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God's Long Distance Love Letters, an Introduction
by The Masked Truelovers To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:7 KJV How do we communicate with our loved ones when they live miles away from us? telephone, cell phone, text messages, emails, online chat rooms, and real lettersthat about sums it up. Those are most of the methods today for parents and children to communicate after they have moved away from each other, for friends to keep in touch after leaving for college, and for long distance lovers who may have met online in the first place. That's how my second wife and I met on an internet Christian dating site. It turns out that we lived three hours away from each other, but we got so easily hooked on each other, that we didn't let that stop us from getting to know each other, fall in love, and eventually get married. We know very well the various methods of communicating with the one we love long-distance-style. And communicating long distance is the only way that God can maintain a relationship with the ones He loves here on earth. His method was love letters a little more of the old fashioned kind. Now even though God only wrote one known segment of the Bible with His own finger when He revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses (Exodus 31:18; 34:1) He still is the one responsible for writing all the letters in the Old Testament and New Testament. He carefully crafted what we know as 66 separate love letters to humanity over a period of many centuries. Aside from the little help He gave Moses that time, he used a more modern technique for getting things on paper the rest of the time. Like a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) dictates letters to secretaries or administrative assistants, God communicated His messages of love to humanity through prophets and apostles. They wrote it all down for Him by whatever standard means of writing they each had available to them in their day (stone, clay, papyrus, etc.). My beautiful wife and I developed the foundation of our relationship through long distance communication. And not everything we talked about to each other involved romantic gestures. We showed how much we loved and cared for each other by sharing everything about ourselves. We talked about our childhood, our teen years, our college days, our previous marriages, our children (we have two each), our parents, our relatives, our backgrounds, our experiences, our churches and faith, our personalities, likes and dislikes. And not everything in the Bible talks specifically about God's love for us. He has maintained His long distance relationship with us by writing all about the different aspects of His character and how He has intervened in the lives of humanity from the creation of Adam to beyond the life of Jesus Christ when He walked the earth. He directed His own administrative assistants in each time period to prepare a record of the events of their day, so that we could learn by their examples how to draw close to our Creator the One who made us and loves us (I Cor. 10:1-6; Gal. 3:24,25; James 5:10; I Peter 2:21; Jude 1:7). And "we love him, because he first loved us" (I John 4:19) KJV. Not everything we read in the Bible will warm our hearts like a good romantic love letter. But not everything we read from our girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, or wife gives us goosebumps either. It just depends on what message needs to be said at the time from the one that we love. A lot of people don't want to believe the Bible because there are too many rules. It's in our instincts to do what we want, no matter what anybody else says. But there have always been standards in every aspect of life. That is what keeps up the balance. Parents have to set rules for their children; Employers have to create handbooks of conduct for their employees; Governments legislate laws to help citizens live in peace with each other and respect each other's lives and property; lovers also need to develop standards in their relationship so they know what to expect from each other, and how to keep a strong partnership. That is one of the reasons that the Bible has been written. God is like a Father, a Boss, a President, a Husband. He had to create guidelines for us to keep us close to Him, even if the only relationship we could have with Him all our lives is long distance. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (I John 5:3,4) KJV. That is, following God's rules is not as hard as it may seem, not when we have really developed a true respect for who God is and realize how he wants to simply keep up a relationship with His people. My wife and I have standards for our relationship, and we desire to please each other. We love each other very much and don't want to hurt each other. Of course no one perfectly follows God, and no one has a perfect marriage, and no one is a perfect child. But taking a stand on what we believe in is still important. Our lack of perfection does not mean that God and the Bible is false, that our marriage has failed, or that our parents are imposters. I'm not an archaeologist or any other science expert. I'm not a specialist in hieroglyphics or any other ancient language. And I didn't major in ancient history either. My purpose in this book is to show how God's administrative assistants prophets and apostles gave God the credit for the things that they wrote. That is the easiest way to believe the Bible at face value. From there, it's simply up to each of us whether or not to believe them. Just like a couple in a long distance relationship arranges to meet in person to strengthen their love, God made a visit to earth some 2000 years ago to solidify His relationship with humanity. He came in the form of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:20-23; Philippians 2:5-11). The Bible was given life by Jesus Christ, whose divine Title is the Word of God: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:1,14) KJV. God inspired or breathed out life into scripture (II Timothy 3:16) through His Word Jesus Christ. God's administrative assistants were clear to show throughout the many books of scripture that each member of the Triune GodheadGod, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit-played equal parts in transmitting divine words to them as the writers of God's long distance love letters to humanity: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. I John 5:7, KJV The rest of this book is Bible-reference-packed! That's because God's secretaries credited God with their words all over the place in the Bible, and also confirmed each other's writings across eras of time. If you already believe God's Word, this quick and to-the-point book will give you a greater confidence in your faithplus many handy quotes you can share with others. If you have doubts about the divine truth of scripture, I hope that the upcoming confirmations will overwhelmingly convince you that the Bible is indeed the very word of God, and that it will make a great difference in the rest of your life. (This article comes from the introduction of an ebook by the same name - written by Jeffrey Gante, aka The Masked Truelovers.) The Masked Truelovers is the pen name for Jeffrey and Jamie Gante, webmasters of a website where they share their long distance love relationship and compare it with a relationship with God. http://www.long-distance-love.com/Jeffrey-and-Jamie-Gante.html Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |