Opening Post - Shelly's Letter to Her Family

Dear Children,


I just wanted to take the time to write you and tell you what has taken me my whole life to learn about God and who he is. I have been in the "church" my whole life and have been going to Bible studies for 15 years trying to learn who He is.

First I want to explain the Bible to you as simply as I can. The Bible is the written Word of God, it is not God. He put the words in people to write it. God didn't make man because he was lonely, as I have always been taught. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit (Trinity) were always there from the beginning of time. He wanted to bring us into their circle of love and relationship.

So the Old Testament in a nutshell is talking about Christ's coming. It is a prophecy, which is a prediction of what is to come. When you read it, look for Christ; his thread runs all though the Bible even before he arrived on earth. Before Christ came, God gave man laws to live by like the Ten Commandments. He also had very strict guidelines about the Arc of the Covenant, which was built to hold the Ten Commandments. It symbolized God's covenant with his people. So man was under strict laws, which was called the Old Covenant.

So in the New Testament it starts with the Gospels, which are the 4 accounts of Jesus’ life, written by 4 different men. Christ came to fulfill the prophecy and die for our sins. So he preached to the people about whom God is, and performed miracles. His two greatest commands were to love God and love one another. The people became outraged since he said he was God so they handed him over to the authorities. When Pontius Pilate (the Roman Governor for the regions of Samaria and Judea) asked Jesus if He was a king, he said yes and that He came to testify to the truth. That is important to know as you go through this life, which can seem to pull you in different directions, that He is truth. So they crucified Him and He died, was buried and rose again on the third day. He met with the apostles after that and when he left they received the Holy Spirit when Christ went up into Heaven.

Paul wrote most of the New Testament —many years after Jesus’ life though he never knew Him on earth. Paul was a Jew who knew the Jewish Law of the Old Testament backwards and forwards. He was extremely intelligent and articulate. Paul thought he was doing the right thing under God's law by killing followers of Christ. One day God called on him out loud and blinded him for 3 days and Paul personally met Christ (just like we can) and his life was transformed. So in Paul's writings he explains if we accept Christ we get a new heart, a transplant. We have Christ's heart. So when we accept Christ, he lives in us. So we aren't followers of Christ—we have him living in us, and the Holy Spirit guiding us—never condemning us. Paul tells us that we are under the New Covenant; the Old Covenant has been banished. When Christ died on the cross for our sins, the law had been fulfilled and at that very time the curtain that separated the Holy from the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle was torn from ceiling to floor though it was as thick as a man’s hand. This meant that the old ways of getting to God were over. We are not under God's laws anymore. We also died, were buried, and rose and ascended with Christ when he died for we were in him when he went to the Cross. Christ died for all of our sins, past, present and future. The work is done. He did the work so we can enter into Heaven, and share in his life in the Trinity right now. We are under the New Covenant. We are called to Love. Love is always married to truth and they go hand in hand.

So this has been so huge to me to understand this and have you get it too. Christ lives in us. He wants to live out your life in you through you. He loves you so much and wants you to be authentically you. When we walk around knowing Christ lives in us and our heart is good we naturally live our lives in a loving way. If you thought you were bad and your heart was bad it would make you more prone to do bad things. Of course we will still fight against sinning, we have free will and we will always have choices. The devil is the king of this world. Satan is the only one God is against; God never fights us or is against us. He is always on our side and always there for us, never leaving us. By the way, Satan is defeated. I picture him with a big D on his chest, in a cage rattling it and spewing lies at us and trying to make us feel guilty (guilt comes from Satan) but always remember he is defeated! He can never hurt us! Don't believe his lies.

So my prayer is that you will know Him and have a real relationship with Him. The more you know Him the more you will know the truth. This is all life is about is love and relationships with Him and people. We are called to love. I wake up in the morning and just tell Him I trust— since He lives in me—that he will help me through my day to know to do the right thing and when I am off track the Holy Spirit will gently pull me back. It's not about following any laws it's about trusting Him. We really can experience Heaven on earth living this way.

Romans 8:1 says "Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

We are free to live out this life in love. I pray you will read his life and get to know Him. I can't tell you how exciting and freeing is has been for me to get how much he loves me. Bask in His love.