Do you have the Courage to Walk a Mile in the shoes of Jesus? He died for you!

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Walk a Mile in His Shoes

and Your Life Might Change Forever

The Jesus Challenge for You

I once heard you will never truly understand someone until you walked in their shoes or saw through their eyes.

Makes sense to me.

So why don’t you try distracting yourself from your own existence, blocking out all memories, just wiping the slate clean.  Then you must pay attention to your environment, finding a safe haven of solitude in a world you do not control.

No technology, no electromagnetic waves, no smart phones or televisions, no distractions of any kind.  Of course, proper lighting, colors, and sound are crucial to your managed environment as well.  You cannot meditate in blackness, the Void, but must embrace the brilliance of light, the dramatic color spectrum, the infinite octaves of sound, all yours for the taking thanks to Mother Earth and Father Creator.

Now you are prepared to meditate, and can tackle the task of walking in the shoes and seeing through the eyes of Jesus.  What do you see?

Now you best pay close attention from now on because there can be serious consequences to some fairly simple and seemingly harmless decisions you make.  For example, at what point in the thirty-three years of his life do you want to walk in his shoes?

If you pick the last two days of his life for example, you will experience the horrific torture and crucifixion he suffered beyond all human experience.  Not a good choice for a balanced view of his life nor for your attempt to understand the man.

I think Jesus has long been frustrated with the human perception of him that is dominated by his trial and tribulations, ending with his death hanging from a cross.  Our image of Jesus is almost always hanging on a cross in agony when in truth it showed the climatic event in his life, but has little to do with the image and emotions he expressed the rest of his life.

By all descriptions, Jesus was quite handsome, even described as beautiful by some.  Throughout his youth and into his ministry adjectives were always positive, impressions were deep, and his countenance was that of a gentle man, one filled with compassion, empathy, hope, and grace.

His wit, humor, knowledge, and wisdom were powerful forces but only used when necessary to support his mission.  Other times his kindness, concern, and love were dominant.  Yet even that did not reflect the composite Jesus for there were also the miracles, those astounding acts of magic and mystery defying human logic, understanding, and natural law.

Are you in for a treat if you capture but a tiny fragment of the scope of the life of Jesus when walking in his shoes and seeing through his eyes.  You might find yourself in a state of grace and awe as Jesus moves from the innocence of youth to miracle worker, to powerful rabbi, to devoted friend and family member, to dynamic preacher, and to a beloved Son.

His love radiated not just to his Father and Mother, but to each and every one whose path he crossed.  Then there was the immortal love between Jesus and The Magdalene who was born to love him, be his confidant, knew him from childhood, shared every aspect of his life even long after his Baptism by John, the Great Moment.

Perfect love between couples was demonstrated between the two for when Jesus began his ministry and his state of grace intensified making him unable to express intimate contact with people, Magdalene still remained by his side to his death and beyond.  No one but her was at his baptism, trial, torture, crucifixion, burial, discovered his resurrection, then was present for his ascension.

As his confidant Jesus trusted her above all apostles to know and understand the meaning of his words and for thirty years after his death she worked to keep the apostles from misinterpreting the word.  Then she was summoned by Jesus to be at his side in the Kingdom of Heaven.  There is a reason she was considered the apostle to the apostles for the Son of God.

This is the season of Lent, the final days before Jesus returned to a heroes’ welcome in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday before being condemned to death by the same crowds Holy Thursday, crucified on Good Friday, and Resurrected on Easter Sunday.

That is why he came to Earth for you, for everyone, but not just to forgive sin and show the path of redemption and salvation, but also to demonstrate by his actions what humans must do to earn our place in the Kingdom of God.

We must follow in his footsteps, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and experience the five steps of eternal salvation, birth, transfiguration, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Jesus preached, “Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth, if you have faith, have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.”

(Matthew 17:20)                

You owe it to your own salvation, and owe it to Jesus, to study what he did for you, learn the lessons he preached, and take your rightful place in the Kingdom with the Father and his Son.

Once I wrote a song to honor the work of Jesus on Earth in hopes that we can learn today what people failed to understand in his lifetime.  This is how it went.

I Knew a Man

©Jim Putnam

I knew a man a long time ago

he was the kind everybody should know

I don’t know why he chose me

to be his friend

The stories that this man had to share

a heart full of love – one that did care

I didn’t deserve to be

with one that’s so kind

I watched the people listen to him

saw the love he shared

So many people – so many questions

still he was always there

Preaching to his people words that he wanted to share

'cause they’re words that they just could not hear

Words that they just could not hear

Over the years we traveled around

he kept preaching from town to town

I tried to warn him

for my friend I feared

Miracles my friend started to give

healing the sick – raising the dead

Could not believe my eyes

as I watched him go on

The crowds got bigger as we went

still he would not rest

Some believed and some deceived

it didn’t matter to my friend

The gifts that he gave he gave to all man

an act of love I just could not understand

an act of love I just could not understand

One day he brought me to his side

said if we don’t eat the fruit, it must die

And like the fruit of the tree

his day soon would come

Slowly his words came clear to me

he wasn’t talking about that tree

He was the fruit and his life

was nearly done

The multitudes came to him now

to hear of Kingdom Come

Little did they know his work was done

nothing was left to hide

Nothing more could be accomplished if he tried

I could not tell them my friend soon would die

I could not tell them my friend soon would die

I knew a man a long time ago

He was the kind everybody should know

I don’t know why he

chose me to be his friend

I’ll always remember his love inside

even the night he was crucified

Forgive them he called out

right up till the end

All the people turned on him

I never felt such shame

They didn’t listen, they didn’t care

his love they did not share

So they took my friend

and my friend they crucified

Up on a cross that’s where my friend died

I stood there and watched

and then I cried

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The Hour is rapidly approaching when you must take action to survive here and the hereafter!

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"The Hour is rapidly approaching..."

Sounds ominous, but what does it mean?  Taking sides is what we have been about in recent years and polarization seems to be the new established trend in communicating.  Most of you will continue to avoid being caught up in the social-political-policy battles smeared all over the Internet and that is probably a good thing.

Those who do join the fray are pilloried before being burnt at the stake for getting involved as there is no such thing as normal communications on the social media sites of the Internet.  People are angry, frightened, fearful, and downright obnoxious in their blind defense of whatever side they choose to advocate.

Polarization will never lead to progress and blind loyalty to a cause, whether liberal or conservative, progressive or right wing, democrat or republican, is an insult to our Constitution and founding principles.  All Americans enjoy individual liberty, are endowed with many Constitutional rights, and can practice free speech no matter how intense, callous, or dark it may be.

All radical views and personal bias are tolerated as long as you accept and respect the right of everyone else to have their views.  When it comes to running our nation, no single bias can ever dominate as it violates the individual rights and freedoms of others as guaranteed by law.

Ours is a quite complicated system.  Most people mistakenly sense we live in a democracy when, in fact, we live in a Republic.  Most people think we must have majority rule and the Electoral College process denies it.  They demand immediate change to the system.  Sadly, they do not even understand the very system we have lived under since the adoption of the Constitution September 17, 1787, 231 years ago.

How sad so many are so ignorant of the history and principles of the most democratic institution in world history.

Over those centuries our political, cultural, and religious institutions evolved and there have been some improvements.  During that same history there have been many calls to modify our sacred Constitution, some successful, many not.  Still we endured.

Today we have reached a point when, thanks to technology, citizens have far greater knowledge of world affairs, of cultural differences, and to endless sources of history and there is open communication and dialog between peoples from all over the world.

Unfortunately, that same technology has simply overwhelmed the public with information, diluted their ability to think for themselves, obliterated our knowledge of what happened in the past, and made us dumber than probably any time in our storied history.

We are no longer the compassionate, generous, hopeful, innovative, determined, and optimistic people whose blood lines came from all over the world to find a place where all were treated equal.  We are too caught up in texting or gaming to bother to research the hopes and desires of many generations of our ancestors who often risked life and limb to get here as immigrants.

While we may have evolved on many fronts, when it comes to spiritual evolution, we have run into the same impenetrable brick wall found throughout the world.  We no longer hear, we no longer see, we no longer understand the nature of our own being.

We have forgotten the most important aspect of our existence.  We did not come from the blood of our flesh nor the body of a human.  We are the sons and daughters of God and until we love one another we can never know Jesus nor the path he gave us back to the Kingdom.

Pray for enlightenment from the Holy Spirit so that we may find our path back to the Garden.

CPT Twit - This Can't Possibly be All There is to This life! The God Life or the Artificial Intelligence Life?

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