Attributed to the Master Mind Jesus:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his
soul?”
Both of these questions are so relevant today. So many
people are willing to compromise what they believe to be moral
and ethical in the name of “politics” and brainwashed reasoning.
What do people expect from these type of things? We know that we
have the Intelligence of the Infinite individualized within us.
We may have a moment or two when we lose sight of this and speak
or act as if we don’t know, but that is just a moment in time.
It is not who we are or who we want to be.
Let us think about the Master Mind’s questions
again with the understanding that “soul” is consciousness. And
consciousness is everything. Imagine what it would take for some
people to restore their consciousness to their true self; that
is their god-self after a prolonged period of lies and deceitful
actions.
Here are some “opinions” from people who write about
Jesus:
From
Steve Hackman: “Jesus didn’t go around asking people to accept
him
as “Personal Lord & Savior“
It’s interesting how the message that Jesus focused on seems so
much different than the one of a lot of the present day church.
Jesus was announcing a new kingdom and
way of ordering society. He seemed to proclaim Good
News where he went rather than focus on telling
people what they needed to do.
For example in Matthew 9:3 a
paralytic man is brought before Jesus. The man thinks he is
about to get healed but Jesus does something shocking!
He instead pronounces his sins are forgiven!
This poor handicapped man had not:
*
received Jesus as his Personal Lord and Savior.
* acknowledged he himself was a sinner
* even asked for any sins to be forgiven.
Jesus simply proclaims the
Good News that
God forgives him regardless.
Oh, and then to demonstrate to the religious folk who were upset
by this turn of events, Jesus went on to heal the man’s physical
handicap as well.”
During his lifetime, Jesus himself didn't call
himself God and didn't consider himself God, and ... none of his
disciples had any inkling at all that he was God. His use of the
words "I AM" speaks to the truth of our being. "I AM" speaks to
our inherent power of choice and the truth that ALL of Life is
part of the Infinite Presence, Power and Intelligence that we
call G-d.
From Historian Bart Ehrman: “You do find Jesus
calling himself God in the Gospel of John, or the last Gospel.
Jesus says things like, "Before Abraham was, I am." And, "I and
the Father are one," and, "If you've seen me, you've seen the
Father." These are all statements you find only in the Gospel of
John, and that's striking because we have earlier gospels and we
have the writings of Paul, and in none of them is there any
indication that Jesus said such things.
I think it's completely implausible that
Matthew, Mark and Luke would not mention that Jesus called
himself God if that's what he was declaring about himself. That
would be a rather important point to make. This is not an
unusual view amongst scholars; it's simply the view that the
Gospel of John is providing a theological understanding of Jesus
that is not what was historically accurate.”
Of the two “opinions” I have just shared, one is a
Christian (Steve Hackman) and one is an Agnostic (Bart Ehrman,
although he was formerly an Evangelical Christian). The
following is written by a man Reza Aslan,
who was raised Shia Muslim, then converted to Christianity -- he
even became a church youth leader -- before converting back to
Islam at the behest of Jesuit priests.:
“In the end, there are only two hard historical
facts about Jesus of Nazareth upon which we can confidently
rely: the first is that Jesus was a Jew who led a popular Jewish
movement in Palestine at the beginning of the first century C.E.;
the second is that Rome crucified him for doing so. By
themselves these two facts cannot provide a complete portrait of
the life of a man who lived two thousand years ago. But when
combined with all we know about the tumultuous era in which
Jesus lived—and thanks to the Romans, we know a great deal—these
two facts can help paint a picture of Jesus of Nazareth that may
be more historically accurate than the one painted by the
gospels. Indeed, the Jesus that emerges from this historical
exercise—a zealous revolutionary swept up, as all Jews of the
era were, in the religious and political turmoil of
first-century Palestine—bears little resemblance to the image of
the gentle shepherd cultivated by the early Christian
community.”
Once again, by
Jesus' example, we are called to know what is in our heart, that
is to understand and be aware of our authentic self. This self
may be totally different than the way in which the world sees
us. To be truly free and to attain the "kingdom of heaven that
is at hand" we must seek this authentic self of ours above all
else. Self-realization is our key to happiness, success,
prosperity, and joy.
Keep the Faith!
Rev-Bates
(Reverend Dr. Henry Lee Bates)
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