In Search of Reliable Truth

Preface This book represents the complete collection of letters I penned to a young couple in 2009; they in turn have generously given permission to share it with others. My reason for writing these letters is to give a solid understanding of those things in life that are reliably true that is, things that are true to such an extent that one can fully depend on them for support and use them to build up a solid belief system which will stand firm through lifes storms. In the interest of protecting the privacy of the individuals involved, I have changed their names. Otherwise, these letters remain in their original form. James Brooks June 2009

Note: This publication may be copied at will.

Letter 1: An Introduction Dear Scott and Amy, You have probably heard such things as Knowledge is power, or The truth will set you free. If you will forgive the pun, there is some real truth to these sayings. In contrast, false knowledge (something you hold to be true but is actually false) can hurt you very badly if you put weight on it and trust it with your whole being. Most people dont fear flying in a plane because they know that, in general, commercial flights are safe and reach their destinations safely. Passengers thus reason that the flight is safe and they trust their lives to the plane and the pilot. But what if their trust is not well-founded (perhaps the particular plane they are boarding has failed all safety codes and the pilot has never flown before)? It could mean disaster. We have to put our trust in something, or else we cant function in this life. The key question is: What can be trusted? We need to be confident in our answers, or else face possible disaster. As I write this I am reminded of my hobby of learning which wild plants are edible and which are poisonous. Suppose I learn from Wikipedia that Poke berries are edible and I trust this information enough to eat a handful of them.

I would die. False knowledge can kill you. But why would anyone spread false knowledge when they know it is not true and that it could seriously hurt someone? The answer is simple. By planting false knowledge (propaganda) you can more easily control people by making them believe what you want them to believe. In fact, there are multitudes of folks these days who desire to control you so that they can benefit from it. Thus, false knowledge is very

common. Many people who believe false knowledge spread it to others without ever realizing it is false, and this leads to a general consensus that such false knowledge must be correct since so many believe it. The times in your life where knowing truth is especially important is after a huge loss perhaps the loss of someone who is very close to you. It is at this point that you may begin to question things you have never had reason to question before: Does God really exist? If so, how could He allow this to happen? If you have thought through such agonizing questions beforehand before your loss the answers can be a great comfort to you and can allow you to grieve without the unnecessary baggage of questioning everything. After all, grieving takes up most of your mental energy and you really cant think very objectively. My plan is to continue corresponding in this manner, to give you a series of letters which I hope will be useful to you as you seek out the truth of things for yourself. My goal is to present information in such a way that you can verify each step for yourself, to see if it is indeed reasonable. I want you to be convinced in your own mind of the truth so that you are willing to trust it with your whole being. You cant just take the easy road of distrusting everything: such distrust of everything tends to make one bitter towards life. But total trust in something you deem to be trustworthy brings joyit allows you to live life to the fullest. Love Always, Jim PSThis series of letters are being written specifically on your behalf, but I dont mind you sharing them with others.

Letter 2: Trusting Our Senses Dear Scott and Amy, Can you trust your senses? Where have I heard that question before?? Oh yeah, in science class. After posing this question, the teacher then introduces various optical illusions to show that in fact you cant always rely on your senses. OK, so when you board an airplane, you trust your life to it, right? Is that because airplanes can always be trusted? No, of course not. You know for a fact that there have been airplane crashes. You trust the airplane with your life because in general airplanes dont crash. Lets transfer this logic to our senses. Can our senses always be trusted? No. But are they trustworthy in general? Absolutely they are. So, yes, you can trust your life to your senses. There are actually people in this world who claim that they do not trust their senses, even in general. However, Ive seen them drive. When they come to a red light, they stop. Clearly, they are trusting their senses. They say one thing, but act in a completely different manner. The truth is that we cant survive long in this world without trusting our senses. Love Always, Jim

Letter 3: Creators of Deception Dear Scott and Amy, So far I have stated the importance of detecting false knowledge and embracing reliable knowledge. I have also argued that we should trust our senses; we should embrace them as a source of true and reliable knowledge. In this letter, I want to talk some about the people who create false knowledge with the intent to deceive. Are there any tell-tale signs of someone who maliciously creates false knowledge? Surprisingly, yes. The key to identifying these peoplethose who intentionally hurt othersis this: they have little to no visible conscience. They dont seem to care that they hurt people. They have worked hard to dull their feelings of right and wrong. You can verify this for yourself using this logic: if it were not true (if they were bothered by wrong), they would not be able to stand themselves. In fact, there is a simple test you can use. When the person in question is overcome with happiness, is it always because he got his way? If so, then you are dealing with a person who probably creates false knowledge on a regular basis with the intention to deceive. If, however, the person sometimes is overjoyed because something good happened to someone else, this is not a person who deceives intentionally. So we now have a test. It is great for detecting those who manufacture false knowledge. However, there are still very well-meaning people (people whom we call sincere) who pass along loads of false knowledge without ever knowing it. These people are lovable, and therefore particularly influential.

We like them and therefore we tend to believe what they say. For this reason, these are the ones who do the most damage. There is no easy test to detect them. The only way

to avoid their influence is to take the long journey of reasoning for yourself what is true and reliable, then comparing your knowledge of the truth with what they are telling you. This series of letters is meant to guide you on this journey. Unfortunately, there is no easier way. Love Always, Jim

Letter 4: Behold the Beauty of Life! Dear Scott and Amy, In a former letter I showed that our senses can be trusted, and that we can rely on them as we search for reliable truth. In this letter I want to talk about the beauty conveyed to us by our senses. I do not want to be lopsided, and I realize that not all of what we sense is pleasant. I will deal with the not-so-pleasant side of things in another letter. In this letter, I want to focus on beauty. It is interesting to note that nothing that we sense is beautiful by itself. We must respond to what we sense, and that response is an integral part of the experience of beauty. We need boththe input from our senses, as well as our response to that inputto experience beauty. One such experience of beauty is the experience of being in the midst of a huge expanse, with no one else around. It is the feeling of being a part of something much larger than oneself, and it is incredibly calming. I experienced this growing up in New Mexico, looking out over hundreds of acres of empty land, immersed in the orange brilliance of the setting sun.

The best word to describe it: serenity. A few years ago, I met a fellow who spoke of flying his airplane solo over the ocean, with no land in sight. He experienced the same sereneness, the same beauty. This experience can be found in many other situations where we are confronted with something in our natural environment much bigger and more powerful than ourselves: 1) Astronauts in space, as they look at the earth, a small ball in the expanse of the stars and galaxies. 2) Hearing the roar and spray of Niagara Falls. Another very beautiful sensation is the melting away of

something sharp and painful into something peaceful and smooth. This is a quality of artwork that appeals to our senses. It is especially found in music. We cannot listen to sharp, painful (dissonant) music for long, unless it is followed by a resolution into an open, airy type of music (consonance). Dissonance followed by consonance in music does something wonderful to us. It gives us the feeling that although there is pain, it does not last long, and gives way to peace. Next, a very powerful and beautiful sensation is that of being rescued from something bad. If I owe money to the bank, and they hound me day and night for it, but then someone shows up and pays the bill for methat is a very beautiful thing indeed. Being forgiven for something I did wrong is another powerful example of this. It is truly beautiful. There is the very beautiful and deep serenity that comes from being cared for. If I know someone loves me unconditionally, and will never abandon me regardless of the stupid things I might do, there is a feeling of worththat I can do anything I want to do as long as I put my mind to it. This feeling of being cared for is one of the most powerful and beautiful things one can experience. Finally, there is the awesome feeling of making a difference in someones life. If I can do something which will bring beauty (such as the things mentioned above) into someones life, it brings beauty into my own life as well. To feel useful is a huge thing, and the beauty that comes from it is indescribable. Life is truly beautiful. A person is wise who takes the time and effort to experience the beauties of life. Love Always, Jim

Letter 5: Decay Dear Scott and Amy, We have looked at the incredible beauties that abound in life. They are so beautiful that no one, not even the most skilled poets, can adequately describe them. I want to eventually look at the dark side of living, to investigate what our senses tell us about the painful aspects of life. But before we do that, I want you to think through your own experience and see if you agree with me on this: Everything dies. Everything runs down eventually. Some things last much longer than others, but they all eventually wear down, get thrown away, or die.

In fact, the only way that humanity (or any species) can survive is by reproducing itself. People tend to have babies which grow up to have babies of their own. But a baby cannot have a baby right awaythere needs to be some growing-up time first. And survival is critical during this growing-up time; otherwise, there will be no chance for reproduction. This continual cycle of survival and reproduction has been touted by some as a means whereby generations get better with time, and thus evolve to higher and higher levels of sophistication. The idea for this was best presented by Charles Darwin in the mid 1800s. It was not a scientific theory, per se; it was just a hunch that Darwin had as he recorded his observations of the world around him. Heres how it would work: an organism which is successful at surviving passes this success to his offspring, so offspring do not have to repeat the mistakes of the parents but can begin where their parents left off. We can see this phenomenon to a great extent in

human culture, but Darwin thought that such information could be passed from one generation to the next through the genes, so that the organisms actually improve biologically over time. Darwin felt that the ultimate test of his theory would be to put significant effort into digging up fossils of ancient organisms. If his theory is right, there should be multiple thousands of simpler, less sophisticated organisms found, the precursors of what we see living in the world today. Some time after Darwins treatise, the nature of genetic material was made known, and it was found that the genetic makeup of a single organism does not changegenes cannot record an organisms experiences, to be passed to its offspring. Additionally, many digging expeditions have been performed, and the fossils needed to support Darwins theory have not been found. What were found were mostly the same life forms we see living today. Nevertheless, there are many people in the world who want to dull their consciences, and they need for personal reasons to believe that there is no God. These people cling to Darwins theory, because they see it as the only theory that will allow them to believe they do not have to answer to a higher authority. Having said all that, I do not want you to discard Darwins ideas totally. Darwins idea of natural selection has been shown to be very useful in understanding the world we live in. Natural selection just means that if you look at all the genetic information in a species, then look at the genetic information in that same species many generations later, some of the genetic information will be missing in the later generation. In other words, there is a loss of genes in the species gene pool over time. The genes that survive tend to be ones that are best at surviving in the recent past, but if the environment changes back to the way it was previously (which it almost surely will), suddenly some of the genes needed for survival are no longer there. Natural selection is a tragedy. It is the reason there are so many species going extinct. It is not because of pollution. It is because this is what natural selection does. Over time, more and more species go extinct, and the beauty that once was is no more. We no longer have dinosaurs, or the Kiwi bird, or the Wooly Mammoth.

So the picture is indeed grim. Not only are things wearing out and dying, but the diversity of life is decreasing over time. Some new diversity is generated through mutations (such as Downs Syndrome, Sickle Cell Anemia, or Cystic Fibrosis in humans), but thats no substitute for the diversity lost through natural selection. Diversification through mutation is like diversifying a car by taking a sledge hammer to it. This discussion of Darwin is much more than I want to say to you, but I feel it is necessary simply because there is a lot of false information surrounding his theories, and I want to give you some information to help you sort it out in your own mind. I myself, as a graduate student and researcher, was misled for many years on this very topic. I listened to what nice people said to me regarding evolution and the origin of life, rather than thinking it through for myself. Love Always, Jim

Letter 6: Suffering Dear Scott and Amy, This letter will explore what our senses can tell us about suffering. Helmut Thielicke, a famous German theologian, at the end of an extensive tour of the United States, was asked what he felt the greatest defect was among American Christians. He replied, They have an inadequate view of suffering. Americans, as a rule, make it a point to think about suffering as little as possible. And they have tools to help them ignore it: entertainment, medications, and a general attitude of avoiding exposure to suffering people. Thats why I want to devote a letter to suffering. To embrace truth, we must embrace not only the beautiful parts of life, but the painful parts as well. We will be much better equipped to live life to the fullest if we face the truth. The world is filled with suffering, and not just a little suffering. Humans and animals suffer through sickness because they are wearing out (see my last letter). From the day we are born we wear out slowly over time, and eventually the degradation of our bodies produces sickness of various types. Physical injury produces suffering as well. We can be burned by fire or harsh chemicals, poisoned, stabbed, beaten, scraped, shocked, or chilled. Additionally, we can suffer through being deprived of something we need to survive: air, food, water, light, or space. These things can happen by accident or, horror of horrors, they can be done intentionally by other people (usually to try to make us do something against our will).

As unbelievably painful as these physical sufferings are, especially if they are experienced over prolonged periods, there are even worse things which people suffer from. Fear is at the top of the list. If we are afraid, we lose control of ourselves and allow our environment to control us. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address (in the midst of the Great Depression) said these words: So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. Another emotion that causes tremendous pain is bitterness towards someone, the refusal to forgive. Bitterness will eat a person alive from the inside out. There is so much suffering in the worldseemingly without limitespecially now that communist and other regimes have made torture into a science. They take notes and measure their victims responses, and find new ways to make them suffer more. They have medical doctors standing by to make sure their victims do not die, because death would relieve them of their pain. The world is a very sick and painful place. We need to understand thatand embrace it. Love Always, Jim

Letter 7: Loss Dear Scott and Amy, The last letter spoke of suffering: bad things happening to your body and some inappropriate reactions to suffering (bitterness and fear) which lead to even greater suffering. This letter is about loss, the unpleasant experience of losing something dear to you. If you have ever experienced a major loss, you will probably agree with me that it is not so much the thing itself that you miss so much as the piece of you that went with it. The pain of loss is not a constant thingit comes in waves, and the waves hit you without warning.

Once you lose something of extreme importance to you, you never get over it. The feelings of loss will always remain, but the fierceness of the waves subside somewhat with time, and the waves do not roll in quite so often. Loneliness is a type of loss. A lonely person tends to remain lonely, but if ones need for companionship is satisfied, the lonely feelings subside somewhat with time. Loneliness often starts in childhood when the relationships the child craves are not there, or are inadequate. What do you do for a friend who has experienced the death of a loved one or some other great loss? Here are three things you can do: 1) Treat your friend like you normally would. Dont try to handle him with care. 2) Dont bring up the subject of his loss. 3) Be with him even more than usual so that he has the opportunity to share his feelings with you if he so desires.

The best way to understand loss, unfortunately, is to experience it, but the following poem paints a good picture of what its like.

SIERRA GRANDE The very first time I heard the news A chill went up my spine. But after that it was surreal And I was feeling fine. It seemed to me unneeded All the fuss and care. Why were onlookers in tears While all I did was stare? Soon people carried on With all their normal plans. Did they forget about the drama, The otherworldliness at hand? I start to feel anger. I guess their tears that flowed Dried up before the stage was cleared Before the curtain closed. People start to say things. Hes taking it real hard. Why do they look at me? Werent they sad right from the start?

I look inside my heart To search again my soul. I find no heart at all this time, Just one consuming hole. The current was going in, not out. Was pulling me inside. The first wave hit me from behind Torrential tears I cried. I saw the beauty, memories, The things I took for granted. All gone before the smoke could clear God how much I miss it. Finally I stepped back some To view the hole again. I saw it was much smaller now But tied to all I am. If I can just untie those cords, Re-wire around the hole. To find a work-around somehow Restore again my soul. Im used to leaning hard on God With everything I am. But grief is not to be dismissed, Not something you can calm. God knows I need this time; My reason I abandon. I just want to be alone, To drown in tears Im making.

The answers simple yet not so, To watch and not do something. But all my grief needs to heal Is absolutely nothing. I lean on God for all I need He keeps my vision firm. But tears I cry afresh each day For those who do not know Him. I cannot escape my grief, My loss, my tears, my pain. But with God I have purpose, The flowers from the rain. --Anonymous Love Always, Jim

Letter 8: Blaming God Dear Scott and Amy, This letter is on the topic of getting mad at God when things go wrong, especially after experiencing major suffering or loss. Covering this subject now seems out of sequence because we have not yet established that believing in God is reasonable (but stay tuned); nevertheless, blaming God is a very common reaction for people, even those who say they dont believe in Him.

In almost every case, the God people are blaming is the God of the Bible. The key is this: Being angry at God comes from the belief that having faith in God and doing what is right should make ones life on earth better, not worse. Lets fasten our seatbelts, open our Bibles, and see if this belief is biblical. Start by reading II Corinthians 11:23-33. This passage is a summary of the unbelievable sufferings experienced by Paul, a man who followed after God! Soon after Paul became a Christian, he was almost captured by his enemies and narrowly escaped by being lowered in a basket from a window in the wall of the city. I am sure at that point Paul began to realize how hazardous life can be as a Christian. In fact, God even says concerning Paul, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. (Acts 9:16.) Is it just Paul who must suffer for Jesus sake? Take a look at what Paul says in II Timothy 3:12 : Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The godly should not be surprised when they experience hardship, whether it be suffering or loss in general, or suffering and loss through persecution. To sum up, being mad at the God of the Bible is not reasonable. To be mad at Him, you must believe in Him. And if you believe in Him, then you should expect to experience

suffering based on what the Bible says. We should by all means get rid of the belief that being righteous makes our life on earth more comfortable. If anything, it will make it less so. So, go ahead: be mad at GodHes big enough to take it. Almost everyone does it at one time or another. But you must eventually realize that you are wrong in doing so, and refrain from letting your anger turn into bitterness. Love Always, Jim

Letter 9: Intent or Accident? Dear Scott and Amy, Pretend for a moment that you are a detective who has been called to the scene where someone has died. The question on everyones mind: Was the death from natural causes or was there foul play? It is up to you to determine whether or not the person was harmed intentionally.

What do you look for? Fortunately, you have been highly trained to detect things which are caused versus things that just happen by accident. A whole body of knowledge has developed along these lines. Briefly, from your training you know that things which are caused have these qualities: 1) they are highly improbable (to have happened by chance); and 2) they exhibit a pattern or purpose which cant be explained by the surroundings. If I find burn marks around the corpses neck, is that highly improbable to have occurred by chance? Could it be explained by something in the surrounding area? Now, extend the same logic to the world around you. You go to the beach and find ripples (long hills and valleys) in the sand. Was it caused by some person who likes making ripples in the sand? No. Although ripples like that are highly improbable to have occurred by chance, they are readily explained by the action of the ocean waves as they repeatedly wash over the sand and then retreat. Suppose, however, that you go to the beach and find a picture of Hillary Clintons face in the sand. It is highly improbable that this just happened by chance. Also, there is nothing in the environment that can explain it. So we assume someone must have drawn it.

What about your body? You are able to survive day after day, long enough to grow up and mature. Is this by chance? To survive, you must be able to find food and water, and get sleep. Internally, your heart must keep beating, your worn-out cells must be replaced, and foreign organisms must be destroyed. Where did all this come from? Could it have happened by chance? No, it is too purposeful. Is this purpose related to purpose we find in our surroundings? Yes, in a way. Our ability to do these things is determined by our genes, and thus our parents genes, and the genes of their parents, and so on. So where did the complexity found in the genetic code come from? It is way too complex to have occurred by chance, and there is nothing in the environment that could explain it. The reasonable conclusion is that our genes (and therefore we) were designed. Am I saying I know this without a doubt? No. But it would be ridiculous to assume otherwise. Given the evidence we have, the only reasonable thing to do is to believe in a creator. Love Always, Jim

Letter 10: Art Reflects the Artist Dear Scott and Amy, I love listening to soothing music, such as that of Beethoven or Handel. My soul feels at rest. Can I infer from this that Beethoven and Handel must have felt these feelings, too? I stare at a painting in an art gallery and feel angry and chaotic inside. Did the artist feel these things? I read a love poem, and am deeply moved. Does this mean the author knew love in this way? Of course, the answer to these questions is yes. One cannot create something unless it is in some way a part of him. A single painting does not tell us everything there is to know about the artist, but it should tell us something. In my last letter I concluded that we are created. What are we like? As weve seen, we can experience joy unspeakable, and yet also experience unbearable pain and suffering. We can experience loss that brings us to our knees. We can think logically about the world around us. We can love each other, and communicate complex ideas. We have personality. We have definite ideas about what is right and wrongwe are moral beings. Based on these qualities, what is our creator like? Our creator is not a thing, but a person. And by person, I dont mean a human. Our creator has the ability to experience incredible joy, but also the deepest pain. He communicates to others like Himself, and can think logically like we can. He loves. He is moral. You may ask, There is a huge amount of evil in the world He created. Does that mean He is evil? To answer that (very good) question, we need to go back to my letter to you on the topic of decay. Our senses tell us that the world is running down, becoming more worn out and disorganized. It is quite possible that evil itself could be a part of this disorganization, rather than part of the original creation. Lets look at an illustration of this. Suppose I have never seen a guitar before. I am strolling through a dump and find a broken one with no strings. I can tell that it must have been created, but I cant really tell whether it was created broken like that, or whether it was in one piece originally.

Now, suppose instead that I have seen plenty of guitars before. Upon seeing the broken guitar, I immediately know that this was not the state in which it was createdsimply because I am acquainted with guitars in their unbroken state. In the same way, since we do not at this point have any idea of what state our Creator created us in, we need to be careful about attributing states of chaos (like evil) to Him. The chaos of evil we now experience may not have been a part of the original creation. However, complex and wonderful qualities such as personality, love, and communication had to have been part of the original creation (either that, or something even more complex and wonderful than what we see today), because they are not effects of chaos and decay. Here then, is what we know about our Creator. Our Creator is a person with personality. He thinks and feels like we do. He is not alone, but communicates with others like Himself. He knows right from wrong. And He loves. These are things that we can logically accept as reliable truth. We can put our weight on these beliefs, and trust them to hold us. They are pegs which we will use to climb to even higher heights in our understanding of the world we live in. Love Always, Jim

Letter 11: Communication With Our Creator Dear Scott and Amy, We have established so far that we were created, and that our Creator has personality and communicates. This letter explores the possibility that our Creator may want to communicate with us, and discusses what form that communication might take.

Since we are created, we can ask, What is our purpose? The Creator must have had a purpose in mind, something that were supposed to be doing. He could have made that purpose so obvious to us that we dont have to ask the question. If that were true, there would not be any need for Him to communicate with us about what our purpose is. What do you think? Is it obvious to you what your purpose is? As for me, I dont have a clue, unless my Creator reveals my purpose to me. Apparently we are not designed to know up front what our purpose is. If we dont know what it is, then how can we follow it? We have to communicate with our Creator in some way to get this information. It appears then that our Creator wants to communicate with us. How does that work? Should I start talking first, or is He going to begin the conversation? I dont have a clue how to communicate with Him, so the only way it will work is if He goes first. The amazing conclusion: Our Creator is trying to contact us! He wants to give us needed information about our purpose in life.

Since He is trying to contact us, He must have been successful to some extent and contacted someone somewhere with the needed message. But who? And when? Someone somewhere has likely heard this message from the Creator, and it is extremely likely that the message was written down in a sacred text for others to read. And it is also likely that this text is available for many to read for themselves; otherwise, our Creator will not have succeeded in conveying His message to us. My next letter to you will explore the texts available to us that are considered sacred by various religions, to see if we can identify the real one from the many imitations that abound. Love Always, Jim

Letter 12: Sacred Texts Dear Scott and Amy, As explained in my last letter, our Creator has most likely communicated to us what our purpose is by speaking to a person in the past who has written it down in a sacred text. My goal in this letter is to wade through the many texts that claim to be sacred and find the one that really is from our Creator.

To weed out the false texts, we need some criteria to use as a test. Here are my criteria: 1) The text must be fairly common and available for people to read; otherwise the Creator has largely failed to communicate to mankind as a whole. 2) The text as a whole must not be mystical and difficult to interpret. Such mystical, non-logical writing is meant to convince, but not to communicate. 3) The text must convey our purpose, not just give a list of rules to live by. It must show the big picture of what our purpose, our goals in life, should be. 4) Any text that is built on top of (or depends in some way) on another text will be put aside for now in favor of the text it depends on. It could be that such a dependent text is from our Creator, but for now I want to zero in on the most critical text (one independent of other texts). Using the first criterion (it must be fairly common), one text

jumps out immediately. The largest religion in the world is Christianity, which uses both the Jewish Scripture (Old Testament) and the New Testament as texts. The New Testament is based on the Old Testament. The Old Testament, in turn, is composed of 39 books having various authors, and all of them rest on the first five books (the Torah) of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These 5 books have the same author and can be considered a single text. So, based on prevalence, we would choose the Torah. Interestingly, the second largest religion in the world is Islam, which also ultimately rests on the Torah. Many other religions in addition to (or imitations of or extensions of) Christianity and Islam are based on the Torah: Judaism, Latter Day Saints, Gnosticism, Catholicism, Protestantism (including Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Anabaptists, Church of Christ, etc.), Cerdonianism, Marcionism, Jehovahs Witnesses, Satanism, Rastafari Movement, Meher Baba, Yazidi, Manichaeism, Mandaeism, Swedenborgianism, Unification Church, Samaritanism, and others. So, based on sheer prevalence, the Torah would win hands down. Lets explore the second criterion. The following are texts that can be eliminated based purely on the fact that they are cryptic and confusing (obviously not meant to clearly communicate our purpose in life): the Principia Discordia of Discordianism, the Hermetica and Emerald Tablet of Hermeticism, the Havamal of Asatru, the Akilam of Ayyavazhi, the many texts of Jainism, the Orphic Poems of Orphism, the Tao Te Ching of Taoism, the Gathas of Zoroastrianism, and the Kangyar and Tengyur of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. On to the third criterion. The following texts (which have not already been eliminated) can be eliminated based on the fact that they are lists of rules, but do not tell us why were here, or what our purpose in life is: the Kitab-i-Aqdas of Bahai, the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, the Tripitaka of Mahayana Buddhism, the Holy Books of Thelema (of Thelema), the Guru Granth Sahib of Sikhism, the Genesis According to Spiritism (of Spiritism), the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism, the Epistles of Wisdom of

Druze, and the Sanskrit of Hinduism. What does that leave us with? Not much, believe it or not. The only texts left are the Torah, and things like the Quran of Islam, New Age books, and books which are extensions of Christianity such as the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants of the Latter Day Saints. All of these depend on the Torah, except perhaps the New Age books. The New Age books may or may not depend on the Torahthey piggyback off other religions, including those using the Torah; in other words, they have no independent sacred texts of their own. This exercise shows us that we can look to the Torah with confidence as the core of communication to us from our Creator. Love Always, Jim

Letter 13: Message of the Torah Dear Scott and Amy, We have discovered to our delight that our Creator has a message for us, and that we can read that message in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. The message is easy to understand; in fact, it reads like a novel.

What does the Torah tell us about our purpose in life? The Torah was written in Hebrew, and there we find that our Creator is referred to as God, which in Hebrew is plural (Genesis 1:1). Then, in Genesis 1:26 we read, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. What does us and our mean? Could God be talking about angels who are helping Him create? That might make sense if God needed them to bring him materials or tools to use. But Genesis makes clear that God created the world out of nothing. The angels cant help with that. The only conclusion that makes sense is that God is more than one person. We have been created by a group of Creators. If we look further ahead in the Torah, we read in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. This is interesting. It tells us that God is not many, but one. To understand this better, look at Genesis 2:24. It says, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. What does this mean? When you get married, do you cling to your spouse and your bodies stick together permanently, becoming a person with 4 arms and 4 legs? Of course not. It means that

the husband and wife love each other so much, and take care of each others needs so much, that they are of one mind and soul. They function as a single unit. That is in fact what God does. Though He consists of multiple persons, He is One. The last part of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (above) tells us our purpose: to love God totally with no reservationsto love Him more than anything else. Sounds simple, doesnt it? Its not. There are so many things in life that compete for our affections, and they are things we can see. God is invisible, yet He is to be first in our lives. To help us understand our purpose, God gave us 10 rules to live by, referred to as the Ten Commandments (found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). The first five of the Commandments speak of loving God with all our strength. Commandment #5 is interesting because it is the commandment to honor your parents. What does that have to do with loving God? It is very important to God that we honor and obey those He has placed over us (as long as they are not going against Gods will). By honoring and obeying them, we are honoring and obeying God. The last five of the Commandments talk about loving other people (dont kill, commit adultery, steal, witness falsely against someone, or covet). God wants us to love other people simply because He created them. We are not to pre-judge them as not worth our love based on some ideal we have. We are to admire and respect the homeless man or prisoner as much as a movie star or the President of our country. We are to treat them as if they were us. The rest of the Old Testament basically repeats the message of the Torah, and chronicles the history of the Jewish people. It is the extension of the Torah, giving history and the words of their prophets. It is worth our while to examine the rest of the Old Testament, and to treat it as a reliable document, supplementing the Torah. One way to increase our confidence in the reliability of the Old Testament is to check its prophecies and see if they really predicted future events. We will be looking at a few of these prophecies in my next letter. Love Always, Jim

Letter 14: Prophecies Dear Scott and Amy, We have seen so far that the Torah is where we must turn for reasonable truth revealed directly from our Creator. Furthermore, we have noted that the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament) is a continuation of the message of the Torah, with an account of the history of the Jews as well as prophecies of things to come. In this letter I wish to look at a few of these prophecies (which have come true in glorious detail), both as confirmation of the truth of the Old Testament as well as the key for understanding more of what God, our Creator, wants to say to us. The first prophecy is found in Daniel 9:24-26. God had already told the prophet Jeremiah that the city of Jerusalem would be torn down and would lie in ruins for 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10). Daniel knew this prophecy (Daniel 9:2), and was agonizing over it in prayer when the angel Gabriel came to Daniel and told him the following: Seventy "sevens" are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One [Messiah], the ruler, comes, there will be seven "sevens," and sixty-two "sevens"...After the sixty-two "sevens," the Anointed One will be cut off.... (Daniel 9:24-26.) Daniel, because he had been meditating on the 70 years of Jerusalem's desolation, was already thinking in terms of years. Gabriel does not explicitly say that he is speaking of years, but it is implied by the context of what Daniel is thinking about. Gabriel told Daniel that it would be seven "sevens" plus sixty-two "sevens" (years) after the decree to rebuild before

the Messiah would come and be cut off (die). If we do the arithmetic, Gabriel is talking about a span of (7x7) + (62x7) = 483 years. We must be careful, though, because the calendar we use today is different than the one Daniel used. Specifically, our calendar has 5 additional days per year. So to convert to our calendar, we must subtract 5 days for every year, subtracting 5x483 days = 2415 days, which is 6+ years; so we must subtract 6 years from the 483 years given by Gabriel, and this gives 477 years. Artaxerxes, the ruler of Persia, ordered Nehemiah to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 2) in 444 BC. If we add our 477 years to 444 BC, we get 33 AD. So Gabriel is saying that the Anointed One, the great ruler (the Messiah), will die around 33 AD. What really happened in 33 AD? This was the year, according to history, that Jesus died on the cross. Who was Jesus? He was a man who claimed to be the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament (see John 4:25-26). This prophecy given by the angel Gabriel gives us reason to take Jesus seriously as being the Anointed One predicted in the Scriptures.

There are several historical accounts of what happened to Jesus when He died. It is totally amazing that many of the details of His death are prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures. In particular, Psalms 22 and Isaiah 52:13-53:12 predict many things about Jesus that happened exactly as prophesied. Here are some of them: 1) Mocked, insulted, people shake their heads at Him. Prophesied in Psalms 22:7. Account of it happening:

Matthew 27:39. 2) Onlookers say, He trusts in God. Let God rescue him. Prophesied in Psalms 22:8. Account of it happening: Matthew 27:43. 3) His bones are pulled out of joint. Prophesied in Psalms 22:14. This is a known consequence of being hung on a cross. 4) His hands and feet are pierced. Prophesied in Psalms 22:16. Crucifixion involves nailing the hands and feet to the cross. 5) Dice are thrown to see who gets His clothing. Prophesied in Psalms 22:18. Account of it happening: Matthew 27:35. 6) He is beaten so badly that he no longer looks human. Prophesied in Isaiah 52:14. Account of it happening: Historical accounts of Roman floggings, as well as Mark 15:15,19. 7) He is punished because of our trangressions/sins. Prophesied in Isaiah 53:4-6,12. This is a major belief among Christians, based on Jesus death on the cross. 8) He keeps silent. Prophesied in Isaiah 53:7. Account of it happening: Mark 14:61. 9) He is placed in an elaborate grave, as one who is rich. Prophesied in Isaiah 53:9. Account of it happening: Matthew 27:57-60. 10) He comes back to life. Prophesied in Isaiah 53:11. Account of it happening: Matthew 28. The only doubt one could have is to wonder whether the prophecies were written after Jesus was crucified (by altering what was actually written in Psalms 22 and Isaiah 52-53). However, the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered by an Arab shepherd in 1947, were manuscripts that we can confirm existed before Jesus lived. In these manuscripts we find multiple copies of Psalms and Isaiah as we know them today. In fact, a complete 24-foot-long scroll of Isaiah was found. This confirms that there is no way that the prophesies could have been written after the crucifixion of Jesus.

Our conclusion is this: Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Jewish Scriptures. In addition, He suffered and died for our transgressions, and then rose from the dead. My next letter will explore the reliability of the New Testament, which directly deals with Jesus life and teachings. Love Always, Jim

Letter 15: New Testament Dear Scott and Amy, My last letter established that Jesus is truly from God, that He suffered and died for our sins, and that He rose from the dead. This letter will explore the New Testament, which deals specifically with Jesus life and teachings. Specifically, I want to explore whether the New Testament can be trusted as a source of true, reliable knowledge.

We know from history that Jesus had disciples (called apostles) who followed Him during His lifetime. We also know that after Jesus died and rose to life, that these apostles suffered greatly; in fact, historical accounts tell us that 10 of the 12 disciples were tortured and killed because they believed in Jesus message and would not stop telling people about it. Jesus obviously had a huge impact on their lives, and they were willing to give all they had to tell others about Him. They showed by their sacrifice that they really believed what they were saying. Thus, we can trust that the apostles speak the truth when they write about what Jesus said and did. Two of the apostlesMatthew and Johnwrote accounts of Jesus life which we have today. These accounts are part of the New Testament and are named, appropriately, Matthew and John. According to these two accounts, what did Jesus say? In Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus says that the Law (meaning the Torah) and the Prophets (meaning the prophecies of the Old Testament) hold true, and that He will in no way override them. In John 10:35 Jesus says that the Scripture cannot be broken. In these passages we find that Jesus says that the Old

Testament is reliable truth and should be taken seriously. This is a confirmation to us that our trust in the Old Testament is justified. Peter, an apostle of Jesus, wrote two letters (I Peter, II Peter) which are found in the New Testament. Because Peter is an apostle and ultimately gave His life (he was crucified) for Jesus sake, we can trust what he writes. Peter says in II Peter 3:15-16 that the writings of Paul are Scripture. What Peter is saying here is that we should trust Pauls writings in the same way we trust the Old Testament. Peter also says in II Peter 3:2, I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. Here Peter is saying that God speaks to us through Jesus apostles. This means that the writings of the apostles are on par with the Old Testament and with the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Paul. If we consider that the writings of Paul (who is considered an apostle even though he was not one of the original twelve) and the other apostles are reliable, what does that mean? It means that the writings of Matthew, John, Peter, and Paul found in the New Testament are reliable truth. The remaining books of the New Testament were authored by 5 people: Mark, Luke, James, Jude, and the author of Hebrews (probably Apollos). All five of these people are known to have been ardent followers of Jesus. Mark was Peters assistant and his book (called Mark) is the record of what Peter remembers about Jesus life. Luke was a doctor and historian (thus very good with details) and worked closely with Paul. James and Jude apparently grew up with Jesus: they were Jesus brothers. They did not believe in what Jesus was saying until Jesus appeared to them after He died and rose again (yeah, I guess that would make me a believer too). Apollos was a trusted colleague of Paul, known as a scholar of the Jewish Scriptures, and passionate in his dedication to Jesus. Thus, we can say with confidence that the New Testament is a reliable source of knowledge. Love Always, Jim

Letter 16: The Law of God Dear Scott and Amy, We have taken pains to reason out why the Bible is a reliable source of knowledge, and for good reason. In this letter I want to begin exploring what the Bible tells us. In particular, I want to explore the Law of God. In my former letter on what the Torah tells us, I said that God has revealed what our purpose in life is: It is to love God with all that we are, to love Him more than anything else. I also said that this purpose is expressed in more detail in the Ten Commandments; the first five of them speak of loving God, and the last five deal with loving other people. In Genesis, we learn that in the very beginning, after God had created the earth and all that is in it, all of creation was totally goodno pain, suffering, murder, envy, nor anything else that is bad. God had created the first humans, Adam and Eve, and they too were perfect. They loved God with all of their hearts, and spent time communicating with God. Then one day they decided they wanted to be like God; they decided they were no longer happy with their God-given purpose. They wanted something more. It was at this very point in history that suffering entered the world. It entered because Adam and Eve decided to go against Gods plan. As a result, God had to refashion the world to match Adam and Eve, and now we live in an imperfect, evil-filled world. Genesis tells us, in fact, that the world became so filled with evil that God decided to wipe it out, leaving only Noah and his family alive. And God did just that, in a worldwide flood. Noah was a man who loved God with all of his heart, and God saved him and his family from the flood. God continued along the same lines, destroying most people and saving a few. God chose to save a man named Abraham, with all of his descendents. These people became known as the Israelites, and God continued destroying many nations, and giving their land to the Israelites. Thus, the Israelites quickly grew into a large and prosperous nation. In the process, God wrote down the Ten Commandments for the Israelites to live by, to make it easier for them to love God and

do what was right. The Israelites did pretty well with keeping the Ten Commandments when things were going badly for them, but as soon as God showered them with good things, they started to get comfortable and forget to put God first and to love Him with all of their heart. When this happened, God punished them severely (usually by killing many of them), which usually brought them back into obedience again. Jesus teachings made it much more difficult to keep the Law of God. For instance, in Jesus Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus said that the sixth commandment Do not murder actually means Do not wish bad things on someone. If you harm someone in your mind, it is the same as murder in Gods book. Also, the seventh commandment Do not commit adultery actually means Do not lust after someone. What Jesus was saying is this: It is your thoughts that are the problem. If your thoughts are pure and you love God with all your heart in your thought life, then you are obeying Gods Law. If not, you are subject to Gods wrath. Remember, God wiped out every single person in the world except Noah and Noahs family. If in your thoughts you are thinking of anything other than putting God first in everything, you are guilty before God. Why is God so particular, that he even monitors our thought life? The answer is simple: All the suffering and loss that we experience in our lives are a direct result of inappropriate thoughts that went through peoples heads at various points in history. Mark 7:20 says, It is the thought life that pollutes. Inappropriate actions, as described in the Ten Commandments, are simply manifestations of our thought life. The thought life, in its perversion, eventually leads to perverted actions, and these actions bring suffering and loss. Think of it this way: There are thousands of criminals who rape, torture, murder, and destroy lives and families each year and never get caught. If God is fair (which the Bible tells us He is), will He let them go without punishment when they die? Of course not. God will punish them for what they have done. The Bible tells us that God has reserved a terrible place called hell for punishing the devil and his demons, and that criminals will have a spot there, too.

Given that criminals will be punished in hell, consider Galatians 5:19-21: But when you follow your own wrong inclinations your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, spiritism (that is, encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group and there will be wrong doctrine, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing. Let me tell you again as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. Have you been guilty of any of this? If so, God is angry with you, and will punish you for what you have done. There is in fact nothing you can do to make up for it. Dont you think Adam and Eve would have given anything to erase the sin that caused the world to become corrupted? God respects us enough to take our thoughts and actions totally seriously. We cant just say, Oh, I was just joking. I didnt really mean it. God holds you responsible for everything you say and think.

That is the beautiful thing about how God created us. He has a huge opinion of uswhat we say and do. His opinion of us is much higher than our opinion of ourselves. But as a result, we are bound for hell, because He will judge us fairly according to everything we have thought about. Love Always, Jim

Letter 17: Fearing God Dear Scott and Amy, My last letter to you was not easy to write. It is the most terrible news anyone can be told, that God will one day hold us accountable for everything we have done. Fairness seems like a good thing until we realize that every time we have not put God first, it has damaging consequences for ourselves and others, and God in His fairness must hold us accountable for that. In this letter I want to explore the natural consequence of this understanding, and that is to fear God. God is in no way bad. In fact, He is all good, and that is where the fear comes in. Because He is good He must punish us for the evil we have done. If you are not petrified when you think of this, you have not thought deeply enough about your situation. The fear of God permeates the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. He is to be feared, because of the punishment we face. As an example, consider Isaiah when He encountered God personally: Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5.) Why is Isaiah upset? It is because he realizes he will be accountable for every stray word and every unholy thought that comes from his lips and mind. Isaiah is terrified.

Lets look at another example, this time in the New Testament. God was angry at a couple who were respected in

the early church. God was so angry that he killed them both instantly. For what? For lying about how much money they gave. What was the result? Acts 5:11 says, And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. Why were they afraid? Clearly it was because they reasoned that if this couple were punished so severely, how could they themselves possibly escape the wrath of God? Now consider James 4:9-10: Be sorrowful, cry, and weep. Change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Here we see that when we are afraid of God (afraid of our sin against Him), this is the beginning of a beautiful thing. And this is something that is almost impossible to understand: God is rich in mercy. It says throughout the Bible that if we will cry out to Him and humble ourselves, prostrate ourselves before God because of our sin, and make the decision to put God first, He will have mercy on us and will forget our sins. What? How can that be? How can God be fair and yet choose to overlook sin? This is a great mystery. The great truth, which seems like a contradiction at this point, is that God holds us accountable for everything we have done, yet at the same time He forgets our sin completely (therefore not holding us accountable for it) when we fear Him and as a result we humble ourselves before Him. This seems totally contradictory, but the resolution of this contradiction is the most incredible good news you will ever hear. Stay tuned! Love Always, Jim

Letter 18: Price to be Paid Dear Scott and Amy, As weve seen, we were created to love God with all that we are, and to love Him more than anything else, in every thought we think and every word we speak. That is the way we were created to be. We fall woefully short of that, and when we do, it leads naturally to much suffering and pain, both for ourselves and others. Furthermore, since God is fair, He has no choice but to punish our sin. Yet, God has incredible mercy towards those who fear Him and who turn from their sins, those who truly try to honor God in everything they do in spite of themselves. How does that work?

Suppose you are guilty of murder, and are standing before a human judge. You plead for mercy, but the fact is - you murdered someone, and you must pay the price. As the judge is about to pronounce your sentence, you see out of the corner of your eye the wife of the man you murdered. She approaches the judge and the judge pauses as she whispers something in his ear. The judge looks at you and says, You are free. Your penalty has been paid. You are so full of joy that you literally bolt out of the court and call all of your friends to tell them the good news. Late that night, a thought

occurs to you. You must thank this woman, the wife of the man murdered. You ruffle through some papers and find her address. Early the next morning you knock on her door. A neighbor sees you and shouts, You wont find her there. She was taken to prison early this morning. I dont understand why, but she chose to go to prison for the rest of her life, so that her husbands murderer wouldnt have to. Your knees give way. Why? How? What can I ever do to repay her? When you humble yourself, when you throw yourself at Gods mercy, He forgets your sin and pronounces you free. How is He able to do this? It is because someone has taken your penalty for you. This is clear in the Torah, starting with Adams sons. The price must be paid, and it must be paid by killing the innocent, by the shedding of blood. All through Israels history, this was accomplished through the butchering of animals. But all this blood and gore was nothing compared to what God did when He sent His Son Jesus (Jesus is also our Creator and is God, see John 1:1-5) to earth. God is like the wife of the murdered man. He chose to suffer in your place. Can you imagine sending your own son to die for murderers? For those who cause unbelievable pain to others? Thats exactly what God did, and Jesus bore the pain and agony, the price of your sin. If you choose to humble yourself, and truly desire to put God first, you are free. Your penalty has been paid. It is a free gift, but it is far from cheap: Jesus went through horrific pain, shame, and agony on your behalf. Love Always, Jim

Letter 19: The Church Dear Scott and Amy, In my last letter I explained that God (the Father) sent God (the Son) to die for our sins. Why did He do that? The ultimate answer is that the Father wishes to glorify the Son, the One who was willing to give His life for those He loves, even for those who have not yet desired to serve God. But Jesus, the Son, didnt only come to die for our sins, be raised from the dead, and then celebrate. No, He is still in the battle, but operating through us who have benefitted from His sacrifice. We, the ones who humble ourselves before God, are part of what the Bible calls Jesus Body, the Church. Our mission as His Body is to do what Jesus did while on earth: 1) Tell people (who are not a part of the Church) about Gods Law, fearing God, and the sacrifice God made on their behalf. We are to tell people this regardless of the consequences to ourselves, just as Jesus did while on earth. 2) Joyfully suffer the consequences of telling others about God, regardless of how severe those consequences may be (starvation, jail time, torture, or death). As we suffer, we are to pray for those who cause the suffering: pray that God would get through to them so that they can believe in Jesus too. 3) Love each other (others in the Church) in the same way Jesus loves us. How much does Jesus love us? Enough to give up His life. These three things are impossible to do on our own. But when we die to ourselves (humble ourselves before God), Jesus gives us supernatural power to accomplish His purposes. He does this through the Holy Spirit (who is also God), the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. If you are willing to follow Jesus, to be part of His Body, He will give you the strength you need to do these things. I have said that we were created for the purpose of putting God first in everything. That is true, and the way we do that is by doing what Jesus did: tell others regardless of the consequences, love enemies and pray for them, and sacrifice for other followers of Jesus. This then is our ultimate purpose in life, and if we do these things we will be filled with so

much joy we will hardly be able to stand it. There is an account of the Apostle Peter, who after being threatened with persecution in Rome decided to flee the city. As he was traveling away from the city he saw Jesus walking toward him. Not knowing what to say, Peter asked Him where He was going. Jesus said, I am going into the city to be crucified again. Peter immediately understood, reversed his direction, and went back into the city. Peter was crucified that day. Jesus continues to suffer through His Body, the Church. The purpose of this suffering is to glorify Jesus, to bring many to humble themselves before God and accept His free gift, and it is also for your own good. After all, it was what you were created to do, and nothing else will satisfy. Love Always, Jim

Letter 20: Final Comments Dear Scott and Amy, I started this series of letters by telling you why I bother to do this to serve as a guide for you as you determine for yourself what is reliable truth. If you put all your energies into something that isnt real, youre going to get burned. The final conclusion of these letters, of course, is that you will be burned if you do not choose to follow Jesus, using the guidelines I mentioned in my last letter. I showed you that the Bible can be trusted. Read the Bible for yourself, and see if I am telling you the truth. If you truly want to follow God regardless of the consequences, the Holy Spirit will show you truths from the Biblenot all at once, but little by littleas you need them. Read the Bible diligently. Memorize as much of it as you can; God can speak to you through memorized passages in ways not possible by just reading or studying them. Spend as much time as you can listening to God. Try to talk less and listen more. And if you do talk, talk as who you are a sinner terrified by God, and because of that fear you throw yourself at His mercy at the foot of His cross. From this position let His grace and mercy wash over you. Because you are His follower, you have a great reward in heaven. Let that hope of heaven spur you on. Concentrate on His mercy to you, letting it well up inside you until you burst forth in songs of praise to Him (see Psalms 28:6-7). Dont change your position in life. If you want to be an artist, then be an artist. If you want to make money, then do that. But whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. And God will use you in whatever position you find yourself to influence others to be followers of Him, too. It is also worth mentioning that as a believer in Jesus you will find many opportunities to undo the damage of sin. It is important to do these things, both to make the world a better place, but also as a witness to the world of who you area follower of Jesus. Finally, surround yourself with other believers in Jesus, particularly those who are suffering the most, suffering simply because they refuse to be quiet about Jesus. Hebrews 13:3 says, Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them;

and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. To interact with these fellow sufferers of Jesus you will most likely want to order a free magazine which will allow you to learn about these persecuted believers and to minister to them. My favorite magazine of this type is from the Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution.com), but there are other similar and very good agencies such as Open Doors, China Aid, and Gospel for Asia. Learning about these believers, praying for them, and doing what you can to minister to themall these things will strengthen your faith and your resolve to follow Jesus whatever the cost. My Gods grace be with you abundantly. Love Always, Jim