Hmm, I generally focus on Jesus as a universal Christ, very awoke and transformed from within. He had to have been groomed.
Scriptures do not have any explanation for Jesus life from age 12 years to 30 years old… what happened during that time? Where was He for 18 years I wonder? What do you think?
I strongly believe in building bridges not walls. I’m attempting to dare to build Christianity in my own little world in NW Jersey which has become a secular desert. ️ All my life I engineered & built stuff and I want to transform this place intro a solid Christian oasis… that’s my goal ( to plant scriptural churches ). Kinda radical for a man of my age don't ya think?!?
EDITED POST
My people originated in Greece and moved to Constantinople for trade and were then pushed out by the ottomans, moving to Italy and marrying the Latin people forming businesses and trade. They left Italy to escape the fascists, moving to the USA and immediately building businesses for the coal miner industry’s in Pennsylvania. Europe wasn’t an option because the entire continent was in an economic & political flux… they tried France but no, they did not satisfy but the USA provide a new home and opportunity to supply food, groceries and day to day products required. My grand uncle Pasquale had his fingers in every pie…rental property, groceries, shops, etc. I loved that guy cause he was a true business man and as a business man he joined the Masons… and when the RCC found this out they excommunicated him … and he laughed at them. He flipped the money changers tables in the temple so to speak kinda like when Jesus walked right into Jerusalem high temple, that wasn’t righteous anger,
that was God physically attacking their economic order… and that’s suicidal.
Anyway that’s what religion is . Think about it, power systems whether religious political or cultural always follow the same playbook…they take complex, revolutionary figures and sand them down into safe, simple myths they erase & they strip away the dangerous parts…the learning, the struggle, the defiance, and leave us little people with plaster saints we can admire, but never imitate. Why because if you saw the real process, if you saw how much work, study, effort it takes to become free you of course just might start doing it yourself. People need to recognize that there is a template designed to keep you in your own little inconsequential world waiting passively for inspiration instead of building yourself into something powerful but here’s the secret. People can become builders of our own understanding, architects of our own freedom and that means three things (1) learn the edits and the omissions in the stories you’re told whether in scripture, politics or the ever manipulative media … ask what’s missing & who benefits from this version (2) refuse tribalism, don’t limit yourself to one book one culture one ideology. Seek wisdom everywhere from science and philosophy from east and west from mystic and skeptics alike…(3)
Build bridges not walls. Reconstruct. Learn to transform yourself…replace automatic beliefs with conscious understanding, break the chains of fear, guilt, and blind obedience … build your own sovereignty from the inside out. I am convinced that the real legacy of Jesus, is not to believe in me and be saved, but it’s, “
I’ve shown you the path to God and fulfillment, now build on it”. look at the world around you…it’s currently built on polarization disinformation inequality and despair. These are the cracks of a civilization built on faulty foundations, and who can rebuild it ? Surely not passive followers, not obedient believers, but committed people willing to do the hard dangerous exhilarating work of thinking for themselves and constructing a new Christ world. The question is no longer, what should you believe? The question is what will you dare to learn from Christs examples of love, of non- violence, of doing to others as you would have them do unto you etc.
And of course this is the path leading to Christs return. Be the Builders, The Architects, the Designers of the word that will invite Gods return.
I’m working to plant churches, disciple, mentor etc. that’s my small commitment. What’s yours?
MODERATORS- please delete the first post… somewhat redundant.