Jesus is God in Flesh to me, I allow His Holy Spirit to work and shine through and in my life, al Glory is His and His alone.

Since I don't believe in Jesus as "God in Flesh" like bb, I mostly "let him shine" by trying to incorporate some of the values that are embodied in his teachings and stories of his life into my relationships with others. I try to avoid being judgmental (that's a tough one), to be compassionate, to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. If I find myself getting angry at someone or, even worse, getting a hate on for someone, I try to stand back and see the divinity in them, being mindful of Jesus famous "as you do unto the least of these my family, you do unto me" teaching.

Mendalla

DaveHenderson,

Jesus.  Was.  A Man.  Who:

Was the Mortal bit of a being who is the Creator of Everything (and Everything outside of Everything), that is Omnescient, Omnipotent, and other Omnis not thought of yet, who was born of a virgin, spoke great speeches, and then was crucified, thereby conquering the Law of Death and Sin, then rose again, back to the Father.  Which was Jesus as well.

And/Or

Was a Jewish dude who was born the usual way and who had a really fantastic trippy experience where, for a moment, he touched the Divine, went 'Wow.  I understand, now.  Now, I must spread the Woid.'  And he did, creating a Way of Living that still lives with us till this day.

And/Or

Was a con artist who wasn't a really good carpenter.  But he had the gifts of tongues, and he knew how to read and knew of the legends.  So he gained followers with his speeches.  He was the best kind of con artist, because he actually could believe what he spoke of.  Unfortunately, he said the wrong things to the wrong person at the wrong time...and you know the rest.

But he did get a wonderful religion as a parting gift.

And/Or

Was a complete fabrication, a result of many different legends and myths building upon each other over the eons.  Over time, the original impetuses behind each myth and legend disappeared, the Literal Truth disappearing and smearing out into the Spiritual Truth.  And since we are story machines, these Spiritual Truths get passed down, slowly changing their appearance over time...

And/Or

Was actually Persona Mythica, from Proxima Centauri, who had been watching this particular part of the world for quite a long time, and had gained a form of affection for these simple, non-literate, folk.  It was too bad that, for all of his races intellect and wisdom, sie forgot one simple thing that all first contacts must do when they land on such a planet...engage the cloaking device.  The rest is history.

And/Or

Was one of the Aeons who was brought forth to save mankind from the mad G_d, the creator of Everything.  She taught that everyone had the divine spark in them, that the world around them was an illusion, a lie, a cage to keep you from freeing yourselves.  And when her teachings were done, she...left.

And/Or

?

DaveHenderson, as for the last bit of your musing...I enjoy being with people and sharing in the common human experience.  We are living stories which we write all the time, and that is a great thing to be able to share with another person.

Especially the story that says 'We are not worthy, nothing we do matters'.  Even if it turns out I have only gotten through to 1 person aboot the role they play in the World's Story, we are Greater Writers than We Imagine, then I'm content :3

Inanna

the question was , who is Jesus to YOU

To illustrate, again, for you blackbelt, sweet blackbelt, dear blackbelt:

take a look at this.

Now that you have finished the article...where are the limits of Canada?

It depends on who is looking/whose standards are being used.

The nifty thing is that all of those different perspectives on the limits of Canada...are TRUE/REAL all at the same time.  And not TRUE/REAL (go ask Putin) all at the same time.  And MEANINGLESS (Canada doesn't exist to animals).  All at the same time.

Dear Dear Inanna

there are many many beliefs world wide on who is Jesus, dang, even Jesus himself asked the same question

Mark 8:27-33  "But who do you say that I am?"

as you can see, the question of the op is a personal one, limited to YOUR PERSONAL Belief,

or did it fly over your head like a 747

blackbelt,

Sorry, m'dear, belief is the death of intelligence.

All of my statements in my first reply are True in some sense.  False in some sense.  And meaningless in some sense.

If you still want my words to fit into some tight, absolute, easy-to-think category, that is your issue.  And something that you should bring up on another thread before you derail this one.

Hello DaveHenderson,

Jesus is my Sovereign God, my merciful Redeemer and my Covenant Friend.

How do I help Jesus shine?

Like the Baptist before me, "He must become more and I must become less."

Grace and peace to you.

John

To me he was a person. A human being, not some kind of a divine avatar. I think that Jesus did have an important message and some brilliant insites into humanity or the human condition (or at least the people who wrote things in his name had said insights) and that people can learn things about how to live well from his teachings.  I suppose I 'make him shine' by respecting the brillaince of his humanity.

To me, the "Christ" is the awarenss of universal oneness. "Jesus the Christ" is one who became aware of universal oneness, and taught and lived it and the unitive love that comes with this awareness.

The Christ Awareness goes by other names in other cultures, and anyone who attains it can call him- or herself a "Christ" (or a "Buddha," or "enlightened," or any other appropriate word of their choice.)

I think that Christhood or Buddhahood or enlightenment is something we can strive for but never fully attain. Egocentricity, our foremost human instinct, gets in the way. Nobody can be totally sure that even Jesus fully attained it.

Christhood, to me, is an ideal worth striving for.

JESUS to me is Lord and Savior, the one who died on the cross and forgives me of sin. As to what I do to help HIM shine, I think that's a little backwards. GOD already shines infinitely, but I hope a little bit of it is reflected off of me.

Hi Davehenderson - To me Jesus is the only begoten son of God, That to me means made by God . We by what John says, were made by Jesus. JESUS is my Lord, He is my brother,  He is my Savior, He is The way the truth and The Light, He an He alone can save my soul. He is Gods Love in flesh.---To God Be The Glory---what do I do to shine his Light?---I just did- airclean33

Hi Airclean 33, I thought your proclamation was wonderful.  And yes, I would agree that your proclamation is making Jesus' light shine.  Followup question:  What other, more practical ways do you help the light of Jesus shine in a cold, dark world?

God bless,

Hi Arminius,

A fascinating answer...most of yours are!  How do your efforts to attain Christhood show themselves practically in your community?  (the way you live, treat others, treat the community, act with others, act with the community etc. etc. etc.)

Well Jesus to me is an interesting mythological figure (using the correct sense of the word, not the colloquial). AS such He really doesn't have much of an effect or affect on my walk with God.

AS to how to make Him shine? Well not really my job, as it were, but I suppose for my part it would be to help people of good will show Jesus through love and respect for others, and to help them oppose those who would make the "life changing power of Christ" into a force to promote prejudice and bigotry.

Hi Dave--I'm not sure what your asking. But try this We are the light  of the world the light is not coming from us, but He that is in us and with us.I myself may not be more than a match light. But if you ever lit a match in a dark room it helps.This World is very dark, you  have but  to lison to the news,  or read a paper to see it is getting darker. I think my job is to show that light when ever I can, an where ever I can. Sometimes its just a word or two. sometimes it's a Dollar or two.A lot of times its a prayer. I Believe as a christian we are called to be Christ Like. I my self are nothing, But He that is with me, and in me, is the Son of the Living God If we that have Christ with us would just Let Him shin, through us we would have  millions and millions of Brothers who are in this dark world, come into the light. Anybody need a match? ariclean33--God Bless

Hi Airclean 33,

Jesus took a basin and a towel, got down on his knees and washed the hot, dirty, tired feet of his disciples.  What are you doing, in a real, physical or relationship type  way, aside from all the theology and talking, to bring the light of Christ out into your world?  It might be volunteering in some way, or in the decisions you make, or in the way you relate to people around you.  What do you do out there in that dark world you mentioned to bring a little Christ-light to the darkness?

God bless,

Hi Witch,

Whether you regard Jesus as a myth or not, are you saying there  is nothing in your spiritual toolkit that comes from the carpenter?   As the villain would say to Maxwell Smart, "I find that very hard to believe."  (you have to be from the sixties to get that one!)

God bless,

Hi Dave- after thinking on what you have asked.I try to do what God wants me to do .For as are Lord Jesus said I do nothing unless the father tells me to. I would gladly wash my brothers feet. if this would help my Brothers and for the glory of God  .You ofcourse know there is a teaching in washing anothers feet. It's not what you do that pleases God Dave . It's why you do it.I will speak the word  Of God to anyone that will lison .I am on the Ucc Rolls . But I Believe in all Christian churchs that follow Christ. I will not call a christian church down , Nor will I call a Minister down for they are called by God.I try to walk with God all day an sumtimes into the night. The question Dave is what am I doing to shin the Light in the world?My answer nothing just what God says. God Bless airclean33

Wonderfully said, brother.

Hi Dave:

First off, I live as simply and self-sufficiently as I possibly can. I think planetary responsiblity is spiritual responsibility,  and comes first, although social responsibilty is as important.

Although I am, due to my wife's illness, on a sabbatical from church right now, I will be back shortly. I am quite active in our outreach programs like wonderCafe-live! and wonderQuest. Some of the aims of these program are social justice and ecumenical, interracial, and intercultural harmony, based on the assumption that THE Spirit is the same Spirit for all of us, albeit perceived and expressed differently by different groups and people. My favourite goal is to see all spiritually inclined groups and people of our community united in spiritual consciousness and responsibility, co-creating a better future, in co-creation with each other and the Universal Spirit.

I'd say, 'an apocolyptic prophet, not without honor, except in his own country and with his own kind' - exhorting, as in the very first recorded Christian Hymn : 'Awake ye sleeper, arise from the dead. '  (and let the dead, bury THEIR dead)

A. Man.  A son of man. The Next stop in human evolution? Being unwar-like a false step, to be as ignored as our appendex?

Lessee, nuclear war, climate change, asteroids, dark matter cooling our sun, ...our political insanity...I can well admit the possibilbity that mankind, a pinple on the cosmos, will soon end.

Next week.

Or, maybe a couple of thousand years.

Whatever.

But to address the issues of: The Persistance of human consciousness, Many Worlds,  an infinite number of Universes,  and Wheeler's 'nothing is real unless it is perceived, and the true nature of reality are easily explained, First......

(Oh. I was going to answer all these, but someone's at the door.)

I think It's Godot.

Later....

.

I think rather than enter the debate in regards to Jesus' divinity vs. humanity, the literality of his stories in the Bible, etc. - because I will own right now at the risk of ticking off all ends of the belief spectrum, that I am far too flawed to make claims of certainty as to Jesus and the exactness and uniqueness of his relationship to the Holy. But I will share what I feel comfortable saying I know.

- Jesus was an inspiring teacher and political leader, someone whose life was so important and inspiring, yet which often gets overlooked in favour of focus on his death.

- He encouraged his followers to seek the divine in all of themselves; he made it clear God's plan for us is to achieve what he achieved.

- Jesus challenged authority and encouraged his followers to think for themselves - to not just blindly obey law and authority, but to carefully consider the reasoning behind all power and rules, and to follow those which make the most sense and serve the greatest good, and to challenge and at times even break those which don't.

- Whether or not he is specifically the begotten Son of God, or God Himself on Earth, he is, to me, to this point, the most clear and manifest expression of God's love for us and for our world, and the clearest exemplar of how God would want his(her) people to live.

How do I let this shine? Nowhere near enough, honestly. But I do try to follow his call to serve the poor and oppressed, to question oppressive or unfair authority, to constantly seek the divine in ourselves, and to nurture our relationship with the Holy. I forgive those who have hurt me, perhaps to a fault, and I seek to hurt others as little as possible. When I fail, I do my best to make amends, or at least improve for future. I also fancy, from the number of people who call me 'stubborn' (I prefer 'persistent'), that I stand by my ideals, as Jesus did, right to the cross.