Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever......







Hello, my friends and loved ones!

I'm writing this blog, because a very dear friend, who shall remain nameless, has challenged me to do it. This friend started a fascinating conversation with me last night, and asked me why I've never done this. I had no good answer, other than to say that I would indeed do it.

I don't intend to preach, or try to convert anyone with this post. I can't do that. Everyone's response and reaction to the person of Jesus the Christ is extremely personal, private and intimate. I only want to tell everyone my reaction, and my relation to Jesus.

I was raised by my late parents in The Salvation Army (Yes, it is a church), and I was 4th generation Salvationist. I was forced to go, given no choice, which for awhile made attending church an unpleasant experience for me. By the time I was 19, I was so angry and disillusioned by church, by Christianity, and most especially by Christians, that I swore off ever attending church, believing in the Bible, or believing in Christ. To this very moment, I am like Mohandas Ghandi: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." All that anger and disillusionment, I took out on God, and Christ. I blamed Them for the actions of Their "believers". That was just plain wrong, and I should never have done it.

To tell you the truth, I am a profane, rebellious and evil person. There is no good in me, none whatsoever......except what God by His grace puts in me. The things I was told, as a child, not to do, I still do to this day. I smoke cigarettes, too many, even though I've been diagnosed with advanced emphysema. I smoke marijuana, for medicine, and yes, for recreation. Even though I'm a recovering alcoholic, I occasionally enjoy a beer, a glass of wine, and now and then some whiskey. I love to get high, whether it's marijuana, alcohol, or pharmaceuticals. I use profanity. I speak my mind, even if my opinion on a thing is contrary to Biblical teaching. I generally want my own way, even if it's contrary to what's right or what God wants for me. I'm always doing wrong, and I always pay for it, too, in one way or another. I'm a thousand light years away from being perfect, and I will always be the first one to admit that about myself.

However, I am forgiven. On a daily basis, I am forgiven. From the grace of God, and the actions of Jesus Christ in His 33 years on the Earth, I am forgiven. The best way to define "grace" is to call it "unwarranted favor". If you burn my house to the ground, and I say to you, "Bless you, I forgive you, and peace be upon you", that's grace. You really wouldn't deserve to be told that, but that's what grace is.

Recieving God's grace requires faith. Paul the Apostle defined faith as being, "The evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for". I know many people who do not have the faith to believe in Jesus, to believe in what it was He did on Earth, for all humanity. We cannot, and do not, have the faith to believe unless we ask for it. Have you ever asked for that faith? If you do, it shall be given to you. That's a promise from God, and He is incapable of lying, or going back on a promise.

Most everyone has heard the verse John 3:16. I think that very few people know John 3:17. So, let me paraphrase them both, leaving out the thee's and thou's of 17th century English:

God loved, and loves, humanity so much, He became human and gave His life to die for the sins, the rebellion, the evil deeds that humanity commits. He did not do this so that the world would be condemned; He did this so that the world, through Him, might be saved, and have eternal life.

But, to recieve this "salvation", you must have faith in what Jesus the Christ did for humanity; He was falsely accused of blasphemy by the Jewish religious leaders of His day, He was turned over to the Romans, tortured by their army, and nailed to a cross. Six hours later, He died. His body was placed in someone else's tomb, and three days later, He rose from the dead. Believe this, or don't, but there is more historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ than there is for the authourship of Shakespeare's plays.

But, if you're genuinely going to believe this, you must have faith. Again, this is where grace steps in. God the Father will give you the faith you need to believe, if you will only ask Him for it. We, as humans, are saved to eternal life by a loving God, who through His grace, will give you the faith you need to believe in what His Son did for all humanity.

Many people ask, "How can a loving God send people to hell?". The answer to that is that God does not send people to hell. Everything that needed to be done to keep you from going to hell has been done, by Jesus, 2,000 years ago. If you go to hell, don't blame your Creator. The Almighty, the Infinite God, the Creator of everything, became a human, and died and came back to life, to forgive all of humanity of their sins and rebellion.

Now, let me tell you this: To this day, to this moment, I do not and will not attend church ever again. Too much of the teaching is false, the direction that churches lead their members is false, and wrong. In my 47 years of life, I have never belonged to a church that did not end up using me, hurting me, burning me, forgetting me. I currently belong to a church I joined in the summer of 2004. When I became so sick and weak a little over two years ago, I told the pastor that I would not be able to attend as regularly as I once did, due to my illnesses. The pastor told the deacons, and the deacons told the membership of the church. In the more than 2 years since this happened, not one person from that church has phoned me, or visited me, or done so much as send me a postcard. I'm no longer in a pew on Sunday morning, therefore, to them, I no longer exist. I have no use for people like that, and I have no use for a church like that.

These days, my "Christianity" is a very personal and intimate thing for me. It is a one-on-one relationship between me and Jesus the Christ. I read and study my Bible daily, and I do strive to live my life based on the person of Jesus the Christ. He is, and always will be, my chief role model.

Many of you who know me, and I suppose everyone who has seen my profile page at Care2.com (the link is on this page), you know I also identify myself as being Wiccan/Pagan. There are reasons for this. Many of the beliefs and practices of Wicca and Paganism fit hand-in-glove with the teachings of Jesus, so beautifully you'd be amazed. Much of what I've learned of Wicca and Paganism could have come directly from Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount". I have found that the ways that Wiccans/Pagans are expected to treat their fellow humans is exactly the way Jesus taught His followers to treat their fellow humans. To be very blunt and plain-spoken about it, all the Wiccans and Pagans I've met are far-more Christ-like than 99% of the Christians I've known.......and that's a sad commentary on Christians.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I haven't written this to preach or to convert. I can't convert anyone. It's not in my power or ability as a human to do that. Like a farmer, I only plant the seed, and hope it grows. All I'm doing here is scattering seed, to all who will read this and sincerely think about it.

God loves you so much, He became a man, and died perhaps the worst, most brutal death that anyone has ever experienced. He did this because He loves you and He wants you to live forever. And, if you had been the only person in all of humanity who needed salvation, He still would have done what He did.

I hope I've given you a thing or two to think about, and I hope you will think about it. If you'd like to talk with me more about this, I'll be more than happy to do that. Better than that, get a Bible, preferably that which is known as "The New King James Version". It eliminates that 17th century English I mentioned earlier. Read The Gospel of John. If you'd still like to talk with me, I would welcome that .You may contact me, anytime, and jazzmantim@weirdness.com. I've shared this with you, and made this post public, because I love you, and hope that you will have the same sort of relationship that I do, with Jesus Christ, The Unchanging One, The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever.

Namaste!,

Tim Redfern

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Comment by Motorcycle Hippy Al on February 25, 2009 at 11:15pm
"all the Wiccans and Pagans I've met are far-more Christ-like than 99% of the Christians I've known.......and that's a sad commentary on Christians"...Tim Redfern.

Peace Be with You

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