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Originally Posted by LaMont Cranston
Perry J., I think that this is a very interesting subject, and I've spent some time checking out Kim Michaels' website. However, I do have a number of problems with believing that Mr. Michaels is the sole conveyor of messages from Jesus. In fact, I think that Jesus speaks to and through many of us, and some of the people with whom he communicates seem to get the idea that they are the modern incarnation of Jesus, or that they are the only one who receives messages.
In my own life, I have had many of the experiences that Mr. Michaels talks about, and so have quite a few other people I've either known or heard about. In my case, I grew up in a not very religious Jewish family, and I knew absolutely nothing about Jesus. More than that, I wasn't particularly interested.
So, I didn't go looking for Jesus, but I found him anyway. At some point in my life, I became much more interested in such things as religion, spirituality, philosophy, history, the nature of consciousness, unconditional love and other subjects. My interest in finding out what love was about led me into checking out what Jesus had to say on the subject, and I was totally blown away. I still am!
I consider myself to be an enthusiastic student of life, a seeker of information, and I continue to examine the words and deeds of Jesus and other spiritual icons. From what I can tell, there is nothing more exciting, wonderful, interesting powerful or important than love, and I still feel like I'm a beginner at knowing about this subject. Hopefully, I will always be finding out more about this part of life.
We might consider why the teachings of Jesus are so powerful. After all, we are dealing with a relatively obscure teacher from a remote part of the Roman Empire who was nailed to a cross. At the time, there were other religious movements and would-be messiahs who had larger followings than Jesus, but his teachings have lasted for 2000 years and counting, and all of the others have faded into obscurity.
In my quest for information and viewpoints, I've joined a number of Christian and atheist forums. I've heard some people say that Christianity caught a lucky break (or something like that) or that Constantine and some others devised a religion to control the masses. Of course, this ignores the fact that, despite its humble beginings, Christianity had become pretty well established before Constantine made his conversion in 313 a.d.
What works for me is that the reason Christianity (regardless of how many have corrupted and compromised the teachings of Jesus) made it and the others didn't is that what Jesus had to say was and still is that powerful. Even with the corruptions and compromises, we can still figure out what Jesus was saying to us and apply his teachings to our own lives.
So, did Jesus communicate with Kim Michaels? I'm more than willing to believe that happened. Did Jesus communicate with Kim Michaels exclusively? Based on my own experiences and the experiences of others, I believe that Jesus has communicated with many of us, myself included, and this is an ongoing process.
One of my favorite parts of the Bible is where Jesus is standing by the water and telling the simple people around him that they will be fishers of men. I lot of fisherman, carpenters, masons and others have come and gone, but we still know the names of at least some of those who heard the call and followed Jesus. I'd say that Jesus called that one right!
More than that, I'd say that one of the communications that Jesus has made to us is that we are all fishers of men.
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