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Shlamma! Welcome to my profile here on Myspace!

My name is Eshoa Nasraya, in English you may know me as Jesus of Nazareth or as Jesus Christ.

I was born around the year 4 B.C. to my mother, Miriam, my father's name was Yosef, who was a carpenter. I was born in the town of Bethlehem, but I was raised in Nazareth. My grandparents were Yoachim and Hannah (you may know them as St Joachim and St. Anne).

I have several siblings. My brothers Yakov, Shimon, Yudah, and Yose; and my sisters Shalome and Mirium. People today debate whether they were my full blood brothers and sisters or whether they were my step-brothers and step-sisters, still others think they were my cousins.

I was raised in a devoutly Jewish home, when I was eight days old my parents took me to Jerusalem and I received Bris Milah, the Jewish rite of circumcision. I grew up going to synagogue every Shabbat, I went with my family to Jerusalem every year on the high holy days, especially Pesach (Passover) and I was taught to be faithfully observant and obedient to Torah. To all you Gentiles out there, that refers to the Law of God which was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

I was raised by my father, Yosef, as a carpenter and spent many long summer days in his shop. Together we made furniture for our neighbors in Nazareth.

When I turned thirty, I knew it was time for me to begin my ministry. My cousin, Yochanon (whom you all know as John the Baptist), had for some time been living in the desert calling for our people to get ready for the coming of Mshikha (Messiah or Christ) and to turn toward the way and paths of God. As part of his prophetic ministry to call our people back to God and to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah he called people to enter into the mikvah (a ritual bathing, or "baptism" that symbolizes purity) in the Jordan River. In order to do things right I came to my cousin and asked him to let me enter the mikvah, as a sign of righteousness, while he hesitated at first he did at my insistence.

After I was baptized by Yochanon I spent several weeks out in the Judean desert, for some alone time with God my Father. After which I began my ministry.

I proclaimed the message of good news about God's Kingdom, His reign and rule. That God loves everyone regardless of who they are, and I unequivocally called all people to turn toward God and to love their neighbor. My message was about forgiveness, and about peace. I taught that to live by the sword is to die by the sword. I taught that the most important thing was love, to love God and to love our fellow man.

I received a great deal of hostility from many of my fellow rabbis and other leaders of our Jewish community, they accused me of many things. They despised the fact that I preferred to hang out with prostitutes, lepers, the sick, tax-collectors and other sinners. They didn't understand that God's ways were not paved with false piety and imagined forms of "purity" but that true piety--true righteousness--and real purity from following God is to have the heart of God. And it is the heart of God that beats and pains over those who are suffering and lost. If we say we love God then we must have His heart, and His heart is for the prostitutes, the tax collectors and the other "sinners".

To mistreat other human beings is to mistreat God, because each and every person is made in the image of God. To treat others wrongly is to treat God wrongly, to curse your neighbor is to curse God, to harm your neighbor is to curse God.

I knew that my time to preach the good news of God's Kingdom wouldn't last for very long. That I would be taken and arrested by those who opposed me the greatest and would be handed over to the Romans and that they would kill me. For this reason out of all my disciples I called twelve men to carry on my mission and ministry after I was gone from among them. I called these men my "apostles", from the Greek word apostolos, meaning "to be sent out". So that my name, my mission and my ministry to proclaim God's Kingdom and invite all people into a friendship with God, to know Him the way I do, as Father, as my Abba (Aramaic for "dad").

Sure enough the authorities had their way and they took me and arrested me. They brought me before the ruling council of my people called the Sanhedrin in the middle of the night and was accused of heresy, of blasphemy, and for speaking against the Torah and against God. Of course the charges were false, but I knew this was bound to happen, I knew it from the beginning.

They brought me before the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, and tried to make me out to be a threat to Rome's imperial power structure. Even though I had always taught that my Kingdom and my Power were not of this present age, but from God; and I had taught my followers to give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar; as long as they gave to God what was belonging to God. Even still, I was eventually convicted of crimes against the Roman Empire and was sentenced to die the way all traitors against Rome are sentenced to die, by crucifixion.

At the age of thirty-three I was crucified. My death was not my defeat. It is a mistake to think that it was my defeat or my failure. My death was, in reality, the epitome and the capstone to my entire work on earth. Everything I had ever taught, and everything I had ever done was to proclaim God's love and God's power and authority over the powers of this age which hold men captive; against the powers of hate, greed and all other evils. My death was not a defeat, but a victory--for through it God demonstrated His love in the fullest way possible. On the cross I was God's Love made real, God's perfect affirmation of His forgiveness and mercy upon the world. And in my death sin died with me, and in my death death died with me.

Luckily that isn't the end of the story. Three days later I rose from the dead. Demonstrating that God, indeed, does win against evil, and against death.

I visited my disciples, including my twelve apostles, and revealed myself as risen. I spent forty days with them and continued to teach them and to love them. Before I left them, to return to God my Father, I gave them one final commission: to take my message of God's Kingdom to every part of the globe, and to make disciples and teach people about all the things I said and did.

Eventually my followers took on the name, "Christian" and their faith in me became known as "Christianity". They founded many communities in my name, preached throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, wrote down many letters and wrote down my story, and eventually these letters and stories were gathered and collected and became what you know as the New Testament.

My followers together are known as the Church, which in Greek is "ekklesia" which simply means "a gathered assembly" and refers to my followers gathered together in my name to worship God and to proclaim my good news of God's Kingdom. They have taken my name throughout the world, they have done what I have told them to do and they are continuing to do it even today.

While some of my followers misunderstand me, and they often fight amongst each other most of them mean well. Please forgive them for when they make mistakes, I have, they are only human after all. It truly pains me that so many use my name for the wrong reason, to make money, or to fight wars and to treat others poorly--it goes against everything I stood for and taught.

Today I sit at the right hand of my Father in heaven, until the day comes when I will return to gather all people together to stand before God. Then shall come the age to come, where the universe shall be as God always intended it to be, where the Kingdom of God will be finally and fully realized. With no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death.

Eternal Life.

I leave you with this. Love one another, even as I have loved you, love each other. You are your brother's keeper.