Bringing Jesus Back into Focus
Thoughts of a Christian Pacifist
Jesus said, "you have heard that it was said, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek turn the other to him also. You have heard that it was said, ' you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, bless those who curse you, do good to those who treat you wrongfully and detest you, so that you may be sons (and daughters) of your Father who is in Heaven.
For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect."
These are the words about the Golden Thread of Divine Love, that awakens us to become Spiritual children of the Divine Loving Creator, and links us to the eternal Heavenly world, if we become at one with them. They were given to all children of the world through Jesus of Nazareth.
His Way is the Way of Divine Love.
The Golden Thread of Divine Love and Jesus
October 2023 jcinfocus@gmail.com
These words of Jesus are Gold. Gold cannot be tarnished. They are the essence of Divine Love. The Divine Loving Creator cannot be tarnished by any form of corruption that opposes Divine Love. His Divine Love is pure, whole and incorruptible. The Divine Loving Creator can never harm anyone or anything. We may harm ourselves, others or the planet Earth, but He will never take part in any such actions or support them in any way. His Divine Loving Life-force, cannot be used for evil or to cause suffering.
The natural physical nature, of our Earthly existence, does give everyone an experience of suffering, to varying degrees of intensity and duration. But they are all ultimately temporary. A healthy physical body, can also give everyone an experience of happiness, to varying degrees and intensity, but ultimately they are all temporary. Jesus teaches, that we all have a Soul in Spirit within us, that is empowered by the Divine Love of the Creator, and if we become at one with it, we will transform into Spiritual children of the Divine Eternal Creator. Then after we pass through the death experience of our temporary body, we will awaken or arise, into a Heavenly Spiritual world, filled with Divine Love beyond all suffering.
The Divine Love of the Creator embraces, comforts, restores, heals, strengthens, guides, teaches, inspires, lifts up, reaches into, and brings us out of the deepest darkness and forgives. It sets us free, is patient, gives hope, never rejects or abandons anyone. It never creates fear in anyone, supports all good things we do, knows all our sufferings and is with us in our sufferings. It can be found in every human child and provides Spiritual Life-force to use for good works. It brings alive and nourishes the seeds of compassion, generosity, kindness, gentleness, selflessness, decency, morals, ethics and gives us inner strength.
All of these qualities, of the Divine Love of the Creator, are for one purpose only. They help us all to awaken to our true identity, as Spiritual children of the Divine Loving Creator, and to bring us safely home to the Heavenly Spiritual world. It is these Spiritual qualities that help us engage with, and navigate through this precarious Earth world, on our journey towards the Heavenly world. By nurturing these Divine qualities within ourselves, protecting them from harm and living our life out of them, the Divine Love transforms us. From a vessel of mortal, temporary flesh, we arise into our eternal Soul in Spirit, our true identity, as Spiritual children of the Divine Loving Creator.
In the same way, the slow moving caterpillar holds within itself a beautiful butterfly, that can glide through the air once it undergoes its transformation. The caterpillar body has to die to be reborn as a butterfly. But we can undergo the transformation while still in the flesh body, by being born again, into our Soul in Spirit. Then we greet all other children as a Spiritual child, empowered by Divine Love, which we express through our temporary physical body, in actions and words. This is how good works are manifested in this material world. The wellspring of Divine Love, established and awoken in our Souls in Spirit, pours forth through our actions and words, to bring the Love of the Divine Creator to other children. This can then awaken it within themselves, and bring them to also find the Divine Love, within their Soul in Spirit. We must remember, that when we are looking at another child, they have the same Soul in Spirit from the Divine Creator in them, as you do. Only the degree of inner awakening to the Soul in Spirit may be different.
Our Souls in Spirit, are empowered and enlivened, by the Divine Loving Life-force within them, of the Divine Creator. The Earthly flesh is empowered by water, oxygen, potatoes, beans etc. But the True ultimate Life in the flesh, is the Spirit, given to us by the Divine Creator. Jesus said, "it is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words I give you, they are Spirit and they are Life."
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Jesus was like a gold panner in a stream of words, searching for the gold amongst the Old Testament Jewish teachings. He seems to have washed out the useless gravel, and disentangled the distortions that had crept in over time, hiding the true gold. He set the Divine Loving Creator free from being misrepresented, and at the same time, set children free from being chained to a distortion, that fractured the Oneness of the Divine Loving Creator. As Jesus said, "the truth will set you free."
He revealed the good news about the Divine Loving Creator and the kingdom of Heaven within us all. The God that Jesus searched for, and was clearly revealed to Him, is a perfectly compassionate, loving, just and forgiving God. It seems the Jewish people, had developed an imperfect understanding of the Divine Loving Creator, and worshipped Him as both a God of Love, and a God of war. Most other civilisations at the time, also had multiple Gods, but with separate identities. The Jewish people overlayed them and believed they were one. This has now also become the common held belief, of most mainstream Christians.
But the Golden thread of Divine Love, can be found in the Old Testament.
( Leviticus 19:18 ) ...you shall not avenge or bear any grudge against children of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord. .
( Leviticus 19: 33-34 )...And if a stranger travels with you in your land, you shall not do him any wrong. The stranger that dwells with you, you shall treat as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God.
(Deuteronomy 6:4-5 )..Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your Soul and with all your strength.
Jesus Himself said, that all the Spiritual laws are built on these laws from God, about becoming at one with Divine Love. He was absolutely correct. You cannot build laws of hate, violence or killing, on a base of Divine Love, for they are as darkness is to the Light.
But the Old Testament is also filled with instructions to commit violence, slaughter and theft, and it states that the Jewish people are still following the same God. The book of Joshua, is a classic example of representing this incongruous duality, attributed to the one God.
( Joshua 6: 2 ) ...And the Lord said to Joshua, 'see, I have given into your hand Jericho, and the king thereof and the mighty men of valour.
( Joshua 6: 21 ) ...And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and ass, with the edge of the sword.
( Joshua 6 :24 )...And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was in it, except for the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and iron, they put these into the treasury of the House of the Lord.
These instructions, attributed to the same Jewish God, are completely devoid of Spiritual Love. This has all the hallmarks of a God of war, to serve selfish desires, and empower the beast of the flesh in killing, hatred, greed, judgement and exclusion. As opposed to a God of Divine Love, who empowers us Spiritually, to embrace all other children as sisters and brothers. Everyone who knows, and follows the Way of Jesus, and the Divine Loving Creator He reveals to us, must question this for themselves. Reach your own conclusion, seek the truth based on Jesus, and His way of Peace and Divine Love.
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We have a responsibility, as followers of Jesus, to stand up for what He taught as the ultimate Spiritual Truth. Jesus said, " for His sun rises on the good and the evil, and His rain falls on the just and the unjust. Be as perfect as this ( Love ), as your Father in Heaven is perfect, so that you may be sons ( and daughters ) of your Father in Heaven. The original followers were pacifists, as Jesus was Himself. Jesus said, "He that lives by the sword, shall perish by the sword."
That all changed, after the Roman Emperor Constantine, adopted the Christian faith in 312 A.D. and went to war in the name of Jesus and His God, the Divine Loving Creator. In one stroke of history, Constantine reverted the True understanding of the One Divine Loving Creator Jesus gave us, back into the Old Testament dualistic God. And no one ever changed it back. Except for some individuals and small groups, who still saw the Divine Loving Creator through Jesus, and practiced the True Way of Divine Love and Peace. The pacifist Christians, of whom I am one.
I have met many Christians who are confused by this distortion of a dualistic God, held up as truth. Many just leave the faith forever, throwing Jesus and this dualistic God, out with the bath water. Many others, mix Jesus back into the old wine of the Old Testament, to justify a violent God through Him, the Prince of Peace. Instead of following Jesus out of the maze and confusion, they take Him back in to stay with them. Jesus said, " And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins."
Jesus warned His followers, not to mix His new Spiritual Way, and the Divine Loving Creator, back into the old distorted way and understanding of God. If they did so, they will destroy the True understanding of the Divine Creator, and the True Spiritual Way to connect with Him in Heaven, that He was giving them.
His Spiritual teachings are beautiful, profound, loving, just and Heavenly. They provide us with a Way to transform into Spiritual children, and be in the world but not of it. Anyone who understands them and follows them, will be in a Heavenly Spiritual world, after passing through the death experience, of their temporary physical body. His Way, is a universal Spiritual Way of Divine Love, available to anyone who who wishes to follow it. He gives us a personal Way to connect to the Divine Loving Creator, from within our own Souls in Spirit. When asked where Heaven was, He replied that the connection to Heaven is within you, and if we seek it sincerely, we will all find it. He is a great Spiritual teacher, saviour, guide and Divine child of the Divine Loving Creator.
However the Divine law of reaping what we sow after this life, is also very real. If we live a life of Love on Earth, we shall receive a life of Love, after the death of the physical body. But any suffering we cause with our life, will be equal to the suffering we shall receive, if we do not repent and change our ways, before death. The Divine law of reaping what we sow after death, is based on the results of our free will choices, made while alive. After we pass through the death experience of the body, we receive what we manifested with our life. It is perfect Spiritual justice.
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The following, is only my own personal belief regarding how this Divine Spiritual law may work, based on my understanding of the teachings of Jesus. Please follow your own understanding, and pay no attention to mine if you disagree with how I see the Divine Love working in this Spiritual Law.
I believe the cleansing fire is the Divine Love, or Light, of the Divine Creator, shining on a child who covered their Soul in Spirit, with dark ways or filth. It is the false identity, made up of the dark ways and filth, that they became at one with, that is burnt away, not their Soul in Spirit. But it is their Soul in Spirit, that undergoes the experience of suffering, that the dark ways or filth caused. They will feel everything that other children felt, who they ever hurt in any way or killed, just as they felt or experienced it. They will have to pass through this gauntlet of fire, they made for themselves, until all the dark ways are consumed. Different for every child, according to the Divine Spiritual Law, of reaping as they sowed.
This suffering, is the burning realisation of what they had done, against the Divine Love of the Creator, who gave them life. The sorrow and deep remorse could be crushing, as they can no longer hide from the Truth. And this hellish experience, for children who became extremely evil, may seem to be eternal, adding to their suffering.
Some Christians believe, that if they lived out of a false identity, as evil beasts of the flesh, and went against God, they will be totally destroyed by the Divine Loving Creator. This is an Old Testament way of thinking, as seen in the following example:
( Leviticus 10: 1-2 ) .....And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, both took their firepans, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered this strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the Lord, and consumed them, and they died before the Lord..... Step out of line, and this dualistic God kills you. But in the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus says, "it is the will of your Father, who is in Heaven, that none of these little ones, having gone astray, should be destroyed." This is the Way of the Divine Loving Creator, the One True God of Jesus and His faithful followers.
Many Christians believe the Divine Loving Creator, can create a hell. Personally, I do not believe the Divine Loving Creator can create a hell. I believe all hells are created by us, through sin, and are limited according to the cleansing that is needed. The word, 'everlasting,' in Greek means, 'an indeterminate amount of time'. The cleansing fire of hell, will therefore be different for every individual, in intensity and duration. Only Heaven is eternal, as is the Love of the Divine Loving Creator.
Hell is a place for undergoing realisations, about any wrong doings we committed, against the Divine Love of the Creator. They are all deeply felt and experienced by each child's Soul in Spirit. Eventually the wrong doings are all consumed, by these painful realisation experiences. As if burnt away by fire. A hard way to learn about the Truth of Divine Love and the Creator, that was aways waiting in their Souls in Spirit, for them to find. But temptations, born from selfish desires, can lead us all into dark places, instead of becoming filled with the Light and Love of the Divine Creator. As Jesus said, "the light of the body is the eye, therefore if your eye is single, your whole body is full of light." We should keep both eyes focused on the One Divine Loving Creator, and live out of His Divine Love that gives life to our Souls in Spirit.
We ourselves are the ones who decide whether to be beasts of the flesh, or Spiritual children of the Divine Loving Creator. We should all do our best to aim for the Loving Way home to Heaven, and help other children along the way, whenever we can. We must be a light to others, to bring them out of the darkness, and find the way to Heaven within themselves. Help everyone learn they have a Soul in Spirit, that they can become at one with. As followers of Jesus, we must become His brothers and sisters by joining in with His Way, and see all other children, as our brothers and sisters too. We are all God's children.
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I have been a follower of Jesus all my life, and although born into a Christian denomination, by the time I was seventeen, I was just a simple follower of Jesus and non-denominational. Jesus always meant Love and non-violence to me. As did the God of Jesus. I love His teachings and have been surprised how many Christians have become distracted by other elements contained in the Bible, that take them away from deeply immersing themselves, in His life-changing words. So I thought I had better say something about how I have always known Him, and through Him, the Divine Loving Creator. I respect the different viewpoints and understandings that all Christian children draw from the Bible. I am in a minority group of pacifist Christians, which I believe was the original church. I pray my words about Jesus, may inspire other followers, to come closer to the Divine Loving Creator through Jesus and His words, in their own way.
The above pages are the introduction of,
" Bringing Jesus Back into Focus "
It will be available once printed, on this web site.
I write in a simple way, but try to focus on the Divine Love in His words and life.
"The Gospels of Jesus Unplugged" is soon in print. Nov. 2024
"The Heart of the Gospels " will follow.
May the path to Heaven always be beneath your feet and in your heart.
Christopher John Joseph Contact:
