Posted by Roberta Grimes • September 24, 2022 • 52 Comments
Jesus
“Pray, then, in this way:
‘Father, who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’”
– Master Jesus, from The Bible (MT 6:9-13)
Our weekly Seek Reality podcast will be ten years old in June. And in those ten years I have received multiple thousands of emails from listeners that in retrospect have traced the long decline of Christianity. And that is surprising, given the fact that at least nominally, the reality that the podcast has been seeking has been the survival of death and the details of the afterlife. But we also have had a few Seek Reality guests with whom I have discussed the decline of traditional Christianity, so our listeners have learned that I have at least a passing interest in the religion as well. And I do invite emails from listeners. But still, so many who have emailed me have said some variant of the same three things:
Then they say, “So, what can I do now?” Most of these folks are in their sixties or seventies. And when I correspond with them, it is clear that they are bright, sensitive, often college-educated, and vastly troubled by their situation. Most are Catholics or mainline Protestants. And if they haven’t stopped attending church, they expect to make that decision shortly. I wish I had started years ago to keep track of the problems they each were having with the religion. But as best I can recall, these have been their complaints:
to Himself of God’s own Son before God can forgive us for Adam’s sin in eating the apple seems to be the hardest belief for most modern people to swallow, but there are other problems as well. People wonder whether the wine and bread really do become the blood and flesh of Jesus. And they wonder how it is possible for a loving God to condemn some of His children to burn alive in hell forever for even what seem to be trivial sins.So for them, and for Jesus, I am now going to try to give to my dear Friend His own Way. But apparently, Jesus no longer wants to call it His Way anymore. But instead, He wants to give it a whole new beginning. I talked last week about just how radical our beloved Friend has come to seem to me. So this fall we will publish The Fun of Loving Jesus – Embracing the Christianity That Jesus Taught. And then by the spring we hope to put the finishing touches on His planned website, called teachingsbyjesus.com. He seems just to want to walk the byways now, and teach and talk with and enjoy people. The last thing that Jesus wants to do is to start yet another religious variation! And after seventeen hundred years of Roman Christianity coming between Jesus and all the people who have been eager to know Him, He deserves the chance to speak directly with those who love Him, and in His own words to boot, without Roman Christianity any longer in His way.
The picture that heads our post this week is a close approximation of Jesus’s face as He chooses to look today. The effect is different, and much diminished, since here you cannot feel His gorgeously silken personal energy. If you were as close to Him as you are to this picture, and if He wasn’t thinking about toning it down, you would feel a stunning and amazing power that, oddly, doesn’t seem to bother the children. But this is how He looks to His friends who are constantly coming and going by His river in the astral plane, and to all the millions of aborted children in all the children’s villages, with whom He spends a great deal of His time. And Jesus with toddlers climbing all over Him is a beautiful sight to see! Whenever possible, miscarried fetuses are reared by their own relatives, but nearly all the abortion victims grow to young adulthood in children’s villages over eight or nine years of earth-time. And since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 in the United States, there have been so many babies flooding into the afterlife that their villages are everywhere. The children’s villages are off-limits to all but specially trained care-givers, and in the past fifty years Jesus has made those villages His personal mission.
But is the face in that picture how Jesus actually looked two thousand years ago? He says He is happy with the picture, but when I asked Him if that is how He looked on earth, He told me just that everyone looked like that back then. And of course, He may never have seen His own face in a mirror. I should add that when modern Christians who have just arrived in the afterlife come to Him to be blessed, He transforms at once into pale church-Jesus, with blue eyes and light-brown hair to His shoulders, and He blesses them. But the picture above is Jesus as He has looked to me whenever I have been allowed to remember a meeting with Him. Now I cannot imagine Him looking any other way.
Jesus intends to have us tell His story on His website from His own perspective. I have told Him that in that case, we ought to hire a young man to be His website’s narrator. Even maybe someone who looks like Him? But He shudders at the thought of that. Oh no. He trusts me, but that is only because Thomas can control me. He has been betrayed so often that now He trusts no one in a material body, which is a sad commentary on human nature.
Beyond His life story as He told it to me, the only other thing that He wants on His website is His Gospel teachings. No dogmas. No rules! Not even that we must love one another? He says No. He says that if you have rules, then you introduce the concept of Sin, which means that Fear comes next, and then you start the whole religion cycle over again. Oh lord. I am so looking forward to seeing how this goes!
It is a miracle that we have the Gospel teachings of Jesus preserved for us even as well as we have them preserved. When Jesus was in my mind for those two weeks that He channeled Liberating Jesus, He showed us how to recognize and pluck out the parts that Nicaea and others had later added to the Gospels. We will never have the words that were not preserved, but Jesus said as we were writing that book that the words that have survived are enough. And now I stop dead and I think yet again, oh my God. Why me?
The idea of giving Jesus a website came from Thomas. Jesus doesn’t seem to know what a website even is, beyond a way to get information to people more efficiently; but then, He is always very far beyond busy. He has learned by experimenting to put only enough of Himself in my mind that it doesn’t feel as if my head is exploding, and this time I am more than just an instrument to Him. But I really doubt that He has ever been anybody’s spirit guide! He reminds me of my old law professors. For example, I said to Him in my mind, “I think you came to earth to abolish religions and teach us to relate to God directly. Am I right?” He said in response, “Hmmm. That is an interesting proposition. Can you prove it? Where do I say that?” Oy. So now I am back in law school?
But I think I actually can prove it. There are four steps.
First, You were disgusted with clergymen. For example, You said, “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation” (MK 12:38-40). And, “Woe to you religious lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering” (LK 11:52). And also, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (MT 23:13). Right?
Second, You routinely violated the Sabbath rules. For example, you plucked grain and You healed on the Sabbath. And You said, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (MT 12:8). True?
Third, You frowned on public worship. You said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness
before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. … When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full” (MT 6:1-5).
And Fourth, You told us to worship God in secret. You said, “When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (MT 6:6).
Oh wait, And Fifth, You wanted us to get past worshiping idols! You said, “But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (JN 23-24). That is also against religions.
And you called clergymen snakes and vipers, but we don’t need to get into that. So, am I right? You came to teach us to get past all religions?
There was a pause. Then Jesus said, “It would be more impressive if you had all of that memorized.”
Distantly, I could hear Thomas chuckling. And Jesus has the driest sense of humor. What, so He was just teasing me?
There was a very recent time when that experience would have demoralized me. Jesus has to reduce His energies so much to be in my mind without overwhelming me that it was hard to tell, but I thought He was smiling and sending me a hug, although I could barely feel any of it. This working with Jesus feels as if I have coaxed the most exotic bird to perch on my finger, but He might at any moment fly away. I just sent Him the thought that we will get this all sorted out soon enough.
Oh, Roberta,
I was born into an agnostic family; in revolt, I went to any of the churches of my little friends. I got patent leather shoes to wear!
At seven, I asked for a Bible: they gave me a Dell paperback. The
story of Noah took 4 lines!
At 19, I started TM.
By 50, menapause hit me hard.
At 58 I was babtized in the Lutheran Church-that helped a lot.
My liver died when I was 67. I was lucky.I got a new liver.
I named him Shay,
‘a gift from God’. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Shay is my
neighbor!
Then I found you and things began to sort themselves out.
I agree with Jesus-no rules. Rules invite guilt.
You, Roberta, have been seeking for 50 years! You
deserve to work with Jesus.
Luckee!
Erica
Oh my dear beautiful Erica Paul, I am overjoyed that you have found us here, and that we were able to begin to help you! Each of us is a seeker, my sweet friend, and we have been seeking for a lot longer than we know.
Actually, I am told now that I volunteered for all of this before I was born. Thomas would not have guided me otherwise. And more and more, I feel that I am growing into the role – which had better happen soon, because I look around and I don’t see anyone else stepping forward!
Roberta,
My sister is visiting this weekend, and like me, she also is on a journey to know the real Jesus sans religion. It is so comforting to have a fellow journeyman to walk with and talk with! Thank you for this blog, and all the fellows who share within it.
I have a small idea of how you feel in contemplating some of what you are learning-the idea of a “head explosion” at times, and I find some of those explosions just reading the blog! LOL!
The stand out, simple as it may seem, to today’s blog is the picture. The moment I saw it, I felt a rush, “Jesus”! As I read, and you mention it is akin to how he looks now, I glanced back up to it, and I felt myself shaking inside and tears began. It is as though there is a sense of truth, and I felt like a child seeing my big brother I love! I wish I could explain it better. I wonder if he infused a bit of himself in that picture to help make the point of using it. There is an openness of that face, the eyes are clear and penetrating but also soft and full of life, love, joy. That is how I feel I “know” Jesus/Jeshua-love emanating no matter what I’ve said or done. They say “the eyes are the window to the soul”; and if that’s so, WOW! His eyes emanating his soul would be overwhelming, right? His is the face you want to talk to about anything…anything! Because you know you won’t be judged or made fun of.
One of the things I am learning to embrace about religion is compassion. Even though I don’t subscribe to any, I feel encouraged to have compassion, and love and acceptance. I have siblings who still cling to the Sunday mass ritual and are active in their congregations, but I choose to focus on their goodness and who they are, and accept that they believe, on some level their religion helps them to be good people. Some respond with the same kindness toward me, which fills me with relief; others can be harsh and critical and condescending in telling me they will pray for my poor soul.
I’m just beyond trying to please a god who seems to be a trickster in all the rules and beliefs that must be followed to be “pleasing” to him.
This is quite an entangled knot you and we are facing. I am grateful you are so determined! I take comfort that Jesus/Jeshua is even more determined!
Oh Fran, my dear beautiful friend, it brought me to tears too, the first time I saw it. And you can have no idea how hard I looked for it! I searched through hundreds of pictures of “young man” on photo websites with Thomas, and nothing. And suddenly, there He was. Thomas spotted Him first, but he would. The clothes and hair are different, but otherwise that is Jesus’s face as He looks now.
And that would make sense, wouldn’t it? He was a Mediterranean Jew in His last lifetime on earth, and He chose not to ascent after that death but instead to remain where He could care for all the millions of Christianity’s victims. Yes indeed, my dear Fran, it’s an emotional moment to first actually see His face!
Dear Roberta, I look forward to every Sunday and love reading your thoughts about Jesus’s plans to move forward with a web site to teach us about His Love for us and how we can have peace in a world that is filled with anything but peace at this time in our lives. But I’m disappointed that He has decided not to come back to us when we need Him so desperately. In previous blogs you mentioned that He has no need to come back to this earth again. But the scripture Promised that He would! When he was taken up into Heaven with his disciples looking and watching Him, the angels asked them, “Why are you looking up there? He will come again in the same manner as you see Him go, coming on the clouds of Heaven.” Are you telling us that the cloud He is coming back on is the Internet Cloud? Not real clouds in the sky? It is my understanding that when He returns, the earth will be in such bad shape that it’s going to be remade as new again; a new Heaven and a new earth. That’s what is called the Blessed Hope. Are our hopes going to be dashed to pieces – no hope of His return to us, his loved one? His Bride?
Oh my dear Betty, I believe that you are talking about the Book of Revelation, and the Apocalypse? Please understand that the Book of Revelation has nothing to do with Jesus. It was part of a genre of revenge literature that was produced in a time of great Roman persecution, and was added to the Bible as the Council of Nicaea was assembling it in 325. Actually, I was told in college that they chose the worst and bloodiest example they could find! But the Book of Revelation has nothing to do with Jesus. Roman Christianity and all that it taught has never had anything to do with the genuine Jesus.
In fact, of course, Jesus never left us. He stayed as close to us as He could – the entrance level of the afterlife – and He welcomed and healed all the millions of victims of Roman Christianity as they returned home over the past seventeen hundred years. And now, with that phase ending, Jesus loves each one of us so much that He and Thomas have been working out a way for Him to spread His genuine teachings to all the world, without a religion in the way. Thomas feels that a website will be the best way to do it.
Although Jesus does love each one of us enough that I do think He would like nothing better than to step off a cloud in His astral body in Central Park and start hugging people! But how well would that work out, do you think?
Hi Roberta, sorry for the delay; the Bible verse I was quoting from is Acts 1: 1-11. Please re-read those passages. Not everything has to do with Revelation. And we must be careful with passages that to our minds may have been inserted by others; when in fact they are actual memories that are being shared of events that really happened.
Thank you, my dear Betty! That’s very helpful. What you quote is from the Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles. It doesn’t include anything about Jesus restoring a new heaven and new earth, a blessed hope and so on, and in fact none of that was promised by Jesus at all. The plain fact is that Jesus did not found Christianity, and Christianity altogether ignores what Jesus taught.
Dear friend I have been following you for years and it has been wonderful because you have liberated your opinion, your experience with mine which in most cases I totally agree with and is liberating. I have never had a response from you but if you and I were to sit down and talk- it would be rich because if my experiences . My only comment today is I loved the picture of the modern face of Jesus-,the color of the skin etc- the other picture as it shows up on my phone looks like a light skinned man – and that Jesus was not . Jesus would be the multi racial immigrant of today. Thank you
Oh my dear lovely Barbara, how wonderful it is to see you here! Yes, Jesus certainly does look mixed race – I told a local friend that it’s almost as if He is trying to look as if you had put all of humanity through a blender. He is a perfect blend. But I have seen reconstructions of Mediterranean Jews of 2000 years ago, and my closest childhood friend was Mediterranean Jewish. That is very much the way Jesus looks, too. And you know, I was excited to have found this picture, but I hadn’t intended mainly even to blog about that. What was on my mind this week as I finish up the book is the irony of knowing that Jesus really did intend to get us past all religions! And what on earth will come after religions? I really cannot even imagine it!
Dearest Roberta,
As one of the small cadre of contrarians on your blog, I propose the following as a counter-example of “Jesus wants no religion established. ” Consider a young man who for fleeting moments thought about becoming a Roman Priest but scotched that due to the lack of female companionship. He did go on retreats, however. In particular, he went on a retreat held in a Vermont Hospital where he was assigned some hospital areas where he would serve as a chaplain. He said he dreaded having to assist in anything gynaecological, so wouldn’t you know it, but he heard over the PA that he was to report to the OB/GYN area. Oh no, he thought, but it turned out quite different than he imagined.
Shortly after that, the hospital was visited by Jehova’s Witnesses. Our subject dismissed them with “I read the bible, I love Jesus.” As the Witnesses ambled down the hallway, our subject felt struck and spoke to them something like, “I don’t believe as you do, but I am impressed with your bravery. I feel a little ashamed of my recent behavior” Our subject earlier had reported that that feeling was a message from God to continue on his path to do more work for Him.
He took it to heart and continued as he thought he was commanded and several years later was ordained a priest. A very effective one, I might add.
I maintain that planting a suggestion in the subject’s mind was an act in support of religion, though I realize I might be mistaken about that, and in fact, I rather hope I am mistaken. What say you?
Yours,
Cookie
Oh my dear Cookie, I have no idea! I have just read your comment four times, trying to understand your point, and I’m sorry but I must be really thick! Please help me to better understand it?
Dear Cookie,
The way I read your post, I am thinking that you ask, “if Jesus came to abolish religion, why would this person be guided and inspired to become a priest”?
Is that what you’re asking?
Thank you dear Fran! If that is the question, then there are ways to serve people spiritually outside the confines of Roman Catholicism, and those ways would even more perfectly free our friend to teach what Jesus taught, and with a wife by his side if he chose to do that.
I should add though, my dear beautiful Cookie, that even if you are a bit of a contrarian here, we do love you all the same!
Dearest Roberta,
Thank you for not stinting on love. I am rethinking being a contrarian as I am now assuming that being one does not raise my vibration level.
Yours,
Cookie
And my dear Cookie, Jesus actually made the point to me just last night, in the middle of the night, as I was waking up – perhaps He was thinking of what you had said here – that if He could save the religion in some way for those who still love it, then He would. And that’s amazing, when you think of it! I should think He would have every reason to hate the religion. But, no. He actually said that. It’s just that fear is “baked in the cake.” And I have no idea where He got that phrase! But it’s true. So He said He has no choice but to go back Galilee and begin again. By the time I was fully awake, He was gone.
Dear Roberta,
Love your weekly blogs here. Thank you so much!
I think I’m not alone when I say that I’m confused about the “no rules”.
I understand the reasons behind it, but no rules at all? There is then no sin?
Then what about murder, war, incest and other sexual behaviors, physical and mental abuse? Exploitation? And the list goes on.
Of course, when humans are ruled by unconditional love, then there are indeed no rules, because there would be no need for them, as there would never be any action that would cause suffering upon others, as everyone would be giving, compassionate, kind, etc. Don’t we still need rules until mankind gets there, i.e., a world without any actions that cause misery?
If there are no rules, we should dispel the Ten Commandments?
Is there something I am not understanding?
Thanks for your reply in advance.
THANK YOU, my dear beautiful Adrian! I find this alarming, too! But yes indeed, that is what Jesus says. His teachings cannot overspread the earth unless and until we do away with even the concept of sin.
I thought that would be a topic of discussion on Sunday, but instead everyone seems to have shrugged.
And this is really nothing new for Him. Any honest scholar who uses just the four Gospels can find said in those four books everything that Jesus is saying to us now, as Thomas has been guiding me for the past three years to blog about, although I have been quite reluctant about a lot of it. But to have the Man standing there insisting to me that He wants us to say it this way so plainly on His website is flat amazing!
(And BTW, The Ten Commandments as such were already gone when Jesus replaced the whole Law and the Prophets with God’s Law of Love.)
It is we who have the trouble making this transition in our own minds. Jesus clearly says these are the greatest (meaning superior) commandments—if you follow them, you simply CANNOT fail. Of course, they are hard because of our habits related to all the dogma and rules. Love everyone, forgive everything. These are behaviors rather than rules. As for sin, from the perspective of the Greater Reality, a wise guide has said to me, in an infinitely creative being, “There is no darkness, only discovery.”
Thank you, my dear beloved Mike and Arrow! And as we move toward creating a website for Jesus that will express His wishes in the simplest terms, what He is saying is simply staggering to me. I am having troubling expressing it. Jesus says that even the notion of sin is a religious term that is damaging to our spiritual health. He says that He is not and He never has been a religious figure. Christianity is not a religion, but rather the Christ is a Teacher whose coming was prophesied. He fulfilled that prophesy. Now as it dies, the religion can be cleared away so the prophesy can be fulfilled.
So indeed, it would be better to talk about behavioral recommendations rather than of rules. Rules interfere with our greatest gift of free will.
Yes?
Oh my dear beloved Adrian, yes indeed! Thomas doesn’t allow me to remember my meetings with Jesus if ever they might occur. When I ask him why, he tells me that I have the teachings. He doesn’t want me to remember and quote anything that Jesus is saying now, I think because it is pretty radical. But I met with Jesus last night, and I do recall some of the essence of it. And I am past the shock of it, and into accepting that since it is truly His will, then I will obey it with joy! Roman Christianity was not His Christianity, so He renounces it. Since Roman Christianity did not teach love and forgiveness but instead it used His name to accumulate power and control, it is salt that has lost its taste. The Christianity that begins now is His Christianity. He actually seems to be quite cheerful about that.
Dearest Roberta,
What an eminently beautiful, trustable and loving face has been chosen as Our Jesus’ modern look!
It is arresting, is it not? Even the eyes of the visage in this photo somehow suggests that He believes in us; we are gonna make it after all, and He knows it. Why, He looks even knowingly enthusiastic about it!
The face of Love contains all the facets of love: Perfect presence, adoring patience, constant forgiveness coupled with the joy of it all. Jesus inspires us on our journey to Spirit. It is as Mike J-R and Arrow tell us:
“There is no darkness, only discovery.”
🌿🙏🏼❣️
Oh my dear wonderful Efrem, so perfectly said, as you so often say things perfectly! But it is the Lord Himself who has chosen to look as He does for us. No darkness, only discovery. Now in truth it all begins!
“No darkness, only discovery”
Efrem/Mike/Roberta: Can one of you elaborate on what this actually means? I’m having trouble understanding this — thanks
My dear Lola and everyone, I believe it means that with all the rules gone, fear will be gone. And with fear altogether gone, we have only the light of discovery!
Oh my dear beloved friends, this is all happening so fast. I have been reading even very recent blog posts today, trying to track this, and in July, He seems to have been okay with Christianity, at least mostly. Or somewhat. He is such a sweet Man by nature, and so patient and kindly! It’s as if suddenly that was that for Him. He had reached His limit. And you cannot blame Him! I just don’t quite know how to handle this now.
quote: “…this is all happening so fast. I have been reading even very recent blog posts today, trying to track this, and in July, He seems to have been okay with Christianity, at least mostly. Or somewhat. He is such a sweet Man by nature, and so patient and kindly! It’s as if suddenly that was that for Him. He had reached His limit.”
Risking again being vilified by ‘the usual crew’, is it likely this spiritually evolved individual is truly as unsettled as it appears?
Wouldn’t such an apparent sea-change give you cause for concern, Roberta?
Oh my dear Mac, what a great question! And you are right, of course – that would not be likely, and that is not at all what has been going on. In fact, I have met with Jesus twice during the night – the second time was last night – and these were not usual meetings. Last night the meeting seems to have been entirely mental, Thomas doesn’t seem to have been there (although he tells me he was), and the slowest learner in the universe seems finally to be getting it now.
I have read through The Fun of Loving Jesus, which I now realize must have been entirely channeled. Duh! I can write nothing on my own! Almost te only thing that has to be changed is that in the book, three years ago He still wanted to call His movement The Way of Jesus. Now, He wants to go all the way back and put us right at His feet as He first said the Gospel words! But that is the only change that needs to be made. And I think this book is amazing. It’s the best of the Fun books. It even has a cover already designed. I can’t wait to see what you all think of it!
But Mac and everyone, try to imagine that you are Jesus. There are more that two billion people living in the world who think that You founded Roman Christianity, and who look to You for the truth? And now You are about to tell them that in fact Roman Christianity is a lie foisted on them seventeen hundred years ago? How on earth do you do that?
Very, very lovingly.
I think he needs to stress that Roman Christianity started long after the crucifixion, and common sense will tell people that he could not have been responsible. They used his name to promote fear and violence, so he is also a victim – even more so.
This is precisely how I interpret this riddle.
Dear Roberta. I will say ditto to those above who love the picture you and Thomas chose for the modern Jesus. I could put that on the wall.
I was also, like you, a bit at a loss about Jesus saying no rules, but I think we need to distiguish between the secular and the spiritual. Each society needs rules and laws to function, but true spirituality is just about seeking and discovering reality, about inner transformation. Of course, as more people become spiritually transformed, so too will the societal rules tend to become more humane. I love the quote from Mike’s guide Arrow. The guides have a beatiful way of packing a lot into concise ittle pithy statements.
I know you only look at the four canonical gospels, but I was just reading a line from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene which seems in accord with what you wrote about this week. It quotes Jesus as saying, “Beyond what I have already given you, do not lay down any further rules nor issue laws as the Lawgiver, lest you too be dominated by them.” Since Lawgiver is capitalized, I’m guessing that means trying to speak as God’s representative, such as a pope might.
Yes exactly, dear wonderful Scott. When I told Him last night that we need SOME laws in order to have order, He said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.” Which is also a Gospel quotation. Every objection I had, He had that kind of answer. He says that religions have only made our cultures WORSE, and not better, with all their rules. Get rid of Roman Christianity, leave only His Christianity plus Caesar’s rules to keep order at first, and then you can begin to bring the kingdom of God in each human heart. But He wasn’t upset. He was actually quite cheerful.
I’m so glad Our Jesus is cheerful about the forthcoming Kingdom of God! I reckon we can feel His cheer if we meditate on it. 😉
And it is so true that the Kingdom is established in each of our hearts! That is where the true kingdom is; no human-made, earthbound sovereignty is this, subject to the fates and being gnawed down by time. The Kingdom of our hearts cannot be taken away by anyone and it transcends time as we do.
Finally, it will be something real. Finally something Divine to replace the tired, corrupt, inconsistent, money-power based decaying systems of man.
Roberta, I long for the day when wealth is measured in terms of lovingkindness instead of material assets. A day when predatory systems like Hollywood Inc – where glamour and shining celebrity hide a dark, seething underbelly of egregious crimes against the innocent and the powerless – will be swept away.
Somehow I think I’ll be seeing the Kingdom arrive from somewhere in the afterlife, but as long as it gets here, I will be fulfilled. 🙏🏼❣️🌅
Ah yes,, my dear beautiful Efrem. And the strong sense that I am getting from Jesus is that He wants to get down at last to what is real. No, we MUST get down to what is real! That is why my podcast and our first website are called Seek Reality. And it was Thomas who came up with the name of the podcast ten years ago, but perhaps ultimately it came from Jesus. If you don’t have reality, what do you have? And yes, the kingdom of God will arrive from the general direction of the afterlife, my dear lovely friend, because that is our real life, after all!
I think we are at a point now where we can accept change, and I think Jesus knows this. We are no longer cowering in a corner clinging to old rules and regulations. However, it’s hard for me to believe he is “okay” with Christianity if he wants to eliminate man made religions
Oh, Lola, I do hope your are right about our being at a point to accept such changes. 🙁 I ain’t seein’ it though…..
My dear, Jesus is not at all okay with Roman Christianity! But He is the Christ. He therefore claims for His own teachings the title that the Romans unjustly usurped. And since this will be a movement devoid of leaders and rules, and not a religion, there is no harm to come from that.
Dear Lola,
You said it my dear!
We have stopped cowering and clinging to old rules. There seems to be a new ‘spirit’ of bold inquiry in this world. It is a brave seeking that allows us to turn on our own cradle-to-grave conditionings and eject them, while opening and growing to Spirit.
And did not Jesus do exactly that two thousand years ago? What if He was actually speaking to us now, when He was here then, in old Judea?
“But Mac and everyone, try to imagine that you are Jesus. There are more that two billion people living in the world who think that You founded Roman Christianity, and who look to You for the truth? And now You are about to tell them that in fact Roman Christianity is a lie foisted on them seventeen hundred years ago? How on earth do you do that?”
Such are yet more rhetorical questions. There is, of course, no way it can be done that would not hurt many/most/all of those couple of billions – if they were persuaded of the message in the first place.
Folk in this world struggle just to get their heads around the fundamental message of survival and eternal life. Explaining – even very, very lovingly – to two billion followers that what they’ve been taught is a crock might prove to be above even the Nazarene’s pay grade…. 🙁
We’ll see…..
Oh my dear Mac, I have learned not to be be fooled by the fact that Jesus has chosen to look as if He is just starting out in life and is simply preternaturally wise. In fact, He knows precisely what He is doing. He has been watching and waiting and planning for centuries.
I don’t ever see the Nazarene but his appearance would not matter anyway.
Time will tell how his plans work out the next time around – whenever that may be. Doubting Thomas? oh yes!
You don’t see Him? Try looking at the top of this blog post.
That’s just a single representation and I don’t need one anyway. I’ve never needed one. 🙂
ROBERTA’A ANSWER – SINCE THE THREAD ENDED:
You know, my dear Mac, you never cease to confound me. It seems sometimes to be your wish in life to attract disapproval, and I have never understood why. A single representation. True. But I have met with Jesus, the risen Christ, in the astral plane. It was by far the most amazing experience of my life. And because I love you all, I searched through hundreds of photos and I finally found a reasonable approximation of what Jesus actually looked like on the night that, amazingly I met Him. Hair a bit different, and different clothing, but indeed His face. And you dismissed my experience. And Him. And me.
I ask that no one respond to this, please.
What is different now, you ask?
1) We have seen the result of 1700 years of Roman Christianity’s dogmas and practices which utterly ignore what Jesus taught, and its splintering into 42000 versions worldwide.
2) As a result of what it has done, the religion is now failing, but yet Jesus is the first or second most popular person worldwide, even 2000 years after His death.
I hear from many people who say they are leaving the religion because they mistrust its teachings, but they still love Jesus. For Him to come out now with a book and a website about ONLY His teachings and call it HIS version of Christianity might appeal to some of those people? Maybe.
distinction without a difference?
What am I not seeing? Enough now though as the verification system appears to be targeting me.
Well, it clearly wasn’t Jesus’ fault, so I don’t understand what the problem is. He too is a victim here.
Oh my dear Lola, I see Jesus as the ultimate victim, although I don’t think He sees Himself that way. His name Has has been used for personal gain by the Roman church and by clergymen for almost two thousand years! But as Thomas has pointed out to me, now He is the most famous person in the world. And He owns that, at least. It’s something He can use.
The etheric world is one where thoughts bring about changes, albeit perhaps transiently.
But we live in this physical dimension where thoughts need accompanying physical actions to effect change. Thought, talking or writing seems unlikely to bring about the changes so longed for.
It’s two millennia since that was last tried yet spiritual progress since has been glacially slow. What’s different now?
See my answer above.
I did not seek to attract disapproval but I found some issues that do not sit comfortably with me.
I acknowledge, though, that your blog is not the right place to raise the points I have and I apologize for so doing.
No worries, dear.