'The kingdom of heaven is within you.'
From my earliest memory, I perceived Jesus as the most ecstatically joyful human in all of history. This perception has never left me but has only gained in strength. I write, travel, share, work, love, live, and breathe in search of such other discipleship-obsessed souls, be they one, two, ten or more. If indeed there are any. Be they already awake, or to be awakened.
'Knock and the door shall be opened to you. Seek and ye shall find.'
But it was only in my 71st year, the winter of 2022, that I realized I could recall but a meere handful of Jesus’ instructions and example found in the four canonical Gospels. How then could I practice those words? How could I share what he offered us? Although Jesus had always drawn me, my discipleship had just begun.
'I speak these words that my joy might be fulfilled in you.'
So in the winter months of 2022, I sat in the high desert of Lone Pine, California with the Gutenberg translation of the four gospels and went line by line, word by word, phrase by phrase, asking myself, is this instruction that Jesus is offering you? I did not ask, do I like this? Nor, do I agree with this? Just, is this instruction Jesus is providing you? And when the answer was no, because someone else like the gospel author was saying it, editorializing, or because it was just some geographic or other notation, I passed on. But when the answer was yes, I cut and pasted his instructions into a list. And by the time I was done the list had about 1,010 elements: His words, instruction, and example in the four canonical gospels.
'If you keep my words the heavenly father will love you. And the father and I will come and make our abode with you.'
And since then, I study these words every day, working to gain recall so that they are at my immediate disposal for practice, reflection, learning, deeper learning... mastery, and occasionally to share.
I recognize that I am a glacially slow learner, glacially slow at everything. Consequently, so far it has been primarily of the first 550 elements – those that I believe Jesus would have considered the most important – upon which I focus my efforts. Go in 2024 it is pretty much the thousand and ten for me now. Probably 60% recall so far.
'Take up my yoke and learn from me. Your soul will find rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.'
And so it continues. Stumbling forward using my own notions and then reflecting on those of others, centrally Jesus, I've yet to find anything that he said or did that is not singularly correct. I'm completely open to discovering otherwise, but that hasn't happened yet. Quite the opposite.
'Take heed how ye understand. To the one that has understanding more will be given. From the one that has little, what they have will be taken away.'
Something else occurred several months ago that quite shocked me. It is said that fish are the last ones to discover water.
Throughout my adulthood there have been hundreds of great souls that I have been drawn to learn from, that I have studied deeply. About five years ago I decided to create a website so that what I was learning was available to others. My interest had been in learning how to maximize joy, for myself and for others, wherever credible, authoritative instruction can be found. This work intensified ever since I became a biological parent many decades ago; I wanted to do my best to make the path to Joy available to my offspring as well as my other dependent. Even as a business leader, I realized that joy provides the ultimate fuel for extraordinary organizational achievement, for which I was a catalyst time after time.
'Call no man your teacher except one, me, Jesus.'
After all this, it was only a few months of studying the 1010, in mid 2023, that it hit me. James, are you glad for your extensive study of hundreds of great souls throughout history? I am! But it's been...
... many months or even years since you have studied them. Why is that? Because everything that I learned from them, I find most completely, compellingly stated and lived, exemplified in the instruction and example of Jesus. Everything in one place.
Fish are the last ones to discover water.
Some great souls in history are attracted to Jesus like moths to a flame. Moths don't know why they are drawn to the flame, yet still they go. Tolstoy, Schweitzer, Bonhoeffer, David Dellinger, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr... all were drawn to Jesus with that same ferocity and conviction. I don't think they knew why. But that attraction became a consuming and animating force in their lives. And so it is for me. For the joyful abundant life of it. For the Salvation from suffering of it. And infinitely more important, for the possibility of helping another Soul toward that, and helping other disciples emerge.
I speak these words that my joy might be fulfilled in you.
Why am I bringing this, Jesianity, to you? Why aren't Jesus' words and example in the Gospels sufficient? They are sufficient. To my shock and amazement, I have found that in all of human history, Jesus’s words and example comprise all that is necessary for a joyful and abundant Life, and salvation from suffering.
Except for one problem: they are not easily available. They are buried under 2,000 years of empire; a perverting teaching and being, an opposite way of teaching and being through... christianity and its other empire partners: rampant materialism, greed, and selfishness.
So the reason for this site is attempting to provide for the obsessively-called disciple (that may not yet know it), a bridge, a doorway, a finger pointing, at the instruction and example of Jesus in Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John, and the stumblings forward of we disciples… that we call, Jesianity.info. And the degree to which I deviate from that is the degree to which I have betrayed you, in the same way that christianity and our empire cultures have betrayed you. Obscuring Jesus instruction and example, rather than being a conduit to them. I very much work to avoid that betrayal. I hope I have some success in it. I hope you catch and call me out when I fail.
5/6/24 update:
Much has been learned or recognized since the above was written many many months ago. Now reflected throughout this site.
Most centrally, the world is full of people with an affection for their untrained, undisciplined, imaginary notion of Jesus. And even some very few of these have more than affection, they've actually been moved by that affection toward being more good, being more just, two things that Jesus valued to the point of calling them salvation.
It is not the purpose of this site to be for people having an affection toward jesus. That's not the purpose of Jesianity. That's not the vacuum that needs to be filled.
The purpose of this site is to facilitate the awakening of the would-be disciple, to help encourage and sustain them, and if they emerge, to be a place of networking, and collaborative mutual acceleration down the path of discipleship. God bless all the rest. But this is the focus of this site, this is the focus of Jesianity. Disciples. Discipleship. Of Jesus instructions and example. FULL STOP.
Jesus said, it is enough for the disciple to be as the master. This site is for those of us that are obsessed every breath, with becoming as the master, that our ability to help this suffering dying world, is no less than his. And probably to die trying. Lol. In excruciating joy
And whereas this page above speaks as the Central purpose attaining the joyful life that Jesus had and offered, that remains, but another years' worth of learning, in this 2024 world agonizingly accelerating toward armageddon..., not just for the joy of Jesus, but the Salvation from the horrific suffering which otherwise is unbearable that he found, and offered. For myself. And infinitely more important to me, that I might help another toward Jesus' joy, and reduced suffering, by bringing other people to that mission, to all-consuming discipleship.
Eagerly awaiting hearing from you, your brother,
Disciple James Mcginley
Ps. Note to James. Question to James: is not joy, that human, Creator given capacity, at the same time, the exquisitely positive human experience, and inherently what at the same time makes the otherwise unbearable suffering in the world, bearable? Probably so. Think this through james.
Notice:
This website is so undeveloped, so technically cumbersome, that it is nearly worthless.
Except to the disciple in process, and they will find it invaluable. And they will help to make it more valuable. They won't be able to resist.
The website is of, by, and for them, because they are the tip of the spear to save the occasional soul from empire.
For them, the meager navigation tools, will be sufficient to facilitate the accelerated rehabilitation of their humanity, which is the process of discipleship:
Awesome conversation with James in Pagosa Springs.
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