“Why would I want to read anything written by someone who is going on about the Bible? Isn’t it just an old fashioned, religious book that makes people feel worse than they already do? If I want to feel depressed, I can watch the daily news thank you – I don’t need anything else to pull down my spirits. I cannot be doing with a divine being who is going to tell me I’m a horrible person and that I should give up everything that makes me happy.”
When Jesus was here on earth, he instructed his disciples to ‘go into the world and preach the gospel’. To explain this Christian jargon, ‘Gospel’ means good news, not bad. He basically wanted the whole world to know there is something worth living for, because they were worth dying for.
Forget the solemn man standing on the street corner with a sandwich board, if he isn’t going to tell you the whole story.
The good news is that there is a way out of the doom and gloom of your fate. And the best thing of all is that it doesn’t matter how awful you are or what dreadful deeds you have done. If you are truly sorry and want help to make amends, God will never turn you away.
Look below at this passage from the Bible:
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.
This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners.” (1Timothy 1:12-17)
That was a letter written by St. Paul to his young friend, Timothy. In Paul’s early life, he sought out Christians and had them tortured and killed. After his miraculous conversion to Christianity, he went on to write many of the books in the New Testament.
So, there you have it. If Paul can be forgiven, so can you, and therefore, you no longer have to fear what’s in the Bible. It is God’s word to you and it is a love letter, not an instrument to clobber you over the head with.
So, I encourage you to take heart – my chapters have been written to help you see how much you are loved. If you don’t know where to begin, maybe start with, Why You Make God Smile Vol.1) and see that God is really quite lovely and despite how you feel about yourself, he knows everything about you, yet still has an awesome plan for your life.
Many blessings,
