The Letter

The Bible is the Word of the living God, who is the creator of the universe and every living thing you see. There is only one God and He is in charge of everything. The Bible contains the stories of men and women who interacted with God in good and bad ways and how that affected history and our current lives. When it says in the Bible that God did something, it really means God did that. When it says in the Bible that God spoke to a certain person, He really spoke to that person. And all of it is recorded in this Book. It is recorded here so we may know the God who created us and loves us. And that we may know what His purpose is for our lives and our eternity. The most important thing about this Book is that it tells us how we can have salvation for eternity in the Son of God, who is known as Jesus the Messiah, or  Yeshua Hamashiach in Hebrew, Yeshu Masih in Hindi, Iisoús Christós in Greek, Almasih Eisaa in Arabic, Panginoong Hesukristo in Filipino, Jesus Cristo in Portuguese, Jezus Krishti in Albanian and so forth.

This Book is very special. I hope you will read it and it will change your lives. I am making some recommendations below on some verses and stories to start with. I recommend starting this way so it gives you a background to understand what comes later. The Bible is traditionally divided into two parts: Old Testament and New Testament. Old Testament starts at the very beginning. New Testament starts with the birth of Yeshua (I'll use His name how He was first called). When we refer to a certain passage in the Bible, we list the book it is in first and then the chapter and lastly the verse. For example, John 3:16 is the book of John, chapter 3 in John and verse 16. John 3:16 is perhaps the most well-known verse in the Bible by many people throughout the world. 

1) There is one God and He has always existed. He existed before the universe was created. He spoke the universe, to include the Earth, into existence. Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

        :Genesis 1:2-31 to 2:3. Tells how everything you see was created; this is what is known as the Creation story. It takes place over six days. On the seventh day God rested.

                -Genesis 2:7. Tells how man (Adam) was made from the dirt and God breathed life into Adam.

                -Genesis 2:21-23. Tells how woman (Eve) was made from a part of Adam.

2) Man and Woman lived together in a perfect garden created by God for them. He provided food for them out of the ground.  Genesis 2:8-9

3) In that garden God planted a tree that contained the knowledge of good and evil in its fruit. God warned man not to eat fruit from that tree or the man would die. Genesis 2:9 and Genesis 2:16-17

4) The man and woman ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In that moment their rebellion against God, also known as sin, made them impure and introduced sin into the rest of all humans that would come from them, that includes us.

       :Genesis 3:1-24. The story in this chapter is known as the fall of man. Satan, a very real evil being that exists, is introduced here as the serpent. He deceives the man and woman into rebelling against God and eating the fruit. Because of that God must punish the serpent (Satan), man, and woman. The chapter lists their punishments. The most important punishment is that they are cast out of the perfect garden and separated from being in God's presence.

       :Genesis 3:21. Notice that even though God sends them out of the garden and they will suffer hardships, He is still taking care of them. He provides clothing for them from animal skin so that they won't be naked and ashamed. This is very similar to a father who punishes his children for doing wrong but still loves them and provides for them. This is a very important point throughout the Bible. God is faithful, even when we as humans are not. 

5) The next couple of chapters of Genesis give the details of how the human race evolved from the man and the woman. It tells how humans became evil and disobedient to God, except for one man Noah.

       :Genesis 6:5-22. Noah was a descendant of Adam and Eve, about 1000 years later. By this time the people of the earth were very evil and only Noah obeyed God (also referred to as the Lord). Noah was not perfect though. Noah had his wrong doings. However, Noah was not defiant to God and sought to do what was good in the eyes of the Lord.  God decides to destroy all the people and the earth with a flood. But He will save Noah, and Noah's family, who has been faithful to God. God tells Noah very specifically how to build a very large boat (also called the ark) and which animals to take. The details of all of this is very specific and spelled out for us to read. Throughout the Bible God provides details so that we may search and know that His Word is true. God plans on saving some of His creation so enough animals of each kind is brought to reproduce. Only Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark were saved from the flood.

       :Genesis 9:1. Once the flood is over and they are on dry land, God tells Noah and his sons, and their wives, to multiply (have children) and populate the earth.

       :Genesis 9:5-6. God makes a very important statement to Noah. A man who takes another person's life, will have to pay for it with his life. God values human life. To take life is a sin because God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26).

6) In Genesis 11 and 12 we are told of a man named Abraham; he lives about 250 years after the flood. He follows after God. Again, he is not a perfect man but he sought to do what was good in the eyes of the Lord. God promises him that from him will come a great nation. This is very important because from Abraham comes the Hebrew people. This is the nation of Israel. And from this Hebrew people will come the Savior of the world, Yeshua. It is about 2000 years after Abraham that Yeshua is born.

7) The rest of the book of Genesis talks about Abraham's story with God and how his descendants become the Hebrew people. The book of Exodus goes into how God uses another very important man named Moses to deliver the Hebrew people who had become enslaved to Egypt; this is 430 years after Abraham. God delivers them and preserves them, even when they are not faithful to Him. In this book it explains how God gave Moses the law, the holy law, that the people were supposed to follow. It is important to understand that these laws have always existed because God has always existed. This is the law that was broken when Adam and Eve sinned, when the people did evil things before the flood, when the people did evil things again after the flood. So now God has chosen this specific people, the Israelites/Hebrews, to give His written law. They are to show all the world by following the law what God sees as holy and righteous. But they fail and start doing evil things also.

8) The rest of the books of the Old Testament explain how this nation of Israel developed. Sometimes the people and their leaders followed God but many times they did not. It goes over how God would warn them over and over and give them multiple chances to change their ways. When they would not stop their wrong ways, God brought punishment. Sometimes, they would be conquered by other kingdoms. But even when they were disobedient and God had to punish them, He forgave them and gave them another chance. And so, with the protection of God this Hebrew people survived. Even when they were conquered and sent to other foreign lands, God kept them together sometimes in small groups. This is why you can find small groups of Jews that have been in places like India for 2500 years. When all the other nations, cultures around them eventually disappeared they remained. The Hebrew people had to survive because from them would come the Messiah, a.k.a. the King of Kings, a.k.a. the Alpha and the Omega, a.k.a. the Son of God. This was all foretold in the books of the Old Testament. There are hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament. Many have been fulfilled by Jesus and the others are yet to be fulfilled by Him. In the western world we call Him Jesus Christ or Jesus the Messiah. In Hebrew He is Yeshua Hamashiach. Messiah means the anointed one.

       :Matthew 1:21 - "you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins."

9) From the beginning, Genesis 1:1, God and Yeshua have always existed and been together.

       :John 1:1-3. This verse says in the beginning was the Word. The Word is another way to refer to Yeshua. So, Yeshua was in the beginning with God and everything was made through Him. So, God the Father and Yeshua the Son are one together. They are not separate gods.

10) God sends His Son Yeshua into the world as a human. He sends His perfect Son to be born of an imperfect human woman into an evil, corrupted world to save disobedient, corrupted people. Why???? Keep reading.

11) When Yeshua is born, angels from heaven appear to shepherds in a field near a town called Bethlehem in Israel and they proclaim:

                   "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior-yes, the Messiah, the                           Lord-has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!" Luke 2:10

12) These are some basic facts about Yeshua's birth.

       :He is born of a virgin. It is the supernatural power of God that makes Mary (His earthly mother) conceive. So, while Yeshua became man He was not from man. Luke 1:34-35. 

       :He was born in Bethlehem. This was foretold in the Old Testament. This was the city of David. David was a great king of Israel. It was roughly 1000 years from David to Yeshua's birth. It was from the line of David that the Messiah would come. Yeshua is in that line through His earthly (adoptive) father Joseph.

       :The angels proclaim He is the Savior which is good news to all people, not just the Hebrews but all people.

13) We do not know very much about Yeshua's childhood or young adult years. The Bible does not go into much detail about that time. The four books that tell us about the birth, adult life, and teachings of Yeshua are the first four books of the New Testament. He grew up with an earthly father and mother who were ordinary people. They lived in a town called Nazareth. It was said that nothing good came from Nazareth. He grew up to be a carpenter. If He had been born into today's society, He would've been among the working class, blue collars.  His family would've just been making ends meet. Amazing! God sends His Son, Ruler of the universe, to Earth to be a working man! Why??? Keep reading.

14) His ministry (teachings) started around the age of 30. For 3 years He goes around Israel preaching what it truly means to follow God and revealing that He is the Savior that has come to save them and all people from sin. Remember sin is what keeps us from God because no matter how hard we try we cannot keep His perfect holy law. But God has sent His Son, Yeshua, to provide a way to fix this so that we may be reunited with God our Father. During His 3 years, He had a group of 12 men who followed Him and became His students. They are often referred to as the 12 disciples or apostles. There are many stories in the four books of the miracles and teachings Yeshua performed to show the people that He is Messiah, that He and the Father love us, and that there is hope. I'd like to share some of these stories here.

       :John 2:1-11. This is the first miracle Yeshua performed. He was at a wedding with His disciples. The family of the bride ran out of wine. Yeshua's mother was also at the wedding and tells Him the situation. There were 6 water pots made of stone; each could hold 30 gallons of water. Yeshua tells the servers to fill each pot with water. He then tells them to take some out and give it to the guests. He had turned the water into wine! None of the guests saw Him do this. It was the best wine anyone had ever tasted. This story shows how Yeshua cares about people's lives. If the family had not had more wine, it would've been an awful shame upon the married couple and their family. But Yeshua didn't want that to happen. He also gave them the best wine, not just regular wine; this made them more respected by the guests. And He gave them more than they needed. Christ cares about what is happening in our lives. He wants to give us the best and more than what we could ask for.

       :Mark 9:17-27. One day Yeshua was in the middle of a crowd of people teaching. A man came up to Him and begs Him to heal his son. The man's son was controlled by a demon (an evil spirit). The demon would often cause the boy to be thrown on the ground, shaking, grinding his teeth, saliva coming out of the mouth. Sometimes the spirit would cause the boy to go into fire or into deep water, to try and destroy the boy. Yeshua said to the boy's father "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Yeshua commanded the evil spirit to leave the child and it did. The boy after was completely healed. Yeshua is the only one who has the authority from God the Father to cast out all the demonic/evil influences in our lives.

       :Mark 2:1-12. One day Yeshua was visiting at someone's home. It was crowded in the home with people even standing in the doorway listening to Him teach. There were people standing outside the home listening. There was a paralyzed man being carried on a mat by four of his friends. They could not get in the house because it was so crowded. They went to the roof of the home and made a hole big enough to lower the paralyzed man through it into the house. When Yeshua saw the man being lowered into the house through the roof and He saw the faith of the man's friends, He said to the man "Your sins are forgiven you." After He says this, He then heals the man. The man is able to stand and walk. Everyone was amazed. Yeshua is showing that the first and most important thing is forgiveness of sins. Only He can forgive sins because He is the Son of God and God has provided Him as the way to fix our human problem of sin. After, forgiving the man, Yeshua heals him to show the people the power and authority He has to forgive.

       :In these events we learn Yeshua has power over nature turning water into wine. He has the power over the spirit world because He can cast out demons. He has the power over our physical bodies healing people of sickness and raising people from the dead (Luke 7:11-15). This all points to His divine authority as the Son of God. Yeshua said of himself:

          -John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

          -John 14:9-10 "He who has seen Me has seen the Father...Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in me..."

          -John 11:41 "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."

          -John 8:42 "...I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me."

          -Matthew 16:13-17. Yeshua was in a certain city with His disciples and He asks them who do they think He is. One of His disciples, Simon Peter, says "You are the Christ (Messiah, anointed one), the Son of the living God." Yeshua says "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being."

15) So Jesus the Messiah is the Son of God. He is the Savior. But how exactly does He save us? And save us from what?

       :The Bible teaches that there is life after physical death of this body. Just because our bodies die here, we do not die. Once you die in this physical body, there is judgment for how you lived on this earth. Hebrews 9:27 "And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,"

       :Because of sin all of us are impure and guilty of breaking God's holy law. At that judgment all the wrong things we did that went against what God says is right and holy will be held against us. There is never anything we can do that is good enough to take away that guilt, to make us clean, that will get us into heaven with God. Because of our sin, we are all condemned to hell, to eternal separation from God.

          -Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous, no, not one"

          -Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

       :But there is HOPE! It is Yeshua. That is why God sent Him into an evil, corrupted world. He sent Him to fix that problem of sin and eternal separation. But how? There had to be a punishment for all this evil. There had to be judgment on sin and justice delivered. Someone had to accept the responsibility of the judgment and take on the punishment. And it had to be someone who had never sinned or else it wouldn't be of any value. Man was born sinful and was sinful all his life so man could never offer anything pure to pay for his sins.

          -Romans 5:12" When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread             to everyone, for everyone sinned."

       :The punishment for sin had to be put on someone who was perfect in every way but at the same time understood all the problems humans face in their life. Only One fit this description, Yeshua.

          -1 John 3:5 "And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin."

          -Hebrews 4:15 "For this High Priest (Yeshua) of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of               the same testing we do, yet He did not sin."

He took on the punishment for every sin ever committed from the beginning with Adam and Eve. The punishment for that had to be severe. It was. He was tortured and then killed by crucifixion on a tree (cross), a common form of execution for criminals by Rome at the time. He was treated as a criminal though he never committed a crime. The punishment for our sins was put on Him. God put the sins of the world, yours and mine, on His Son so that God would not have to judge us for the sins we have committed. The punishment for sin is death. Yeshua took that punishment and His innocent blood covers you and me.

          -Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ                     Jesus our Lord."

          -2 Corinthians 5:21 "For He (God) made Him (Yeshua) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might                become the righteousness of God in Him (Yeshua)"

So, He saves us from an eternal death, separated from God, in a real place the Bible refers to as hell. There are no words to describe how bad this really is.

         -Matthew 13:49-50 Yeshua said: "So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth,                          separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing              and gnashing of teeth."

         -2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 "taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not                obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from              the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

       :He also saves us from living a life on this earth that is meaningless. He wants our lives while on this earth to have meaning and purpose. We are here to do His work, praise Him, and have joy in our hearts because He has saved us and its free to us!

          -John 10:10 Yeshua said: "I have come so that they may have life and that they may have it more                       abundantly."

16) The most important part is what happens next. Yeshua was crucified and put in a tomb. Three days later He is alive again; this is what people refer to as the resurrection. He did not stay dead! His body was not in the tomb. His body was transformed into a glorified form that transcends the physical limits of this earth. If He had stayed dead in the grave, then all His promises of salvation, forgiveness, joy, and eternal life with the Father would have died with Him. During the 3 years He walked with His disciples, He told them that He would be killed but He would come back on the 3rd day. So, since He kept that promise that He would rise again on the 3rd day, that means that every other promise and declaration He made was true and will happen. That means that if we believe in Him, we too will not die but when our physical bodies end on this earth, we also will be resurrected to Him.

        :This is very important. The only way to abundant life (peace even in the middle of troubles) on this earth and eternal salvation (not damnation) is belief in Yeshua Hamashiach/Jesus Christ and following Him. It is not enough to believe that He was a good man with some nice teachings or that He was a prophet. You must believe in your heart that He is your Savior who paid the price for all your sins, tell Him that, and then follow Him.

          -Matthew 16:24 "Then Yeshua said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

          -Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord Yeshua Hamashiach and you will be saved, you and your household."

          -Romans 10:9 "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Yeshua and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

17) So Why did God send His Son to be born of an imperfect woman into an evil, corrupted world with disobedient people:

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD (YOU) THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOMEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.

18) Yeshua was seen by hundreds of people after His resurrection. One of His last commandments to His disciples was to share the message of salvation. He was then seen going up into the sky and seen no more. The last book of the Bible, Revelation, talks of His return. He is coming again. I share this salvation message with you and leave you with this statement from Yeshua:

          John 11:25 "Yeshua said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he                may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me, shall never die. Do you believe this?'"