The synoptic Gospels are stories about the historical Jesus, while the epistles written by Paul describe his experience of the eternal Christ Mystery.
Paul never met Jesus—and yet he wrote roughly two-thirds of the New Testament.
Some key Paulian themes resonate with me. We all live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28).
We are never separate from God. We can’t be (Romans 8:38).
My life participates in God. Our bodies are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).
The Christ lives in each one of us (Romans 8:10).
For Paul this is the great mystery that we most often fail to see.
Paul’s experience of the resurrected Jesus is the root of his theology.
After the Damascus Road experience, Paul went to Arabia.
We do not know how long he remained there, but we do know that he left Arabia a new creation (Ephesians 4:22).
He had put on the “Mind of Christ.” Paul had become a mystic, a nondual thinker.
The Christ that is within all initially did not make sense to Paul.
He did not think of himself as a Jesus persecutor until his eyes were opened to the Christ Mystery.
Then he saw the Christ in himself and in everything.
He now understood what Jesus meant when He asked Paul, “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4).
Paul now realized that what he did to others he did to Jesus the Christ (Matthew 25:40).
My entry into the Mind of Christ is centering prayer.
That is why centering prayer is a daily practice for me.
Every day I put on the Mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5).
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CHRISTIAN MEDITATION: Entering the Mind of Christ
James Finley
A powerful course on the contemplative path of prayer passed down from Jesus.
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