Friday, October 12, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Sections 13-16 – How We Can Heal Our World and Our Selves
Section 13
How do we know Jesus is correct when He teaches that we will receive things we need and things we ask for, if we forgive other people as we need Our Creator to forgive us?
We know that Jesus is correct when He teaches that we will receive things we need and things we ask for, if we forgive other people as we need Our Creator to forgive us, because when we forgive people who trespass against us, we see that we receive things we need and things we ask for, and because when we do not forgive people who trespass against us, wee see that we are we do not receive things we need and things we ask for. Sometimes we will not see rewards we expect to receive though, because we all often lie to ourselves, telling ourselves we have forgiven a person, when we actually have not forgiven that person. If we have truly forgiven a person, we will do all that Jesus tells us to do for that person. If we do not do this, then we have not truly forgiven that person. Even when we truly do forgive a person who has trespassed against us, we still may not see rewards that are given to us because sometimes rewards we receive for forgiving people who trespass against us, will not come to us immediately, and because we often will not recognize rewards we receive as rewards. The greatest reward Our Creator can give to us is the ability to fully forgive people we have started to forgive, and the ability to forgive more people who trespass against us in the future. This reward allows us to know joy, that otherwise would be absent from our lives. If we do not expect all rewards to come immediately, and if we see abilities we possess as the rewards they are, then if we forgive people who trespass against us, we will see that we receive rewards that more than make up for any suffering we will know from the opposition of other people. This is the moral and spiritual law that governs our world. Sometimes rewards that will come to us if we forgive people who trespass against us, will come through the actions of other people. Often, though, other people will oppose us if we try to forgive people who trespass against us.
One of the greatest rewards Our Creator will give to people who forgive people who trespass against them, is the ability to develop the potential He has given to all of us. If we do not forgive people who have trespassed against us, then the anger and hate that is in us, will weigh us down like an anchor about our necks. Forgiveness frees us of this anchor and allows us to develop abilities Our Creator has given us, as Our Creator wants us to develop those abilities.
We also know that Jesus is correct when He tells us that Our Creator wants us to forgive people who trespass against us, because we know that only forgiveness will heal the wounds of our world, and because we know, in our hearts, that Our Creator wants the wounds of our world to be healed. Our world is in dire need of moral regeneration. Violence, hoarding, and self-righteousness. These things are tearing our world apart. And these things are tearing each one of us apart. The wounds of our world will only be healed if a large number of people try to always forgive people who do harm to them, try to always help other people, try to never judge themselves to be better than any other person, and try to always think of things of God instead of things of men.
Throughout human history, people who have called themselves Christians have often done evil and have sometimes done good. On balance, we who call ourselves Christians, do about as much evil and about as much good as all other people do, in proportion to our power. Because on average people who have called themselves Christians have had more power than other people have had, people who call themselves Christians have done both more good and more evil than other people have done. The actions of people who call themselves Christians, show us nothing that would lead us to believe that Jesus is correct when He tells us what Our Creator wants us to do. Instead, we know that Jesus is correct when He tells us what Our Creator wants us to do, because we see, in our lives, that when we forgive people who trespass against us, as Jesus tells us to do, then we receive things that we need and things that we ask for. Receiving things that we need and things that we ask for, is the reward Our Creator gives to people who do what He wants us to do, and not receiving things that we need and things that we ask for is the punishment Our Creator gives to people who do not do what He wants us to do. Power is seldom a reward to people who possess it, but is more often a punishment to these people because power often leads all of us to do evil for which we will later be punished. If we have forgiven people who have trespassed against us we will seldom ask for power.
All knowledge is based on facts that must be discovered, and that could never be proven or deduced by reason.
Any object seems natural to us once we have learned of it. Consider for example a common fruit. What could be simpler? If we had never seen a fruit, though, and if another person described a fruit to us, that person’s description would sound like the wildest sort of unfounded science fiction. If someone told us that sweet round objects grew on structures called trees, and that we could simply reach out and grab one of these objects, and that we would be nourished by it, we would accuse that person of wishful thinking, we would say that we too could imagine pleasant things, and we would be sure that what that person was telling us was not true. So is it also with Jesus’ teachings. Jesus teaches us that there are certain things Our Creator wants us to do, and Jesus teaches us that Our Creator will reward us if we do these things. This will also sound like wishful thinking to us, if we have not learned the truth of Jesus’ teachings.
It is often hard for us to believe that Jesus is correct when He teaches that If we follow His teachings’ Our Creator will give us rewards that will outweigh any suffering that comes to us from following those teachings, because if we follow Jesus, other people will often oppose us, and because things that other people will do to us will often cause us great suffering. Jesus tells us often that this will be so and also tells us often that if we are faithful we will receive rewards that will more than make up for this suffering. Jesus tells us this when He says to his disciples, “Beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake. And brother will deliver brother up to death, and the father the child: and the children will rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mt 10:17-18 & 21-22) Jesus tells us this again when He says to all of us, “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, the daughter against the mother, the daughter in law against the mother in law. he who loves father more than me, is not worthy of me. he who loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. he who takes not his cross and follows me, is not worthy of me. he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life, for my sake, will find it.” (Mt 10:35-39, Mt 16:24-26, & Lk 9;23-25). And Jesus tells us this yet again when He says, “Blessed are you when men will hate you, and when they will separate you from their company, and will reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the son of man’s sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for behold your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did likewise to the prophets.” (Lk 6:22-23). Jesus also tells us that, though other people will do great harm to us if we try to forgive as each of us needs be forgiven, The harm people will do to us will be small compared to the harm our Creator will do to us if we do not try to forgive people who trespass against us. Jesus tells us this when He says to us “Fear not those who can who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Fear instead He who can destroy both the body and the soul.” (Mt 10:28 & Lk 12:4-5)
One of the saddest ironies of our world is that many of the people who could benefit most from Jesus’ teachings, are dissuaded from learning about Jesus by the false imputation that Jesus’ teachings are not logical, while the strong desire to be logical is the very trait that could lead these people to benefit more from Jesus’ teachings than most other people would.
Jesus’ teachings are actually very logical. They are logical in the way that
If a person does not try hard to think logically about any particular thing, not doing this is a sign that, that person doesn’t care very much about that thing. In the same way if a person tries to pretend that any thing can be understood through logic alone (without first discovering facts that could never be discovered through the use of logic: facts that must be the foundation of all knowledge), then this is also a sign that, that person does not care very much about that thing. For example if I didn’t try hard to think logically about Jesus’ teachings, that would be a sign that I didn’t care very much about understanding Jesus, and because I believe Jesus, that would also be a sign that I didn’t care very much about receiving rewards Jesus tells me of. In the same way, if I tried to pretend I could learn what actions would lead me to receive things I want and things I need, through logic alone, that would also be a sign that I didn’t care very much about learning what actions would lead me to receive things I want and things I need. If we want to receive rewards Our Creator gives to people He forgives, and if we believe that Jesus is correct when He teaches us how we can receive Our Creator’s forgiveness, then we will work hard to understand Jesus’ teachings, and then we will use all the logic and rationality we are capable of to do this. If we do not try to do what Our Creator wants us to do, then logic and rationality will not help us get things we want or things we need. If we do not use logic and rationality, though, then we will fail to do what Our Creator wants us to do. If we do not use logic and rationality to understand Jesus, we will be easily misled by people who want to make us believe that Jesus taught different things than He actually taught. It is natural that many people will want to mislead us in this way, because it is sometimes hard to follow Jesus, and at these times our lives would be much easier if Our Creator wanted us to do less than what Jesus teaches us Our Creator wants us to do. Because of this, most churches that call themselves Christian churches ignore most of what Jesus taught us, and instead teach rituals that mean nothing if they do not lead us to do what Jesus teaches us to do. We all want to ignore Jesus when He tells us to do difficult things. If we believe Jesus, though, and if we want Our Creator’s forgiveness, then we will try to do all that Jesus tells us to do.
The ability to think logically is one of the greatest abilities Our Creator has given us. Because of this we should work hard to develop this “thing of God”, instead of trying to develop “things of men”. If we do not do this Jesus will say to us as He says to Peter, “You are an offence to me because you do not think of things of God, but think instead, of things of men.” (Mt 16:23). We all seldom do try to think logically, though, because the more logically we think, the more often we see reality as it is, and because we all prefer to think of fantasies we can believe if we do not think logically. We are unwise to do this. The reality we want to hide from is a mixture of pleasant and unpleasant things. Whether we know more that is pleasant or more that is unpleasant in our lives, depends primarily on how closely we follow Jesus, and we will only be able to follow Jesus is we think logically about all he has taught us.
We can only get any thing if we first admit that we do not already have that thing.
Though this seems so obvious that we would think all people would always realize it, sadly this is the primary obstacle to people gaining knowledge and wisdom in our world. People often try to pretend they already know things they do not know, but that they could easily learn if they admitted they needed to learn those things. At times we will all do this because telling ourselves we already know a thing flatters our vanity and seems to allow us to avoid whatever work would be involved in learning that thing. Into every new situation we enter each of us comes knowing nothing, but with the ability to know a great deal, and possibly with the ability to know everything, if we would only try to learn. Each of us has the potential to learn so much more than any of us actually does learn that it is pointless to try to measure human potential. All we need to know is that each of us has so much potential that we can learn anything we will ever try to learn in this life. If we ever come close to learning all we are able to learn, then it might make sense to try to measure potential. In today’s world, though, none of us can stat to imagine even coming close to learning all we can learn, because our reality is so far from this.
One sign that most of us do not see this, is the fact that the word “ignorant” is an insult in our society.” Instead of seeing ignorance as the necessary first step to knowledge that it is. Instead of seeing ignorance as the opportunity to learn that it is. (How sad our lives would be if there were nothing we could learn). Instead of seeing ignorance as a sign of focus. (I have focused my studies in other areas, so I am ignorant of what you speak of). Instead of all these things we see ignorance as a thing to be avoided, and we try to avoid it by pretending to already know things. We all do this when we believe that knowledge and ignorance are permanent states, when we believe that some people have knowledge, that some people have ignorance, and that these things cannot change. This is only an evil lie, though. In truth ignorance is the father of knowledge. Knowledge can only come from ignorance. If a person were not ignorant first, then that person could never become knowledgeable. People who try to pretend they are not ignorant in the beginning of every new situation they enter, will gain little knowledge , and most of what those people think they learn will be incorrect. Just as we have the potential to learn a great deal, we also have the potential to learn very little, and to learn falsehoods instead of truths. When we imagine that we know anything before we have actually learned that thing this is exactly what we will do.
The fear we have that ignorance is a permanent state, is the same fear we have that we will only be forgiven if we are good. This fear leads us to claim false knowledge and false goodness and, by doing so keeps us from obtaining true knowledge and true goodness.
Jesus does not want us to feel bad when we see that we are not good, or when we see that we cannot be good, because If we feel bad when we see these things, then we will try to pretend that we are good, or we will try to pretend that we can be good.
Jesus wants us to see that we cannot be good, so we will see that we need God’s forgiveness, and so we will forgive other people in order to get God to forgive us. Feeling bad about our inability to be good would stand in the way of our doing this. A person who feels bad when he or she sees that he or she is not good, or when he or she sees that he or she cannot be good. Such a person will never allow him or herself to see his or her evil, as Jesus tells us all to see our evil.
Jesus wants us to freely admit our evil so we will freely ask God to forgive us our evil.
As the Publican who freely admitted his evil to God was justified, while the Pharisee who tried to make himself look good to God was not justified. (Lk 18:10-14) So will it be with all people. Like this Publican we must say, “God be merciful to me, the sinner.” Unlike this Pharisee we must never try to make ourselves look good to God. And like this publican we must truly believe that we are sinners.
2.)
We might sometimes wish that we could be good, because if we were good, then we wouldn’t have to forgive other people their evil to get God to forgive us our evil. Our wishing for this would be as useful as a rock wishing that it could fly, though. However hard we may wish, this will never happen. Wishing that we could be good will never make us good. Wishing that we could be good, will only keep us from receiving God’s forgiveness.
God wants evil to continue until it is transformed into good.
God gave each of us life and God continuously chooses to sustain our lives. God wants each of us to be alive, and who are we to question God.
Though we seldom do God’s will, God never wants us to doubt that we should go forward with our lives. By going forward we may be transformed into what God wants us to be. If we stop going forward, if we give up on our lives (if we give up on our selves) then we will never become what God wants us to be. Even if we never become what God wants us to be, by going forward we might help someone else become what God wants him or her to be. It is true that if we fail to become what God wants us to be, we will pay the consequences for this failure, but if we give up on our lives (if we give up on our selves), we will pay consequences that are more painful to us than the consequences of failure are,
God does not want a world that is free of evil. If God wanted such a world He would not have given us free will. Instead God wants a world in which evil continues until it is transformed into good. If evil is killed, then that evil can never become good, and if all evil were killed then there would be no good. There would then be nothing. Good must come from evil that has been transformed. Good is transformed evil.
Our world is an oven in which ingredients that are not good in themselves (our individual selves) are combined (baked) into something that is good: Our greater self in which each of us is a part of a larger whole. There may be macro certainty in this process: (God may know that something good will come of it), but there is no micro certainty in this process (no individual person knows whether or not he or she will become a part of the good thing that is being created. Our evil may hold us back from doing this.) If we join with other people in becoming something greater than ourselves, then we will know great joy. Our evil may keep us from doing this though.
I have wanted to kill evil when I have seen it, instead of wanting to transform evil I have seen into good. Because of this I have wanted to kill myself.
2.)
Good can only come from evil. Good is transformed evil. If there were no evil there could be no good. All that is good was once evil.
Evil is a stage we all must pass through. It is the infant that can grow into good. As a stage evil is natural and there is nothing wrong with it. Evil only becomes evil when it continues beyond its proper time: when it does not transform itself into good. We all begin our lives as beings who pursue only self-interest, and who live in competition with other people. In this stage we see our world in terms of conflict, and we seek out conflict. We believe that we can only get what we want if we keep other people from getting what they want. We think that for us to win everyone else must lose. This is simply how we are when we start our lives. There is nothing good or bad about this. It just is.
The only way in which we can eliminate all the evil that is in us at once is by killing ourselves. If we go on with our lives, then we will do great evil. The best that we can hope to do is to transform parts of ourselves from evil into good, while as a whole we continue to do great amounts of evil. We cannot immediately become good. Becoming good is a long process and it will take a long time.
If we want to kill evil when we see it, then we will want to kill ourselves, and then we will not be able to continue to try to become good for anywhere close to long enough for us to actually become good. There are two ways in which a person who feels like this will stop trying to be good. The first way is by simply ending his or her life. The second, and much more common, way is by telling him or herself that he or she already is good. While less dramatic, this way of giving up on the attempt to become good is just as destructive to a person who gives in to it, and is much more destructive to other people. This is so because only people who think that they are good can commit truly great acts of evil.
Courage
It takes courage for a person to admit, that he or she is evil and needs God’s mercy. This is so because all people fear that God will show them justice, instead of mercy. A person who thinks that he or she is good, will think that God owes him or her good things, in return for his or her goodness. Such a person will feel as if he or she has an account full of money in God’s bank. If a person comes to see that he or she is not good, and that God owes him or her only punishment, then that person will go from feeling as if he or she has an account full of money in God’s bank, to realizing that he or she has nothing in God’s bank, but instead owes God a great debt, which he or she will only be forgiven If God shows mercy that he or she doesn’t deserve.
Jesus tells of a man who tried to hold on to what he thought he had, because he did not have enough courage to admit that even that which he seemed to have, was only something that he had on loan from God. Jesus tells us of this man, when He says, “The
What God gives us is an investment, and God expects that investment to pay something back to Him. People who use what God has given them to create something for God, will get more from God, But people, who do not have the courage to risk what God has given them, will not create anything for God, and will lose even what they seem to have. Jesus tells us that we must have enough courage to be bold, and to avoid hesitation, when He says, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and turning back, is fit for the
“Whoever has been given much, much will be demanded of him.” (Lk 12:48). We who are alive today: we are have been given much more than our ancestors were given, and because of this much more is demanded of us than was demanded of them. Many fewer people today go without food of shelter, than in the past, and many fewer people today live in fear of going without. The fear of going without is one of the things that most often keeps us from being able to follow Jesus, and the fact that we feel less of this fear should allow us to follow Jesus much more closely than our ancestors followed Jesus. Sometimes it will not seem as if fewer people today go without food and shelter, than went without food and shelter in the past, because wealthy people today see the poorest people more often, through television and video, and because these people compare what they see to a much higher standard of living than people knew in the past. The standard most people live at today was known only by the wealthiest people in the past, what we consider extreme poverty today was much more common in the past, and the way wealthy people live today was only a fantasy in the past. Because less was expected of our ancestors, maybe Our Creator judged them favorably if they followed Jesus’ teachings once or twice in their lives. Today, though, we know that much more is demanded of us than was demanded of them.
Recognizing that Our Creator expects different amounts of goodness from each of us, helps us not judge as Jesus tells us not to judge. When Jesus tells us to forgive people who trespass against us, to give to all who ask of us and ask for nothing in return, and not to resist evil, we will be tempted to judge anyone we see not doing these things. What we must remember, though, is that none of us knows how much good Our Creator demands from any of us, or how much forgiveness any of us must show to people who trespass against us, to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness. One person may show more forgiveness, and may do more good, than another person, but may not receive Our Creator’s forgiveness while the second person may be forgiven, because more may have been given to the first person, and for this reason more may also have been demanded of the first person.
It will take many generations for us to make the changes in ourselves that will allow us to live as Jesus tells us to live. This will have to happen by each generation learning how to come a little bit closer to living as Jesus tells us to live, and that generation then passing whatever has been learned to the next generation, and by each generation encouraging people in the next generation not to imitate them but to instead improve on the way they have lived. It is often nearly as hard for us to see faults in our ancestors or parents, as it is for us to see faults in ourselves because we believe that faults bring shame on their owners and that if we do not ignore faults and weaknesses in our parents and ancestors, that our children and descendants will not ignore faults and weaknesses in us. In truth, though, there is no shame in faults or weaknesses. The only source of shame is not making progress toward reducing our faults and weaknesses, and not being a part of the intergenerational progress of our world that will allow our descendants to live as Jesus tells us to live. Jesus knows that today we cannot live as He tells us to live, and only expects each of us to help our world move toward a time when our descendants will be able to live this way. The amount of progress Jesus expects each of us to make depends on how much has been given to each of us, and while we cannot know how much progress is expected of any of us, we do know that if we try as hard as we can to live as Jesus tells us to live, we will be able to do all Our Creator expects of us, because Jesus says to us, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (Jn 6:35). Jesus will not return to judge our world until we have had enough time to have had a fair chance to have learned to live as He tells us to live. Maybe 2,000 years is enough time for us to do this. Maybe 2,000 years is a very short time to Jesus, and maybe the progress people have made toward living as he tells us to live, since He came to our world, is as much progress as He has expected us to make over this period. At least today most people in our world are able to read Jesus’ words, and many of us do read these words, and some of us try to understand them. Given the obstacles our ancestors have had to overcome, maybe this is as much as was expected of them. We cannot know and we should not try to know: “Judge not lest you be judged.” (Mt 7:1-2, & Lk 6:37).
When Jesus said, nearly 2,000 years ago, “I will return before this generation has passed away”, (“Mt 24:34), He was using the word generation from the perspective of eternity that He and Our Creator share, and when used in this way a generation is a much longer period of time than the generations we speak of. Jesus did not make this difference clear to us, because we should not try to know when He will come again, but should instead try to always live as he tells us to live, so we will be prepared whenever He comes again. Jesus tells us this when He says, “You know not in what hour the Son Of Man shall come. Blessed is the servant who is found doing his master’s will when that master returns.”, (Lk 12:40-43) , and when He says, “When you hear people shouting that they see me returning in one place or another, It will not be me they see, but impostors. When I return it will be so obvious to everyone that I have come, that there will be no uncertainty and no need to even say, ‘there He is.’ My coming will be as obvious as lightning that lights up the entire sky.” (Mt 24:23-27)
Violence
Violence is the red badge of shame that is worn by the human race. It is our greatest crime against God and it is our greatest crime against our fellow humans.
The only way in which we can start to pay God back for all we have done to Him is by decreasing the violence in our world.
Everyone involved in a fight tries to say that fight was all the other person’s fault, just as everyone involved in a war tries to say that war is all the other side’s fault. The truth is that both sides in a fight and in a war are always partially to blame, and that both sides in a fight or in a war must take responsibility for making sure that fights and wars don’t happen.
Every fight and every war happen for the same two reasons: because one person or one group of people want or need something that another person or group of people do not want to share, and because all people have a strong desire to believe that they are good, and that their adversaries are evil, whenever they disagree with other people.
Both the desire to take and the desire to keep are natural human desires that we will never be able to rid ourselves of. So is the desire to believe that we are better than other people are. We should not try to rid ourselves of these desires and we should not try to pretend that these desires do not control most of our actions. Instead, we should accept these desires and we should try to resist them so that they do not lead us into violence. Jesus tells us this when He says, “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.” (Lk 9:23 & Mt 16:24).
People who want to take should often resist their desire to take and people who want to keep should often resist their desire to keep, and all people should admit that they are usually not good people.
When we tell ourselves that the reason we fight is not to try to either keep or take something that another person also wants, and is not to try to silence people who will not admit that we are better than they are. It is when we tell ourselves this that we do the least to resist our desires. We love to create abstract concepts that sound noble to us, and to then say that when we fight we are fighting for those concepts. When we do this we often stop trying to resist our desires altogether. Then the powers of darkness have their day.
Stories We Tell Each Other.
We believe that violence is necessary because we believe the stories we tell each other.
About 90% of the films, television programs, magazine articles, and newspaper articles, produced in our society tell stories about violence, and nearly all of the stories they tell about violence show violence as a thing that is sometimes needed, and most of these stories portray violence as a thing that is often needed. In these stories if violence is not used, then “evil” people will destroy and leave destitute “good” people. These stories are designed to help us believe that we can use violence and can still be good people. They make it easier for us to obey our violent urges and impulses and to still feel good about ourselves.
Of course, everyone who takes part in violence believes that he or she is the “good” person in the story that is taking place, and believes that his or her adversary is the “evil” person in that story. Because of this each of us threatens our adversary, and each of us tells ourselves that we are doing so in an attempt to promote peace by deterring an “evil” person who otherwise would surely ravage us with unlimited violence. At the same time we tell ourselves that our adversary’s threats are not attempts to promote peace but are instead clear and undeniable signs of our adversaries’ evil and violent nature. Believing this we escalate our threats, until threats lead to blows, and until blows lead to wars.
The truth that if we refuse to fight, and also refuse to run from a person who is threatening us, but if we instead try to find our common humanity with people who threaten us, through rational discussion, then we will almost always create situations that are better for everyone involved. This truth is a truth that we seldom tell each other in stories that we tell each other about violence, because telling this truth does not make us feel good about ourselves when we give in to our violent urges.
In the small portion of situations in which violence avert harm that would otherwise come to us, that violence will also bring us greater harm than it will avert, through other effects it will have. This is another truth that we leave out of stories we tell each other about violence. We do so because telling this truth would show us that we make ourselves fools when we give in to our violent urges, and because we do not want to believe that we are fools.
We would rather feel good about ourselves while we tear down everything that is good in our world by using violence, than feel bad about ourselves when we commit violence, because we are trying to avoid tearing our world apart, by trying to avoid violence. The stories we tell each other make our culture a culture of violence. Our cultural heroes are people who use violence but who use violence in a way that we tell ourselves is good. They are our heroes because they give in to the violent urges that we all feel, but are still called good people by our society.
The only place in our society where we are told clearly and consistently that violence is not good, is in the gospels of Jesus. Jesus tells us that we should always refrain from violence, even though He knows that we will not be able to do so. Jesus also tells us, in detail, how we would treat other people if we were able to lead a life that was free of violence. If we can do any of the things that Jesus tells us to do, then we will decrease the violence in our lives, And if we could do all that Jesus tells us to do, then we would eliminate all violence from our lives. Though we will never be able to do this, Jesus tells us clearly that this is what we should do.
The greatest weakness of most contemporary peace movements is that they do not teach that we should be peaceful in all situations, as Jesus teaches that we should be peaceful in all situations. Most contemporary peace movements teach, instead, that violence is appropriate and good in some situations. They only teach that violence is wrong in one particular situation. They say, ‘Not this fight’, or ‘Not this war’ but they are perfectly willing to support other fights, and other wars.
This severely limits the persuasive potential of contemporary peace movements, because when people believe that violence is appropriate in some situations, they will disagree about what situations violence is appropriate in, and because these differences of opinion will be based on each person’s unique experiences, to a greater extent than they will be based on all people’s common experiences.
In particular, most people inside contemporary peace movements, almost never share very many experiences in common with most people outside contemporary peace movements. There is a social chasm between these two groups, that the rhetoric of contemporary peace movements does nothing to bridge. People in the contemporary peace movement often present specific factual information about a conflict that might sometimes persuade people who support a fight, to oppose that fight, but this seldom happens because at the same time people in the pro-war movement are presenting contradictory factual information, and because in this situation each person will believe and will follow whatever person they feel closer to socially.
Because of this, most contemporary peace movements become forums in which people congratulate each other on opinions that they held in common long before they became a part of any peace movement. Very little persuasion goes on in contemporary peace movements. Speakers in contemporary peace movements are preaching to the choir.
Much more persuasion can take place, though, In peace movements that teach that violence is never good and is never appropriate, as Jesus teaches that violence is never good and is never appropriate. This is so, because the decision about whether or not violence is ever appropriate is based on experiences that we all share in common. These experiences are the experience of what pain feels like, the knowledge that violence leads to pain, the experience of what has made violence go away for short periods in our own lives, and the knowledge that violence cannot go away permanently for some people unless it goes away permanently for all people.
Because of this following Jesus can lead us to peace that contemporary peace movements could never lead us to. We must follow Jesus’ teachings if we hope to achieve peace in our world. We can learn many of Jesus’ teachings from sources other than Jesus, but the best source we have for learning how we can live in peace is the teachings of Jesus.
In order to achieve peace we must make peace with our enemies. The enemies of people in contemporary peace movements are not people who live in foreign countries that our government is at war with. The enemies of people in contemporary peace movements are people in our country who support the war that they oppose.
To make peace with our enemies, we who are involved in contemporary peace movements must admit that we would probably have been just as warlike as our enemies have been, if we had been in power when our enemies were in power. (though our wars might have been different ones). For example, in the
We will all fight if we become frightened enough, and we must admit that if we were in the same circumstances as our enemies, we would become frightened just as they have become frightened. As it is, most of us who are involved in contemporary peace movements are using the “peace” issue to try to wrest power from our enemies in this nation.
We who are involved in contemporary peace movements are right to urge our government to withdraw from wars it is currently involved in, but doing this is not enough to create a lasting peace: either in foreign nations, or in the
Unless we make peace with our enemies, we will always be dragged to our destruction by violence. In order to make peace with our enemies, we must follow Jesus command to “Love our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us” (Mt 5:39-48 & Lk 6:27-38).
War and Wealth
No one should ever get rich from a war, because if some people get rich from wars, then nations will go to war to make those people rich.
This is what is happening in the
There will be some profit in this war for everyone who uses fossil fuels, because this war will probably keep oil and gas prices low for a while, and there will be some profit in this war for anyone who gets a job with any war contractor, or in any related industry. But the profit of the war contractors will dwarf the profits that will come to all other people involved in this war.
War contractors have given vast sums of money to political officeholders from both major parties in our nation for years, and will continue to do so for years to come, so that whoever controls the American government will act in their interest.
War contractors assume that the majority of Americans can be easily manipulated through television commercials that convey superficial information that is designed to lead people to think as the war contractors want them to think, and through other means. And so far history has proven these companies right. The American public has been extremely easy to manipulate.
Especially in recent years.
In the past, The United States has usually only gone to war after most Americans believed that the nation we were going to war against had launched an unprovoked attack on the
The
No nation should ever go to war, but wars are especially painful when some people are forced to die in order to make other people rich. Though this happens often, it should never happen. The only way to make it less likely that this will happen in the future, is to take the riches of Iraq away from the people who orchestrated America’s attack on Iraq, and to give these riches back to their rightful owners, the long suffering people of Iraq. Contracts for rebuilding
If the people who orchestrated this war do not receive the prizes that led them to orchestrate this war, then they will be less likely to orchestrate wars in the future. If they do receive these prizes, then they will be eager to orchestrate wars as often as they can.
It is very unlikely that the people who orchestrated this war will be denied the prizes of this war. Still, This may happen if enough people work to make it happen.
Any person will only work to promote peace if that person realizes that there are many goods that are much more valuable than the pursuit of wealth that our lives are reduced to when we give in to the manipulation and mind control of advertisers who are concerned only with increasing our spending and consumption, and if that person realizes that peace is one of the most valuable of these goods. As we tread water in the sea of manufactured desires that advertisers try to inflame in us, we must learn to discern what things are truly valuable to us.
Unwise, and unbridled consumption turns our lives into meaningless pursuits of arbitrarily chosen fads and fashions of the moment, whether or not our nation’s army is at war. This is why Jesus says to us, Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me Satan. You offend me, because you think not things of God, but think, instead, things of man.” (Mt 16:23). When this consumption then also leads us into to wars, our situation goes from bad to worse.
If Our Creator gives us liberty, then who are we to deny each other liberty, and if Our Creator sometimes controls what we do, then who are we to interfere with Our Creator by trying to control each other. Jesus tells us not to deny each other liberty when He says, “If your brother trespasses against you, first tell him his fault in private. If he will not hear you, then go to him again and bring some witnesses with you. If he still will not hear you, then tell it to the church. If he will not hear the church, then let him be as a stranger to you.” (Mt 18:15-17). This tells us that if we cannot persuade our brother to stop trespassing against us, we are to let him be as a stranger to us, rather than trying to force him to stop trespassing against us. Jesus tells us again not to deny each other liberty when He says,” You have heard it said: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you: Do not resist not evil: If a man strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him your left. If a man judges you and takes away your coat, offer him your cloak also. If a man compels you to go a mile, go with him two. … Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. If you love those who love you, what thanks have you? Sinners also love those who love them.” (Mt 5:39-48 & Lk 6:27-38).
When used correctly the word liberal means that which promotes or is appropriate to liberty. Consider the term “liberal arts.” Liberal arts are the arts that are considered appropriate for a person who has freedom of action. The people who created this term forthrightly stated their belief that most people at that time had little freedom of action, and for that reason should learn other arts than the liberal arts. The liberal arts were meant to train a person with the freedom to choose to choose wisely. A person with little freedom of action need not be able to choose wisely because he or she will seldom be able to choose at all. Today we use the term “liberal arts” because historically the “liberal arts” have been associated with wealth and power, but most of us have forgotten the true meaning of that term. Today most of us have much greater freedom of action than our ancestors had, but we do not act like free people because we have the mental attitude of followers: An attitude that has been passed down to us from our ancestors, through a chain of children emulating their elders. Jesus tells us some of the actions that will work for us, and Jesus tells us some of the actions that will not work for us, Our Creator gives us the freedom to either apply these lessons to our lives or not to apply these lessons to our lives, and because of economic and political developments less of this freedom has been taken away from us than had been taken away from most of our ancestors. Because we do not train ourselves to make choices, though, but instead try to find someone or something to follow rather than trying to choose. Because of this most of us do not know the freedom Our Creator gives us. It is people who do not know freedom in their own lives who most often try to restrict other people’s freedom. What we call recreation are activities that make many demands on us, because we only feel comfortable if we are being told what to do. Fashions, styles, and spectator sports show examples of this even more clearly. We do not believe we truly are free, but instead believe that the freedom we seem to have is illusory, and that if we do not find someone powerful to follow we will be punished for failing to do this. When we do not believe we are free, then we do not act like free people. To fully develop the intellects Our Creator has given us, each of us must choose how to act in unique situations that no other person faces. Most of us do not do this, though, because we follow other people too often. The choice we have to make is described vividly by existential philosophers, and for this reason existential philosophers are unpopular with most of us. Jesus tells us that we should not allow human rules, structures or, demands to keep us from developing abilities Our Creator has given us, when He says to Peter, “You offend me because you think of things of man but do not think of things of God.” (Mt 16:23)
When Our Creator gives each of us the freedom to choose how we will act, He promotes liberty, and He shows that in the true sense of the word He is a liberal. We do not know why Our Creator sometimes does this, but it is not unreasonable to think that maybe freedom is necessary for the creation of what Our Creator wants each of us to become. A baker cannot bake a loaf of bread without using heat and yeast. We are still being created and freedom may be necessary to our creation in the same way that heat and yeast are necessary to the creation of bread.
“Whoever has been given much, much will be demanded of him.” (Lk 12:48). We who are alive today: we are have been given much more than our ancestors were given, and because of this much more is demanded of us than was demanded of them. Many fewer people today go without food of shelter, than in the past, and many fewer people today live in fear of going without. The fear of going without is one of the things that most often keeps us from being able to follow Jesus, and the fact that we feel less of this fear should allow us to follow Jesus much more closely than our ancestors followed Jesus. Sometimes it will not seem as if fewer people today go without food and shelter, than went without food and shelter in the past, because wealthy people today see the poorest people more often, through television and video, and because these people compare what they see to a much higher standard of living than people knew in the past. The standard most people live at today was known only by the wealthiest people in the past, what we consider extreme poverty today was much more common in the past, and the way wealthy people live today was only a fantasy in the past. Because less was expected of our ancestors, maybe Our Creator judged them favorably if they followed Jesus’ teachings once or twice in their lives. Today, though, we know that much more is demanded of us than was demanded of them.
Recognizing that Our Creator expects different amounts of goodness from each of us, helps us not judge as Jesus tells us not to judge. When Jesus tells us to forgive people who trespass against us, to give to all who ask of us and ask for nothing in return, and not to resist evil, we will be tempted to judge anyone we see not doing these things. What we must remember, though, is that none of us knows how much good Our Creator demands from any of us, or how much forgiveness any of us must show to people who trespass against us, to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness. One person may show more forgiveness, and may do more good, than another person, but may not receive Our Creator’s forgiveness while the second person may be forgiven, because more may have been given to the first person, and for this reason more may also have been demanded of the first person.
It will take many generations for us to make the changes in ourselves that will allow us to live as Jesus tells us to live. This will have to happen by each generation learning how to come a little bit closer to living as Jesus tells us to live, and that generation then passing whatever has been learned to the next generation, and by each generation encouraging people in the next generation not to imitate them but to instead improve on the way they have lived. It is often nearly as hard for us to see faults in our ancestors or parents, as it is for us to see faults in ourselves because we believe that faults bring shame on their owners and that if we do not ignore faults and weaknesses in our parents and ancestors, that our children and descendants will not ignore faults and weaknesses in us. In truth, though, there is no shame in faults or weaknesses. The only source of shame is not making progress toward reducing our faults and weaknesses, and not being a part of the intergenerational progress of our world that will allow our descendants to live as Jesus tells us to live. Jesus knows that today we cannot live as He tells us to live, and only expects each of us to help our world move toward a time when our descendants will be able to live this way. The amount of progress Jesus expects each of us to make depends on how much has been given to each of us, and while we cannot know how much progress is expected of any of us, we do know that if we try as hard as we can to live as Jesus tells us to live, we will be able to do all Our Creator expects of us, because Jesus says to us, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (Jn 6:35). Jesus will not return to judge our world until we have had enough time to have had a fair chance to have learned to live as He tells us to live. Maybe 2,000 years is enough time for us to do this. Maybe 2,000 years is a very short time to Jesus, and maybe the progress people have made toward living as he tells us to live, since He came to our world, is as much progress as He has expected us to make over this period. At least today most people in our world are able to read Jesus’ words, and many of us do read these words, and some of us try to understand them. Given the obstacles our ancestors have had to overcome, maybe this is as much as was expected of them. We cannot know and we should not try to know: “Judge not lest you be judged.” (Mt 7:1-2, & Lk 6:37).
When Jesus said, nearly 2,000 years ago, “I will return before this generation has passed away”, (“Mt 24:34), He was using the word generation from the perspective of eternity that He and Our Creator share, and when used in this way a generation is a much longer period of time than the generations we speak of. Jesus did not make this difference clear to us, because we should not try to know when He will come again, but should instead try to always live as he tells us to live, so we will be prepared whenever He comes again. Jesus tells us this when He says, “You know not in what hour the Son Of Man shall come. Blessed is the servant who is found doing his master’s will when that master returns.”, (Lk 12:40-43) , and when He says, “When you hear people shouting that they see me returning in one place or another, It will not be me they see, but impostors. When I return it will be so obvious to everyone that I have come, that there will be no uncertainty and no need to even say, ‘there He is.’ My coming will be as obvious as lightning that lights up the entire sky.” (Mt 24:23-27)
One of the most widely held and most destructive
misconceptions about Jesus, is the belief that following Jesus will make a person more likely to obey people above him or her in a social hierarchy.
Jesus tells us it is right for us to perform certain actions, by telling us that ‘God, Our Father’ wants us to perform those actions, and Jesus tells us that certain actions will bring us things we want and things we need, by telling us that ‘God, Our Father’ will reward us if we perform those actions. By speaking to us in this way Jesus reminds us that the only thing we can possibly mean when we say that anything is right, is that Our Creator wants us to do that thing.
We can only get things we want and things we need, by doing what Our Creator wants us to do. This is so because we will be rewarded if we do what Our Creator wants us to do, and because we will be punished if we do not do what Our Creator wants us to do. It is logically impossible for any person to believe that we have no Creator. This is so because every effect must have a cause. A person who did not believe this would be unable to think even the simplest thoughts. It is nonsense to say, “A rock that I dropped fell, but nothing made that rock fall.” It is nonsense to say, “The tree that I am pointing at came into existence and grew but nothing made this happen”, and it is nonsense to say that any person came into existence and grew but that nothing made this happen. Something made each of these things happen. Each of these effects has a cause, And the effect that we call human life was caused by the actions of Our Creator. There are many things that we cannot know about Our Creator, and different people will have different beliefs about what Our Creator is like, just as different people will have different beliefs about what the process of creation is like. For example, the theory of evolution is one way of describing the process of creation. The theory of evolution in no way implies that we have no Creator. It simply tries to describe the process of creation. Darwin himself saw this clearly, and throughout His life
Trying to learn what Our Creator wants us to do is the great task and is the great adventure of human history. If we are able to learn what Our Creator wants us to do, then we will be able to know great joy and righteousness by doing what Our Creator wants us to do. If, on the other hand, we do not do what Our Creator wants us to do, then we will cause great suffering to ourselves and to other people. The good news that Jesus brings to our world is the news that we can win Our Creator’s favor, and the news of how we can win Our Creator’s favor. Jesus tells us how we can win the favor of the One who can confer all blessings on us. This is why Jesus’ teachings are like a treasure that is hid in a field, for which a man will sell all that he has and buy that field.
Section 14.)
“I have food that you know not of. My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish his work.” (Jn 4:32-34)
--- ---
Do you try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ? If you do I congratulate you. If you do not, I believe you’ll still want to hear what Jesus teaches about poverty. Jesus says, “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in the heavens” ”It will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the
It is important that we all join together in this effort, so (especially in a rich nation such as ours) we should give some of what we have directly to the poor and we should give some of what we have to an effort to preach Jesus’ true gospel, so that as many people as possible will give as much as they can to the poor (and so as many people as possible will be able to enter the kingdom of God). Much of what is taught in so-called Christian churches are things that Jesus doesn’t care about. What Jesus does care about, though, is something we all need to learn. If I were you, I would sell all I have and give half to hunger related programs and I would give half to ‘The Church of Human Weakness’, a new church that is dedicated to preaching Jesus’ true gospel.
Of course selling all that we have and distributing to the poor, does not refer only to selling material possessions. It also tells us to dedicate all of our abilities to the service of the poor.
“Do not give what is holy to dogs. Neither cast pearls before swine, lest they trample the pearls, then turn and rend you.” (Mt 7:06)
“Your house is left desolate unto you. You shall not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord’” (Mt 23:38-39)
“There shall not be left here one stone atop another that shall not be thrown down.” (Mt 24:2)
“You are Peter. I build upon this rock and against my church the gates of hell shall not prevail” (Mt 16:18)
“All these things shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Mt 24:35)
“Straight is the path and narrow the gate that leads to life. And few will enter therein.” (MT 7:14)
“Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be hewn down and cast into the fire.” (Mt 7:19)
--- ---
In our minds we often minimize the destructive effects of our behavior because something similar was once done to us and because we can only go on if we tell ourselves that what was done to us was not very bad and either did not hurt us at all or did not hurt us very much. Of course we are still angry about what was done to us, and we take that anger out on someone weaker than we are, by doing to them something similar to what was done to us, and we tell ourselves that what we do to that person is not very bad.
Telling ourselves that what has been done to us has not hurt us very much when this is not true, is in no way a part of forgiving people who have trespassed against us. Instead it is something we tell ourselves when we are not able to forgive a person who has done great harm to us, and when we are also not able to avenge ourselves against that person.
In order to forgive we must always remember that if we do not forgive people who have trespassed against us, then Our Creator will not forgive us for our trespasses against Him, and we must remember that whatever harm any person has done to us, each of us has done more harm to Our Creator. Jesus tells us that this is so, when He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a Lord who forgave one of His slaves a great debt, and who later learned that, that slave had refused to forgive another slave a much smaller debt. That Lord then said to that slave, ‘O you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you asked me to: Shouldn’t you also have pitied your fellow slave, as I pitied you?’
--- ---
“You are an offence to me because you think of things of man, but do not think of things of God” (Mt 16:23). Jesus says this to His chief disciple Peter. We all often spend great time and energy thinking about things of man. But do we think about things of God. Jesus tells us how to think about things of God by telling us what God wants us to do. What is it Jesus tells us God wants us to do.
The most important thing to remember about what Jesus teaches us is that what Jesus tells us to do is what will work for us: is what will bring us things we want and things we need. (what Jesus tells us to do will not always work for us in the short term, though often it will, but it will always work for us in the long term.)
This is especially important to remember when Jesus tells us to do things that seem as if they will not help us, such as when Jesus tells us not to resist evil. Jesus tells us the reason for this command when He says to His disciples as He sends them forth to preach His gospel, “I send you in the midst of wolves, therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Mt 10:16) We are to do these things, because doing these things will allow us to survive in the midst of the wolves that surround us.
Jesus tells us how important it is to Our Creator that every person be saved, when He says, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven for one sinner who repents than for ninety nine just men who have no need of repentance.” (Lk 15:7 & Mt 18:12-14 )
And Jesus tells us that we will only love Our Creator greatly if we understand how much forgiveness Our Creator has shown us, when He says of a woman who had sinned and who sought forgiveness, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but people to whom little is forgiven, love little. (Lk 7:36-50)
--- ---
Jesus teaches us what Our Creator wants us to do.
When Jesus came the priests of Jesus’ church thought that they were already doing what Our Creator wanted them to do and when Jesus told them that they were not doing what Our Creator wanted them to do, these priests became angry. So these priests thought to themselves, “How does Jesus know what Our Creator wants us to do?, Does Jesus have special knowledge of Our Creator?”, and so these priests said that Jesus claimed to be the son of God, and claimed to be the messiah.”
When Jesus heard this early in his ministry He responded by saying, ‘If you believed what the founders of our church wrote, and if you believed what the prophets of our church taught, then you would also believe all that I say.’ “If Abraham were truly your father, you would do the works of Abraham.” (Jn 8:39), “If God were truly your father, you would love me.” (Jn 8:42)
When, near the end of His ministry, the high priest of Jesus’ church asked Him directly, “Are you the Son of God?, Are you the Messiah?”, Jesus replied, “You say that I am. Still I know you don’t believe this. Later you will see that God is with me.” (Mt 26:63-64)
The priests of Jesus’ church had wanted Jesus to back down, and to say, “You know what God wants better than I do.” When Jesus did not back down these priests decided that they wanted Jesus to be killed. Because the land of Israel was being ruled by the roman empire at that time, these priests then got together with their Roman rulers (who also wanted Jesus to be killed), and together they nailed Jesus to a cross and left Him there until He died.
--- ---
“You call me teacher and lord, and you are right to do so. If then I your teacher and lord have washed your feet, so should you wash each other’s feet.” Jn 4-5, &12-17
--- ---
“There is one who judges.” Jn 8:50
“In the completion of the age, The Son of Man shall send out His angels and they will collect out of His kingdom all the offenses and those who practice lawlessness and they will cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the wailing and the gnashing of teeth.” (Mt 13:40-42)
We do evil to Our Creator every time we do evil to any part of His Creation, and we do evil to Our Creator every time we use abilities Our Creator has given us, in ways Our Creator does not want us to use those abilities. It is because of this evil that we need Our Creator’s forgiveness.
Our Creator has given us our lives and our abilities because He wants us to use them to do His will. When we do not use these gifts to do Our Creator’s will, we are stealing what our Creator has entrusted to us. We all know that we seldom use abilities Our Creator has given us, as Our Creator wants us to use those abilities, because Jesus tells us how Our Creator wants us to use abilities He has given us, and because it is clear to anyone who reads Jesus’ words, that we all seldom do what Jesus tells us to do.
Jesus reminds us that we cannot live without gifts Our Creator gives us, when He tells us to pray to Our Creator, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Mt 6:5-15 & Lk 11:2-4), and Jesus tells us that we cannot do anything without gifts Our Creator gives us, when He says, “We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day, night will come when no one can work.” (Jn 9:4). Our Creator gives us the bread that we all must eat if we wish to live, and Our Creator brings us the rays of the sun that lights the day, and that allows all people to live, and to work.
Jesus tells us that because God created us, we should do all that God wants us to do. Jesus tells us this each time He says that the
--- ---
A fundamental mental shift (a paradigm shift) is the hardest thing for people to do. People will fight wars and will die before they will think in a new way: before they will believe that giving to all who ask of us and not asking for anything in return, and not resisting evil, will work better for us, than fear and fighting will work for us.
--- ---
Lk 10:38-42 Mary and Martha –“Martha, Martha, you are concerned with many things, yet one thing is needed. Mary chooses the good thing that will not be taken from her
--- ---
Jesus tells us that following him is worth the effort it takes even when we have to make great sacrifices to follow Him when He says, “If your right eye leads you to do evil, it would be better for you to pluck your eye out than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna, or if your right hand leads you to do evil it would be better for you to cut of your hand than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna .” (Mt 5:29-30). We know that it is not the right eye or the right hand that can lead us to do evil, but that it is our hearts that lead us to do evil, but knowing that if it were our eye or hand that led us to do evil, and that if losing our eye or hand were the only way we could stop doing evil, we would be better off without these parts of our body, helps us to understand how important it is that we follow Jesus. Jesus tells us the true source of evil, when He says, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. Mt 15:19-20.
--- ---
Everything that is evil in us has been created so it can be transformed into something good. This is the way good is created. Good is evil that has been transformed. It may be that not every evil part of us will become good, and that not every person will become good enough to receive rewards from Our Creator, but this is what Our Creator wants to happen. Jesus tells us this when He says, “I came that I might save the world.” (Jn 12:47), and Jesus tells us that Our Creator especially wants people who are most evil to become good when He says, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven for one sinner who repents than for ninety nine just men who have no need of repentance.” (Lk 15:7 & Mt 18:12-14). I believe this is so because people who are most evil can do the most good, if they transform their evil into good through repentance.
--- ---
Jesus tells us of evil often; (Jn 3:19-21 and Jn 7:2-8, Mt 26:41, LK 22:46, Lk 16:9, Mt 6:5-15, Lk 11:2-4, Lk 14:26-33, Lk 9:23 & Mt 16:24)
--- ---
If each of does as much good as Our Creator expects us to do then we will be saved.
--- ---
I have discovered the way of living that will lead to happiness and contentment. I want to share what I have discovered with you, and I want you to help me share what I have discovered with other people. The way of living that will lead to happiness and contentment is the way of living that Jesus of Nazareth teaches us. Most people, though, do not understand Jesus’ teachings, including most of those of us who call ourselves Christians.
I am sending you the beginning of a speech that can help all of us understand Jesus’ teachings much better than we currently do. If a large number of people understand Jesus’ teachings and try to always follow Jesus, this will also lead to the wounds that are tearing our world apart being healed. Read this speech and contact me as soon as you are able to. As I am sure you assume, This will only happen if many of us must work together to make it happen, and it is essential that we come together very soon. I hope you will be one of the people who will come together to do this. Though I am not able to check my email every day, and though I may often have to go weeks at a time without checking it, email is still probably the quickest way in which you can reach me. It is best to email me at gpelly.bosela@gmail.com. It may also be possible to reach me by telephone at 440-647-5182. If you get an answering machine at this number there is a good chance I will be able to listen to any message you leave, so if this happens please leave a number at which I can call you back. You should be able to find the entire speech I am sending you the beginning of at http://churchofhumanweakness.blogspot.com. When you want to print this speech you may have to press the paper feed button on your printer between pages. Refer everyone you know who might want to help heal our world, to this web page.
--- ---
1.) Do you try to help other people?
2.) If you try to help other people, why do you do this?
3.) Most of us only try to help a small number of other people who we believe will help us in return.
---- Jesus Christ teaches us that we are very unwise to do this.
4.) What can give most of us the best chance of changing this in ourselves
---- I believe that trying to follow Jesus can do more to help most of us change ourselves into people who try to help more people than the few people that most of us currently try to help.)
---
You pretend to respect the importance of evidence in reaching conclusions, but you do not even try to find evidence in the most important area of your life. You want to believe that you can learn Jesus’ true teachings from the church you belong to, but you refuse to look at Jesus’ words to see if this is true. You are setting yourself up for a fall, and that fall will be hard, and three will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth.
--- ---
Because we can all improve our lives immensely by improving our understanding of Jesus, The Church of Human Weakness must be headquartered in a place from which new ideas frequently emanate and spread through our society and our world, and where many people will want to help themselves and other people understand Jesus better and follow Jesus more closely, and will want to do so by working in the Church of Human Weakness. If the teachings of Jesus are correctly understood, I believe that a great number of people in most places will want to join the
--- ---
Do you try to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth?
(If Yes)
I’m glad to hear you say that.
Most people who think that they try to follow Jesus of Nazareth do not truly try to follow Jesus, though, because most people misunderstand Jesus’ teachings. This is a great tragedy, both for these people, and for our world as a whole. This is why it is important for all people to make sure that they understand Jesus’ teachings. Because of this I try to help people learn the teachings of Jesus.
(if no)
Well, that may be for the best.
It’s important that all people try to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, but most people who think that they try to follow Jesus, do not truly try to follow Jesus. This is so because most people misunderstand what Jesus teaches us. This is a great tragedy, both for each person who misunderstands Jesus, and for our world as a whole. So if you do not try to follow Jesus, then you may not have learned a lot of errors about Jesus that you will have to unlearn. It is important, though, that you now start to learn Jesus’ true teachings, and that you then start to try to follow Jesus’ true teachings.
Because it is so important for all people to try to follow Jesus, I try to help people learn Jesus’ teachings.
--- ---
I have come here because our world suffers greatly from most people in our world not understanding Jesus’ teachings, and not trying to follow Jesus …
For this reason …
I have come here because the ills of our world will only be ameliorated if a large number of people try to live as Jesus tells us to live.
(even if these people learn to try to live as Jesus tells us to live from someone other than Jesus. Jesus’ teachings, though, give us our best opportunity to learn these things.)
For this reason …
I have been called to preach Jesus’ gospel. I cannot do this alone though. I need to be a part of a team of people that preaches Jesus’ gospel, and I want you to also be a part of this team.
Jesus says to us, “Take no thought for your life, for what you will eat or drink, or for what clothes you will wear. Your heavenly father knows you need these things. Instead, seek first the
There are so many people who say they are preaching Jesus’ gospel but who do not truly preach Jesus’ teachings, though, that I do not expect you to believe that I am a true disciple of Jesus, until you hear me talk about Jesus. People who say Jesus’ name most loudly, and who quote scripture most often, generally do not follow Jesus’ true teachings. This is easy to do by twisting the meaning of some things Jesus says, and ignoring other things Jesus says. If we can see through the cloud of lies that are told about Jesus, then His words are clear and easy to understand. Lies that are told about Jesus, will sometimes confuse all of us, though. The main goal of my preaching is to dissipate the cloud of confusion that makes it hard for us to see Jesus as He truly is.
I want to now read to you the beginning of a speech I have written about how we can follow Jesus’ teachings, to you. After I read the beginning of this speech to you, I want to answer questions you have, and hear your response, and in the course of doing these things, we will help each other understand Jesus better.
--- ---
I have also been called to found a new church that will bring existing churches together as they follow Jesus’ true teachings. It is important that we help each other see through the cloud of confusion that surrounds Jesus’ teachings, before we do anything else. The best way in which we can start to do this is by discussing the beginning of the speech I told you of.
The church of human weakness is a new church that is designed to help people understand and follow Jesus’ true teachings, and to bring different current churches together.
--- ---
We can do more to improve our lives and our world by trying to follow Jesus more closely, than we can do in any other way, and we must all come together in order to truly follow Jesus. Most of us, though, do not try to follow Jesus’ teachings, because most of us do not know or understand Jesus’ teachings. (Including most of those of us who call ourselves Christians). I want to change this. I want to help as many people as possible follow Jesus more closely, and I believe you can help me do this.
--- ---
Jesus says to us ‘ “The foxes have their holes, and the birds have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Mt 8:20), and Jesus says, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If I have been treated as badly as you see, and if I am your master, think how much worse you will be treated.” (Mt 10:24-25, see also LK 6:40). These words tell me how lucky I have been, because I have still not been treated as badly as Jesus. With regard to where I lay my head though, and to whether or not this workman eats enough food, I am in a difficult position. I do have a place to stay, but other people there attack me and beat me for trying to preach Jesus’ gospel, so I need a new place to stay, and I do have some food to eat, but I am malnourished, and this hinders me in my attempts to preach Jesus’ gospel.
I try to live as Jesus tells me to live, but I do have two shirts, and two pairs of shoes, and money in my wallet. Still I have come close enough to following Jesus, that I do need help from worthy people to find a place to stay, and to obtain the food that must sustain me as I preach Jesus’ gospel.
--- ---
I have written an essay about how we can try to follow Jesus more closely, and about how we can try to come together with all other people. I am sending you the first two chapters of this essay. I would like to hear your thoughts on this essay, and I believe you will want to help spread the ideas I discuss in this essay.
I would also like to ask you what you have learned from Jesus that has helped you most in your life, and I would like to ask you, without knowing me, what you think I could learn from Jesus that would help me most in my life. In other words what could most people learn from Jesus that would help them most in their lives.
--- ---
Differences in our personal circumstances are superficial and transitory. Any valuable lesson is the same for all people, regardless of circumstance, race, or sex. Different people may communicate the same lesson differently, but the lesson is the same for all people.
With regard to me, personal circumstances are not only superficial and transitory, but do not even tell very much about the way I am right now. I have lived alone as a near hermit for most of my adult life. I have only had to work part-time because my expenses are low, and I have worked in jobs in which I have had little extended contact with other people. Most of my work has been as a free-lance writer who has written for small newspapers and magazines. My expenses have been low because I have always lived in small apartments, and because I have never bought many things. I have spent most of my time reading books from libraries, or sometimes watching television. Everything that I am or that I strive to be is best expressed in the essay I told you of in which I talk about lessons I have learned from Jesus. My primary goal in life is to try to live by these lessons, and to try to share these lessons with as many other people as possible.
--- ---
I can be reached at gpelly.bosela@gmail.com . I may also be able to be reached at (440) 647-5182. If you get an answering machine with my voice on it, try leaving a message. I may get it, but I may not be able to get it. I may also have to go for weeks at a time without getting to a computer to check my email, but I will probably will be able to check my email every day or every few days. One way or another I will probably receive all emails sent to this address within a few weeks. The full speech that I am sending you the beginning of, can be found
Refer everyone you know who might want to help heal our world, to this web page. http://churchofhumanweakness.blogspot.com,. When you want to print this speech you may have to press the paper feed button on your printer periodically.
--- ---
How do we know Jesus is correct when He teaches that we will receive things we need and things we ask for, if we forgive other people as we need Our Creator to forgive us?
Throughout human history, people who have called themselves Christians have often done evil and have sometimes done good. On balance, we who call ourselves Christians, do about as much evil and about as much good as all other people do, in proportion to our power. Because on average people who have called themselves Christians have had more power than other people have had, people who call themselves Christians have done both more good and more evil than other people have done. The actions of people who call themselves Christians, show us nothing that would lead us to believe that Jesus is correct when He tells us what Our Creator wants us to do. Instead, we know that Jesus is correct when He tells us what Our Creator wants us to do, because we see, in our lives, that when we forgive people who trespass against us, as Jesus tells us to do, then we receive things that we need and things that we ask for. Receiving things that we need and things that we ask for, is the reward Our Creator gives to people who do what He wants us to do, and not receiving things that we need and things that we ask for is the punishment Our Creator gives to people who do not do what He wants us to do. Power is seldom a reward to people who possess it, but is more often a punishment to these people because power often leads all of us to do evil for which we will later be punished. If we have forgiven people who have trespassed against us we will seldom ask for power.
--- ---
Jesus says to us, “Take no thought for your life, for what you will eat or drink, or for what clothes you will wear. Your heavenly father knows you need these things. Instead, seek first the
Jesus tells us, that when we help any person, we are helping Him, when He says, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, He will sit on a throne and all nations will be assembled before Him, and He will separate them into two groups. Then He will say to the group on His right, “Come, blessed ones. Inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I hungered and you gave me food, I thirsted and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Then these people will ask ‘when did we these things?’ and the king will say, “As you did to the least of my brothers, you did to me.”
Then He will say to the group on His left, “Leave me, cursed ones. Go into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I hungered and you gave me no food, I thirsted and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you clothed me not, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”
Then these people will ask, ‘When did we not do these things?’ and the king will say, “As you did not to the least of my brothers, you did not to me.” (Mt 25:31-46)
Jesus tells us to love each other, as He has loved us (Jn 13:34 & Jn 15:12)
And Jesus tells us how important it is to Our Creator that every person be saved, when He says, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven for one sinner who repents than for ninety nine just men who have no need of repentance.” (Lk 15:7 & Mt 18:12-14)
Jesus tells us to humble ourselves as children (Mt 18:4-5), and to serve as the younger serves the older (Lk 22:26). Jesus says to His disciples, “The greater of you shall be your servant. (Mt 20:26-27, Mt 23:11, Lk22:25-27), And Jesus tells His disciples, “Whoever wishes to be great among you, he will be your servant. And whoever wishes to be first among you, he will be you slave. Jesus also tells us that whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Mt 23:12, Lk 14:11, Lk 18:14).
What we say about our intended victim is what our intended victim said about people he or she did violence to. It is easy to vilify our intended victims.
All who wander in dark valleys and founder in currentless shallows
Arise and take the place that has been prepared for you
Walk in the light to the highest peak and ride the swell of the fullest wave
--- ---
Though I have spent most of my life in Northern Ohio, and currently live in Northern Ohio, I now believe that northern
--- ---
Jesus says to his disciples “Beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake. And brother will deliver brother up to death, and the father the child: and the children will rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mt 10:17-18 & 21-22), and Jesus also says to His disciples, “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, the daughter against the mother, the daughter in law against the mother in law. He who loves father more than me, is not worthy of me. he who loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. he who takes not his cross and follows me, is not worthy of me. he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life, for my sake, will find it.” (Mt 10:35-39, Mt 16:24-26, & Lk 9; 23-25). These things will happen because often people will try to fight with members of their families to keep those people from following Jesus. We know that the division Jesus will cause in many families is not meant to be permanent, though, because Jesus says, “I came that I might save the world.” (Jn 12:47) If the division Jesus brings to our world were meant to be permanent, Jesus would have said that He has only come that he might save some people in the world, not that He has come that He might save the entire world. This division Jesus brings is only a step we must take before we can come together with all people. Jesus does not tell us that this division will come to the family of every person who tries to follow Him, and we know that many family members support each other’s attempts to follow Jesus. There are also many families that fall in between these two extremes. My parents, brother, and sisters are such a family. At times each of these people has tried to fight with me to keep me from following Jesus, though they have been much more restrained in what they have done to me than the families Jesus tells us of, and unlike the families Jesus speaks of, they have never come close to trying to deliver me up to the death. Recently they have fought less against my following Jesus, but they still make it clear that they do not want me to follow Jesus, and they still refuse to learn about Jesus. I have often tried to help many people in this family learn about Jesus about Jesus, and I have often asked many people in this family to join me in my attempts to follow Jesus, and every time I have done either of these things, I have been attacked and shouted down by members of this family who refuse to even talk about Jesus’ teachings.
It is natural human curiosity to after reading or hearing all or part of what I have written, do Internet searches on my name or on parts of my name, it is natural human self-interest to try to contact people who might be related to me in the hope that those people would be able to help us learn about Jesus. I am writing this to warn people against doing this with all people named Bosela other than myself, because if one did this that person would only find people who would probably show them same hostility they have shown me by attacking them as they attacked me, and who would not be able to help anyone learn about Jesus. The
Because of their hostility to my attempts to follow Jesus, it is best at this time for me to have as little as possible to do with my earthly father, mother, brother, and sisters. Jesus also found Himself in this situation. This is made clear to us when as He stood at a podium before a large crowd, Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were outside the building He was speaking in, and wished to see Him. Jesus then asked the person who had told Him this, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” then Jesus stretched forth his hand to his disciples and said, “Behold my mother and my brothers. Whoever shall do the will of My Father in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. (Mt 12:46-50), My mother and brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it. (Lk 8:19-21), and when before the advent of His public ministry Jesus’ brothers harassed and taunted Jesus by challenging the value of His teachings, saying, ‘If your teachings are valuable then start your ministry earlier than is ordained (Jn chap. 7). We can also tell that Jesus was distant from His mother by His initial response to her when she asked Him to turn water into wine, of ‘What have I to do with you, woman.’ (Jn. Chap. 2). Later, though Jesus’ mother did stand by the cross He was nailed to, and after Jesus’ crucifixion some of His brothers helped spread His teachings, so it appears that these people did later gain some respect for the value of Jesus’ teachings, or at lest saw after Jesus’ crucifixion that they could make some money by helping spread Jesus’ teachings, (as I suspect is true of Jesus’ brothers).
I hope that that like Jesus, I can be at least partially reconciled with my biological family, but at least at this time I can do a better job of teaching Jesus’ gospel if I have nothing to do with them. To distance myself from them, and to prevent people who have not read this far in what I have written from trying to contact them and learn about Jesus from them, I am tempted to now change my name. I will not do this, though, because any shame they bring me is my burden to bear and I will not shirk that burden.
If I ever do feel I am being dragged down too low by the weight of the shame the name
Bosela brings me, though, and if this ever leads me to use another name, I will choose a name that reflects my ancestry just as much as the name Bosela. I will choose my biological Father’s mother’s maiden name of Este, and would call myself George Este. I might also start using this name if too many people try to contact my relatives who oppose my attempts to follow Jesus, with the hope of learning about Jesus from them. This might be especially likely to happen with my biological father, because he and I also share the first name George. In an attempt to imitate royalty, He calls himself George the second and gave me the official name of George Bosela the Third, instead of giving his children last names that included our Mothers’ Maiden names so that our names would have tell more about our ancestry, and so we all would have been firsts as we are in reality. I am like my Father in some ways but am different from Him in so many ways that we should have different names to reflect these differences. The fact that we do not has often led to great confusion. In this regard the famous Bush family is more sensible and includes mothers maiden names in all people’s names, as have many other families in our world. Doing this is not a novel idea. In the past I have often used the name of George Bosela, III that was given to me, but now, I have now corrected this error by including my mother’s Maiden name of
Because a last name usually tells about a part of our ancestry, I want to here tell everything I know about my ancestry. As I said before, Este is the maiden name of my earthly father’s mother who was named Sunya Este. Her last name and came from her earthly father, Robert John Este who was born somewhere in
Because I am now writing about myself, I also want to now write about a traumatic experience I had involving people who worked in such a legal/penal system, who used coercion to try (with some success) to make me act as they wanted me to act. In September of 2004 I was falsely accused of disorderly conduct by a man who worked for the police department of
In spite of all that these people did to me, I did not want to join in their lies about me, and I regretted doing so almost immediately, and tried to withdraw this plea five minutes after I entered it on a document that was partially forged by the public defender who was supposed to represent me, but I was prevented from doing withdrawing this plea by an obstructionist court worker, and by a court bailiff who threatened me with violence. I have not told the names of the people who did these things to me because many innocent people probably also have the same names, but if anyone asks me I will not hesitate to name the people who did these tings to me. This experience has helped open my eyes to the corrupt nature of the courts in our nation. I know that I suffered little harm at the hands of these courts, compared to many people who suffer great harm at their hands. In addition to slandering my reputation, the corrupt man who lied about me, with the help of other police workers and the help of jail workers who believed his lies, had me abducted me and forced me to spend one humiliating sleepless night in jail, and because all that he did to me started when I was driving and he forced me to stop, I have since greatly reduced the occasions on which I drive to mean streets on which this corrupt police worker could stop me at will, or shoot at me at will. Jesus Christ says, “Judge not, lest you be judged.” Our corrupt court system shows us one of the reasons we should all follow this command.
--- ---
MT 16:24 Then said Jesus to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
LK 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 9:24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 9:25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
--- ---
Jesus tells us of our evil often; (Jn 3:19-21 and Jn 7:2-8, Mt 26:41, LK 22:46, Lk 16:9, Mt 6:5-15, Lk 11:2-4, Lk 14:26-33, Lk 9:23 & Mt 16:24)
--- ---
For differences between Nestle - Alland -Westcott- Hort, and the received text see Matthew 5:22, Matthew 17:21, Matthew 18:11, Matthew 21:44, Matthew 23:14, Mark 7:16, Mark 9:44, Mark 9:46, Mark 11:26, Mark 15:28, Mark 16:9-20, Luke 17:36, Luke 22:44, Luke 22:43, Luke 23:17, John 5:4, Acts 8:37, Acts 15:34, Acts 24:7, Acts 28:29, Romans 16:24,1 John 5:7. -all
--- ---
Scientia Crescat, Vita Excolatur
Knowledge Grows, Life Improves
Rerum Cognoscere Causas
To Know The Causes of Things
Alma Mater Studiorum
Fiat Lux
Lux Sit
Lux et Veritas
Mens Agitat Molem
Mind Moves the Mass
In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lumen
In Your Light Shall We See the Light
In Lumine Tuo Videmus Lumen
In Your Light Shall We See Light
Let there be light, and let light lead to wisdom
--- ---
app. 1.618033989
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, - red, yellow, green, - 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597
sinusoidal equal-area projection with lines of longitude
--- ---
Section 15.)
The light has come into the world, and men loved darkness, rather than light, because their works were evil. Everyone who does evil, hates the light, and stays away from the light for fear his works will be reproved (Jn 3:19-21)
Most of the time most of us will refuse to see anything negative in ourselves, because we believe that most of the good things we want will only come to people who are as good as we imagine ourselves to be. If we admitted the truth about ourselves most of us would not be able to believe that we would enjoy the good fortune that would allow us to receive things we want. We believe this because we do not believe that Our Creator will forgive people who only sometimes follow Jesus’ command to forgive people who trespass against us, so we tell ourselves that we forgive people who trespass against us much more often than we actually do this, and we try to ignore this command so we can look at ourselves as little as possible, and we try to pretend that the only things Our Creator expects of us are things we are able to easily do, and already do. We do not believe Our Creator will show us the mercy we need, but we believe instead that Our Creator will show us the justice we fear when we hear Jesus say, “if you do not forgive people who trespass against you then your father will not forgive you.” and when we assume this means we must always forgive people who trespass against us. For those of us who have been given the most in terms of the abilities that make us able to forgive, maybe Our Creator does expect something close to always forgiving people who trespass against us. Jesus tells us, though, that Our Creator only expects each of us to do as much good as the abilities we have been given allow us to do, when He says, “Whoever has been given much, much will be demanded of him.” (Lk 12:48). Jesus tells us that if we try as hard as we can to forgive people who trespass against us as often as we are able to, then we will do all that Our Creator demands of us, when He says, “Take no thought for your life, for what you will eat or drink, or for what clothes you will wear. Your heavenly father knows you need these things. Instead, seek first the
Jesus tells us about a very similar situation to this when He says to the scribes and pharisees of
Like these scribes and Pharisees we will all want to say we would not have partaken in the blood of the prophets and we will especially want to say we would not have partaken in the blood of the greatest prophet: in the blood of Jesus. If we say this we will be showing that we are like the people who killed Jesus, because like those people we want to believe we are good, and like those people we will try to silence anyone who starts to make us believe we are not good. If Jesus came to us as He came to them and criticized us as he criticized them, we would also try to silence Him, though we might not try to help kill Jesus as they did, because it is clearer to us than it was to them, that killing a person one wants to silence will often lead a great number of other people to say what that person had said, and to say it in a way that is harder to ignore. If Jesus comes to us and any of us does not try to help silence Him, we will only do so if we have been given the strength to follow Jesus’ command to deny ourselves. We will all want to silence Jesus when He criticizes us, but we may remember that Jesus says, “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.” (Lk 9:23 & Mt 16:24), And we may have been given the strength to deny our desire. If we say we would not want to help silence Jesus, we only show that we are like the people who killed Jesus: we show that spiritually we are those people’s children.
By judging we greatly harm our ability to think clearly and for this reason we often doom ourselves to ruin. This is one of the reasons Jesus says to us, “straight is the path and narrow the way that leads to life, and few enter therein” (Mt 7:14) If we follow Jesus’ command not to judge, our mental abilities will increase so much that we will see our current state as the stumbling and shuffling circus of errors that it is. Of course will only be able to stop judging if we also try to do everything else Jesus tells us to do. If we do not try to always forgive people who trespass against us it will be very hard for us not to judge those people, and if we do not see that Our Creator is so eager to forgive us that he will make allowances for us based on what abilities we have been given, then it will be very hard for us to stop judging ourselves. If we try to resist evil we believe another person wants to do to us then we will almost always judge that person negatively, and if we refuse to give to a poor person who needs our help we will again almost always judge that person negatively to justify our treatment of them. Of course not judging will also help us do all of these things. Everything Jesus tells us to do will help us do everything else Jesus tells us to do. If we try to do only a small part of what Jesus tells us to do we will almost certainly be unable to do these things, but if we try to do everything Jesus tells us to do we will be able to do so much of what Jesus tells us to do with so little effort that we will truly experience what Jesus means when He says to us, “Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-30). Whether we do the things that will make it easiest for us to follow Jesus, or whether we do the things will make it harder to follow Jesus, though, Jesus’ yoke and His burden will always be very easy and very light compared to the yoke we would have to wear and the burden we would have to carry if we did what we want to do. “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin” (Jn 08:34). If we do what we want to do, instead of what Jesus tells us to do, we will serve the harsh master of sin, rather than the gentle master that is Jesus
The initial delusion that opens the floodgates for all subsequent delusions we fall prey to is the delusion that arbitrary events that we devote great energy to, matter to Our Creator. This is very easy to see with regard to sports, entertainment, and advertising. This is why it is so important for us to remember that Jesus says to his disciple Peter, “, “Get behind me Satan. You are an offence to me because you do not think of things of God, but think instead, of things of men.” (Mt 16:23). Anything that people have produced is a thing of man, while anything that God has created is a thing of God. Things of man are worth nothing to us by themselves. They only have value for us if they help us get things of God. They do sometimes do this by helping us develop abilities we can later use to follow Jesus more closely. This sometimes happens and then things of men contribute to our something Our Creator does care about, but in and of themselves things of man mean nothing to our creator. Sports provide us a clear example of this. Sports can do the most to please Our Creator when as many people involved in those sports do as much as possible to develop the abilities God has given us. Especially the ability of disregarding harmful emotions that are associated with sport so we can more fully develop the mental abilities that are the greatest key to success in sports just as they are the greatest key to success in all parts of life, but Our Creator does not dare at all about what person or team wins a sporting contest. We show that we do not understand this when we care about who wins a sporting event. If everyone involved in a contest performs close to as well as they can perform, then we should also not care at all about who wins that contest. We should only want to win sporting events if victory is a sign that we have performed well. Of course we can usually find better signs of performing well than victory, though, and if these signs tell us that we have performed well and we lose a contest then we should be happier than if we had performed poorly but won a contest. We all sometimes lose sight of this to such a greet degree that we actually want our opponents to perform worse so we can win a contest and try to make our opponents perform worse so we can win that contest. This sickness is most widespread and most extreme in people who watch spectator sports. People who are actually involved in a sporting contest and who are successful usually spend most of their energy focusing on making themselves perform better rather than on making their opponents perform worse. Even people who focus on defense in sports, who are most successful do not want their opponents to fail to score when they have good opportunities, but instead dedicate themselves to keeping their opponents from having good opportunities to score. There is also always the danger that people involved in sports will forget that they can only please our creator if they are tools that help us develop things of God, and that those people will treat sports as an end in itself. If this happens then sports like all human pursuits become false idols that distract us from focusing our energies on doing what Jesus tells us Our Creator wants us to do, and by doing this makes it much harder for us to receive rewards our Creator will give to people who do what he wants us to do. Jesus tells us that this can happen when, in the parable of the sower, He says, “And some seed fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.”, and when He then explains this parable, saying, “In this parable The seed is the word of God, and those seeds that fell among thorns are people who, when they have heard the word, go forth and are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life.” (Lk 8:4-15 & Mt 13:18-23) “The one who receives the seed among thorns is one who hears the word, and the anxiety of the age, and the deceit of riches chokes the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Though Jesus tells us to think of things of God, instead of things of men, Jesus also tells us that we will need to understand both things of God and things of man. Jesus tells us this when He says to His disciples, “I send you forth as sheep among wolves. Therefore be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.” (Mt 10:16). In order to deal with the wolves who surround us we will have to understand those wolves and their things.
When things of men distract us from trying to develop the things of God that are abilities God as given us, and distract us from trying to obtain the things of God that are the rewards God will give to people who do what he wants us to do, then things of men become hateful activities that offend God, and force us to say to people who try to spread their destructive obsession with things of men, “get thee behind me satan’ just as Jesus said this to Peter when Peter tried to spread his destructive obsession with living even at the expense altering Jesus’ ministry in ways that would cause Jesus to abandon the commission God had given Him, when Jesus’ death came near. Peter’s words sound harmless to most of us when we read that when Peter heard of Jesus’ impending death, He said “Lord, be it far from you”, but Jesus knew that to put His death far from Him He would have to abandon His commission. By refusing to do this Jesus helped us all immensely because if Jesus had preached just as He preached, but had not died on the cross, we would not take His words seriously. We would say that talk is cheap, and we would think that Jesus was asking us to do things He wouldn’t do. In fact, because we all would have felt this way about Jesus, people who lived when Jesus preached, would not have preserved and passed on Jesus’ words, and people alive today, would not even be able to hear or read Jesus’ words. Jesus knows this about us, and this is why He died for us: so that His teachings would come to us, and so that we would take His teachings seriously.
Jesus tells us to eat His body and to drink His blood (Lk 22:19-20 & Mt 26:26-28.), and Jesus tells us that we cannot live unless we eat his body and drink His blood. “Truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” (Jn 6:53)
When Jesus died, His blood flowed down from the cross to form the words of His gospels. Every time we read these words, and live by them, we are drinking Jesus’ blood. Every time we read these words, and live by them, we are eating Jesus’ body. Many people think we can drink Jesus’ blood, and eat Jesus’ body, by drinking either wine or grape juice and eating bread in a religious ritual in a church. This is entirely incorrect, and Jesus never taught this, or anything like this. Jesus told us to drink wine and eat bread in memory of Him. This means that when we drink wine we are to remember that we must also drink Jesus’ blood if we hope to live, and that when we eat bread we are to remember that we must also eat Jesus’ body if we hope to live. Living by the words of Jesus’ gospels, is the only way we can drink Jesus’ blood, and living by the words of Jesus’ gospels, is the only way we can eat Jesus’ body. And forgiving other people, as we need Our Creator to forgive us, is the only way we can live by the words of Jesus’ Gospels.
While we can see the danger of treating things of men as ends in themselves more clearly in sports than in other things of men, all things of men can lead to this same danger. All things of men can also be used to help us develop things of God. The potential for helping us develop things of God, is probably greatest with regard to music because music can help us develop both the mental abilities God has given us and can help us learn to control and use effectively the strong emotions that often prevent us from effectively pursuing things of God. Music that does this best, though, is not music that aims to immediately calm our emotions by being soothing and relaxing. Music that does this best, instead causes us to feel strong emotions but then shows us how these emotions can resolve themselves in positive ways that can help us achieve the emotional state that is most conducive to the mental focus we need. Music that shows us the relationships between complex patterns also helps us by directly helping us develop our mental abilities, and a certain amount of complexity is also required for music to make us feel strong emotions and to show us how these strong emotions can resolve themselves into an emotional state conducive to mental focus. For both of these reasons the greatest evil in music, as in all human activities is oversimplification. When we oversimplify any activity we take part in, we develop the habit of oversimplifying in our thinking in general and we prevent ourselves from understanding the complex world we live in. We often do this though, because oversimplifying our thoughts helps us always be prepared to fight at a moment’s notice, and because we all want to be prepared to fight at a moments notice. If we saw the true complexity of our world we might feel indecision when we want to fight, and this indecision might make us hesitate when we want to act quickly. The desire to always be ready to fight does as much to cripple the mental abilities we need to have to be able to follow Jesus as judging does to cripple these abilities, and this is part of the reason it is so important that we follow Jesus’ command not to resist evil. If we are committed to not resisting evil then we will not try to always be prepared to resist evil by trying to oversimplify our thoughts, and then we will stop crippling the mental abilities Our Creator has given us.
Because we are afraid that if we see ourselves as we truly are, we will see so much evil in ourselves that we will not be able to transform into good, that we will see that Our Creator will not forgive us but will instead punish us for our evil, most of us try to avoid seeing negative things about ourselves by trying to act like people we identify with most of the time, (we try to live without asking ourselves if this is how Our Creator wants us to act) and by then trying to surround ourselves with these people as often as possible so we will almost always hear only good things about ourselves. This includes most people who call themselves Christians most of the time, including most of the time they spend in church. Most people in most churches focus almost solely on hopeful things they enjoy hearing and almost entirely ignore anything that would show them negative parts of themselves, including Jesus’ teachings when Jesus tells us to do things that are hard for us to do or that we do not want to do. Some clear examples of this are that Jesus clearly tells us not to resist evil, but that most of those of us who call themselves Christians do not try very hard to follow this command and that people in the united states who call themselves Christians are actually more likely to work for police and military forces than other people are, and that Jesus clearly tells rich people to sell all that they have and give to the poor, and clearly tells all of us to give to every one who ask of us and ask for nothing in return from people who take from us, and that most of those of us who call ourselves Christians do not try very hard to follow these commands, and that if we even consider giving to all who ask of us and asking for nothing in return, we also separate ourselves from most people who need our help as often as we can so we will seldom be asked to give. If we were trying to follow these commands most of those of us who call ourselves Christians would live as close as we could to the poorest people we could find. To distract ourselves from things Jesus tells us to do that we don’t want to do, many people who call themselves Christians pretend that Jesus wants us to do things that are easier for them to do that Jesus never spoke about, (things such as avoiding homosexuality). Pretending this helps us ignore what Jesus actually told us to do. When Jesus was asked about divorce, He said, “A man shall leave his mother and shall cleave to his wife. And any man who divorces his wife, save for fornication, commits adultery.” In these words Jesus was telling us that men who marry should not divorce their wives. He was not saying that all men must marry women. This is the only thing Jesus says that could possibly be misunderstood as command against homosexuality. If homosexuality had mattered to Jesus or to Our Creator Jesus would have told us so. In areas that Jesus does not talk about, we are free to do whatever we want to do, but in areas that Jesus did talk about we must choose between serving the gentle master that is Jesus ” (Mt 11:30), or serving the harsh master that is sin, for “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin” (Jn 08:34). When Jesus says , “My yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11:30)., we must remember that though it is much easier than the yoke that will press down on us if we are enslaved by sin, that it is still a yoke that we will sometimes have to wear if we want to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness, though we will often wish we did not have to wear any yoke, for a yoke is A yoke is a wooden collar that oxen wear around their necks, and that a farmer presses down on an those oxen’s neck to make them plow his field., and just as an ox will often to be free of all yokes, so we will also often wish to free of all yokes.
People who want to pretend that Jesus wants us to do things he never spoke about imagine that Jesus wants us to obey every passage of the Old Testament even though many passages in the Old Testament contradict Jesus’ teachings. Especially passages that that do not condemn war and fighting and that encourage us to make war and to fight. When Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets, I came not to destroy but to fulfill.” (Mt 5:17), we must remember that not all of the Old Testament is the law of the prophets. The law of the prophets is only a part of the Old Testament. Without Jesus’ teachings it would be hard to tell where the law of the prophets ended, and where false teachings began in the Old Testament. Jesus corrects the errors that had contaminated the law of the prophets. The Old Testament, and the Jewish history it records, is a process of growth that reached its fullest development and perfection in the teachings of Jesus. In any process of growth there are certain traits that are found during the growth process that are not present when that growth is finished. For example when a plant reaches full flower it will have lost many offshoots that had been important parts of that plant in its youth. So it is with many parts of the Old Testament. Now that Jesus has come, we should not forget the growth of the society which, though it’s leaders helped kill Jesus, also produced many people who followed Jesus closely and with great energy. (In most other societies Jesus either would have been ignored, or would have been killed and then would have been forgotten.) We should remember the Old Testament as we remember our youths, and we should see any part of the Old Testament that does not reinforce what Jesus teaches, as an error that we should learn from and should try to avoid, as we should learn from and try to avoid errors of our youth.
Jesus often does tell us hopeful things that we enjoy hearing when He tells us that if we try we will be able to follow His teachings often enough to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness and receive the rewards that will come with that forgiveness. If we focus only on the hopeful things Jesus says, though, and ignore teachings that show us how much we need to change in ourselves then these hopes will never become realities for us. Most of our attempts to avoid seeing negative things in ourselves come from the fact that we do not believe Jesus when He tells us we will be able to change enough of these things to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness. If we believed this then we would be eager to see negative things in ourselves because we would see this as the first step toward changing these things, and toward receiving the rewards that will come to us if we receive Our Creator’s forgiveness. The sign of a life well lived is trying to always improve oneself, and trying always to learn about faults in oneself that can be improved. We would know this even if Jesus had not devoted His ministry to telling us how we should change ourselves. Because Jesus does devote His ministry to telling us about things we need to improve in ourselves to be able to receive rewards from Our Creator and avoid punishments from Our Creator, Jesus knows we will all try to ignore most of what He says to us
Jesus tells us we will be able to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness and receive the rewards that will come with this forgiveness when He says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (Jn 6:35), and when He says, “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes on me. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn 7:37-38). Of Course if we believe Jesus we will also believe Him when He tells us what we must do to receive these rewards and we will try as hard as we can to do everything Jesus tells us to do so we can receive the rewards He tells us of. Jesus tells us that if we do what He teaches us to do, then Our Father will give us all we need, when He says, “Take no thought for your life, for what you will eat or drink, or for what clothes you will wear. Your heavenly father knows you need these things. Instead, seek first the
A part of the reason we avoid seeing negative things about ourselves, though, is that most times in our lives when people have told us our works were evil, those people were not trying to help us but were instead trying to hurt us as other people have hurt them. The primary example of this is parents who without thinking about their actions assume they should do to their children what their parents did to them. After tolerating what their parents did to them, they now feel it is their turn to take out their anger on weaker people who cannot resist them. Jesus, though, makes it clear that He is telling us about evil we do in order to help us, makes it clear that we can change enough evil in us into good, to receive Our Creator’s forgiveness and receive the rewards that will come with that forgiveness, and makes it clear that if we do not do what He tells us often enough to meet Our Creator’s demands, that we will suffer greatly for this. “There will be great wiling and Gnashing of teeth.” (Mt 25:14-30 & Lk 19: 12-27)
We are still in the process of being created. In this world we are individuals who are coming together to form something greater than ourselves. Our creation cannot be complete until we have come together as one with all people.
Everything that Jesus teaches us is something that will help us come together with other people. If we do all that Jesus tells us to do, harmony, brotherhood, and unity will come to us as easily and as certainly as water flows down a mountain when snow melts on that mountain’s top.
We are like molecules of flour, egg, and, water, and we are like grains of wheat that are coming together to form a loaf of bread, and this world is the oven in which we are being baked. Often, though, we will refuse to come together with each other by refusing to live as Jesus tells us to live. Often we will do this because in order to come together with each other we must forgive people who trespass against us, and because often we will not want to forgive people who trespass against us.
In this world we are able to join with some people in small groups. The pleasure this brings us is short lived, though, because these small groups are usually hostile to each other (and under difficult circumstances are nearly always hostile to each other). These small groups keep us from coming together with people outside of these groups. Because of this the pleasure joining in small groups brings us will soon turn into pain and loneliness, when these groups isolate us from people outside of these groups. Our joy can only last if we make small groups stepping-stones to coming together with all people. If we do this then once we have joined together with all people we will forget that we ever belonged to smaller groups. These smaller groups will have served their purpose, and we will honor them by forgetting that we had ever belonged to them. The small groups we currently belong to are usually based on common traits such as belonging to the same family, the same race, or the same sex. Once we have joined with all people we will forget that we ever belonged to different families races and sexes, because these differences between us will have disappeared. Jesus tells us part of this when He says, “in the resurrection people do not marry, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Mt 22:30).
Jesus tells us little about the resurrection because the purpose of His preaching is not to describe the resurrection, but to show us how we can be resurrected. It doesn’t matter whether or not we know what the resurrection will be like, so long as we are a part of it. Knowing that we must come together with other people to be resurrected, helps us understand why Jesus tells us to forgive people who trespass against us, but we will not need this understanding if we dedicate ourselves to following Jesus’ commands. If we forgive people who trespass against us, it doesn’t matter why we do this, so long as we do this.
Both while we are individuals and after we have joined together, Our Creator wants us to develop the abilities He has given us. We will only be able to develop these abilities if we live as Jesus teaches us to live. Cruelty, ruthlessness, anger, and hate are not abilities. They are the negation of abilities. Kindness, compassion, and love facilitate the development of abilities (both in ourselves, and in people we show kindness, compassion and love to). Because of this, they are proto-abilities. They are necessary for the development of abilities Our Creator has given us. We know that Our Creator wants us to develop these abilities because everything Jesus teaches us will help us develop them.
--- ---
Even though everyone involved in war loses that war, the lesson of large wars throughout history is that people in whichever nation attacks first, lose even more painfully than people in the nations they are fighting against. This occurs because nations that attack first always have fewer and weaker allies than their opponents. (In the history of the west this has been clearly shown by the two world wars, the Napoleonic wars, and the wars of Louis the Fourteenth, all of which followed almost exactly the same pattern. While nations that attack first always claim they were unfairly provoked by their enemies and while sometimes this may be true, there is little doubt about the fact that the nations that were the greatest losers in each of these wars started each of them, and if this lack of doubt is based on the lies of their enemies then either these histories are based on such colossal lies that they would long ago have been exposed, or all history and all human communication is so dishonest that our only choice is to believe no one and nothing, but to instead all live the isolated lives of hermits. This is the only way large lies about events so many people watched so closely, could ever become accepted history, though I am sure that smaller lies about more isolated events often become accepted history, even though most of us are usually honest because we fear being caught in our lies.). We will have to wait for the history of the future, though, to learn from history the far greater lesson that all resistance is folly. History will only teach us this lesson when a nation follows Jesus’ command not to resist evil, and when we see that nation become the greatest winner in all aspects of international affairs.
--- ---
When we realize how hard it is to follow Jesus, we realize that the rewards Jesus tells His -followers they will receive, (while they make it a good choice to follow Jesus), are not ridiculously out of proportion with sacrifices those followers will have to make to follow Jesus, as they would be if the lie often told in Jesus’ name that following Jesus is a matter of saying we follow Him, were true. The fact that this is so obvious a lie is why most intelligent people currently do not follow Jesus. The way in which so many people who call themselves Christians try to promise these rewards in return for mere words, is the most obnoxious form of cheeky and false salesmanship people have ever engaged in, because it has perverted the most honest and forthright promises ever made: the promises Jesus made to his followers. This is why I am working so hard to expose this lie for what it is. I am trying to brush away the clouds of smoke that surround Jesus’ teachings, so Jesus’ light can shine through. I, like all people, fear that light as Jesus told us we would all fear the light when He said, “The World hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” (Jn 7:6-8), and when He says. “The light has come into the world, and men loved darkness, rather than light, because their works were evil. (Jn 3:19-21), but I fear the consequences of not following Jesus even more, so I am trying to follow Jesus, (though like all of Jesus’ disciples I may betray him at any moment.
--- ---
Many people mistakenly believe Our Creator is opposed to homosexuality because when He was asked about divorce Jesus said, “A man shall leave his mother and become as one flesh with His wife. And any man who divorces his wife save for fornication commits adultery. (Mt 19:3-12). We know this is not a command that all men must marry women, though, because immediately after saying this Jesus’ disciples say, ‘If this is true isn’t it better not to marry?”’ and Jesus answers, “Not all men can receive this saying because some men are born eunuchs, some are made eunuch’s by people, and some make themselves eunuch’s for the kingdom of heaven’s sake .” We know that Jesus is using the practical definition of the word eunuch meaning a person who does not have sex that can lead to new life, because Jesus seems to be saying that making oneself a eunuch can help some men enter the kingdom of heaven, and because if Jesus were using the physical definition of the word eunuch this would lead many men to physically mutilate themselves. The way Jesus uses the word Eunuch reminds us that any activity that cannot lead to new life should not even be called sex and reminds us that it is only a weakness in our language that leads us to even call homosexuality sex.
--- ---
The motivation behind racism is simple. We all would like to believe we are better than other people for reasons that are unlikely to change, (and race is a reason that will never change), and we will only avoid believing this when we appreciate how much more exciting our world is if we see how easily and quickly it can change and if we see how easily and quickly we can change. It is important to realize that racism is only one way of doing this. Often people feel that they are better than people from certain other places, and even more often people feel they are better than anyone who does not share some superficial trait or way of speaking that is the fashion for them, and that many other people are unlikely to even know about. These things are often seen in modern
--- ---
The full effect of Jesus’ teachings, is hard for us to see for at least two reasons. The first reason is that people have often taught lessons they have learned from Jesus, to other people, without telling those people that what they taught came from Jesus. People who have done this, have usually done this because Jesus has been given a bad reputation by other people who call themselves Christians but who ignore Jesus’ teachings. The second reason is that when people come to believe some of the things Jesus teaches us, independently of Jesus, if these people persist in these beliefs, and if these people pass these beliefs on to other people, at least in the western world these things will usually happen because Jesus also teaches these beliefs. This is so because in the short-term, actions based on altruism, pacificism, or any other belief Jesus teaches, will often not help people who perform them, and in the short-term will often do great harm to people who perform them. When this happens, if we do not have Jesus’ support and assurances, we will also come to believe that these actions will not help people who perform them, and will do harm to who perform them, in the long-term. Jesus tells us often, though, that following His teachings will help us in the long-term, in spite of the fact that following His teachings will hurt us in the short-term. Jesus tells us this when He says He says to his disciples, “Beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake. And brother will deliver brother up to death, and the father the child: and the children will rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mt 10:17-18 & 21-22), and Jesus tells us that the punishment Our Creator will give to people who do not do as much good as he expects them to do, will be much more damaging than any harm other people can do to us when He says, “Fear not those who can who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Fear instead He who can destroy both body and soul.” .” (Mt 10:28 & Lk 12:4-5)
--- ---
I approach the “free software”, freeware, “open-source”, conversation from the perspective of a person who wants to determine how each of these practices can help us follow the commands, “Give to all who ask of you, and do not ask for anything in return from one who takes from you”1, and “Give alms, provide yourself with treasure in the heavens”2. Both of which were given by my spiritual master, Jesus Christ. I am new to the concepts of “free software”, freeware, “open-source”, conversation, and I want to learn as much as I can about these practices. Because of My inexperience I may have some misconceptions in this area, but my current impression is that developing free software is, under most circumstances, a more effective way of following the commands of Jesus Christ I have cited, than developing freeware is. I want to know if this is true, and I also want to know if developing “free software” is always a more effective way of “giving to all who ask of us”, and of “giving to the poor”, than developing freeware is. I pose this as an open question to anyone who is concerned with healing the wounds that are tearing our world apart: a goal that will be accomplished if enough of us follow the teachings of Jesus, and to anyone who is concerned with living as Our Creator wants us to live. I hope to hear from every person who has an opinion on this matter, (or from as many people as possible). Based on my current level of understanding, I understand that the most significant difference between “free software” and freeware is that in the case of freeware the creator of this software maintains control of the source code with which this software has been created. Under what circumstances, if any, might doing this allow that software’s creator to give more to the poor? Might it allow that software’s creator to make future improvements to that software that would allow it to help the poor more, that that software’s creator would not be able to make if he or she did not maintain control of the source-code with which that software had been created. And if such circumstances might exist, what would lead to those circumstances existing, how often might they exist, and what would indicate to a person developing software if those circumstances were more or less likely to exist with regard to any individual piece of software he or she is considering developing. I know that answering these questions will require a thorough analysis of these issues, but I also know that doing this will be well worth the effort it takes, because answering these questions will allow us to determine how we can best use each of these practices to follow the moral laws of our universe told to us by Jesus of Nazareth. I especially want the help of anyone who has or might in the future be involved in the creation of these types of software. For this reason I will try to present this question and this letter to as many people as possible, and I will try to do this primarily by posting it on a blog I have recently created. Because this blog is new, it has had no visitors, and may for that reason be hard to find, and may not show up on many search engines. I hope that this soon changes, though, so if you are reading this, I ask you to try to answer the questions I have asked, and to try to do whatever you can do to increase the number of other people who see this letter. Whatever the relative merits of “free software” vs. freeware as means of giving to the poor, for either practice to work well will require a massive expansion of public libraries that provide non-obsolete public computers. Public libraries can help us all in so many ways that they should be more common and open longer hours than convenience stores. When this happens both freeware and free software will be effective means of giving to the poor. I would like to hear comments about how we can bring this about. I believe that some sort of a system through which a certain percentage of all software related profits be voluntarily donated to a public library fund would help make this a reality.
I have not learned many things about these matters, that may seem simple and trivial to most of you who read this. Still, to me they will be new discoveries and will often be of momentous import. While parts of the questions I ask may seem to be remedial questions to most of you, the questions I ask are also central to the happiness and the well being of the most advanced and knowledgeable of us, because recognizing that any practice, skill, or concept that we consider using, must be considered in terms of whether or not it will help us live by the principles that will allow us to heal our world; (The principles taught by Jesus Christ), is the key to all human happiness. So while I write this letter in part for selfish reasons, I also believe the questions I ask will provide a service to all people who read it.
George Pelly-Bosela
1. (Lk 6:30 (27-36), see also Mt 5:42- 48)
2. (Lk 12:33, see also Lk 18:18-25, & Mt 19:16-24)
I can be reached at gpelly.bosela@gmail.com . I may also be able to be reached at (440) 647-5182. If you get an answering machine please leave a message on it, because I may be unable to answer calls at this number but may be able to get these messages and return your call. I may also have to go for weeks at a time without getting to a computer to check my email, but I will probably be able to check my email every day or every few days. One way or another I will probably receive all emails sent to this address within a few weeks. I will try to be at this telephone number because I especially look forward to telephone calls from anyone who is interested in the church of human weakness.
The full essay, most of which I have just sent to you, can along with later sections that are not included in this email can be found at http://churchofhumanweakness.blogspot.com. At this website these later sections are included as a separate blog entry. Please refer everyone you know who might want to help heal our world, to this web page. When you want to print this speech you may have to press the paper feed button on your printer periodically.
I have shown you this essay because I hope and believe you will want to help heal our world, and because I believe we can all do more to help heal our world, and can do less to harm our world, by living as Jesus teaches us to live, and by helping to spread Jesus’ true teachings by joining or supporting a church of human weakness, than we can do in any other way. Now that you have read this essay I believe you will agree with me.
Section 16. More on Understanding Jesus
The true power of Jesus lies in the way of living He teaches us.
Jesus’ power will only be present in our lives to the extent that we live as Jesus teaches us to live. The more often we follow Jesus teachings the more we will benefit from knowing Jesus, and the less often we follow Jesus’ teachings the less we will benefit from knowing Jesus.
Because God has created us, we can only find joy and contentment by doing what God wants us to do.
God has already given us
all we need to find joy and contentment.
Because God is our creator we can only find contentment and joy by doing what God wants us to do. Knowing this, and knowing what Jesus teaches us God wants us to do are the only things we can know about God that will help us find joy. Knowing whether or not God controls everything in our world will not help us at all. Because Jesus knows this, Jesus never tells us whether or not God controls everything in our world. Jesus only tells us that God is our lord and master and that if we do not please God we will suffer greatly: As Jesus puts it, “There will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth.” If we do not please our Heavenly Father. As Jesus said to Peter when Peter tried to judge another disciple, “What concern is it of yours if I will that he tarry till I come? You follow me. (Jn21:21-24). Jesus is telling Peter that his own actions should be his only concern. And that he should not try to judge anyone else or anything else.
The reason that it would not help us to know whether or not God controls everything in our world, is that God has already done everything we need him to do for us. There is nothing that we could want God to give us, that God has not already given us. If we have not received a thing that we need, this is so only because we have not yet learned how to receive what God has given us. The way in which we can receive gifts that God has given us, is by doing what God wants us to do. We can learn how to do what God wants us to do from Jesus.
We cannot influence what God will do, and if we are wise we will not want to influence what God will do. This is so because if we are wise, we will know that in comparison to God all people are fools. God knows what He should do far better than any person could ever know what God should do. If we do sometimes ask God to do anything for us, we should not actually hope to influence God’s actions. We should instead ask God to do things for us, so that we can better understand ourselves. Asking God to do things for us can help us see things that we are lacking, and asking God to do things for us can help us see our desires more clearly. The more clearly we can see our desires, the more accurately we can determine if our desires are sometimes the same as God’s desires for us, and the more clearly we can see how our desires differ from God’s desires for us.
Jesus tells us that God already knows what we need when He says, “Take no thought, for what you will eat, or for what you will drink, or for what you will wear. “Your heavenly father knows that you need these things.” Jesus then tells us how we can receive all of these things when He says, “First seek God’s righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” (Mt 6:25-33 & Lk 12:22-34).
Why it is dangerous to think we know more about God than what Jesus tells us about God
1.)
Jesus tells us very little about how God will reward us for doing His will.
Jesus does tell us that if we follow Him we will often suffer, but that God will more than make up for our suffering with rewards He will give us. Because of this we never know whether we should expect rewards or suffering at any particular time.
All that Jesus tells us about God’s rewards is that one of God’s rewards is eternal life. Jesus does not describe this life though.
One reason for this is that we will only desire the life that God will give us for eternity when we have been transformed by following Jesus. In our current state the life that we would know in the kingdom of heaven would probably not appeal to us very much.
Jesus also does not tell us that God intervenes in the world to reward people who do His will. God may not have to intervene to reward people who do His will. God may instead have created the world in such a way that people who do His will are rewarded without His needing to intervene. Just as on our planet water always flows downhill, so also do rewards always flow to people who do God’s will. Both of these things might happen without God having to intervene each time they happen.
Both the exact nature of the rewards God will give to people who follow Jesus and whether or not God intervenes in the world He has created to reward people who follow Jesus are not things that we need to know about God. Knowing these things would not help us to do God’s will. This is why Jesus does not tell us these things.
Any thing about God other than the actions that He will reward and the actions that He will punish are things that we do not need to know about God.
2.)
Believing that we know anything that we don’t know only makes it harder for us to follow Jesus. This is so because following Jesus requires that we see ourselves as we are: weak limited beings who desperately need Our Creator’s forgiveness. Imagining ourselves to be greater than we are leads to destructive pride that encourages us to do our will instead of God’s will.
Jesus tells us that to follow Him each of us must, “Deny himself and take up his cross daily.” People who think that they are greater than they are will not deny themselves, will not take up their crosses, and will not follow Jesus.
How seeing that everything Jesus tells us to do is part of forgiving other people as we need God to forgive us, will strengthen our faith.
Unless we see that all of Jesus’ commands are part of one great command, we will think that Jesus is correct when He tells us that God wants us to do some things, and that Jesus is incorrect when He tells us that God wants us to do other things. If we see that Jesus actually tells us that God wants us to do one thing that has many parts, then strong faith in any particular thing that Jesus tells us to do, will strengthen our faith in all things that Jesus tells us to do. This strengthening of faith will happen for most of us, because most of us do have strong faith in some things that Jesus tells us to do. Most of us have strong faith in some things that Jesus tells us to do, because most of us have seen some things that Jesus tells us to do help us or help people close to us, when either we, or people close to us have done those things.
The more any person has learned from Jesus, the easier it will be for that person to resist temptation.
If we sometimes follow Jesus when other people do not follow Jesus, we must realize that we are only following Jesus because we are being tempted less strongly than other people are being tempted.
Part of the reason that some people are sometimes tempted less strongly than other people are tempted, is because those people have been taught, by wise teachers, that following Jesus will lead to rewards that will be far greater than any suffering they will know because they follow Jesus, While other people have not been taught this.
The more clearly and more fully we have been taught Jesus’ truth, the easier it will be for us to follow Jesus.
This will be so because, the more clearly and more fully we understand Jesus’ teachings, the more often we will be able to see what action following Jesus would lead a person to take in different situations, And because the more often we can see what action following Jesus would lead a person to take, the more often we will be able to tell whether or not a particular person is following Jesus, and the more often we will be able to see that God truly does reward people who follow Jesus.
When we must act in situations that Jesus did not speak of, we can still know how following Jesus would lead us to act in these situations. We can know this if we have learned the general principle that lies underneath all that Jesus says to us, and that binds all of Jesus’ teachings into one great lesson. We can know this if we understand that all that Jesus tells us to do is a part of forgiving other people their evil, as we want God to forgive us our evil.
Only in the name of a disciple
It can take a long time for any person to learn that Jesus truly does teach God’s will, and to learn that he or she needs to follow Jesus’ teachings.
We all enter this world not knowing what God wants us to do and not knowing how we can learn what God wants us to do. We all start trying to learn what God wants us to do from people who are close to us and most of us continue trying to learn what God wants us to do from people who are close to us, throughout our lives. If people who are close to us do not follow Jesus then it may be a long time before we even hear Jesus’ teachings, and even when we do hear Jesus’ teachings we will probably not hear them taught in Jesus’ name.
This does not matter to Jesus, though, and it also does not matter to God. Jesus tells us this when He tells us that if a person does God’s will that person’s, reward will “In no way be less because he does so only in the name of a disciple.” (Mt 10:42), And Jesus tells us this again when he says, “Whoever speaks against the Son of Man, will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, will not be forgiven.”(Mt 12:32 & Lk 12:10)
The Holy Ghost is Jesus’ teachings, and the help that God gives to people who follow Jesus’ teachings. Jesus cares much more about what we say about His teachings, than He cares, about what we say about Him. If we learn how to forgive people who do us evil, and if we do forgive people who do us evil, then Jesus doesn’t care whether we learn how to do these things in His name, or in someone else’s name.
Jesus only wants us to follow Him if following Him leads us to do the will of His Father. Jesus only wants us to follow Him because following Him is the best way we have of learning How to do the will of His father.
Why some people follow Jesus’ teachings more closely than other people follow Jesus’ teachings.
Jesus tells us that we all do evil when we are led into temptation, and that we only do good when God gives us gifts that allow us to do good. The greatest of the gifts that God gives is the understanding of the true value of Jesus’ teachings. Some people follow Jesus more closely than other people follow Jesus because those people understand that Jesus truly does teach us what God wants us to do, and truly does teach us what actions God will reward. If all people understood this about Jesus, then all people would be equally eager to follow Jesus’ teachings.
If we were all led to the same temptations, and if we were all given the same strengths and abilities by God, then we would all follow Jesus equally closely.
Though Jesus preached only to the Jewish people, Jesus wants His light to fill the entire world.
Jesus tells us this when He says “I am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of
Like a Lord and His slaves (A note on translation)
Throughout this guide to following Jesus I often quote Jesus. When I do this the quotes I use are based on the interlinear translation from the nestle Greek text, directed by Alfred Marshall. For the most part the meaning of Jesus’ sayings is the same in this interlinear translation as it is in most other widely used translations. I have found only one recurring difference in meaning between these translations. Whenever most translations tell us that Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a Lord and His servants or that all people are servants of God, the authoritative interlinear translation tells us that Jesus actually said that the kingdom of heaven is like a Lord and His slaves, and that all people are slaves of God.
It is easy to see at least one persuasive reason that many translators say servant where Jesus said slave. This reason is that reading that we are all slaves to God has probably encouraged many people to treat other people like slaves. Though it is good to discourage people from treating other people like slaves, It is wrong to misunderstand our true relation to God in our attempt to do this.
Jesus discourages people from treating other people like slaves in a way that is both more effective than changing His words is, and that does not misrepresent our true relation to God. Jesus does this by telling us that we should never put any person in God’s place, and by telling us that we should never treat any person as we treat God or as we treat Him. Jesus tells us these things when He says, “Be not you called Rabbi, for Christ is your master and you are all brothers. And call no man father, for you have a Father who is in heaven. Neither be you called master, for Christ is your master.” (Mt 23: 5-12 & Lk 20: 45-47)
Jesus tells us that we are like slaves to God, but Jesus also makes it clear that no person should ever be either a slave or a master to any other person. Instead we should all treat each other as brothers and sisters. Seeing that that we are slaves to God should discourage us from trying to put ourselves in God’s place and should discourage us from trying to make other people our slaves.
We are all like slaves to God, because God has given us all that we have, including every ability we possess, and including our lives themselves. Because God has given us all that we have, we should use what God has given us, as God wants us to use wants us to use what He has given us. This is why we should be like slaves to God.
No person has given us all that we have. No person has given us every ability we possess, and no person has given us our lives. This is why no person should ever call another person slave, and this is why no person should ever call another person master.
Our earthly parents, brought together materials that God created in them, and when these materials came together God created us out of these materials. God gave us life. Our earthly parents were merely labourers who carried God’s supplies. This is God’s way of allowing people to play a small role in His creation. We must never forget that people only assist in the small details of creation, and that God is the Master and the Creator who makes creation happen.
Jesus tells us that God will punish us if we claim to have more faith than we have.
If we say that we have faith in more than a small portion of what Jesus tells us, then Jesus will know we are lying. A person who lies about his or her faith in Jesus, will offend Jesus, because this person will be making Jesus the cause of an evil lie. If we try to follow Jesus then all that we can honestly say about our faith is that our faith can be measured by how closely we follow Jesus’ teachings.
When we say that we have more faith than we actually have, we do so because we are trying to make ourselves look good. Jesus never wants us to try to make ourselves look good. Jesus never wants us to do this because people who try to make themselves look good, often come to believe that they are good, and then often reject God’s mercy, because they think that they don’t need God’s mercy.
People who try to make themselves look good, will also commit acts of great evil in order to silence anyone who shows that they are not good: Just as the scribes and pharisees of
Jesus tells us that God will punish people who try to make themselves look good, when he says to the Pharisees of the
Jesus doesn’t want us to talk or think at all, about how much or how little faith we have, and Jesus doesn’t want us to talk or think at all, about how much good or how much evil we will do. Jesus tells us this when He tells us to “Judge not.” (Mt 7:1, Lk 6:37). When Jesus tells us to “Judge not”, He is telling us both not to judge other people, and not to judge ourselves. Instead, Jesus wants us to see that however much faith we have, our faith will always be small, that however much good we do, we will always do little good, and, that however much evil we do, we will always do great evil.
Jesus wants us to see these things so we will ask for God’s mercy, and so we will forgive as we need be forgiven.
Jesus tells us that God will reward us if we are humble and that God will punish us if we are proud.
Jesus tells us this when He says, “Whoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 18:4)
Jesus tells us this again, when He says to His disciples, “The greater of you shall be your servant. (Mt 20:26-27, Mt 23:11, Lk 22:25-27), Whoever wishes to be great among you, he will be your servant. And whoever wishes to be first among you, he will be you slave.” and when He says to His disciples, “He who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and He who is chief, let him be your servant. For who is greater the servant or the one who is served. Isn’t the person who is served greater? But I am with you as a servant. (Lk 22:26-27).
Jesus tells us again that God will reward humble people and will punish proud people when He says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Mt 23:12, Lk 14:11, Lk 18:14).
If we say we have faith in Jesus then we are lying. Our actions show that we all doubt Jesus greatly, when Jesus tells us what Our Creator wants us to do, because we all often do not follow Jesus’ teachings, and because when we fail to follow Jesus’ teachings, then we do not believe that following those teachings at that time will bring us rewards that will outweigh suffering that will come from following Jesus, as Jesus tells us following will do.
We will all lose faith in Jesus, whenever we are led to great temptation. This is why Jesus tells us to pray to Our Father, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Mt 6:5-15 & Lk 11:2-4). Temptation will challenge any faith we have in Jesus. The only way we can strengthen our faith is by honestly admitting the doubt that becomes obvious to all when we are tempted, before temptation comes. If we constantly challenge our faith, by constantly trying to test what new doubt, before we are tempted, then we will be better prepared when temptation comes. We must question whether Jesus is right or wrong in everything that He teaches us. We can strengthen our faith by doing this, because there is an answer to every question we can ask: both in Jesus’ words (if we understand His teachings correctly), and in the results we see in our lives when we try to follow Jesus, and the results we see when we do not try to follow Jesus.
For example we will all often doubt that Our Creator wants us to always turn the other cheek, when a person strikes us, and we will all often doubt that Our Creator will always give us rewards for turning the other cheek, that will be greater than the physical pain we will suffer from doing so. We must remember that Jesus does not tell us to only turn the other cheek once. If a person continues to strike us, then we are commanded to turn the other cheek again, and again, even if doing so leads us to be badly beaten. This experience would break the faith of most of us. If we believe Jesus’ promises that we will suffer greatly, but that if we continue to follow Jesus, we will be given rewards that will more than make up for our suffering, though. If we believe these promises then we will follow Jesus.
The Hypothesis
Human knowledge can only advance through conjecture, hypothesis, and testing. The most valuable thing in the world is a person who puts forth testable hypotheses. Many people test, few people hypothesize. Most people not only fail to put forth testable hypotheses, most people fail to put forth any hypotheses. When we find a person who does put forth hypotheses, we should treat that person as a rare jewel of great value. Especially if that person puts forth hypotheses about what moral actions will work for us: hypotheses about what moral actions will bring us things that we want and things that we need; because people who put forth moral hypotheses are especially rare.
The most detailed statement ever put forth about what moral actions will bring us things that we want and things that we need, is the statement put forth by Jesus of Nazareth. To Jesus, His statement is not a hypothesis to be tested, but is instead a fact He knows to be true. To us though Jesus’ statement, like all statements is, a hypothesis we will only believe if we test it. This is a part of our natures that Jesus’ tells us of every time He calls us “you of little faith”. Jesus tells us how much easier our lives would be if we could believe without testing our beliefs anew each time we think of them, and at the same time Jesus tells us how impossible it is for us to believe without testing our beliefs anew each time we think of them. Jesus tells us these things when He says to his disciples, “If your faith were as a grain of mustard seed, you could tell that mountain to move, and it would move.” (Mt 17:20). This tells us that unless a person can make a mountain move by telling it to move, that person does not have enough faith to fill the smallest seed Jesus knew of.
When we do what Jesus tells us to do. At that moment we believe what Jesus tells us. Most of the time, though, we do not do what Jesus tells us to do.
Jesus tells us that each of us needs more forgiveness from Our Creator, than any other person will ever need from us, and that Our Creator will only shield us from the punishment we deserve for evil we have done to Him, if we try to shield other people from the punishment they deserve for evil they have done to us: that Our Creator will only show us mercy instead of justice, if we show mercy instead of justice to people who do evil to us. Everything Jesus tells us to do is a part of showing mercy instead of justice to people who do evil to us.
Thankfully for us, Jesus’ statement about what moral actions will work for us, can be tested. If we show mercy instead of justice, to people who do evil to us, and if we then observe what happens in our lives, we will be testing Jesus’ statement. The complete results of this test may never come in, because Our Creator’s actions towards us may never end, but if we observe our lives closely, then we will see some of the effects of our actions very soon. Jesus tells us that this will be so when He says, “There is no man, who has left house or parents, or wife or children for the kingdom of God’s sake, who will not receive many times more in the present time, and in the world to come, life everlasting” (Lk 18:29-30). Some of Our Creator’s rewards will come to us immediately, while some of Our Creator’s rewards will take longer to develop and come to fruition.
We can only test Jesus’ teachings in our own lives because our own lives are the only lives we can observe completely. We can only observe small parts of other people’s lives. Because of this it is much harder to test all hypotheses in human affairs than it is to test hypotheses in the physical sciences. It is worth the effort though, because it is in human affairs that we will benefit most if we are able to gain accurate knowledge. Every time we act, we are forced to make decisions about what moral actions we believe will bring us things that we want and thing that we need, and we will only be able to act wisely if our beliefs about these things are correct.
Jesus encourages us to test what he teaches us, by showing us that He is so sincere in His teachings that He was willing to die so that His teachings would come to as many people as possible, and so that those people would take His teachings seriously.
If Jesus had not died on the Cross we would not take His words seriously. We would say that talk is cheap, and we would think that Jesus was asking us to do things that He wouldn’t do. In fact, because we all would have felt this way about Jesus, people who lived when Jesus preached, would not have preserved and passed on Jesus’ words, and people alive today, would not even be able to hear or read Jesus’ words.
Jesus tells us to eat His body and to drink His blood, and Jesus tells us that we cannot live unless we eat his body and drink His blood. “Truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
When Jesus died, His blood flowed down from the cross to form the words of His gospels. Every time we read these words, and live by them, we are drinking Jesus’ blood. Every time we read these words, and live by them, we are eating Jesus’ body.
We human beings are naturally vicious and cruel
We are quick to fight with each other, to war on each other, and to do harm to each other. Our belligerence comes from our fear: which is naturally great, and is made still greater when we add irrational fears to the fears that all people naturally have. Though we are naturally vicious and cruel, we should not remain this way. We should transform our cruelty and viciousness into kindness and brotherhood. Jesus tells us we should do this in everything He tells us to do, and Jesus tells us how we can do this. We can only transform cruelty and viciousness into kindness and brotherhood by following Jesus’ command to “forgive men when they trespass against you”, and we will only follow this command if we remember Jesus’ teaching that, “If you do not forgive men who trespass against you, then you father will not forgive you.” This is how the forgiveness Jesus teaches us can transform each of us into human beings, and can heal the wounds of our world.
Words that do not lead us to do God’s will are meaningless to Jesus. Jesus told us that doing the will of God is the only thing that matters to Him when, as He stood at a podium before a large crowd, He was told that His mother and brothers were outside the building He was speaking in and wished to see Him. Jesus then asked the crowd of people who waited to hear Him speak, “Who is my mother?, Who are my brothers?”, then Jesus stretched forth his hands to his disciples and said, “Behold my mother and my brothers . Whoever shall do the will of my Father in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. (Mt 12:46-50), My mother and brethren are these who hear the word of God and do it. (Lk 8:19-21)
Jesus tells us again that saying good things to God will not help us gain God’s favor if we do not also do God’s will when He says to the chief priests and elders of Jerusalem, “A certain man had two sons. This man said to the his first son, “Go work in my vineyard.” This son said, “I will not”, but later repented and went. This man then said the same thing to his second son, and that son said, “I go sir”, but went not.” Jesus then asked, “Which of these two did the will of their father?” After a person answered, “The first”, Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you the publicans and the harlots will enter the kingdom of God before you will. For John came to you, in the way of righteousness, and you believed him not; But the publicans and the harlots believed him; And you still have not repented, that you might believe him. (Mt 21:28-32)
Jesus is telling the chief priests and elders of Jerusalem that, like the son who said that he would work in his father’s field but who did not do what he had said he would do, They had spoken the words that God wanted to hear when they said that they would do God’s will, but they did not then do God’s will. Jesus then tells these priest and elders that people who had done great evil (Publicans, who by working for the Roman government had helped to steal the land of Israel, and Harlots, who had been with many men instead of cleaving to one man as they should have done), but who had confessed their evil, would win God’s favor before people who tried to make God think that they were good, as the chief priests and elders had tried to make God think that they were good, would win God’s favor.
Jesus tells us that words that we say about Him and about God, words that we say to Him and to God, and rituals that we perform in churches, only matter to Him, and to God if they lead us to do God’s will. Any words and rituals only matter to Jesus, and to God if they lead people to do God’s will. If words and rituals do not lead people to do God’s will, then they are worthless to Jesus, and to God.
Jesus tells us that rituals that do not lead people to do God’s will are worthless to Him and to God, when he says to the Pharisees of Jerusalem, “Woe to you Pharisees. You pay tithe of mint, thyme, anise, and cumin, but omit weightier matters of law, judgment, mercy and faith.” (Mt 23:23 & Lk 11:42 ). Mint, thyme, anise, and cumin can be good things, if they lead people to think about law, judgment, mercy, and faith, and if they lead people to try to follow the law, to try to have faith, and to show other people mercy. If they do not lead people to do these things, then mint, thyme, anise, cumin, or any other ceremonial scent or material, are distractions, that keep people from seeing God’s will, and that bring people only woe.
The only way in which we can follow the law, have faith, or show mercy, is by doing what Jesus has told us to do, (by obeying Jesus’ commands).
Rituals and ceremonies are tools.
Do not make false idols of them.
Churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques are all things of man. Jesus only wants us to value things of man if they help us do God’s will. Often these things of man do help us do God’s will, but often they do not help us do God’s will. Rituals, ceremonies, and sermons in churches, often help people who take part in them do God’s will by helping those people learn what Jesus taught, But rituals, ceremonies, and sermons in churches, also often keep people who take part in them from doing God’s will by keeping those people from learning what Jesus taught.
Nearly all rituals and ceremonies, of nearly all Churches can help people learn Jesus’ teachings, and nearly all rituals and ceremonies, of nearly all churches can keep people from learning Jesus’ teachings. Which of these things they do, depends on how people in a particular church use them. For example, people in most churches sing songs that help them feel that God will do great things for them, and that help them feel happy about the things that God will do for them. If these songs are combined with sermons or with other songs that show people who hear them that they will have to do many difficult things, and that they will have to suffer greatly, to get God to do great things for them, then these songs will help people who sing them understand that their pain can lead to great joy.
Often, though, songs that make people feel happy about what Jesus will do for them, are combined only with other songs that also make people feel happy about what Jesus will do for them, And with sermons that preach that God will do great things for people who follow Jesus, but that do not tell people who hear these sermons, how they can follow Jesus, Or with sermons that tell people that all they have to do to get God to do great things for them, is to say that they believe in Jesus, Or with sermons that tell people that all they have to do to get God to do great things for them, is to perform the rituals of the church they are in. When songs and sermons are used in this way, they keep people who sing them from learning the good news that Jesus taught.
Another ritual that often helps people learn about Jesus, and that also, often keeps people from learning about Jesus, is the ritual of baptism. This is true, regardless of the age at which a person is baptized. Baptism can help us learn about Jesus by reminding us, that we need to be washed clean of our sin, And by leading us to learn what we must do to be washed clean of our sin. In the case of infant baptism, baptism can help a person by reminding his or her parents of this fact, and by leading them to become people who can help him or learn, what he or she must do to wash away his or her sins. Too often, though, people, who are baptized, are taught that the ritual of baptism itself washes away their sins. The ritual of baptism itself cannot do this. Our sins will only be washed away if forgive other people, as we need God to forgive us, And we can only forgive other people, as we need God to forgive us, by treating other people, as Jesus told us to treat them. If we do not do this, then the ritual of baptism is meaningless.
We all want to believe that we can gain God’s favor by performing certain rituals, or by saying certain words. We want to believe this because it is easier for us to do these things, than it is for us to forgive other people. If we do not follow Jesus’ teachings, though, then God will punish us for our sins.
The only way in which we can eat Jesus’ body, and drink Jesus’ blood, is by living by Jesus’ teachings. Jesus’ blood flowed down from the cross to form the words of His gospels, and Jesus’ flesh gave these words substance.” Jesus died so that we would believe His words.
If Jesus had not died on the cross, Jesus’ followers would have concluded that Jesus had not believed His own teachings, and that Jesus was asking them to do things that He was not willing to do. Because of this, these followers would have forgotten Jesus, and we, who are alive today, would never have heard Jesus’ name, or heard Jesus’ teachings.
Jesus tells us to drink His blood, and to eat His body, so we will know we are so sinful that we can only live because of his death. (“Truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” Jn 6:53). So that, finally, we will admit that we cannot be good, and will, in doing so, accept God’s mercy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
