What are we to do, we who wish to follow the words, the teachings, and the life of Jesus, when we look around us and compare our times to the times of Jesus and recognize that the people of that day were not at all like the people of today? Jesus spoke to the people of his day so that THEY would be motivated by him. Human life did not mean then what it means today. One of life's pleasures in those days was often to see another human being slaughtered. We all know of stories of yesteryear in which people were burned alive, hanged on a cross to gasp their last breaths, cut down by beasts or by combatants in an arena. And virtually everybody came to watch, even children. What fun! Such events are shuddered at by most of today's population.
Today, we are washed in the experience of our own individual independence, thanks to the unleashing of some of our deepest truths. WE are responsible for our life. WE seek the freedom to do as we wish, to choose our own career, to marry whomever we may love. Not the State. Not God. We.
We live in a different time than Jesus did. A different time than the one the message of Jesus was delivered into. Jesus recognized this in the Gospel of Matthew and told us that we must use very creative means to get his message out there that WE are God, that we ARE love, and our purpose here is to gain our own internal recognition of that fact by service to others.
The best source for that bold message today is the New New Testament. Moreover, many readers may prefer to see only the words of Jesus teaching, without the concomitant obvious connections to those so different times ? his miracles, his travels, the things that tied the teachings together. The teachings of Jesus work for all times, especially when they have been given to us for our time. So this book, The Words of Jesus, has only the teachings of Jesus, in his words, as told to the Scribe to write down, for us who live in this century.
Autorentext
Jim Burch has authored 16 books. In some years, Jim also reached over 30,000 people as a public speaker. While coming from a Christian background, Jim talks of universal human longings and understandings. Non-Christians are usually the first ones to tell him, "That's what I believe! Why haven't I heard it said that way before?" Jim deeply believes - as ultimately does every religion, culture, philosophy, or theology - that (whatever it is we each call) Divinity lives within every human being. It lives in everything that is ? so that everything is an individuated manifestation of Divinity, this All-Loving Consciousness that infuses the world with its life and its meaning, its existence, its life, and love.
As a result, he honors that Divinity within every person. He has a conviction that this divine Universal Consciousness, which gives existence to all, is a sort of garden of many beautiful flowers, including some beautiful weeds. He always leaves his readers with a brighter understanding of who they are and why they are here in this life. Readers find a renewed vision of their purpose as individuals to take with them when they leave.
Jim Burch brings a broad background to his writings. He was a real estate developer for much of his career, including National Harbor, the largest mixed-use development in metropolitan Washington, DC, 1 mile waterfront development on the Potomac River with over a mile of frontage on the DC Beltway. Early on, Jim Burch worked for the federal government's Office of Economic Opportunity ("War on Poverty") all over the US ? rural and urban areas, on Indian reservations, in hunger programs, and on migrant worker issues. He has been a lecturer and participant on numerous panels. Jim has been a political consultant on multiple campaigns for individuals running for governor, senator, congressman, and president and was the first press secretary to U.S. Senator (later President) Joseph Biden. He was also the founding chairman of the World Trade Center Washington, D.C. He was ordained a Catholic priest (while married) and later a bishop (now retired). When working in Morocco, then-King Hassan II asked the American Ambassador what Jim Burch was like, and the Ambassador, Tom Nassif, immediately answered: "Jim Burch is the kind of man that built America."
Jim and Patty Burch have 5 children and 13 grandchildren.