What does Jesus means to me?
We used to sing about Jesus: “Jesus friend of little children be a friend to me, take my life and ever keep me close to thee.” and “Tell me the stories of Jesus, I love to hear, Things I would ask him to tell me, If he were here … “
Right from when I was very young Jesus has been there. We went to Purley Congregational Church. There were stories about Jesus, descriptions of his amazing miracles, and those songs we sung in Church and Junior Church. Jesus was a part of my life; a gentle, kind presence. At bedtime Mum often read me and my brother bible stories, and we made up our short prayers. Jesus was very approachable and just part of our lives.
As I went through life my Mum gave me books that she had discovered and found helpful. The most influential for me about Jesus was one called The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ[1]. This filled in the parts about Jesus that the Bible missed out – travelling to India, learning from rabbis and sages, and more of his healing and caring for everyone. It reinforced my broader view of a Jesus fully human and fully filled with the Holy Breath. Jesus was called The Christ because Christ is the name for Universal Love, and that is what Jesus was full of. I’ve been captivated by that view, that God is Love and Jesus came as a demonstration of that Love.
I think Jesus was a very advanced soul, who people did not understand and who some were afraid of. He preached a new, refreshing and challenging message: Love God with all your heart, and Love your neighbour, and your enemy, and even love yourself too! He possessed a brightness, a radiance seen in his face, a love from his heart, and an aura that people felt in his presence.
For me it feels easier to talk to Jesus, than to approach God the omnipotent. I believe that we are all God’s children, but I see Jesus as an older brother - more knowledgeable, more experienced than me. Jesus to me is the face of God, not way off in the vastness of this incomprehensible universe, but approachable and always there to listen. He is my friend. When I pray I may not always say “Dear Jesus” these days, but it is often the Jesus channel, the Jesus vibration, that I am connecting to God through.
Jesus is also my saviour. I believe in a God of Love. So I don’t believe we need saving from an eternal hell; but my perceptions of myself often drag me down. It is all too easily to focus on the negative - what I believe I’ve done wrong. Saying sorry to Jesus, especially when it’s not possible to say sorry to someone I’ve hurt, helps me to forgive myself for things I feel I’ve got wrong. It can be very liberating and helps me to move on.
2000 years ago Jesus helped people by painting pictures of a loving God, by showing love and by offering forgiveness. His parables, his stories, his actions and his sayings were designed to bring God closer to the people, and people closer to God. Jesus is here still, in the stillness, reducing the perceived gap between people and God, and guiding us home.
Through the different times in my life I have sometimes felt a long way from God and at others quite close. All through my life though I have felt it is the light of Jesus that I connect through when I approach God in the stillness.
Paul Taylor, Brighton Unitarian Church, 1st June 2014
[1] The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Rev. Dr. Levi H. Dowling [1920], republished as a book, also available at http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/agjc/
Right from when I was very young Jesus has been there. We went to Purley Congregational Church. There were stories about Jesus, descriptions of his amazing miracles, and those songs we sung in Church and Junior Church. Jesus was a part of my life; a gentle, kind presence. At bedtime Mum often read me and my brother bible stories, and we made up our short prayers. Jesus was very approachable and just part of our lives.
As I went through life my Mum gave me books that she had discovered and found helpful. The most influential for me about Jesus was one called The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ[1]. This filled in the parts about Jesus that the Bible missed out – travelling to India, learning from rabbis and sages, and more of his healing and caring for everyone. It reinforced my broader view of a Jesus fully human and fully filled with the Holy Breath. Jesus was called The Christ because Christ is the name for Universal Love, and that is what Jesus was full of. I’ve been captivated by that view, that God is Love and Jesus came as a demonstration of that Love.
I think Jesus was a very advanced soul, who people did not understand and who some were afraid of. He preached a new, refreshing and challenging message: Love God with all your heart, and Love your neighbour, and your enemy, and even love yourself too! He possessed a brightness, a radiance seen in his face, a love from his heart, and an aura that people felt in his presence.
For me it feels easier to talk to Jesus, than to approach God the omnipotent. I believe that we are all God’s children, but I see Jesus as an older brother - more knowledgeable, more experienced than me. Jesus to me is the face of God, not way off in the vastness of this incomprehensible universe, but approachable and always there to listen. He is my friend. When I pray I may not always say “Dear Jesus” these days, but it is often the Jesus channel, the Jesus vibration, that I am connecting to God through.
Jesus is also my saviour. I believe in a God of Love. So I don’t believe we need saving from an eternal hell; but my perceptions of myself often drag me down. It is all too easily to focus on the negative - what I believe I’ve done wrong. Saying sorry to Jesus, especially when it’s not possible to say sorry to someone I’ve hurt, helps me to forgive myself for things I feel I’ve got wrong. It can be very liberating and helps me to move on.
2000 years ago Jesus helped people by painting pictures of a loving God, by showing love and by offering forgiveness. His parables, his stories, his actions and his sayings were designed to bring God closer to the people, and people closer to God. Jesus is here still, in the stillness, reducing the perceived gap between people and God, and guiding us home.
Through the different times in my life I have sometimes felt a long way from God and at others quite close. All through my life though I have felt it is the light of Jesus that I connect through when I approach God in the stillness.
Paul Taylor, Brighton Unitarian Church, 1st June 2014
[1] The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Rev. Dr. Levi H. Dowling [1920], republished as a book, also available at http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/agjc/
