Book excerpt: They were amazed at his teaching.''; ''They fell down before him.''; ''He touched her hand.''; ''they left their nets.''; Often when we read the New Testament accounts of Jesus' life, we focus on his teachings and stories. But Don Everts draws our attention to the seemingly insignificant ''stage directions'' of the Gospels that describe the activity surrounding him. ''It's significant,'' Everts writes, ''that in the Gospels we don't just have a bullet list of quotes from Jesus.'' We also have observations of what he did and how people responded to him. By examining these simple phrases and casual comments, Everts assembles a startlingly fresh portrait of who Jesus was and is. While no one has seen the invisible God, when we look at the life of Jesus, we discover what his early followers discovered - that Jesus is the very flesh of God. ''Many people find themselves put off by Christianity but haunted and compelled by the figure of Jesus. In God in the Flesh, Don Everts reminds us why.