Know My Voice V E-Book

Rev Dr John Diomede

• Herausgeber: Proisle Publishing Services
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 108

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Most people don't realize that there is more than one Jesus. Which Jesus should we seek. The King of the Jews? The Christ? The Messiah? The Prophet? The Mystic? The Son of God? The Son of Man? The Man? The real Yeshua of Nazareth is in there somewhere. The answer can only come directly from the Holy Spirit. This book will overturn some of the tables of the establishment and challenge you to exercise you freedom to meet the Jesus you never met.

Leseprobe

Know My Voice V

The Jesus You Never Met

by

Rev. Dr. John Diomede

Copyright © 2022by Rev. Dr. John Diomede

ISBN:978-1-959449-21-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher disclaims any responsibility for them.

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My Sheep Know My Voice

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. (Joh 10:27-28 NIV)

Introduction

In your interactions with others, have you ever had a conversation about a third party whereby that individual was described with certain personality strengths or weakness, only to find out the opposite upon meeting them? Throughout one’s life there can be an innumerable number of times when a reputation was nothing akin to meeting the actual person. It has happened to all of us. Getting to know someone takes interaction with that person, and even then, people surprise us. We live in a technological time, and we have the opportunity to observe people from afar off, for example, on television, thru emails, texting or via the internet. These instances may provide some insight into a person but, as you will agree, people are complex. And sometimes, these instances can be deceiving. This writing hopes to highlight a path to meeting Jesus of Nazareth, the Jew, the person, the mystic, the prophet, the Messiah, the friend, the King and the Lord. You cannot meet him thru religion, religious practice, or religious organizations. We have the biblical narratives of Jesus, but this is simply a doorway to the person. An introduction if you will. Reading the bible can help you gauge how resolute you are about meeting him, but it is only part of the process. Do you really want to meet Jesus? Volume reading of the bible is futile. Relational reading is paramount. My writing is simply an attempt to encourage you about engaging the King of the Universe in the type of relationship that arises from interaction, not word of mouth. None of us want to be judged on hearsay. I know that Jesus wants you to give him that same chance. Seek to meet Jesus as presented by his Holy Spirit to you directly. This is the Jesus you never met. You will be interacting directly1 with his person2. An attitude that is helpful when you read the bible is that you should “inquire of it”3 because, via the Holy Spirit, the words live. The bible speaks because the Holy Spirit is its author. Yes, you can meet Jesus! Seek him, wait for him, and experience him in a personal relationship presented personally to you and solely for you. Learn from and embrace him as friend and Lord. Each chapter of this book contains information that may present some answers but, it also will raise some questions. It may even present some information that you consider irrelevant. Don’t believe that voice. There is much presented about Israel’s history and Jewish people. One needs to consider this information because Jesus is a Jew from Israel. Jesus values family and culture. And because we are like him, that is why these aspects of life are valuable to us also. Additionally, we Kingdom Citizens possess spiritual familial and cultural qualities that make us all his offspring4. We are his family! As the material comes, please keep reading because it is my hope that by the last chapter, I would have sufficiently covered the answers to most questions.

The Jesus of The Bible

In both Judaism and Islam, Jesus is presented at least as a holy man, certainly a prophet and possibly as a son of God. In Christianity, a generic denominational overview would make him The Messiah, The Christ, The Son of God, The son of man, The prophet, High Priest, King (of the Jews) and God incarnate. Each one of these terms is accompanied by some existing understanding as interpreted by each denomination, religion, and a host of organizations, both religious and secular. But like you and I, Jesus wants to be understood as who he is thru a real relationship. And reality only exists as each of us meets it, interacts with it, and accepts it for ourselves, under our own rules and according to our own perception. And keep in mind, you have not yet established rules for reality you have not yet met. That said, if you are one of those people who believes, at least in part, the biblical account, you would accept that Jesus rose from the dead and is sitting at the right hand of God the Father. Therefore, it could be possible to meet, interact with and accept the reality of a relationship with him. If you are one of those individuals who questions or does not accept all biblical history then, if interested, you must seek out the most accurate picture of the life of this man and come to some real understanding on your own of who he was as a human. Either way, more seeking and searching must take place or you will continue to believe someone else’s reality. Why? The problem that exists for both groups of people I mention above is that the bible has been around so long and interpreted so exhaustively that for most people there is nothing more to learn. But if you will entertain that the words live then, this is a beginning.

What has been the existing process of understanding and learning about Jesus of Nazareth? There is a biblical account of Jesus but most, if not all, writers did see, meet, or interact with this Jesus. The writers left us information from their actual experience, interaction, and relationship with him. Fast forward to today. Relationally speaking, bible teachers do not have the same actual physical relationship with Jesus as did their biblical counterparts, consequently we get one or more of the following:

A textural interpretation and teaching

A prophetic message (from those who claim they hear for him)

A social and philosophic teaching about the Jesus of the bible

An historically and culturally based teaching about Jesus

It is not my intention to determine God’s involvement in these teachings. It is my intention to shed light on the possibility of God’s involvement from the adherent’s perspective. You are the adherent. What do you think the words say? When you read them what do the voices in your mind say? Organizational teachers and leaders seed the followers of their respective groups with their understanding. Then, organizationally speaking, most individuals listen to that well-crafted theological interpretation and develop their understanding of Jesus. But I have come to conclude that Jesus can be obscured, to say the least, and misrepresented at best. The path to the actual Jesus, whom many people never met, will be offered in this writing. I know it is a big claim but, He will be offered. He will be offered via encouraging you to walk thru the door5, the same door that I have walked thru. And it will be realized not by the content of this book but by the touch of his Holy Spirit. This Jesus is as real as anyone you have ever met, maybe more. He is lovingly honest and has your best interests in mind. You will be refreshed by his boldness. You will be strengthened by his presence. You will be awed by his insight. You will be staggered by his wisdom. You will be calmed by his sanctuary. Enter in and meet him.

Your best friend

I am going to start this section with asking you to think about your best friend, your go-to person. I am asking you to consider a specific bias. The bias of someone who is there for you. The person that has your best interest in mind. The person who loves you and whom you love. The person who accepts you for who you are and the life you live. The person who accepts your faults and brokenness, the person who considers your intentions, even when you screw up. The person who does not care about your politics, economics, culture, ethnicity, gender, race, appearance, and opinion. This person may exist as one individual in your life or a host of people but, I hope this person exists for you. And I am not referring to your dog. Although, our dogs fit every bit of the description. I guess that is why they are referred to as man’s best friend. I apologize for digressing so let me continue. This special someone can be hard to find, maybe for some of us they are non-existent. I contend that the Jesus of the biblical narrative fits all these characteristics. He is the kind of person, when you get to know him, you seek out for wisdom. That type of person that you meet for the first time and want to get to know better. And lastly, this is a challenging one, he is the person we need. The type of individual one comes to rely on such as a mother or father. Someone who bring us comfort. So, we begin. The biblical Jesus was Jewish and poor. Yes, he was Jewish which means he belonged to one of, if not the most, despised, and persecuted people groups in history6. They were expelled from not only their own country but virtually every country to where they migrated. And disagreement with this point may be the initial indication of the need to meet this Jesus. He aided both poor and rich, Jew and non-Jew. He never asked for food but, provided fish and bread for five thousand, at least twice! He walked the land and taught for free. And his teachings have endured for millennia. He never recorded a word. Never had a film crew record his teaching. The bible depicts his life, relationship after relationship, a fact to which I cannot draw enough significance. He mourned with those hurting from loss. He prayed, fasted, and denied his needs in place of the needs of others. He healed and healed and healed. He was not liberal or conservative, democrat or republican. He met both women and men exactly where they were in life. He did not judge bad behavior but always demonstrated good judgement and compassion. He never sought vengeance or harbored unforgiveness. He offers the benefit of the doubt to all because he knows all are broken and need a little help, a little love, a little compassion. From the biblical perspective he hits all the high points. Believe it or not, this Jesus is available to you directly. And he arranged it so you don’t have to die to meet him. But you would not think these things about Jesus by some of his “followers”. Christianity is full of judgement. It has discovered and employs scriptures to validate these judgements. But these are the same scriptures that will judge the judges7. Jesus cannot be represented by theology and philosophy that is misunderstood, manipulated, and influenced by interpretative brokenness. Jesus can only be met thru the Holy Spirit. Pointing others to the Holy Spirit is standard operating procedure for all who have the mind of the Spirit. You know how you will know the Holy Spirit and His representatives? The Holy Spirit will communicate with you directly and the representatives8 will back up His communication with compassion, mercy and love. It is called a witness. When you see it or experience it, you will label it “of God” because you will know His presence. It will be real, and you will want it to happen again. And the more it happens the more you will realize The Holy Spirit has your best interests in mind because He has helped you to not only recognize the King, but to meet the King. The Holy Spirit will teach you to disregard the spirit of judgement. It will be replaced with thoughts of mercy and grace. I am saddened that those who are assumed to be the main representation for the King of the Universe cannot recognize the need to offer the Holy Spirit to people in a manner that frees people. But it is my desire that Kingdom Citizens recognize that their best friend gave up all to accomplish just that goal. The bible says that God seeks people with a humble heart9