Looking for Jesus - His Life and Times

          Since I am recovering from eye surgery and will soon have a another and hoping there won’t be a third, my forced sabbatical offers me a great opportunity to blog an oldie but goodie updated into a mini course. “Looking for Jesus – His Life and Times” is my personal journey into discovering Jesus ‘back in the day’.  So, come along with me each week as we discover what scholars and history can tell us about Jesus. Here’s my introduction, and like all the following sections you can now find great questions to get you contemplating your own journey. Let’s start now:

Wouldn’t you like to jump into a time machine and be back for even one hour in a time and place you always wondered about? Isn’t that why we so enjoy history based movies that are exquisitely designed, filmed and directed to thrust us emotionally and visually into another life and time period?

In high school I attended a history class that covered the ancient world and my mind lit up so brightly I was sure everyone could see the glow. I was fascinated! I was hooked! Though I have grown to love history in general, the ancient world is the one that captures my heart and mind the most explosively.

Later, when an adult and student of  ‘A Course in Miracles’ I happily morphed into a world speaker and shared my growing insight about the Course with thousands of other students around the world. Naturally, my curiosity about comparative religions and philosophies blossomed and my personal library grew into the hundreds of learned works in this double field of religion and ancient history. I know that sounds impressive, but I have to admit, though I may be informed in these areas, I am definitely not a true scholar. Instead, like you I consider myself an armchair scholar armed with a laptop.

Though, over the thirties years of lecturing around the country I had gained a true closeness to the Jesus presented in ‘A Course in Miracles’, I now wanted to meet Him in His own time period. To do this I created my very own ‘time machine’ of study. 

Hungrily I reviewed many of the books I already had and added several more including ‘Josephus’, the highly respected Jewish historian’s books that he wrote during the early first century and the Archaeological Bible, filled with historical detail. Then, I added to my collection a DVD of the Frontline special ‘From Jesus to Christ, The First Christians’, a four hour special offering a wonderful modern look at Jesus by highly respected scholars. Finally, I connected through the internet to hundreds of articles by renowned scholars on the life and times of Jesus and the early Church.

I had my expanded armchair studies in place.        

Since starting my project, I have been gaining eye opening understanding and would love to share it with you. So, following will be the ’snapshots’ I have taken so you can virtually join me and travel back to the life and times of Jesus.

Grab your camera, take your own snapshots and start building an album of your own as you see Jesus through the lens of history come alive . . .

Thoughts to Contemplate and Discuss

(You will probably find these questions needing discussion not just contemplation. If not already started, think about gathering some friends for a study group)

1.     What has been your personal journey that brought you to look for Jesus through his life and times?

2.     Has your personal view of Jesus changed over the years? And how?

3.     If it has changed, what were the influences that caused this?

4.     What do you hope to discover for yourself as you explore this book?

(You can always enjoy the complete book/mini course which you can find in the left column)