Jesus on God, Man and The Spirit-Part One
"My views of the Christian religion are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense He wanted anyone to be: sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every HUMAN excellence; and believing He never claimed any other." Thomas Jefferson, as quoted by Stephen Mitchell in THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS, 1991, HarperPerennial Edition
If you are to proceed with me in exploring a New Christianity you must recognize and identify the spiritual assumptions by which you live. These assumptions may be culturally inherited - many usually are - or may be the result of your own personal labors in pursuit or construction of a spiritual inner system by which you view the outer world.
You must understand the source of your assumptions and based on that source, determine if your assumptions and definitions of reality are yours or someone else's magic. Whoever defines your reality dominates your perception of every aspect of reality.
We are all experts on Jesus. His impact on our lives is a spiritual impact and spiritual impact is felt within - it is a life of inner spiritual experience. We do not require formal study in Christian doctrine to experience the influence of Jesus in our lives. We do not require input from those who have formal study or those who have made a lifetime of informal study. We can profit from such folks only to the degree that we are allowed to reach our own conclusions, have our own experiences and define them for ourselves. There is no outside expert on Jesus who is needed by us to define what happens inside when we endeavor to emulate Jesus.
Essentially, all we need to do is follow his quite famous advice that is both simple and powerful: Ask, seek and knock. You shall be given, you shall find and when you knock it will be opened for you. Note that Jesus said nothing about asking righteously or worthily, seeking righteously or worthily or knocking righteously or worthily. Jesus did not say you have to pass some muster of orthodoxy before the Father will hear your asking, notice your seeking or open to your knocking.
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