A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS WROTE TO ME; I WROTE BACK TO HER

 

The letter came out of nowhere to our mailbox.  I don't know her and her name is not familiar, yet she wrote a personal letter introducing me to the Jehovah's Witness religion.  Maybe she will write again.

Here is my response: 

Dear...,

It is interesting that you sent this letter, handwritten.  Kind of rare now days.

 Yes, I have several Bibles…as our children grew up, we read the Bible together with them every day.  Now as seniors, my husband and I have continued, but the difference is:  Now we have time to discuss it, think it through and internalize the message of Scripture more thoroughly.  I am certain of eternal life!

 "Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 14:6)

 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 

“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18) 

 "And there is salvation in no other One; for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Often, I find that “doing good works” is what people hope will get them to heaven.  Then, that means, we can say to God, The Judge, on Judgment Day, “Look what I did.” But: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" (Titus 3:5)

"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." (Mark 1:14,15) 

Then signed my name...

This seemed to be an opportunity to "preach the Gospel" ...maybe she will respond. 

AND THEN WE CAME TO LEVITICUS

It is amazing!  Eric and I started at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis again.  Then Exodus, and now Leviticus.  All my life it has come before me again and again.  Growing up, my parents read the Bible with us every day.  Then, when I married Eric forty-seven years ago, we were on our honeymoon traveling by car to Franklin, Tennessee.  We got out of the car by a flowing river, shade trees all around and my new husband opened the Bible and we began reading, there by the side of the road, sitting in all that natural beauty.

 

And so, the habit I had known all my life, we began on the first day of our marriage. I am thankful to him.

 

But Leviticus was for me a Book to get through.  I sort of knew that the symbolism was important, basic, foundational theology, but I took it for granted.

 

When we got to this Book again yesterday, Eric prayed that we would gain new understanding, and that we would grow from reading the Book of Leviticus this time.  It is happening. 

 

It describes the perfect animal sacrifice of a bull for the Priest who sinned without knowing he had, and a bull for the whole congregation when they sinned in ignorance.  This told us that the Priest was responsible to set the tone, the example of right standing with God.  The “people” also shared that accountability. The perfect animal pictured Jesus, "...he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Hebrews 9:26) He did “no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth..." (1 Peter 2:22)

One of my hobbies is nutrition, the subject of nutrition is here too, in Leviticus.  Don’t eat fat, or blood “It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.” (Leviticus 3:17) The New Testament carries a related command; “…abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if you keep yourselves, you shall do well.” (Acts 15:29)

 

There is a downward trend today in our Country.  Confession of our sin is not on our minds.  And a trend toward food that is not nurturing our best health.

 

The Bible, speaking for itself, is the mind of God.  It is given at great expense by “holy men of God” and carefully preserved for you and me.

 

If you keep it on the coffee table…that is good.  But if you choose to read it from Genesis to Revelation, you will grow wise and knowledgeable and you will desire from your inward being to be pleasing to God.