How Would You Explain Jesus?

For those who don't enjoy my discussion on religion, I try and put something in the title so you know that you can just skip it. I have been asked to speak before a small group about Christianity by a Pastor, friend. Now, I have no problem with public speaking, in fact been doing it a very long time and rarely bother preparing in advance other than to think about what the message is. This is different so I thought I might kick some ideas around.

Why? Why believe and what does it matter? What does it matter if there is a God or not, we are here and now and that is all that matters, we will know soon enough if there is a God, lets just try and get through today. That is sort of how most people feel about God. So I want to try and take a crack at the answers.

Forgiveness. Forgiving ourselves and others for past wrongs and understanding that none of us is perfect. That one thing changes your whole life. Probably not the answer most Christians would tell you, they would say salvation, nah, not me, forgiveness. For most of us it is the hardest lesson in the bible, salvation we don't find hard to accept; but, then we often want to pick and choose who is saved and why.

If we accept Jesus because we want salvation, have we really accepted him or salvation, which is it we are really responding to? If we accept his salvation and we forgive ONLY so that we will be forgiven, have we really forgiven. If we accept Jesus only to be saved, can it truly be said that we have the heart of Jesus?

What are we to believe we are saved from? Most would say from going to hell; but, what is hell? Separation from God. We are separated from God because we do not forgive. It says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".

I will get to this Jesus person, I know what the title of the post it, give me a second to put the context down. Jeez. So who is this Jesus person, who is the holy spirit and who is God. All we have to go on is what is in the bible. To tell you the truth the God fellow, he seems pretty scary. The Jesus fellow seems like a nice fellow and the holy spirit makes no sense. We are told that they are all the same being, how do we understand this?

Lets try and look at each one individually and keep forgiveness in mind. In the old testament God was dealing with barbarians that sacrificed their children to the gods, raped others, did not understand basic hygiene, were lawless and consumed by their passions. That was just the jews, the rest of the world was even worse. How bad were they, well they interbred with demons and created Nephilim.

After man crossbred with the fallen angels, God killed everyone, sounds harsh; but, they had given up their free will and humanity so that they could indulge in their urges. The nephilim means those who have fallen, also referred to as the sons of god. They are generally understood to be fallen angels. The Israelites knew that the nephilim were not nice people and to be feared, that is why when they first entered Israel, the scared scouts reported that the nephilim were there. Noah and his family were saved, they apparently had not crossbred.

So, Noah and his family is saved and humanity gives it another go. Between the time of Noah and Abraham, there is not a lot of God and human interaction. Actually, if you read the bible, God doesn't interact with humans all that much as a rule. People think about the few times he did and assume that it happened all the time. It just didn't happen that way. When God spoke to Abraham, it only mentioned a couple of times at best. Most of Abraham's life was spent without contact from God, if we accept what is written.

By the time the Jews get to Israel, God doesn't talk to them much. What happened to the pillar of smoke during the day and the pillar of fire at night once they had entered Israel? For 40 years God is amongst the Jews in the desert and then they get the ark of the covenant; but, not his pillar. Every wonder why?

After arriving in Israel, God limits who he talks to. He talks to a few prophets and a few leaders. That is about it, yet, he is blamed for everything that they did. Not what the prophets did, what the leaders did and they did not always obey the Lord. In fact, they flat out disobeyed him and led the people to do wrong. The spiritual leaders were the worst.

When Israel would be bad, God would send a prophet to them to tell them to stop being bad and to be good to all. Did any prophet ever tell the people to kill anyone? Nope, only the leaders did that and said they were told to do so by God; but, they were not prophets, that means they could be wrong.

Lets get back to the point. When God spoke to prophets, he told them to be better people. Other than prophets and leaders, I have only read of him talking to Adam, Eve, Enoch, and Job. He does not seem to be a very chatty person; but, then most choose not to talk to him. Remember this point, most people chose not to talk to God directly when given the chance, they chose to be afraid of him even after he took them out of captivity.

Now, finally, we get to this Jesus fellow. Being a devout Christian, I accept that he was God, I have no problem with the trinity. God comes to us, not as a pillar of fire; but, as a man. Many more could relate to God in human form than in his more powerful form. They still killed him; but, more listened. His message was simple, we are imperfect and need to love one another, forgiveness was his message. He said it was the way to salvation.

Now we get to the holy spirit, I don't think we have much on this guy. He comes inside you and relates with you. Because of that, many learn to love and give. We are told that the holy spirit convicts us. What does he convict us of, perhaps it is not being truly forgiving. I don't think it is that he convicts us of lusting, we already know we do that.

So basically, we have three expression or one being telling us to be nice to one another. We have numerous people ignoring their statements or trying to use their words in order to take advantage of others and a few that actually bother trying to do what they are told.

The bible says that in the end times the old men will dream dreams, that means that they will feel the holy spirit. The holy spirit falls upon your heart answering questions that you didn't even know to ask. Inspiration, not decision. You will know the truth and it will set you free, it says that in the bible somewhere, I don't quote chapter and verse unless asked to. I prefer to talk about the spirit of the book.

So how would I explain Jesus, he is the guy (a self aware being) that created everything, trying to find a way that is easiest for us to interact with him. We can only reach so high and then he must reach down if we are to communicate. Not a different being from God, just one that we feel more comfortable communicating with. Your best friend, someone who was there with you and understands your trials because he faced him too.

There are those who will say that what I have said is not Barry Biblical, I don't know that man, I know love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. I know that one, it is how Jesus summed up the ten commandments. That is very biblical. If I do not forgive then how have I loved my neighbor with as myself?

The reader may think that I am trying to trick them into being forgiving, nope, I stated my beliefs, no trick, just truth. The first thing to teach new believers is about forgiveness because that it the greatest commandment, Jesus said so.

So why should you ask why it matters if there is a God. The answer is simple, because if there is then you can understand our need to be forgiven, we already know that we are imperfect. Heck, just look around you at the world, show me perfection, show me how evolution has perfected us. Yeah, I will wait for that answer.

I have talked for as much as eight hours straight for three days in a row, with no outline or script. I can talk for a long time, heck, I can write all day. I do not know what I will talk about when I speak before a congregation; but, what I have written will probably be involved. Be well.