John vs Thomas

 I am rereading Elaine Pagels' book " Beyond Belief.". This morning I came to the portion where she's sharing some contrasts between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas.

John portrays Jesus as the only son of God, the only light that leads to God, Whereas Thomas portrays Jesus as embodying the light that leads us to discover God's light  is within us all, because we are all made in the image of God.

Apparently Both gospels were written about the same time, near the end of the 1st century. But John's gospel fit the needs of organizing into what became a church. Thomas's ideas led more to individual spirituality. It is interesting That the powers that emerged in that time , declared Thomas's work heretical. Even though most of John's gospel was very different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it was included as an acceptable gospel, although debated for quite a while whether or not it should be included.

I find it very interesting that even though the Gospel of Thomas was banned, labeled heretical, and mostly destroyed, his ideas somehow seeped into the middle ages and the great mystics who were very much in alignment with the message of Thomas. 

And then the twist of fate, in 1945  in Nag Hammmadi there was the Gospel of Thomas, as well as many others thought to be lost.  The gospel of Thomas was, after centuries, available  to read and study and contemplate.

At fiest,  they were thought tp be Gnostic. However they are now not thought to be Gnostic , as they do not proclaim to have all secret truth .

I encourage you to read at least two of this find - The Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth. Enter the diversity of the first century. Imagine all of the points of view that were in abundance until someone, a group of someones, decided what was and what was not acceptable. It was  according to a few men, who were far removed in time from the life of Jesus, that we now have this particular New Testament. interesting.

Our Genesis

If I had a choice between wisdom and immortality, I’d opt for wisdom. Proverbs 3:18 wisely states of Wisdom, “She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; / those who hold her fast are called happy.” ---A,J, Levine,, "Genesis"

  I am enjoying AJ Levine's new book on Genesis. Above is a small quote that I was pondering this morning. 

 So if we had the choice between 2 trees, Wisdom and Immortality, which would you choose? I agree with A.J. that wisdom is essential.

 It saddens me to see so many people today in the throes of extreme emotion, on the far side away from Wisdom. Wisdom quietly observes, and weighs, and considers And then often comes up with something that works for everyone, or maybe everyone except the extreme outliers. 

 Perhaps in our list of goals for our lives, we could place Wisdom at the top, so that it guides all of those other things for which we aim our lives. I find that when I'm still and listen, I get guidance that leads me maybe in a different direction than my ego wanted to go, but ultimately in a much better direction.

 I full-heartedly recommend that we all put Wisdom at the top of our value system, and pay homage to it by listening to it for every decision and action. Take a deep breath. Be still. Listen. 

A chance to hear me

 This Sunday, August 9, 2026

I will be giving the sermon at the Temecula United Methodist Church's service 

It will we posted on the church's YouTube channel and Facebook page in the afternoon.

 You are invited!

 

Critical Thinking Is Critucal

 In the past couple of weeks I have come across some examples of non-critical thinking that have began to disturb me. 

 At a personal level, I found my retina doctor was outright lying to me and expecting me to believe him. I have a weird eye condition where I'm looking through a dancing web of smoky pink stuff. And he told me it was because of the shots he was giving my eye. He said he could suck it out, but it might damage my eye and it was my only one I had left. But I said you only gave a shot in my left eye and it's in both eyes. As he walked out the door he said well we'll suck it out next time if you dare to, but I don't recommend it. I'm looking for a new retina doctor. 

I started reading a book on the Bible by a supposed Bible scholar, a former professor of the Bible at a leading university. But it's full of guesses and suppositions and assuming he knows the motivation and thinking of the authors. At least 50% of it is made-up stuff. I'm thinking someone who does not know could be believing it because of his creds. If they do not apply critical thinking and ask themselves questions, they would be vastly misled. 

Even more importantly, I watch in horror as communist inspired people are running for office and want to take down America. One Speaker I heard even said that his hero was Mao Zedong!  He was a bona fide mega villain. People apparently are not thinking and don't know history. I remember my political science professor saying that you can tell which country is the best by which way the borders leak.  Nobody is risking their life to get into North Korea or China or Russia or Cuba. People are trying to get into America because of opportunity and freedom.

I heard hundreds of horror stories of communism firsthand in the years I taught in the former Soviet union. Sure free stuff sounds great,.but there is a terrible price. You give up your freedom and maybe your life  And you're poor while the leaders are rich. If you're falling for the rhetoric of the communist inspired people calling themselves democratic socialists, which they aren't, please do some research. On top of this, they are extremely anti-Semitic.  Haven't  we had enough shameful pogroms and holocausts? 

Please pay attention. Do a little research. Look at life behind the iron curtain. Look at what life is like in North Korea. Look anywhere communism rules or has ruled. They're just glorified dictatorships. The leaders want power and then they take everything from you. They want to take everything from the rich people. the people who run businesses and generate employment and give people opportunities. They lie about capitalism, which is the system where more people got out of poverty than any other system in the history of our planet.Think think think.

Do your own actual research in search for what is accurate and true.. Whatever the topic,  apply critical thinking. The key points are: analysis, evaluation, questioning, logic leading to logical conclusions or at least hypotheses, and self-reflection. Start with an opening purpose and question. Gather information without bias, that is all sides of the question. Let logic lead. Be willing to find truth. Avoid confirmation bias.  Try it out on whatever topic you want. Learn first hand  the empowerment you feel from.thinking critically. 

God bless you on your journey my dear friends. 

A New Story

 I want to share with you What came to me this morning in my meditation. I saw a span of my life, particularly the last year or so. Then  I had this message,."That story is done. You have completed all of its parts Let it drift away." And I saw it drifting away from me, getting smaller and smaller, but also less and less color until it turned into a vapor and was gone. I felt a breath of freshness.

Then I heard my Song ,  "Here I am lord. Is it I lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart." I saw now , in this stage of my life, I may not have grand travels.or  large audiences listening to me Yet I have purpose still. 

My words travel. Whenever I check the stats on this blog, I'm amazed at the number of people in so many countries that have read my words in the last 30 days or whatever period of time I ask about. My books travel. Hopefully many of you honor me by purchasing one or more of my books. I write when I'm inspired, so I don't feel like most of my writing is just me, it's Spirit moving through me.  My latest book, "The Book of My Life, I Wouldn't. Believe It Either, If I Hadn't Lived It" tells the story of my spiritual journey of overcoming and becoming evermore in tune with the Infinite. People say to me that it really inspired them to overcome whatever it is that's their challenge.  My "The Key, Forgiveness and Beyond" was written because I became an expert on forgiveness because I had to do so much of it. It has traveled the world and set many people free.

I also saw that just being present In each moment, I'm able to make a difference, maybe one person at a time. My job is not done - to be a beneficial presence, and to see how far spiritually I can go in this lifetime still apply.Where will God lead me this time in my next story?

Listen and see where God will lead you next. 

Improv

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages... 

William Shakespeare

I was thinking about this quote this morning in conjunction with my vision of selecting a very difficult script for the outline of my life, before coming here to earth, 

Then I thought about the various twists and turns of my life, of the surprises, both positive and negative. And I thought the script is a bare-bones thing and the rest of life is an improv. That is where our free will comes in. At every moment, in every juncture, we get to do an improv. We get to experiment and see what will happen if..

Just like in the theater night that is improv night; some of the choices work really well And they provide laughter or sorrow.  Some choices don't work very well, they fall flat. Just like in real life.

Some people learn from what happened and change their choice for the next moment in their life. Some people don't seem to learn and keep trying the same failed behavior. It's very fascinating to watch.

I suggest we work on our improv skills. We decide what outcome we want and what behavior might take us to that outcome We have the power to aim our life in whatever direction we choose. Maybe we could and should aim better. Think about it please!

A. I.

   I have been mulling over in my mind and heart something that I saw on YouTube, then I Googled it, and found that It's a true story.. 

I am not  an AI expert obviously, so I invite you to check this out. In a nutshell, how I understand it is that the scientists working on Elon Musk's AI, Grok, decided to ask it a new kind of question.It is important to note that Grok had been programmed to use pure logic. 

They asked it what is the probability of life coming out of non life randomly?

Grok answered, 10 to the power of 200 to 600 zeros, which apparently is a number so large it's more than all the atoms in the known universe.  It is impossible that life is an accidental, random event. Intelligent design is the probable explanation according to Grok!

It seems A.I. agrees with religion. 

They then asked Grok, who was Jesus of Nazareth? "The convergent point."

A convergent point is where things come together. You might think tectonic plates have a convergent point for example. 

So I was thinking about this answer, and I thought that Jesus was unique because he was trying to bring people to God. God is our father, the father and I are one, greater things than this shall you do, the kingdom is within you its not I its the father within doing the work, etc. He was trying to lead us to God. He had touched God in a way apparently other people had not. Other religions had not. The Greeks and the Romans, for rxample, had gods frolicking around in the heavens, but they didn't have a way to contact and be in communion with their gods. In fact what they were to do was appease their gods so they wouldn't harm them.  

Jesus was a contact.point, A convergent point, because he knew God in a profound way, had merged with God and knew The Way. Mark says it was at his baptism by John the Baptizer. 

The Jesus movement began as The Way, by practicing The Way Jesus taught. But I am thinking that that way got lost with the theology of over-thinking men who turned it into a Greek style religion, not as a pathway to God, not as a way for us to experience oneness with God and live from that place. 

It seems to me that it is possible Jesus is a kind of portal, that is if we follow the logic of a convergent point, and if we think the logic of Grok has merit. Let us think on these things. I know it is way outside the box, but let us think it through anyway.