The Jesus I Know

I witnessed a sermon recently where a preacher made it very clear that how he saw Jesus was 180 degrees different from how I see him now, having studied "A Course In Miracles".

The pinnacle of the sermon was when the pastor waved a long sword in the air while also reading from the Bible in the book of Matthew 10:34 where Jesus was quoted as saying "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.".

Additional information that could be used to create this warrior image of Jesus could be taken from biblical reports where he ransacked the temple, knocked the soldiers to the ground in the garden of Gethsemane, scolded his disciples, and his prophesied return as a lion that will slay the billions who don't know him. Overall, the gist of the sermon was that Jesus was neither peaceful nor passive, so if you chose to be passive, it would be a sin, and Jesus would reject you.

If I go back 20 years or more, I was one of those people who was so sure that every single word in the Bible hinged upon what God required me to know was true. So when God endorsed the mass killings that occurred almost regularly in the Old Testament, it all fit in with what was believed to be an omnipresent being that had the right to do with us as he pleased because we are subservient to him and had no rights of our own.

It was quite a journey from where I believed every single word in the Bible was inspired and and organized by God to how I see it today. I've come to understand that although God may have inspired many of the authors of the Bible, their narrow perception of God prevented them from hearing what he was saying and so they wrote what they believed he would say.

It was a very fearful thing for me to even begin to imagine that the Bible might not be correct. It was believed that if any portion of the Bible were proven to be mistaken, then the whole book and all its teachings were simply wrong.

A 180 degree change in perception referred to in A Course in Miracles is necessary to see God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as they really are. This shift in perception is totally necessary to allow your mind to open to hear from God so that he can heal how you see the world around you, because as long as this world around you is solid and unchangeable, so is your perception of an ancient and fearful God.

To get you through this simply remind yourself that God loves you, He'll do nothing to hurt you, He's never upset at the choices you make while working your way back to Him, and that He has placed in your path all the tools and help necessary for you to find your way home to Him.

Once you become open to receiving a new image of God and his teachings, this information will be presented to you without having to pursue it.

In my case, I was invited to a healing meeting, which I had no idea what that meant, and I was introduced to 'A Course In Miracles'. By doing the lessons and focusing my day around practicing the concepts within the lesson, my perception changed dramatically because now I was no longer just reading but I was practicing and I was being.

It took some time for me to see Jesus as he truly is. There were so many things I was taught about how he came, why he came, his purpose here, and his purpose yet to come. The teachings from A Course In Miracles basically undid all this and made it very clear about who Jesus is.

Here is how I now see Jesus, my brother, my guide, the one who helped open our minds for God to speak to us... It was unlikely that Jesus' birth was the result of an immaculate conception. Since anything physical does not really matter, securing particular bloodlines or insuring that the father's blood was not part of the child's blood, had nothing to do with the spirit that was Jesus.

Jesus entered this world with his mind open to hear God. He was a person no different than you or I, other than his mind being in a much better place than ours. He was not a perfect being. He was a human with an open mind and a true desire to learn and understand the truth about himself and his Creator.

After spending many years of his young adult life seeking the truth about God and spending much time in meditation, Jesus then introduced himself to the world, knowing that he saw something that no one else was seeing.

He talked about being forgiving just for the sake of being forgiving. He talked about giving with no strings attached. He talked about becoming aware that your thoughts are more important than your actions because your thoughts are what really matter. He talked about having an eternal existence and he talked about being loving and kind to all those around you because you are one with all and anything you do to anyone you are also doing to yourself.

His death was the result of a terrible fear that the very religious experienced in that his teachings suggested their beliefs were mistaken and that their path back to God had nothing to do with all the rituals and rules they had established. For those that had hoped to make Jesus their king, they could not even begin to imagine that a peaceful and passive existence had anything to do with them being a people ruled by God.

The crucifixion of Jesus was not a sacrifice required to appease God. Quite the contrary, the crucifixion was an opportunity for Jesus to tear through the final veil that obscured his perception of seeing himself and God as they truly were. The moment Jesus cried out that he believed God had abandoned him, he became fully aware that God had not abandoned him. At that moment, any final lingering thought that even hinted he was disconnected from God in any way, ceased to exist.

What was later written as his resurrection was based upon a confusion of this physical illusion since nothing physical that happens here really matters. No matter what happens to the body, you are not a body, and it has no lasting effect other than what we believe to be true. Likewise, in A Course In Miracles, Jesus says, "Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather THAT I DID NOT DIE by demonstrating that I LIVE IN YOU."

Jesus performed a miracle on the cross when he overcame a major obstacle that had made it difficult for him or any of us to clearly hear the voice of God. In that one instant on the cross where he thought he was abandoned, his mind was healed and he became fully open to hear the voice of God. This voice of God we call the Holy Spirit. Since we are all one spirit, all our minds were healed, and now we can all more easily hear that voice.

The only major difference between us and Jesus at this time is that he is a forerunner in a journey that we are all making back to God. Since he is in the lead, there are so many things he has experienced and now understands which makes him a wonderful advocate and guide to help us more easily follow the path back to God as compared to just trying to do this on our own.

Jesus doesn't want our worship, nor does he want our sacrifice or obedience. All he wants is for you to recognize the authority in what he teaches because he's at the head of this journey that we are all making.

Jesus has already returned. Jesus' second coming is a spiritual awakening within the minds of everyone. As we choose to see him more clearly and as we choose to join with him on the journey home, our path back to God will become more direct and will occur more quickly.

So I leave you with this... If this is at odds with what you currently believe, you are not expected to just take my word for it, but I will suggest you take a moment, close your eyes, and simply say, "I am open and willing to see the truth. No matter what I currently believe, it is the truth that I really want. I open my mind for the Holy Spirit and Jesus to heal how I see them, and how I see this world."