John
John was a simple fisherman and had the strongest emotional connection with Jesus of all the disciples. John was deeply hurt and may have been very angry about Jesus’s “murder” by the Sanhedrin. We can certainly empathize with John but it seems wrong to place John’s words above or beyond Jesus’s words. Jesus never said that we would be condemned if we didn’t know and believe in Him. I think John was speaking to the Sanhedrin. Or to people following the Sanhedrin instead of believing that Jesus is the Christ. Some of John’s words, specifically John 3:18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”… are spiteful and divisive.
Jesus
Jesus’s Words are loving and unifying. Jesus speaks firmly yet softly to everyone. Even those unfamiliar with His ministry. God Spirit is “built in” to ours. So we are without excuse. God speaks to us when we quietly seek to listen.
Jesus told us that we need to follow his Father’s rule. Jesus told us that he was the light and the way to his Father’s house. Isn’t Jesus simply telling us to love each other like He loves us!
Some people I love and love me back are agnostic, atheist, Buddhist and simply other than “Christian”. I don’t think I should try and change their “religion” since they are following Jesus’s behavioral example. It seems to my disordered but stable brain that we haven’t properly understood the Bible. For two millennium.
Us
Maybe it’s time we grow up and become God’s more mature children… better prepared for a global heaven on earth. By recognizing our shortcomings as humans and taking responsibility for some of the Bible’s content. God’s Word is in the Bible. So is a collection of fully human words.
I’m just an ordinary retired working man with a brain disorder who deeply loves his family, God, and Jesus along with my friends. I know that it’s crazy, but I want the world to be like Heaven someday. So I built this website to help me deal with the ugly side of the news and my own bunches of shortcomings.
Ed’s Art Net has been a part of my mental healing process since its inception. God, helpers, and my website are orienting my mental and spiritual balance same as a gyroscope helps steer a starship. Writing is therapeutic. It’s an ongoing building process of organizing and presenting my thoughts. Helping just one other person is all it takes to make me successful.
I prayed as a young child for God to kill me. I was having what I know now as a nervous breakdown. My brain felt like it was going to explode. It was very high wired stress from my father’s violent anger filled episode. I wanted to die.
God heard my prayer… I have a very loving family that Susan and I made. I’m predominantly stable, thusly acceptably functional and want to see my grandkids grow up, but in a better world.
God answered my childhood prayer in that dark closet, but He didn’t do what I asked.
It’s arguable that the world will become like heaven when Jesus returns to walk the earth for the end of evil.
When He first walked the earth, the disciples thought Jesus was going to right all wrongs and become king over all the earth in their lifetimes. Then Jesus told them He was going to die. That shook the disciples to the core because they didn’t understand. They had this grandiose idea that they were going to experience “heaven” on earth.
Then Jesus was killed by the ruling court because He threatened the power of the religious ruling class of the day. But His death had much deeper meaning than simply a succumbing to our barbaric narcissistic behaviors. Jesus’s sacrifice was for His children’s well being. Jesus’s death was our final Lesson. Our sins are forgiven through God’s Grace. When we accept His Grace, we are born to Heaven, we become a Christian… full of new love for God and Creation. ❤️
Three days after His death, Jesus rose to a new life and showed the disciples the reality of what He’d been Teaching. Jesus ate with them after His resurrection. He showed them His wounds. The disciples were absolutely changed by this, graduating from simple men to believers in Christ, willing to die or READY to die for Jesus’s Teaching.
God works in mysterious ways and understanding never quite reaches us. It probably won’t until we are in God’s presence in Heaven.
We’ve propagated the idea that the entire Bible is Holy for millennia. Science has enlightened us by evolving truths during that time. We learned earth is rotating, and round, appearing as a pale blue dot from outside our solar system. The Bible enlightens us about what God expects from us and what we can expect from Him. God expects us to grow up someday. He doesn’t change. His “painting” is constantly evolving. We’re a significant part of His painting.
Some of the friends I’ve known think religion and God is BS or have their own ideas about loving God. Most of my friends aren’t “religious”. Some of my friends are deeply religious. The only common “religious” thread between ALL of us is when we share the same emotions. Love is the emotion God most wants us to share. Hate is what He most wants us to overcome.
Loving one another is where the rubber meets the road. Love gives us traction to be more than what we are. Sharing hate, sets us off sliding into the singularity of a “black hole” ditch… isolated from heaven.
I’m getting old and older now. I’m feeling the weigh station coming up on the horizon. The last thing I want to do is start an argument. I had enough of arguing when I was young. I’m not Charlie Kirk. I’m Ed Caldwell. I just want to share my point of view to the web without debating the people that have a different point of view. We all have common ground when we love each other for who we are.
Each of us has our own point of view.
Our opinion matters but it’s our heart that counts. ❤️
Hi Ed. I just finished roaming around your website. Thanks for sharing the hyperlink!! It is Very interesting, especially your art!!! You and I have much in common, the main one being an interest in making web pages. I started at Geocities back in 1998, using the fundamental comand language, on dial-up Internet. They closed their pages. I moved everything to Webs. They closed everything several years ago. Now, my work is done using Sites on Google. Much easier, but not as creative. My take is that being made in God's image, we have a creative spark in us. My purpose is to inspire and leave a legacy of family genealogy and photos for future generations. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and talents!! Wishing you the best!!