(By Shekinah:)
Jesus is my lover. I want to learn to become one with God like he was. I want to learn to become more and more a channel of love and justice the way Jesus was. I want to grow into that same moral courage.
Jesus completely trusted God, whom he called Father, first for his survival, when he stopped working for his own support as a carpenter and left the safety of his own home, then he trusted God for the repercussions of his controversial message, and finally he trusted God in his tremendous suffering and death.
I want to grow into that kind of trust.
I am so thankful that David and I have taken the first steps of learning that complete trust by giving up having a residence and giving up our own efforts to secure a regular income or support and that we are learning to be that voice of truth.
Jesus is quoted saying that he wanted to do all the things God desired of him, even the very difficult ones, because he loved God so much. I want to grow into that kind of love.
When I was a 19 year old atheist a young former drug addict told me that I could experience Jesus if I simply would talk to him. When I followed his suggestion the spirit of Jesus liberated me from the negative effects of drugs I was having at that time.
Jesus has been my friend, counselor and lover ever since and has not only liberated me from drug effects many years ago - by following Jesus' example of dropping out the way it is documented in the Gospels, I have found freedom from the chains of the commercial society.
Sad to say Christianity is not at all about freedom from the chains of commercial society. Christian doctrin advertizes a spiritual liberation and a hope of freedom in life after death, but in practical life it teaches and practices bondage - submission and integration into the present system, which exploits the poor and, primarily because of greed, is destroying the earth.
A large part of Christianity has tragically fallen prey to that same greed, calling luxury possessions "blessings of God", when their price tag is the blood of the poor.
In my opinion it is high time that the loving and courageous spirit of Jesus is manifested all over through people, who give themselves to God the way Jesus did.