I became an agnostic many years ago because I refused to believe in a God who claimed to be my Father but was such a monster that he couldn’t forgive any of us unless we killed His Son. I also couldn’t reconcile the Christian theology of an all-knowing and all-powerful sovereign God with death, disease, and suffering, unless again He was a monster who wanted to hurt us. Discovering these Original Teachings of Jesus transformed my life and brought me back to belief in a God who wants us to see Him as our Father and belief in His Son, who arrived on Earth and was called Jesus, who came to tell us that He is our big brother, and our heavenly Dad really does care and sent Him to show us the way to eternal life in the many mansions he has prepared for us. These teachings answered my questions and rang true while also explaining a lot of things I didn’t get just from reading the Gospels over and over. Jesus teaches that we are each on a unique path that lasts throughout our life. Time after time we face a crossroads where we have a choice between doing the loving thing or the selfish thing. Each time we make the loving choice, the next one gets easier. If we make the selfish choice, we hurt others and ourselves, but we will soon have another opportunity to make the loving choice. Your eternal life doesn’t depend on reaching the point right now of never making unloving decisions, but reaching the point where you WANT to make them and be with God, then walking on His path. The Golden Rule explains this loving way in a nutshell. Humbling myself and accepting this gift has changed my life as if I’ve been reborn. I think about this all the time. I’m always asking myself what is the loving choice. For example, I could make a mean or “clever” comment, but instead I just keep my mouth shut. I could see some untrue or mean meme on Facebook and like it, or I could refrain or even stop getting posts from that source. I could see someone and dislike him, or I could tell myself he probably has reasons for the way he is and has suffered. That’s the right path! It’s a burden, true, but it’s a light burden with frequent rewards in knowing you did the right thing and seeing that other people are happier because of what you did or didn’t do or say. The book is divided into over a hundred “teachings” which are just the words of Jesus, with enough context on each side so they make sense. They have chapter titles that let you know what they are about. I thought at first that it was odd that Jesus taught all these separate teachings in such concise ways, on separate topics, but actually, they are in the same order as in the Gospels if you harmonize the Gospels into a single timeline. If you feel like you don’t have the stamina to read an entire book, I recommend getting this, then every morning or evening or over breakfast or something, read just one teaching. It usually doesn’t take more than five or ten minutes. Read it out loud to your family! Think about it. Discuss it. I think that if you approach this with an open heart, as I did, it will lead you to a changed life and give you peace and happiness, even if your life is otherwise horrible. It doesn’t matter what Christian denomination you are, or other beliefs, or if you are an agnostic or atheist. This book does not try to get you to change your denomination. It tries to get you to be more fully, confidently, and happily a child of a Heavenly Father who is everything you ever dreamed your human father or mother could be.