 when he appears with John to be baptised in the Jordan and then goes on to start his ministry. What was he like as a child? Was he just like all the other children or was he ‘special’ and in what ways ‘different’ to other children? What was he doing when he went out into that desolate place for forty days? What happened to him during this time? These and so many more questions have puzzled me and I’m sure have taxed the minds of many others, scholars or just casual enquirers who have been searching for the truth on their journey of faith.

    Many have attempted to ‘fill in’ the gaps. There are some obscure and ancient letters written by followers and other writers at the time whose works have been dismissed as ‘unauthenticated’ by the church, but much more of what may have been written to shed light on the ‘missing years’ has been lost. So to write anything on this subject is the stuff of speculation and wonder; some may even say ‘sacrilegious’. So I accept that what I write on this subject is fictional, but it’s based around some authenticated writings supported by factual knowledge, and the intention is to help people have a greater understanding and perception of this wonderful man; what he did and, more importantly, why he did it.

    But what if, (and it’s a big IF) Jesus kept a journal of his thoughts; his worries, his concerns, his questions and his search for answers to those questions that he dared not ask another living soul? Even if he didn’t write things down he would have had thoughts and ideas and dreams – just like we do. He would have had issues that kept appearing in his mind; churning them over, just like we do. Do you ever stop to wonder what these might have been, or do you imagine that he had a red phone-line to God? This has always intrigued me because, as we have always been led to believe, Jesus was both human and divine. There is much evidence within the Gospels that Jesus did struggle with issues; although they weren’t spelled out as such, but we are aware that he had conflicts of the mind at particular points in time and at particularly critical times in his story.

    What if we could get behind these issues to more fully understand what was going on and how he finally decided to follow the path we know he finally took. There is no doubt that he resolutely followed the path ‘prescribed’ by the words of the prophets from long before his time. Why was this so important?

    This account is aimed at believers and ‘enquirers’; an opportunity to fill in some gaps and to give some background information about the link between the Old and New Testaments, and to give a little insight into the sort of issues Jesus had to contend with on his journey to the end of his short but eventful life on earth.

    How can you contemplate putting your thoughts into the mind of God, I can hear some saying; That he would ever think the way you think?

    We know that we can never be ‘like’ God, even though we know we are made in his image.

    He came to earth as a human being so why do we assume he was any different from us in the way he thought things through; the way we tussle with thoughts and ideas; the way we try to find a rationale in things; the way we balance right from wrong; the way we try to discern what is motivated by our own thoughts and desires and what is God-derived. We have been granted ‘free will’ by God; the opportunity to choose between good and evil. Who is to know that Jesus was any different from us in this regard?

    If we are born with ‘free will’, and Jesus was no different to us, was there any chance he would change his mind and ‘bottle out’ at any stage of the journey? We know of at least three occasions when he was tempted by the devil, and the strongest hint of a possible ‘fall’ was as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. Yet not what I want, but what you want. (Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke22:42 RSV).

    This happens to each one of us every day of our lives as far as I can tell. But because we are human we’re not as successful at resisting; which is what sets him apart from us, and it is the main reason why he died was so that we could have a fresh start; every day if necessary.

    And here’s an interesting point to note. Most of the stories of Jesus were written by an eye witness or by someone who knew an eye witness. Jesus was alone during his period of tempting, so why is it recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke? It must have been something Jesus confided in his disciples so that it became part of the story. And this information is distinctly different from the fraction of knowledge we have of Jesus as a child, since this information could well have come from either his mother, Mary, or one of his siblings, James for example.

    What did Jesus really know about his purpose? When did he finally know what he had to do or did he have a clear idea from the start?

    For anyone who has struggled with the thoughts of any type of ‘calling’; whether it be to ministry; mission overseas or to the homeless, or whatever, you will recognise the ‘nagging’ thoughts which return day after day until the issue has been addressed and finally resolved. Why would it have been any different for Jesus to finally resolve what his ‘calling’ was to be? What type of mission; what type of calling; how, when and where was he to be called and more importantly, why? Did he know he was to die; if so, did he know when it would be?

    How did he decide the way to go about the task? Did he have any kind of special training, and if so what was it and who provided it? Why did he keep some things secret and why did the disciples struggle with understanding Jesus’ purpose?

    This book has been written as much for me to address and understand these issues as it has for you, but there still remain many unanswered questions, as I’m sure there are for you. It has been an intriguing journey; working out how things may have been, because at every step there has been some query as to reasoning.

    This is my attempt to get a better understanding; an insight into how Jesus may have grappled with his task; of walking the line between humanity and divinity. Was it even a possibility? Was he one or the other, or even as we have been led to believe, both?

    Whatever happened during that 40 day period spent in that waste and desolate part of Israel/Palestine determined what was to take place within the next 1000 days or so, because that is all the time Jesus had in which he would shape the world into what it has become today for the 2.1 billion Christian believers in a world of over 7 billion people.

    Read and consider; decide for yourself. Remember this is fiction; Jesus’ life was not.

    Contents

    Preface

    Chapter 1 Cool nights

    Chapter 2 The neighbours

    Chapter 3 John

    Chapter 4 Daily routine

    Chapter 5 Something remembered

    Chapter 6 A visitor

    Chapter 7 Bad night

    Chapter 8 A dream

    Chapter 9 Dawning

    Chapter 10 My Family remembered

    Chapter 11 Another life?

    Chapter 12 More visitors

    Chapter 13 The power

    Chapter 14 The task

    Chapter 15 Strange stirrings

    Chapter 16 The tempter revisits

    Chapter 17 The ‘awakening’

    Chapter 18 And so to work…

    Postscript

    Bibliography

    Chapter 1Cool nights

    It’s difficult trying to remember all the things that have happened in your life; separating the things you actually remember from those you’ve been told about; things that happened when you were far too young to understand what was going on. There are those things that are so wonderful, too painful or too embarrassing that you’ll never forget them. Then there are the things that you just simply forget, either because they had no significance for you, or you just wanted to forget them.

    These past few nights have been cold since I left Nazareth. But the cold nights have really helped me focus on the memories; dragging them back and trying to work out what’s been going on all these years; things that didn’t seem to mean anything at the time and so have been forgotten, lying like a disused tool on a carpenter’s bench. These memories have been awakened by the events of the past few days and in the confusion I have needed some peace and quiet to work out what it all means and where I’m heading for the next part of my life. If I’m honest with myself, I don’t have a clue at the moment; it’s all too confusing; so many unusual things have happened in these last few days. I just had to get away from it all. It’s as if something has been pulling at me; leading me away; away from my family; away from the distraction of work and loyalty to find time to think about it all; leading to me to a quiet place where I won’t be disturbed; giving me time and quiet…

    I suppose it all started off by what my mother told me. I have been trying not to think about it; to push the idea away from my mind; so that I don’t have to do anything about it, but it keeps returning and I know that eventually I will have to do something; I just don’t know what. I was forcibly reminded of this today when I met John, quite by accident. But where to begin?

    Must be nearly there now; this is beginning to look familiar. Now where is it? Oh, there it is. It seems to be higher up than I remember from the last time I was here and the way to it seems a bit precarious. But I have to get there before the light goes; and it’s nearly gone anyway. Bit of effort required and I’ll be there…

    Maybe I’m getting old but this seems more tricky; it’s quite steep. The stone is soft and crumbly and every step is more worn and slippery in these sandals. I must try not to fall. Last few steps and I’ll be there...

    Good, that was quite an effort. I hope I don’t have to do that too many times whilst I’m here. At least it’ll be safe from prowling animals; hunters of the night. A quick look into the darkness; let my eyes adjust. A cave; a safe haven.

    I had a good look round and saw some discarded scraps of cloth, a few old oil lamps but no oil, a worn-out sandal with a broken thong. I wonder what happened to the other one. Nothing of any use

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