Matthew 24:12-14 … Walking HIS Way (03/27/16)
Especially around this time of the year, a lot of folks keep getting confused about that thing called “The Gospel” … Indeed, most of the Christians I know — in full harmony with the many teachings of the self-proclaimed “apostle” Paul — make Easter weekend a celebration about Jesus himself; about his life and his death and his resurrection … And most of them celebrate this way — quite unabashedly, I might add — because they believe that his resurrection means theirs as well; that Easter as such is not about what Jesus had to say or about how Jesus wanted us to live, but rather becomes about one’s own rewards and one’s own benefits and one’s own eternal salvation.
This is all fine & good, of course, and the “apostle” Paul would indeed be absolutely THRILLED with the way the Christian religion has evolved in this regard …AND YET, as is so often the case, there is another side to this story — JESUS’ side.
You see, while he almost certainly has nothing against it, Jesus did NOT want any of us to worship him or revere him or honor him (Mark 10:18, John 5:41, John 7:16, John 8:50-54, John 12:44 et al) … No, Jesus quite clearly wanted us all instead to attain entrance into HIS Kingdom of Heaven — a Kingdom that he said exists in every moment of THIS lifetime (Luke 17:20-21), and he wanted us to do so not verbally via worship or mentally via prayer, but ACTIVELY — by emulating his teachings on self-sacrifice; and by walking his Way’s path of selfless service; and by honoring his heavenly Father by having the guts to radically enliven HIS Gospel about Love — not Paul’s gospel about him.
Amen … Let it be so for you & yours today.
“As you go, proclaim THIS Good News: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is [already] at hand … And because of the increase of lawlessness, the Love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures [in Love] to the end will be saved. And THIS Good News of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world … and then the end will come.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:7 + Matthew 24:12-14)
P.S. As I have stated almost ad nauseum in other writings over the years, I lay no claim to have the answer — not to the Bible, not to Jesus Christ, not to God, and certainly not to anything resembling post-mortem ―salvation.‖ Indeed, for me or anyone else (including any of YOU) to claim otherwise would be the epitome of arrogance — something Jesus himself quite ironically and quite openly detested. (see Matthew 18:3-4 & Matthew 23:12)
So, that having been stated, allow me to repeat myself again and admit that traditional Christians might indeed be right; that Paul thus might indeed be right about Jesus (and that Jesus might therefore have been wrong about himself) … And let me repeat again as well that if that is indeed the case, then we will all be dealing with a most unstable, a most immoral, & a most insecure God — and therefore will all have a measure of unpleasant surprises awaiting us in the afterlife.
And so a return to what this post is actually about — namely, what The Way of Jesus Christ is actually about — namely, having the humility to set aside our arrogance & our selfishness long enough to self-sacrificially Care for others … That is what Jesus preached throughout the Gospels, that is what I myself have tested and found to bear BY FAR the best Fruit, and that is indeed at the very least a way to enter the state of sheer Bliss that Jesus himself called ―The Kingdom of Heaven.‖ (again, see Luke 17:20-21 — the only time Jesus specifically speaks about Heaven in the entire Bible)
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