Posted by Roberta Grimes • August 01, 2020 • 22 Comments
Jesus, The Teachings of Jesus, Understanding Reality
“Everyone who hears these words of Mine
and acts on them may be compared to a wise man
who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew
and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall,
for it had been founded on the rock.”
– Jesus, from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7, Verses 24-25
One thing that strikes you when you read the Bible from Genesis through Revelation is that Jesus speaks to us as a modern man. In contrast, the Old Testament feels ancient! Parts of it are beautiful, true, but still it all seems pat and religious, just old ideas and divine edicts that no longer seem to fit us well. So I have been freshly astonished each time I have left the Book of Malachi and begun to read the Gospel of Matthew. We are suddenly in the modern world! Jesus is amazingly timely, speaking in simple and comfortable terms and seeming almost to be answering questions as soon as they occur to us. He speaks from the timeless Godhead. After the Gospel of John come The Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s Epistles, books not so ancient as the Old Testament but still seeming deep in the long-ago. The difference between the rest of the Bible and those four Gospels is the difference between reading dusty manuscripts and watching breaking news on a flat-screen TV.
Jesus speaks to us directly. Today. You have the sense, too, that people who read the Gospels two thousand years from now will find in them the same living Friend Who speaks in their own language. Jesus lives! He is alive in the present in a way in which no other historical or religious figure can be said to be alive. And as we freshly read the Gospels, we find that He told us two thousand years ago precisely what He wants from us now. Last week Thomas pulled from the Lord’s teachings four characteristics of His modern Way:
This gives us a great beginning, but we need a lot more information! Let’s ask Jesus if He will share with us more about what He has in mind as we begin to implement His Way:
teachings. They are not to be folded into Judaism, nor even read together with the Psalms and the Prophets! He says, “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (MT 9:16-17). So not only must our message be just the Lord’s words prior to His Resurrection, but we also must not create a mess of burst skins and spilled wine by attempting to incorporate into the Lord’s Way anything that was said before His birth.
God. Those beside the road are those who have heard; then a demon comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe. … Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but they have no firm root, so they believe for a while but in time of temptation fall away. The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit in abundance” (LK 8:11-15).
beating our egos down. He says, “Many who are first will be last, and the last, first” (MK 10:31). “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (MT 23:11-12). “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great” (LK 9:48). In my experience, raising your personal vibration serves to lessen the ego’s hold, so it makes you naturally gentler and milder. And that is a very good thing! When Jesus tells us that to enter the kingdom of God we must become like a little child, He is giving us a basic law of spiritual physics. He says, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all” (MK 10:14-15).
So now you see how different the Christian religion is from what the Lord has been telling us all along that He has in mind! And you also can see that what He asked of us while He was living on the earth can just as easily be our charge today. Indeed, it may be only in the modern world that His Way can actually transform the world! Two thousand years ago, all He could do was to set His disciples on the open road with a warning to be careful (MT 10:16-20) as they followed His directive to “make disciples of all the nations … teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (MT 28:19-20). Lifting the consciousness vibrations of the world in such a gradual way would likely have taken until “the end of the age,” even if they had at the time truly understood what His charge was to them!
Jesus is with us still today, as alive for us now as He ever has been. He is calling on us to use the power of all our twenty-first-century tools to deliver to humankind His most essential messages. The kingdom of God is at hand! All it needs now is for those of us who have awakened to His eternal truths to make teaching and living The Way our priority….
“Everyone who hears these words of Mine
and does not act on them
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
The rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and it fell—and great was its fall.”
– Jesus, from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7, Verses 26-27
Dear Roberta,
There will be more to come, I am sure, but upon my first read I will say that you have laid this out so clearly that it ought to feel like a burden lifted from everyone who wants to follow the Master but is baffled by the “religion.” Without going into detail, I was just having a conversation relevant to this blog entry with my son. I think when he’s ready he will be not only interested to read that the Way gives him what he’s been looking for but actually relieves him of what he’s not!
Dear Mike, I love hearing that you think this information might help your son! I have three adult children who were reared as Catholics and are not even Christians now; and grandchildren who are growing up to roll their eyes whenever my work is mentioned. For a long time I’ve been blaming myself! But I can see now that one of the great advantages of approaching Jesus freshly, without the religion in the way, will be that the jaded next generation that has been so utterly turned off by the non-spiritual aspects of Christianity – including my own children! – might be willing to give Jesus alone another look.
I believe it’s safe to say millions of people respect and admire Jesus whether they acknowledge His historical and cosmic role or not. Many refer to Him by His actual Aramaic name to avoid the religious connotations. If they could appreciate His actual Way, who can say what these millions might feel.
This is a great point, Mike. Jesus is generally said to be the most famous person in history, and he customarily rates among the top two or three in popularity worldwide. His favorables are extraordinarily high! So if anyone can get people to listen to Him, it surely is the Lord Himself. Let’s just see where this goes….
Dear Roberta
Here I thought I was the only one up in the pre dawn reading your blog! Lol! Good Morning Mike! Even more astounding is that Mike’s comments are aligned with my writing intentions! I feel “lightened” in body, soul, and spirit after reading! I also thought how it may help my son lighten his load! He’s been so “let down” by traditional conventional religion, but also by any atheistic viewpoint. I also was reminded of a dream I had about 5 years ago, the world had gone through painful changes, and religions were passing away as “authorities.” I was with a group of people who were renewed and helping heal the past pains from communities, when we came upon a small gathering outside a church, which was locked. They were like lost sheep and though some in my group admonished them the old church going was gone, I felt such compassion and love for them, I walked up to the doors, asked God to open them, and He did, so they could just sit and rest and pray ( there were no more “masses.”) and be comforted in His presence. And the people in my group were surprised at my “allowing” but their hearts softened too. I have recalled that dream with clarity and often pondered it. Perhaps the changes are upon us. Thank you ever so much-and Thomas too, for your diligence in sharing the “Good News”❤️ Fran
Dear Fran, the dream that you recount here is fascinating! Whenever a dream remains vivid that way, it generally is a communication dream, and in this case it likely was a communication from your spirit guide. I’m not sure exactly what it means – lots of what might seem real in a communication dream is actually symbolic – but I do agree that it seems to be pointing toward the uplifting of humanity’s consciousness vibrations that we all are expecting to begin soon. Here’s hoping that at the very least what happens will uplift and spiritually feed and empower all our beautiful children!
Well done Roberta! One of your best posts. Yet it is difficult to see the anarchy that destroys the houses built on the weak foundations. As an ordained elder and minister in the Methodist church it became clear to me the fundamental dogmas and doctrines were in conflict with the teachings of Jesus. I left the church, therefore in essence destroying my support of the church. I certainly respect the countless good deeds and positive support the church can give. These actions are mostly rooted in the love of others as taught by Jesus. Sadly these acts will not reveal to us the truth that sets us free. I will not elaborate on that, as words point to the Way, but not the Way itself. The Way is a state of happening and being.
Dear Michael, for you to say this is one of my best is high praise indeed! I agree that it is difficult to watch how much floundering is happening now, all these houses built upon the sand, the people in anguish about their inability to sufficiently adhere to Christianity’s demands, and the general fact that things are really, deeply off track spiritually in the West. I’m so glad that fixing this gigantic mess is not up to us! Instead, we each have our small part to play. I take a lot of comfort in reminding myself that this is all being orchestrated far above our pay grade!
It is a relief to release the ego position of responsibility for things far beyond our responsibility. The false self propagates a sadness and anxiety about the state of mind and affairs that is indeed far beyond our control. The old and time worn expression of let go and let God might just be the best we can do.
Dear Michael, the sense that great work is underway at the highest levels of reality but it might be entirely up to me to do the on-earth part has been heavy on my heart for the past five years. Ever since we wrote Liberating Jesus! I had never wanted to write that book, but Thomas insisted I was the one to do it… even though after it had been channeled, he did admit that if I had continued to balk, there were others who would have been called upon to do it. The book would have been written, Thomas assured me in the fall of 2015; but wasn’t I glad to have been the one chosen?
Well, no. Because now that book was my baby, and I had no idea how to give it the exposure that it needed! I mean, who was I to be doing any of this??
Really, it is only in the past year or so, as Thomas has been giving us this charge more clearly, that I have come to see that this truly is a gigantic effort! We do have a distinct part to play, but there are so many others who also have parts to play and who can step in and help if I mess up, that I have no burden at all to bear. It really isn’t all up to me. “Let go and let God,” indeed! You have no idea how joyous I am now!
Roberta, I am a mediator have been doing this for about 10 years, shortly after starting, my life changed, I began to listen to Jesus not religion.I found what it meant to know love,joy and peace.I just read your book FUN of growing FOREVER,Thank you for your sunday message and the book.
Dear Millie, thank you for doing such important work. I had thought at one time of becoming a mediator as well. Blessed are the peacemakers! And based on my emails, it seems clear that the shift is coming now for many people, that moment when we discover that we can no longer countenance the spiritual inadequacies of the religion itself, while listening to and ever more deeply loving Jesus alone feels like coming home. This is such a beautiful time, both in history and in our own lives!
“Who do you say I am?” Jesus asked His disciples and posed the question in Matthew 16:13-16, Mark 8:27-29, and Luke 9:18-20.
Dear Dan, I think the point you are making is that Jesus asks the same question of us today, and we each have a relationship with the Lord that is so individual and so intimate that we each give our own individual answer.
The three Gospels that you quote are called the Synoptic Gospels, and they are closely related, Matthew and Luke most of all. it has been decided by scholars that MT and LK share the simpler Gospel of Mark as a source, and they also share another source (now lost) that must have been written in Greek and is for convenience called “Q,” beyond which each has some material that is unique. The question that you quote is one item of content sufficiently important that it ended up in all three Synoptic Gospels. As you know, there also are maybe a dozen other ancient tales about the life and work of Jesus that were discovered in the 20th century, some of which contain new material. I have read the most prominent of these Gnostic Gospels, and been surprised to find that they contain a great many words but they add very little of substance to the four Gospels that made it into the Bible. But oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were a way to just find a single source that could tell us everything of importance that Jesus said in the three and a half years that He was actively teaching?
Dearest Roberta,
It does feel as though every historical figure is dead but Jesus – our Jesus – is alive and He is with us now. He has never really left us, has He?
It’s funny you know; I don’t feel as if I’ve found The Way but rather that The Way has found me. And this is in a world where everything seems to have gone off point. If a good idea is left with human beings they will ruin it before too long.
Even the Greeks of yore seemed to have lost the essential point by the time of Aristotle. Then they began to divide matters spiritual from matters material and refocused on the latter. (Socrates was the last great Greek philosopher who encouraged people to look directly for and to the Source.)
It seems that ever since then, Western civilization has compartmentalized the world and is hardly capable of seeing the Whole. We have been encouraged to see duality and multiplicity, without realizing ourselves as an expression of the Oneness of all existence.
So it is my ardent hope that The Way will bring us home. The master stroke, Roberta, is that The Way will not be made into a religion. As a secularly taught, living philosophy it can reach generations new and old. It can enrich each person’s life naturally, leaving one free of the guilt laden imperatives of religion.
Hence, I will ‘let go and let God’ as Michael (above) wisely says. Though I realize that I need to LIVE The Way and not just conceptualize it or talk about it. And in starting to do so, I am already feeling lighter and brighter. ☺️😉
This time we need to keep the focus on Jesus and know that He has everything in hand. (It is a such a relief that we humans are not in charge! If we don’t forget this fact, things are far less likely to go off point.) And by not putting humans on pedestals perhaps we can remain true to the Lord’s purpose.
Hopefully we can be like the pioneers of our towns and cities, who planted trees that they never saw grow to maturity. They planted in the the hope that their grandchildren’s children would rest happily in the cool shade of the burgeoning oak, or marvel at the beauty of the lilac-purple flowering jacaranda in Spring. Instead of making names for themselves they gave us beauty, cooling shade and living green everywhere.
Dear Efrem, no indeed, Jesus never has left us for a moment. And what is worst to me about the division between material and non-material studies that goes back as far as Aristotle is that the material was then considered to be real and worthy of study, while the non-material was considered to be flaky and imaginary. This bias has persisted for thousands of years, even though the truth has always been otherwise: it is the non-material that is real, while even the notion that anything is solid is part of one grand, consciousness-based illusion!
And yes, we must live The Way in order to build it and model it for our children… but first, we’ve got to figure it out! If we end up creating another dogma-based Christianity – even if they are all different dogmas – then we have failed. Our great task is to build a movement that is based only in the living words of Jesus as each new generation freshly interprets them. That’s the goal. Now, let’s see what we can do with it!
Dearest Roberta,
This week’s post is really tremendous! So is your kind reply to me; there is so much in them, that it is clearly not possible to discuss everything in this forum.
Yes Roberta, I’m coming to see that it is the non material that is real, while this ‘solid’ world of ‘matter’ is actually an illusion that human consciousness believes is real –
As you know there are often experiments done with human perception all over the world. I remember one such experiment done in the US where a group of test subjects were asked to watch a short film of a basketball game.
Typically, there was a team of red shirts playing against a team of blue shirts. The spectators were asked to watch the game closely. After a time they were asked what they noticed in play. The spectators talked of moves and baskets achieved, they described the men and women playing, they even commented on the expressions of the players etc…
Then, the scientist running the experiment asked if anyone had noticed the – gorilla – dancing across the basketball court in the background. The spectators were astonished! They thought this was a trick of some kind because not one of them had seen a gorilla on the court as the game had been played. Then sure enough, as the film was replayed for them, the spectators saw a person in a full gorilla costume jiggle and twist his way across the floor. They were astonished! Many believed this second showing was actually a different film that added a gorilla just to trick them. As the scientist assured the spectators that this was indeed the same footage, the penny dropped: they had all watched the game closely and had all missed seeing the dancing gorilla, down to the last man.
Roberta, the conclusion explained that if a person clearly expects to see one thing, the mind somehow edits out the totally unexpected thing that they happen to see as well… Human focus and expectation ensures that they see only what they expect to see. This occurs to the point that the mind blanks out anything that detracts from the perceived goal to be seen.
So – if we are taught that the material is real and that the non material is ‘airy fairy’ and unreal, then we will NOT see the non material, even if it is right there to be perceived or found. As society teaches us this from childhood, and we grow up with heavily conditioned ideas, only some daring and inspired individuals will be able to take the non material seriously enough to study it. Much of humanity BLOCKS the idea of authentic non material existence out of their minds.
This experiment warns us of the blind spot in our perception. We need to seriously explore and credit the study of consciousness as being at least as important as the study of matter. I too feel that we need to look at how energy relates to consciousness (and visa versa) just as we look at how energy gives rise to ‘matter.’
Roberta, I for one am aware that I may well have gaps or blocks to clear perception. So I try to look and listen for my blind and deaf spots. Or rather, I ask my Guide in Spirit to kindly reveal them to me.
Thanks for such an enriching blog that helps me get to the deep stuff!
🙏🏼❣️🕊
Dear Efrem, thank you for mentioning that wonderful basketball experiment! This whole area of inquiry into what we perceive (and why) is a fascinating subject for study, and the fruits of that study almost defy belief. For example, I have read that less than half of what we “see” actually comes through our eyes, but rather most of what we see is filled in by our brains and tailored to our experience-based expectations. In fact, even what we do see is impressed on our retinas upside-down, so our infant minds have to learn by trial and error to flip the image and see it right-side up! I recall reading years ago that experts in this area have come to believe that one reason why the first European explorers took the Native Americans by complete surprise was that at first the ships in which they arrived were so far outside the natives’ experience that they were unable to see them.
The truth is that the old saw about our not being able to believe our lyin’ eyes is actually a profound truth. Who knew? Fortunately, once we leave our bodies, we will no longer be limited to physical sight and hearing; but on the other hand, might mind-sight and mind-hearing be even more fanciful and mind-provided than what we think that we are seeing and hearing here?
Dear Roberta. This post is very inspiring. I love the idea of The Way as a wisdom tradition which, when stripped of the accretions of 2000 years, shows that it has withstood the test of time, and now no longer needs to be taken on faith by ignorant masses. Now we have widespread access to information and can see how some more progressive scienctists, afterlife communications, and the mystical cores of most world religions are all starting to point in the same direction that Jesus so presciently pointed out for us 2000 years ago. The second coming cannot be Jesus or any other single charismatic leader or prophet, like the old model of thousands of years. We have hopefully moved beyond that. Now it must be a collective BECOMING. Mankind has now hopefully reached the level of spiritual maturity where the seeds of truth can take hold and thrive on fertile soil all over the world. If they don’t, technological cleverness without spiritual wisdom will be our downfall. We live in exciting, but also very sobering times. Which way things will go still seems very much in play to me, but as I said above, I am feeling VERY inspired and hopeful.
Oh dear Scott, this is wonderfully written – I can’t believe that I somehow missed it at first!
Until very recently I felt as you do, that humankind’s future was much in flux and things could turn out badly. Five years ago, even Thomas was stressed about whether we could turn things around in time to avoid a negativity-based calamity on earth; and he lives in a place without time, for heaven’s sake! But he is calmer and more confident now. And as I feel more certainty about what we are supposed to do and more confidence about how it can be done, I am feeling a great deal better, too. This whole process of raising our planet’s consciousness vibrations is being orchestrated far above our pay grade, and what feels like our particular burden is actually the work of an army of people now in bodies all over the world, and each of them is being carefully guided. You have every reason to feel inspired and hopeful, dear friend!
dear roberta reading the bookLIFE BEYOND DEATH by david fontana he saysall spirits love one another my wife died 2 yers ago is there a possability she could meet someone and fall in love with them sincerly t may
Dear Terence, please understand that we all live many lifetimes on earth, and in most of them we have likely fallen in love, married, had children, and cared deeply for a great many people. Some of these people have also had roles in our lives just ended, but many have not. When we go home and are back again in our vast, eternal minds, we recall many of those we have loved before (and, since all our lives are happening at once, those that we will love later); and if we and they both want to see one another again, we have some joyous reunions! But the overwhelming weight of the evidence tells us that we remain most attached to our loved ones from our most recent lifetime; and if we have loved more than one in that lifetime, we generally prefer the last one. For example, my beloved mother-in-law lost my husband’s father to a heart attack before he was forty. By all accounts, theirs was a wonderful marriage, but eventually she married again. She was widowed again when she was about eighty (if my memory serves), and she lived to be 94. She is now living with her second husband. She has seen her first, but she says it had been so long that she didn’t feel as close to him as she feels to her second husband. There are reports, too, of people living together with more than one spouse from the most recent lifetime in all kinds of combinations! There is no marriage, and virtually no sexual activity (because spiritual melding is better and you can do it with anyone), so people just enjoy being with everyone they love!