Brother Peter

Rev. Hensley was unique, like most church founders. I think his church has expanded and matured way beyond what he might have foreseen.

Thanks. I have read several of the books written by Jesus seminar members. They were what initally got me interested enough to start doing my own research. Some of their quotes are the same as mine. I think I have given more emphasis on non-biblical books in putting together my final list. It has been a interesting project.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you- I spent a week in Colorado celebrating my son's wedding. First, please go up several posts (I think it is post #4 or 5) where I talk a little about how I researched this. We all realize many of the gospel stories present conflicting ideas. The details just don't match up. As you start looking at the "extra-canonical" books (that never made it into the Bible) even more problems show up. I knew, from my religious readings, that many of these documents came from different faith trajectories that all developed during the first century. Paul's writings were obviously directed to a different group than was Mark's gospel, or John's. What I looked for were common threads that might have come from a still earlier source (the "oral tradition") which is as close as we ever will come to the actual thoughts of Jesus. I was able to match up 52 thoughts that came from two or more faith trajectories. Based on the number of times the idea shows up, as well as the relitive age of the source material, I further ranked them based on the confidence I had that they were legitimate. They present a Jesus that isn't taught by many (if any) churches. I did all this for a book I was writing, and that was published last winter, called "A Conversation With Yeshua- Creating A Personal Theology". In the book I present all the source material for each of the 52 topics, and then offer my own interpretation of the quotes. At the end of the book I combine all of my interpretations to come up with a dialog, or conversation, between Jesus and the reader. The idea is that a reader could look at all the quotes, write down his own interpretations, and then see how Jesus actually speaks to him, or her. At the end of the day, I came up with the following two sentences, that I think totally summarizes Jesus' teachings: "You are entering the Kingdom of God when you commit to a life of righteousness and peace. You are living the Kingdom of God when you live this commitment." If you are interested, the book is available through Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and several Christian on-line book sellers. I think the price is around $10. I'd love to be able to make this available through the ULC book store, but don't know the best way to contact them to see if they would be interested. Also, each week I do a blog, which gives the quote for the week, and the books I referenced. The blog can be found at www.aconversationwithyeshua.blogspot.com Thanks for your interest. I hope this reply wasn't too long!

The main message that I found is this: "Righteousness and peace are not some abstract thoughts. They will not be found by lookng around and waiting for them to come to us. They are found within all of us, although we may not realize it. The time of righteousness and peace comes when we practice it. To begin living a life filled with righteousness and peace, we have to forget how we have been taught to live, and look at the world as a child would, innocent of the world's evils. Care for others as much as you would care for yourself. Forgive those who want to hurt you. Don't forget your responsibilities to others, but dedicate your life to the Creator. And don't trust earthly riches." That basically was Jesus' primary message, although he did have thoughts about divorce, hypocrites and about keeping arbitrary rules. The one thing he did not say was that his was the only way. He was trying to teach a violent world a new way to live. Unfortunately, most of us still haven't learned.

Basically, I went back to all of the first century texts that I am aware of that were generated by non-related Christian sects to find common sayings. Since each group was not directly related to the others, common sayings probably originated from an earlier source, often called the Oral Tradition. If more than two sources quote the same words, or line of thought, the probabiity is even higher that the words come from the Oral Tradition. The books I used included the letters of Paul, the Gospel Oxyrhnchus 1224, The Gospel of Mark, the Q Gospel (including several orphan sayings only used by Matthew or Luke), the Gospel of Thomas, the Edgerton Gospel, The Diache, the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of Peter. I came up with 52 common sayings. It was a lot of work.

For the past several months I have been posting a weekly blog relating to the original teachings of Jesus, or more precisely Yeshua Bar Yosep. If any of you are interested, it can be found at www.aconversationwithyeshua.blogspot.com I also maintain a Facebook page with the name "A Conversation With Yeshua" which gives the same quotes each week as my blog. I'm always looking for new "friends", so if you are interested, don't be shy! Brother Peter

Happy Easter to you all! On this most holy of Christian holidays, I would like to share with you what I consider the most important of Jesus' thoughts. We find this expressed in the Gospel of Thomas, the source material Luke used, and in the writings of Paul. Righteousness and peace are not some abstractions. They will not be found by looking around and waiting for them to come to us. They are found within all of us, although we may not realize it. The time of righteousness and peace come when we practice it. Peace to you all.

I too, would like to share my sadness for these friends. I am reminded of the words that I was once told are written on a tombstone in Spain. I heard this over 45 years ago, and it still stays with me. "When I was born my family and friends gathered about me and smiled... and I cried. And when I died my family and friends gathered about me and cried... and I smiled!" Let us hope that death came quickly, and that they are at peace in whatever afterlife there might be. Let us hope that the family members that lived will recover from their hurting.

As we think about and pray for the people of Japan, I would like to share something that might give us all pause: I have,and maintain at my home, an official US Geological Survey seismograph for measuring earthquakes. This instrument sends data to Colorado, where it is analyzed. At my home, at the western edge of the Rocky Mountains, we recorded the shaking from the Japan earthquake, approximately three minutes after it occured. The energy travelled approximately half way around the world in three minutes. It was of course, very slight by the time it reached here. Only the seismograph noticed it. But when I looked at those graphs of ground acceleration, and could recognize the same patterns as seismographs in Japan were recorded, I realized all of us here were, in a way, joined with the people of Japan. We all, in a very small way, experienced the terrible earthquake. The world is a very small place.

It is with great sadness that we all look at what is happening to our brothers and sisters in Japan. They, as a nation, will come through this, although so many families have been affected and are hurting. It is all too easy to visualize the horror that perhaps 10,000 or more people faced in their last moments. Let us hope that the end came swiftly and easily for these, as well as those who died a month ago in New Zealand. Let us hope that they have found peace in whatever type of afterlife there might be.

An interesting variety of responses. I would pray that members of the Westboro church remember the basic teaching to treat others as you would wish to be treated. They might also consider several of Yeshua's comments on hypocrisy, such as Luke 6:41 and Luke 11:39-40.

Thank you for the nice comments. I'll have to see if others are having any problems posting to my blog. And then figure out how to fix it! Brother Peter

I would like to share with you a little information on a book I recently wrote entitled “A Conversation With Yeshua- Creating A Personal Theology”. Going back to first century sources, I identified nine different religious trajectories that apparently diverged from the original Jesus movement. Comparing common quotes attributed to Jesus from two or more of these independent sources I felt I was able to go back as close as possible to the original “oral tradition” that developed after his death. I then interpreted the quotes, trying to put them in a more modern context, and finally combined them to generate a conversation between Jesus and the reader. I ended up with 52 paraphrase quotes. In the book I encourage the reader to look at my original source material quotes, that are written out, come up with his or her own interpretations and use them to write a conversation like I did. There is space on each page to do this. The goal is to see how Jesus speaks to you. You can create your own personal theology, based on his words, and free of the clutter that 2000 years of interpretation, change and just plan made up additions has created. I found amazing the simple beauty of his message, much different than what most of us learned in church. Another way to use the fifty two paraphrase quotes is to consider them as a weekly meditation guide. Or, ULC ministers involved in preaching might find some good source material here. I have a weekly blog: www.aconversationwithyeshua.blogspot.com. In it I present one of the paraphrase quotes each week.You can also Google" A CONVERSATION WITH YESHUA "to find how to order the book. It’s available from at least four of the on-line booksellers. I was pleased to make reference to the ULC as one of my inspirations in writing this. Hope you don’t consider this an attempt at some free advertising (though I realize it is), but I do think I have found some interesting material that both Christian and non- Christian members may find of interest and value. Peace Brother Peter

Please rest assured that her friends only want the best for Susan. We feel that she is being "bowled over" with decisions that she needs to take time to address. She is leaving her second marrage, has left her home, and the dogs she adores. She is adjusting to life in a very small apartment. Unfortunatlely she has not been eating well, because of the stress of the whole situation. Everything has it's time and place. Marrage has to be a commitment that takes time to ponder. I don't know, of course, how many have read this prayer request, offered this or a similar prayer. I can say that, as of today, she is starting to think more clearly of the total consequences of acting too quickly. And I got her to eat a hot meal at our workplace.

I would like to ask all members who read this post to sincerely pray for a dear friend of mine named Susan. A 62 year old lady, she has recently left her husband of 33 years and is attempting to start a new life. I make no judgement on this decision. However, all of her close friends are worryed for her because, as she is making these changes, another friend, also married, is trying to convince her to marry him. They tell us they have been in love for 4 weeks (yes, I said weeks). Last week this man left his wife of 37 years so he can marry Susan. While both, of course, will have to work through divorce proceedings with their spouses, we are terrified that Susan is making decisions based on pure emotions without weighing the consequences, which we are convinced will be great and ultimately bad. Please join me in this simple prayer: Dear Lord of the Universe; Please look upon your good daughter, Susan, and guide her in making a thoughtful decision that may alter her life. Please let her see all sides of her decision. Please let her realize the sincerity of the love and concern her friends have for her future happiness. Amen. If you can add prayers to this post, please do. All of her friends love this woman, and I cannot overstate the concern we now have.

This is a fasinating discussion. As I read these posts I thought what a shame it is that those who would criticize the Universal Life Church probably never bother to read these discussion boards.You are presenting serious, well thought out points of view. I am pleased to have the opportunity to read them. Brother Peter