Jim Palmer's Blog, page 21

Inner anarchy locates authority within ourselves

A big transition that inner anarchy will bring as it relates to the religious climate is a shift from externalizing authority to things outside ourselves – God in the sky, the Bible, teachers/gurus, religious tradition – to discovering and following that authority within ourselves. Jesus demonstrated this reality by placing himself above religion’s laws, dogma, tradition, rules and rituals. For example, Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” In other words, the power and authority resides in us, and not in some external rule, code, tradition, creed, law, book, whatever… This is going to be a big transition, and we need to help each other along in this. For too long we’ve been made to mistrust what lies within us, and think of ourselves as bad, weak and powerless people.

The book title has already stirred up quite a bit of controversy.

The title of my upcoming book has stirred up quite a bit of controversy. First off, a person who comes along encouraging anarchy among thousands of people puts you on the map as a “person of interest.” The sub-title “Dethroning God and Jesus to Save Ourselves and the World” isn’t exactly winning me any points with the Christian establishment. We need inner anarchy! There are mindsets and belief systems that are ruling us from within, and lead nowhere. Their day is done! They have to go. We must tear them down. Jesus demonstrated the way 2,000 years ago… that was until the Christian religion got a hold of him and twisted and obscured his truth. Unless we bury that story we are going to be wandering around another 20 centuries waiting for the answer to fall down out of the sky… never realizing the answer was inside of us.

The truth of Jesus is better than the fiction of Christianity

I find for some people who shed religion that they get to this place of wondering if there’s really any hope at all. In the shedding process they come to discover that much of what they learned about God isn’t true, and that a lot of what they were told about a better life and future was basically magical thinking. Now what??? Someone once said that the truth is often so much better than fiction. I think this is the case when it comes to the situation we are currently in. In my upcoming book Inner Anarchy I show how the truth of Jesus Christ is much better than the fiction that the Christian religion cooked up. And yes, there is hope – more solid and real than the ground you are standing on.

The interstellar reality inside each of us

I saw the film Interstellar, and really liked it. One blurb about the movie reads: “With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.”

I actually know of another world that exists but it’s not beyond the galaxy or among the stars. It’s inside us! A whole new creation hidden in us!

That’s the world each of us must discover so we can kiss our old world goodbye, and begin the journey of birthing a new reality of immense possibilities. We need to help each other to uncover and explore this new domain. The sky is the limit as we speak from that new Spirit source deep within us – we will speak in the parameters of this new wonderful domain. This is the last frontier and will bring in a entirely new age, a world that in the past we could only dream about.

Bruce Wayne said, “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy.” 2,000 years ago Jesus was that person. He handed it over to us, and since then we have fallen asleep at the wheel, and driving the car off the cliff. We have to wake up!

Jesus said to save ourselves

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. We’ve dug a 2,000-year trench of believing over and over again the same underlying premises about God, ourselves, Jesus, others, this world, life and death. No matter how we package up these premises, they have no power to help us. Or as Wanda the Waffle House waitress says, “You can scramble them, poach them, sunny side up them, over hard or over easy them, but they are all just eggs.” The current situation is that these premises are ruling us from within. Even those who have left religion behind are often still operating with those premises, it just looks a little different. This is why I wrote “Inner Anarchy.” No one can do this for us – each of us has to tear down those mindsets that are ruling us from within. This isn’t going to be a walk in the park because what we know to be true deep inside of us is not going to line up with what we’ve been told by the world and religion. The disciples wanted Jesus to fix, heal and save his followers. Instead, Jesus told them to save themselves – to find the kingdom of Heaven within them, and operate within the dimension of the life-giving spirit within them – the same spirit that was within Jesus.

(Photo by Darla Winn)

Waiting to die in hopes of something better (wake up!)

We keep looking for answers outside ourselves. No one ever told us to look inside our own hearts. Whatever we might find out there are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Who we are inside is greater than the one who is in this world. We are not here to inhabit a world where we are told what can or can’t happen, waiting to die in hopes for something better. We are here to birth a reality of limitless possibilities that are an extension of the truth of who we are. Jesus bore witness to and demonstrated this truth 2,000 years ago but it has been hidden and buried beneath the mindsets and doctrines of religion. It’s time to wake up. I can simplify my upcoming book, Inner Anarchy, in two words: Wake up!

Inner Anarchy! Which book cover would you choose?

So, the full title of my upcoming book is:

Inner Anarchy: Dethroning God and Jesus to Save Ourselves and the World

Inner Anarchy is a rallying cry for tearing down those false mindsets that rule within us, and are preventing our liberation. Many of those false mindsets were placed in our heads by religion. Christianity has given the world a story about God and Jesus that is a big part of the problem that is holding us all back. Until we walk away from that story there is no hope for moving forward, and truly embracing the truth that Jesus bore witness to and demonstrated.

Below are four book cover possibilities. Thanks to Darla Winn for doing an original photo shoot, and creating an awesome image for the cover! Thanks also to Yana Cortlund who has taken the images and designed these book cover alternatives.

About the sub-title. The “dethroning” word applies to the “anarchy” theme. “Anarchy” means the absence of a ruling class. In the case of this book, it is the absence of those ruling mindsets within us. The “dethroning” part must go further than just “God.” This book goes into some detail about how Christianity particularly got things twisted about Jesus. The result of this is how it is preventing true freedom and “salvation” to manifest in our lives and the world. If the title stirs up some controversy, it’s probably a good indicator or forewarning, because the contents inside definitely will! We need to get Jesus down off the throne of the Christian religion, and down here with us!

Also, in case people don’t know… the ‘A’ in the pendant is the official and universally accepted symbol for anarchy.

We could use your input and feedback. Is there one of the below options that you particularly like more than the others? Leave a comment and let us know. Thanks!

What we don’t and do need saved from

The story of religion that says we are bad and corrupt inside, and need saved from ourselves is not true. What we really need is to be saved from that story. The truth is that people are good and beautiful inside, and what we are truly inclined to do and what feels good is to love. The reason why some people don’t seem to evidence this is because they are held captive by the story and other false mindsets that rule us from within. We need inner anarchy! That’s why I wrote this book. That old story is done! Finished! It’s time to tear down that mindset and every other belief that is attached to it!

What Jesus and Atheists have in common (we need inner anarchy!)

An Atheist would actually find quite a bit in common with Jesus – they both reject religion’s notion of God. This is part of the inner anarchy we need. We can no longer allow that concept of God to rule over us.

My upcoming book Inner Anarchy isn’t going to sit too well with some folks. It may be an eye-opener to discover which side Jesus is really on, which isn’t in support of religion. Not that we want to split up the world in “sides,” but Jesus said you can’t serve two masters. You can’t serve the God of religion and find the heaven that Jesus said is within us.

I went to seminary and received a Master of Divinity degree. For many years I was the senior pastor of a successful church. It was a contemporary, artsy, edgy, relational church, and I preached a more grace/positive/practical-oriented message. Unfortunately, all of this was attached to a framework and system about God that could never lead to the freedom Jesus promised. One day Jesus’ disciples spoke to him about the temple. Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” That framework and system of ideas and mindsets that religion has built around God is the temple that needs to be torn down until no stone is left upon another. That’s the inner anarchy we need now, and why I wrote this book.

As an update on the book, it is currently going through the copyedit stage. This will be wrapped up in the next couple days and then the book will move to the final stage before publication, which is cover design and the formatting of the pages/book for publishing in print and digital form. The cover will include an original photo by friend and awesome photographer, Darla Winn.

This book is an independent publishing effort, which is a nice way of saying that I am responsible for the cost of publishing the book. If you’re interested in helping support the cause, you can contribute to the Friends of Jim Palmer GoFundMe effort.

Thanks!

(Photo by roswell-phoenix at deviantart.com)

It’s not the sinners but the Christians who need to accept Jesus

It is not the “sinners” of the world who need to “accept Jesus,” it’s the Christians. They are the “unbelievers” who turned Jesus into a religion and failed to embrace his truth. Accepting the truth that Jesus bore witness to and demonstrated will make you a heretic like he was. That’s the kind of inner anarchy we need now. I count myself as one of those who had done just that. I had to apply inner anarchy to myself.