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Future Church (Part I)

Posted by Roberta Grimes • February 18, 2023 • 72 Comments
Jesus, The Teachings of Jesus

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!
– Adrianus Valerius (c.1575-1625), from “We Gather Together” (1597)

I can vividly recall singing our frame-verse in church when I was eight years old. This was back when every pew in that building of sacred memory was full, and when I was refusing to go to Sunday School. Instead, what I craved was Reverend Turrell’s sermons. I was always the only child attending grown-up church, and I remember that there were frowns from some of the grown-ups nearby; but my parents permitted it so that was that. I never let us miss a Sunday. I was trying to understand my experience of light.  I realize now how perfunctory, how entirely unserious being in that building on Sunday mornings likely was for some of the grown-ups in attendance; but for little me in my home-smocked dresses, it was the most deadly-serious and important part of my week. We never learned to fear in that church. In retrospect, among the many things that I think that Jesus designed into my life was my childhood pastor. There were three white steepled churches around the common in the little New England town where I grew up. And my parents had been guided to choose the one where I could learn only Jesus’s beautiful teachings through all my childhood years.

Because it is apparent now that this generation is in the process of enjoying the privilege of witnessing the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is also apparent that my own life has been directed toward helping to make this happen. We all want to believe that we are normal, right? And I am mostly normal. But I am coming now to accept the fact that there were some weird events in my childhood that have cast long shadows over my life. It wasn’t only that experience of light. There were other things, too, that I know happened then, and that I am trying to remember more clearly. My beloved Thomas has me on a needs-to-know basis, so he will never answer my questions. Except to acknowledge that of course he has been talking to me for my entire life, and of course all of this has been carefully planned. And it is all now unfolding on schedule.

Jesus seems to be feeling some urgency about separating Himself from the religion as it dies. He has inspired a successful television series about His earthly life, and an expensive (if strange) advertising campaign, and there also is a movie on the way. And now suddenly on February 8th there began a revival at a Christian college in the American South that is going strong, and it seems to be spreading nationwide. When I asked Thomas if Jesus had inspired that, too, he said, “Do you really need to ask?”

And now Jesus has just in this past week given us what I consider to be a new revelation. I thought we were getting away from Christianity, but it suddenly seems that He wants to make His coming movement into a new form of Christianity that is going to take over all those empty churches? Only, this time it will be for His Christianity? Jesus expects way too much of people in terms of intelligence and sophistication, if He thinks we will be able to tell the difference!

Believe it or not, Jesus calls me “my child.” This adorable Man who looks to be about the age of my own grandsons, whose personal energies are perfectly silken but are powerful enough to nuke the world, actually calls me “my child.” Of course, I have no idea how my astral body and face look to Him. There are no mirrors in the astral plane. But even though by now I am used to seeing Thomas casually treating Jesus as his familiar, and even on occasion play-fighting with Him, I cannot get past the fact that this is the genuine Jesus we are talking about! I cannot raise the least objection to Him. If He tells us this is going to work, then who am I to suggest to Him that He might conceivably be wrong?

Jesus has begun to call His new movement “Future Church.” And that comes as a relief to me, because I have had no idea what to call any possible movement that might flow from teachingsbyjesus.com. Jesus insists that this is not a religion, because all religions are human-made. But God can make a spiritual movement of God’s own to occupy those empty buildings. Later on, God’s people will give it a name. But God’s own Church will have no dogmas beyond the command to love God and love your fellow man, so there will be no divisions among God’s people. There will only be God’s single Church, and it will fill all those empty church buildings. Oh, okay. So no more forty-two-thousand-odd separate denominations? I think I am starting to like this idea! Will it even have a Bible? Will it even have pastors? That will all be up to the people of God. But Jesus, wouldn’t you then get some fake charismatics? Even people claiming to be You, reincarnated? What the three of us ended up with after some discussion on last Monday night was just the four Biblical Gospels as a canon, and maybe teachingsbyjesus.com as the new Jesus Movement’s initial governing organ.

And here you can immediately see a problem. There were three of us involved in this foundational meeting, and the only one of us who is presently occupying a material body is me. And who am I, for heaven’s sake? Why would anyone listen to me? I saw this problem, and I mentioned it to Thomas afterward. He said that Jesus will never see it as a problem until it becomes a problem. At which point, Jesus will simply influence enough minds to make it be no longer a problem. It is good to have a very powerful Friend.

I never was able to envision Jesus’s new website, but Thomas channeled it through me and then Craig Hogan designed it. When Craig insisted that I had to approve it before it goes live early in March, of course then I had to look at it. Which I did wincingly at first, afraid that it could never be good enough for Jesus. How could anything ever be good enough for Jesus? But actually, I love it! I cannot get over how well it works, and how effectively it tells His story. I deserve none of the credit for it, but Craig gives me credit for it anyway. And now I cannot wait for it to go live!

And meanwhile, the serpent writhing in its slow death-throes that is the Roman Emperor Constantine’s Christianity continues to gradually die. What bothers me most about this process is seeing what it is doing to the life’s work of a few wonderful people that I have come to care for very much. And foremost among them is Father Richard Rohr of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Father Richard is an eighty-year-old Franciscan priest, and no sweeter man ever breathed. But as a Catholic, he has had to follow the orthodoxy not of Jesus, but of the spiritual descendants of the Roman Emperor Constantine, and so as Father Richard winds down his career, and as he publicly sums up his life’s work, what he is summing up looks to be sadly nonsensical to me. And it grieves me so much to say that!

Here is Father Richard’s missive to the world last week:

“A previous director at our Center asked me, “Richard, you talk about so many things, but what are your underlying major themes that keep recurring in different forms?”

As I remember, I took at least two or three months to try to say, “Okay, that’s foundational, that’s foundational, and so forth.” And I brought them to her.

She read them, and she looked at me and said, “We have the curriculum for a school.”

It became the beginnings of what we now call the Living School, where we’re not trying to teach just theory, but practice. And I really think Christianity in general has been weak on practice. We attend services but note the word “attend.” “Attending” is not really participating with our active, embodied selves.

So what these Seven Themes led to were seven highly participatory conferences that we called CONSPIRE, because conspirare (Latin: con, with + spirare, to breathe) means “to breathe together.” How can we breathe together a kind of wisdom, a kind of what we hope is goodness for the world?

The Seven Themes are, I hope, an honest statement about the underlying foundations of what I teach.

From the CAC website:

  1. Scripture as validated by experience, and experience as validated by Tradition, are good scales for one’s spiritual worldview. (METHODOLOGY)
  2. If God is Trinity and Jesus is the face of God, then it is a benevolent universe. God is not someone to be afraid of but is the Ground of Being and on our side. (FOUNDATION)
  3. For those who see deeply there is only One Reality. By reason of the Incarnation, there is no truthful distinction between sacred and profane. (FRAME)
  4. Everything belongs. No one needs to be punished, scapegoated, or excluded. We cannot directly fight or separate ourselves from evil or untruth. Evil becomes apparent when exposed to the Truth. (ECUMENICAL)
  5. The “separate self” is the major problem, not the shadow self which only takes deeper forms of disguise. (TRANSFORMATION)
  6. The path of descent is the path of transformation. Struggle, failure, relapse, death, and woundedness are our primary teachers, rather than ideas or doctrines. (PROCESS).
  7. Nonduality is the highest level of consciousness. Divine union, not private perfection, is the goal of all religion. (GOAL)

A friend of Father Richard’s writes that these Seven Themes “are more than simply the themes that have organized Richard Rohr’s life’s work; they are the fundamental issues that any serious Christian must engage in to develop a healthy and holistic spiritual worldview.”

I quote all of the above in love, and in support of Father Richard as he sums up his life’s work as this generation’s foremost American Catholic. I have read it a number of times over the past week, just trying to understand it, as I have also at the same time been reading through and proofing my Thomas’s summation of Jesus’s own life’s work as we have set it forth on teachingsbyjesus.com, which Jesus instructed me last April should go live in March of this year. And the differences between the two are stunning. We find set forth here by Father Richard no mention of love or forgiveness or the spread of the kingdom of God on earth. Instead, it is all about Process! And that is what religions really are, is it not? Beyond the fear-based rules by which they try to control our lives, religions are all just form and procedure and process. That is why Jesus has always been so determined to abolish religions altogether.

And we can see now that of course Jesus is right. If we can fill all those empty churches with people discussing and ever better understanding the Lord’s teachings, and with no complications of fear-based, human-made dogmas and religious nonsense; and if people then are inspired to go forth and share and live those teachings, just as two thousand years ago they were first inspired to share and live the Lord’s teachings in their thousands, and then in their millions; then this time, without the Emperor Constantine’s false Christianity intervening, perhaps we truly can transform the world! And every bit of unnecessary religious process will be out the window.

The late Pope Benedict XVI suggested that, well, the Catholic Church is going to need to become small and begin all over again if it is to survive. Although I cannot now imagine that it is a part of Jesus’s plan for the Catholic Church to survive in any form at all. But still, just about everything that Jesus has done so far as He has planned His return has been amazing to me, so at this point, nothing further that He does is going to surprise me at all. For now, though, let us brainstorm with Him. What might this Future Church of the New Jesus Movement in all those old, abandoned churches possibly look like?

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be;
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

– Adrianus Valerius (c.1575-1625), from “We Gather Together” (1597)

 

Roberta Grimes
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72 thoughts on “Future Church (Part I)

    1. Well, even if you took away all the crosses, many churches’ floorplans still remain based on the shape of the cross.

      1. My dear Adrian, actually, Jesus does not object to the shape of the cross at all. He chose to go to the cross not to die for any negative reason, but to be able to publicly die and then rise from the dead – “Ta-DA!” – in order to prove to the people of His day – and to us – that human life is eternal. As cross-shaped churches are re-occupied by Future Church congregations, they will likely offer pamphlets which make a point of explaining the significance of the cross-shape of their buildings.

    2. I agree, Ray. I was thinking too, of no more “ritual” type motions-making the sign of the cross, standing, kneeling, sitting, saying words in response to other words that don’t have meaning. Can you imagine a full church that is sitting quietly and peacefully in quiet contemplation/meditation, prayer? I think Roberta makes a good point of us having lived by processes that have been instilled by others, and I think a lot of it comes from ages old superstitions handed down.

      1. Fran, superstitions is the perfect word. Jesus was chiding the Pharisees about their robes and rituals when he was here. The “church “ seems to really love that stuff.

        1. Dear Ray, when I was a child and reading the Bible over and over, I can recall being appalled at the way Jesus used to talk to and tease the clergy of His day. As if He might make God mad at Him!

      2. Oh yes, my dear Fran, but just think of the joy of being able to do away with all those old fear- and superstition-based rituals and being able now to invent a lot of new love-based and joy-based traditions!

    3. My dear Ray, when I first read your comment, Jesus showed me a stylized candle-flame. I think that is what He may have in mind as the symbol of the Future Church, perhaps?

        1. Ah yes, my dear Ray, a flame may be a perfect symbol of this new spiritual movement. Light, love, warmth, energy. I have been thinking about it all afternoon!

  1. Dear Roberta, Consider, as we have discused before, that there is a good reason for the memory block imposed on our spirit when it attaches as soul to live life in a Human body on the Earth. If we had knowledge that our real eternal hime is in blissful Heaven, the motivation to engage in the harshness of the material Earth life would be lost; many might withdraw knowing that life is a very temporary affair. So, a memory block is imposed to enable our harsh material life to provide rich opportunities for spiritual growth, to learn to be loving even when oppressed–while we courageosly oppose evil.

    A true second coming of Christ offers the prospects of turning Earth life into a weak form of life in Heaven. What would be the point of that? With that perspective, consider the potential virtue of this theme from Father Richard , which is quoted here:
    ” The path of descent is the path of transformation. Struggle, failure, relapse, death, and woundedness are our primary teachers, rather than ideas or doctrines. (PROCESS). ”

    It appears that this theme honors the purpose of leaving Heaven temporarily to engage in the difficulties of a material life on Earth that create opportunities for spiritual development not natural to the blissful state of Heavenly existence.

    1. My dear Jack, as you and others may have noticed, I generally don’t comment here until at least the end of the day on Sunday, and often even later than that, but Jesus has just asked me to begin commenting now. He also had planned back in April to delay debuting teachingsbyjesus.com until the first day of March of this year, but now He would like us to release the website a little sooner as well.

      What Jesus wants you my dear and wants everyone to understand is that earth life will not be a weak form of life in heaven, and it would not be that even if we had full memory of our heavenly home. But rather, it will be an exciting challenge, and with His original teachings in our minds – which is what teachingsbyjesus.com will give us – earth life will offer us a clear path toward rapid and love-based spiritual growth, which we would then readily recall is the whole reason why this universe exists. Wow.

    2. Jack, thank you for your thought-provoking words, and for recognizing the value of some”process” in the growth and development of our spiritual being. We humans are a rowdy, stubborn, and often contentious lot, as well as caring and capable of deep and enduring love and kindness. As we are born in such a tabula rasa state, we need guidance and loving correction and nourishment to grow into mature and insightful people. I’m afraid “process” is necessary during our lives in this dimension. The point being that the process must aim to bring us to the discovery of love, true understanding and a fulfillment of our potential and of our place in the unity that is the ground of our being. And while I personally would love a church filled with communion through deep meditation and quiet, I have been through too many church services seated in front of noisy toddlers and restless five year olds (and beside children of my own) to believe there won’t be a need for Sunday schools and youth groups and a few “rules” in tomorrow’s New Jesus-led Christianity.

    3. Hi Jack,

      I was thinking the same thing, luckily I read Roberta’s clarification.

      As we talked about before, maybe it is too negative here and we need to soften it a bit. I still think it will be challenging as this life comes with quite a bit of responsibilities when you add them all up.

      I am starting to think free will is something we don’t really have.

      Between our natural instincts and being “influenced” by spirit guides and/or Jesus, it is becoming apparent (at least to me) that it is a fallacy. I really don’t know if that is bad or not, to be honest.

      Obviously, the influence is done out of love.

      1. Ah yes, my sweet friend Thomas, we do face challenges here, and life feels somewhat hard, but the earth-minds that we bring here are designed to find challenges and joy in this effort! We do have free will, but that free will, too, is something designed for this work of spiritual growth. It really is all good, and it is all meant to work well for our benefit, as a screwdriver and a screw are designed to work together.

        1. Hi Dr Hiller and Thomas Belknap. Awhile back I wondered where we might go to get the resistance we get in “earth-gym “ if there was heaven on earth. I agree that it may have become too negative here, the vibration low. Some of us have wondered here why there has to be such extreme violence and suffering. We may be giving the outer darkness a run for it’s money. Hopefully a softening is soon to come.

          1. Ray and Tom, It was about the time when my career had matured, having been promoted to Lab Director as a fed gov Super grade, turned into the Senior Executive Sevice by Jimmy Carter, that I became more reflective about goings on in society. When an awful happening came to my attention, whereas that had in the past always made me wonder if there were a God, I was by then intuiting there must be God as Creator. So I reasoned that there had to be examples of Bad for us to realize that there was “Good.” Thereafter, when seeing awful happenings I habitually said to God, “But we already have seen enough of bad stuff to get the idea that there is “Good,” and we ought to be striving to use our free will to achieve the good– Why don’t You intervene.”

            In light of the world wars, the Holocaust, tribal brutalities, population starvations…, it appears that God is hands-off here. Yet there are solid reports of miraculous interventons for individuals, so God does occasionally intervene–why and when a mystery. For all we know, God has been intervening to prevent calamities, such as thermonuclear warfare.

            I do still lament in my old age that there is just too much bad stuff here, much more than necessary for spiritual education — but what do we know as mortal!

  2. Dear Roberta,
    I am going to have to digest this one for a bit. I’ve been in a mode of wiping the slate clean, so to speak, when it comes to religion. Like you, I was very passionate with my church time and religious upbringing. But in recent years, all that glitter and gold has tarnished, and anything that even slightly resembles it makes me cringe. I’ve become very cautious of some of the new “movements” and such that you mention, for even the slightest smell of old paradigms. But, as you say, if Jesus has been orchestrating this, then I’ll trust and follow.
    You mention Pope Benedict, and it brings to mind an interesting experience a friend of mine had a few months back. Both he and his wife have also had numerous visitations and growth with Jesus over the years, that they left their childhood religions. They pray and meditate together daily, and are given visits and visions from time to time. Each writes their experience in silence and then they share. Most often, they experienced the same thing. He shared this mentioned vision with me as he knows of my Catholic upbringing and ardent past attendance. He is not of that religious persuasion. As they prayed silently, they saw Jesus walk past with a smile, followed by a pope (they identified him as such by his garb) who was smiling and joyful, and communicated a message to them that he finally “gets it”. There was another being, probably a spirit guide after this pope. Again, neither this man nor his wife know much about the Catholic church, so the wife had the wherewithall to ask who this was, and heard the name, “Pius”. When they described him to me in detail, I immediately “recognized” PiusXII.
    I share that in encouragement, because that means there’s a “rescue mission” on the other side, as well as here, and since we know we are connected, there is double the work happening.
    And Jesus is overseeing all of it! Much love, Fran

    1. Oh my dear Fran, that is so funny! I don’t know if Jesus is “rescuing” Popes, but He very well could be! And yes, this whole thing with using empty church buildings kind of flabbergasts me, too. Jesus just brought it up last Monday night, and then He had me remember the meeting, so I have been thinking about it all week while I have also been proofing the website with Craig and reading about the revival meetings going on and working on this blog post with Thomas.

      Jesus is excited. I will say that. He is becoming filled with a sense of resolve, as I have not seen Him before. He wants to lead and to teach people now. This really is something new.

  3. Dear Roberta
    I hope you won’t mind me sharing my experiences of the past couple of weeks here as I realise that I have no one in my life that I can discuss my spirituality with.
    I left the Catholic Church 20 years ago and now try to follow Jesus’ teachings as well as I can (I am a long way from perfect). However I’ve always harboured a secret guilt about Mary as I was named for her and dedicated to her by mother at my birth. I eschewed Catholicism so completely that I couldn’t see how she could fit into my spirituality now.
    Then a fortnight ago, through Hay House of all places, I was introduced to Our Lady of Kibeho. I had never heard about these apparitions and did feel drawn to learn more about them and the horrors of the ethnic cleansing that followed there. Accepting the messages was taking what seemed like a bit of backward step to me and I asked my guides to show me if I was on the right path. That very same day I heard your interview with Fr Castle where he not only mentioned Kibeho but delivered a message from Mary that made my heart sing as I thought “Yes this is someone I can relate to so much more than the passive virgin of the church”. I did more reading and then came across a book of messages purporting to be given by Jesus to a young pagan boy in Rwanda. I read it hoping for them to attune with the teachings of his that I learned from your books and many other sources. Instead I quickly realised that these were fear based scare mongering of the repent or be damned kind that the Catholic Church is so good at and nothing like the loving lessons that Jesus gave. I stopped reading them at once but they had been enough to make me doubt myself and wonder if I had be tempted by evil to leave the ‘true’ church and was now damned. After all how could a pagan boy know so much about theology to speak the way he did ?
    Eventually I rationalised it by realising that although the messages might have come from the mouth of the boy they had undoubtedly been through the filters of the priests around him who had their own agenda. In my heart I feel sure that following the teachings of Jesus as you and many others have written about them is the right path for me and I have to trust that my guides wouldn’t let me be deceived. It does make me sad though that so many people can only relate to God through the fear and blind obedience that overshadowed the first 40 years of my life, not to mention my poor children as I inflicted the rules and Catholic schools on them. Fortunately they have both seen it all for what it is as well. I hope that the new churches will be places where love and joy are practiced and celebrated and where people can come together without having to kneel and declare that they are “not worthy” to approach the Lord. Something which I now know had a very detrimental effect on my son’s mental health as a child .

    1. Dear Lisa,
      Recently I have been mulling over “Mother Mary” and her place in all this as well! I read your post and almost cried. I have felt tremendous guilt about not saying the rosary regularly anymore, because the words-they just don’t “fit” in me. And yet, there is a longing to know her and don’t know why. Your post touched me deeply, and I wanted you to know. I have moments of Catholic guilt assailing me from time to time too. And, like you, I’ve been taken in by some miraculous or prophetic stuff that suddenly reeks of church dogma and fear. Did you know your understanding of that boy’s messages, when you looked at the larger picture of him knowing priests, is exactly why Medjugorje has not been recognized? I read a fascinating article written by a priest who was high in the ranks at the Vatican-I believe he was the overseer to the exorcists-who was able to factually break down all the “miracles “ there and solidly prove the local priests were behind all of it. Now, some still believe, and I won’t judge. I love a miracle story as much as anyone else. Gosh, thank you for your courage to express your vulnerability on your journey. I am grateful to know I’m not a lone weirdo.

      1. Dear Fran
        I too am grateful to know I’m not alone and I’m sure you’re not a weirdo. My son calls himself a recovering Catholic. I think that probably sums up many of us xx

      2. oh my dear Fran, I have wondered about Mary as well, and why she does not seem to be a part of Jesus’s life now. I could never ask Jesus that question, but I have asked Thomas and he has told me only that she – and John – love the church, and of course Jesus is not part of that devotion. I believe we will understand all of this eventually.

    2. Oh my dear Lisa, I am so sorry! Oh my!! If if helps at all to hear this, my children went to Catholic schools for several years as well, and they have forgiven me. But, how awful!! No, you can be certain that nothing whatsoever that is in any way associated with Jesus can be fear-based at all, and that will certainly be true of His Future Church as well. Jesus is love, and nothing but love, continuously perfected. And Father Nathan is sweet love and joy! But the Catholic Church has its fear-based teachings deep in Western culture at this point. Even were the religion to disappear, it would be awhile before its roots were altogether gone. I am so sorry!

      1. Dear Roberta,
        Thank you.
        I was driving when I was listening to your latest interview with Father Nathan and had to fight back tears as it was so beautiful. Nothing but love and joy came through in it and his description of Mary was so moving.
        Than you too for all the work you’re doing to spread Jesus’s message of love and forgiveness

        1. Oh my dear Lisa, I do love Father Nathan! Such a sweet man he is! Thank you so much for being part of our listening community!

    1. Ah yes, my dear Karen. The Catholic Church has its roots still deep in my own husband, I am afraid, and I ask him on occasion when the Vatican will open its coffers and feed the hungry. More and more he feels as we do, but those fear-based habits run deep.

  4. “And meanwhile, the serpent writhing in its slow death-throes that is the Roman Emperor Constantine’s Christianity continues to gradually die. […] But as a Catholic, he has had to follow the orthodoxy not of Jesus, but of the spiritual descendants of the Roman Emperor Constantine,…”

    I believe it is exactly opposite of what you say. I observe that the church actually usurped the government in the action with Constantine. Remember; fairly shortly after that takeover event (a hundred years or so) the government totally collapsed and the corporate church took over control and gave us a thousand years of “dark ages” where they ruled with an iron fist. The corporate church completed its coup against the government. And remember, the government was in serious decline even during the Constantine event.

    The rich and powerful all gravitated to the power positions of the corporate church (and invented new and more power positions for their friends) because the corporate church was the ruler over the people. It was the center of power over the people. They always go to the levers of power and control over society.

    And now, what we have is a corrupt, criminal corporate church system, set in place by criminals (long ago) for the benefit of criminals. Not only is the corporate church collapsing, the entirety of their system is collapsing. Look at the banks, governments, institutions, etc. We are witnesses to their final death throws of desperation to remain in existence.

    1. Ah, but my dear Mark, that church was the very church that the Roman Emperor Constantine created when he presided over the First Council of Nicaea in the year 325. Nothing whatsoever of Jesus remained after First Nicaea except those four Gospels, which were hidden within the Bible that the Councilors assembled, and then the Gospels were altogether ignored. Oh, and also Jesus’s name. They used that. But that is it! All of modern Christianity is the Roman Emperor Constantine’s baby, through and through. Which is why it is dying now.

      1. All of that resulted in the Vatican becoming incredibly wealthy, I find it impossible to believe that there are still some people who just don’t “get” it

        1. Ah yes, my dear Lola, but as the Roman version of Christianity dies, perhaps Jesus really can create a version of Christianity that is all His own. His idea seemed impossible when He first presented it on Monday – I thought people wouldn’t be able to see the difference – but now with the website, I think this just might work….

  5. Hi Roberta, I do not no where to begin! A revelation came to me this week. I have left Christianity feom their I doacovered Buddhism then Hindu and U know what? Their all full of con men who try to teach U awakening ie enlightment theough meditation and so forth. They tell U life is an illusion but it is real in the sense of ones experiences. Deep state of meditation is where illusion lays. I saw gurus, priest and buddiat Rape and take money away along with brain washing the lost.

    I found U do not need anyone to teach anything because there is NOTHING TO ATTAIN..

    I like the idea of Jesus setting it straight. I hope this time humanity understands what Jesus was trying to relay to everyone. The message of LOVE and that we are eternel. No rules and no meditation to attain any state.

    I will await Jesus’s website!

    1. Oh my dear Litsa, I am sorry that you had to go through all of that, and so is our dear Brother Jesus, but His teachings really are the simplest and the most straightforward method for attaining spiritual growth that ever have been given to us. They are so amazingly simple! Whatever the question might be, love is always the answer – what could be easier?
      We had intended to release the website on Jesus’s original schedule, early in March, which would put it still two weeks away, but I think that He may now choose to make it live a little sooner.

    2. Thomas Belknap,
      It’s true– there is no free will.
      If Jesus knows the number of hairs on my head, then
      this universe 🌌 astoundingly organized.
      But it consists of only Love! Love expands forever!
      Love permits freedom. Love is roomy, not cramped.
      Good vibrations Love is fun. The only thing is you have to choose Love- that’s the free will.
      Then you get on the Peace Train and turn up the volume!
      ,

  6. i mean no disrespect to Buddhism or anyone..But what I am seeing in this hole thing is spiritual narcissism in the new age and or eastern religion
    I do not understand why people in that movement need to self realization of self.

    Where did Jesus ever say this

    I feel that there are many who have left Christianity for another hoodwink religion of enlightment and spending endless of hours meditating, seeking false gurus and now hallucgen drugs

    How will Jesus’s message reach those people?

    I am rooting for Jesus’s website to suceed and at least U give me hope.

    1. Oh my dear Litsa: “spiritual narcissism.” I love it! What a great turn of phrase – I wish I had thought to put it that way! That is exactly their problem, when the teachings of Jesus are so simple, so clean and effective and right to the point. Thank you!!

  7. My sister turned me on to your website a while back and I am enjoying reading your Blogs. (I’ve also been doing a lot of reading on afterlifeinstitute.org where Dr. Hogan helps people with ADCs, and so have become interested in your writings as I know that you & Dr. Hogan are collaborating on the teachingsbyjesus website.) I did want to ask you your thoughts about the name “Jesus” and I know a lot of people are saying his name was really “Yeshua”. Do you have any thoughts or opinions about this? Does it matter?
    Thanks very much,
    Jennifer

    1. Welcome to our merry band, dear Jennifer! Yes, Craig Hogan is doing most of the work on teachingsbyjesus.com – I really couldn’t do this work without him. And as for Jesus’s name, my spirit guide, Thomas, is His personal friend and calls Him Jesus, so I do as well; I haven’t heard anyone call Him anything else, although when they are speaking privately they speak in what I understand to be a pidgin of several archaic languages. In person, Jesus is a down-home sort of person who dislikes pretentiousness, and I think He would see using “Yeshua” as just an affectation.

  8. Thank you, I had kind of also thought it wasn’t important and, since most people know him as Jesus. It threw me off when people were saying ‘Well that’s not his real name!’ etc. etc. I’m comforted by your description of Him as down-home. I can’t wait until teachingsbyjesus goes live because it is SORELY needed. I have a few friends who have told me recently that they are afraid of death because they don’t know where they’re going. This is the saddest thing to me! I understand that because I grew up believing in eternal torment in hell and can’t tell you how many times I said the “Sinner’s Prayer” thinking oh maybe the first time wasn’t “good enough” or didn’t “take”, etc. Thank you and Craig Hogan for the work you’re doing!
    Jennifer

    1. Oh my dear beautiful Jennifer! “Eternal torment in hell”? Can you even imagine that Christianity used to talk of such nonsense? But we all have such joy ahead of us now, as we clear away all of man’s sadistical ideas and we can spend eternity teaching only the love-based truths that Jesus came to teach!

      1. Dear Roberta. In the Future Church of the New Jesus Movement there would be no alters. There wouldn’t be worship; not even “praise “ services.

        1. Oh my dear Ray, I really don’t know. Jesus doesn’t want worship, and you’re right: I cannot imagine altars. But I just don’t know!

  9. I am wondering how this will be bring about change in the world? In one way do we have the the right to bring it and.try to change people? Maybe its better that we just understand ourselvea and do the best we can. Buddha was a com man and lots of people.always trying yong to strive for something they can not achieve. Gurus who fool the guilable. 2500 years and his philosphy and religion did nothing to free anyone. Only to create more holy man who are fakes and collect.money?

    As for the Lord if LOVE ithen how is his website going.to make.somone understand?

    Do we now start a new religion? We have to see what will happen.

    1. Oh my sweet beloved Litsa, I don’t think that we should do anything but what Jesus asks us to do! He asked for teachingsbyjesus.com, and now He has asked us to make it live a couple of weeks early. Meanwhile, He has created this revival among so many young people that is still ongoing. He seems to be able to manage things quite well all on His own!

  10. Dearest Roberta,
    Your blogs are ever a reveal of a bright new vision; Jesus is indeed setting things aright.

    I too am fond of Fr Richard Rohr and his deeper appreciation of Catholic Christianity, as he understands it. I too have lived something of the transformative path of being broken and made again; the path of wounding and the struggle-relapse-struggle cycle inherent in the human blueprint. I’ve known the stripping away of my dreams, as when the hot, dry wind lays waste the dewy, spring garden. I mean, who among us has not experienced something of these things?

    And yet, I am nudged to realize the power of consciousness given to each of us is the power of creation. We are co-creators of our own stories and collectively of our world. Fr Richard Rohr’s key ideas seem to give weight to the transformative path of struggle and, sadly, of suffering. But what if the path of Light & Love is itself the salve of suffering, and a clear way to transformation beyond harsh struggle? Why can we not sub-create, or co-create, an earth that can become its own joyous, transformative world? Why can we not move our world closer to Heaven and away from mimicking the outer darkness?

    Roberta, I genuinely feel we are also the Creative Force; we are made from the same essence. The power of our consciousness remains as yet unexplored in these dim ages. As Our Jesus tells us, the power of faith can move mountains. Faith – or sacred, loving trust in God – awakens the power of heart and mind.

    Jesus actually has given us a Way to transform everything. Therefore shouldn’t His Teachings be given front, centre and continuous focus?

    Excuse me my dear, but isn’t one of America’s key qualities the capacity to think big, and then make that thinking into reality? Heck, that’s the ‘can do’ attitude you guys are known for –

    So why settle for seeing chiefly though the prism of tradition, and the bone-achingly slow grind of suffering laden transformation?

    It’s time to awaken to the Way of Jesus. Let’s perceive differently. To perceive differently changes not only ourselves, but the world we see before us. 🦋🙏🏼❣️

    1. My dear much-beloved Efrem, Jesus and Thomas seem to be talking now about Jesus’s actual Return, which is an event of such staggering importance that it boggles the mind. I don’t know the details or the timing, but if that is what this actually is, then we don’t want to get in the way! It is much bigger than just the United States, and “can do” would only mess it up. If that really is what all of this is a part of, then the only one who can do it is Jesus. And we all simply do our tiny part as He might invite us to do it, and otherwise we step aside and watch. And pray.

        1. Oh yes, my dear Ray, if that is what is happening, then it is exciting and boggling, both at once! Jesus gave me another significant change to His website last night to send to Craig, and I sent it at five in the morning. I think Jesus said it would be the last. But, who knows?

      1. The Return .

        Gosh Roberta, I had pictured different individuals and groups around the world getting the idea of The Way as the simplest method to Oneness with the Divine. Then, via internet and the human grapevine, more people would ‘get it’ and Jesus’ Teachings would spread with gathering momentum. Also, due to the human group-mind, people would find it easier to grasp and process both the significance and potential of this Divine movement as time moved on. That is, as increasing numbers of people get it, The Way would be easier and easier to process within each person.

        That’s how I pictured things happening; that’s where the ‘can do’ role of human beings comes in….We are conduits for Jesus who who remains with us but beyond our everyday doings, so as not to startle us. Or so I’d thought.

        You have now mentioned, “Jesus actual Return.”

        My dear Roberta, I can only respond with staggerment. 😯

        1. My much-beloved Efrem, I am staggered too. What I suspect now is that Jesus is experimenting. He has not been in a human body for two thousand years, and His powers are so much greater now than they were when He was on earth. He seems to be able to influence human minds fairly easily now. I think He wants to influence the world only gently, and only for good, and I believe that He is working out what the best ways might be for Him to do that.

      2. Jesus return is quite the bombshell!

        Thanks to Thomas, I will automatically think of pumpkins blowing up if I were to see his return.

        Interesting times ahead.

    1. Dear Jack,
      You are very kind. Thank you.
      I did teach high school and collage English and other subjects for a considerable time. So you guessed correctly.

      I’ve also penned half a novel, but life has interrupted this work somehow.. You know, this is the only major thing I have left unfinished. (I do have a need to see things through to the end.)

      So I’ve started to continue this novel as of a few days ago. Funny that you should mention this subject, and do so at this time. I am quite enjoying the process actually, and this story is insisting on being told. 😉
      🙏🏼🕊📖

  11. i am not trying to hog or hijack this blog. But Roberta, I just read your Jesus Confirmed. Its like my spirit guides are proving to me that JESUS is the way. I am blowned away with the blog and I know this blog is different then last Sunday’s. Because I am dyslexic it is so hard for me to sxpress myself. But I guess I was meant to find you 6 yrs ago on AFL forum and look how what has happened..I pray that Jesus will work in all.of our hearts. How can I serve God???

    Again I did. not mean to hikack the blog and Dr. Hiller is correct Emfram has a way with words…

    1. Hello.
      “How can I serve God?” Have you looked at Roberta Grimes’ book The Fun of Growing Forever? In all the fervor of Jesus starting Future Church and having a website starting up soon, it seems to be forgotten that the “simplest and most straightforward method for attaining spiritual growth that has ever been given to us” is a three step process.

      1. Gratitude
      2. Forgiveness
      3. Love

      These steps are also described in her blog, but you will have to do some searching. If you are looking for a next step, buy that book.

      1. Oh thank you, dear beautiful Jason! Yes indeed, I hear from people who use the teachings of Jesus in that book, and they find that they work very well to orient them and to help them to grow spiritually. Using the teachings that way certainly worked well for me!

    2. Oh my dear Litsa, of course you haven’t hijacked anything. This is all rather amazing, to be frank – Jesus is indeed the Way, and He has always been the Way, but I don’t know where this is going, and I don’t think that anyone does. Simply rest, my dear one! Let go and let God!

    3. Hi Litsa,

      I would have never known you were dyslexic. You always seemed to express yourself wonderfully to me.

    4. Dear Litsa,
      Much love to you! You are more than welcome to our blog family. And your communication is just fine! Your comments are very interesting.
      As you said, your spirit guides are proving to you that Jesus is the Way.
      That happens to me too, as well as those very pointed, so-called coincidences that occur when you least expect them!
      🙏🏼🕊❣️

  12. Dear Litsa, I thought you might be German (so English was a second language). I also thought you expressed yourself perfectly well. Much love. Ray

  13. HI Ray,

    I am Greek and dyslexia makes it hard for me to express myself
    gramtically. U are not the first to think English is my second, actually its my first…Lol

    1. Hi Litsa. I think I was trying to read too much into your first name. I know people with dyslexia and what a challenge that can be. I enjoy reading your posts here.

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