Dear friends:
I call you friends, in the same
manner as Jesus did with us:
Well you've found yourself still here on earth after some people you know
have vanished and your looking for answers. This is a heart-to-heart letter just
for you from a person who is either dead by now or has vanished with the rest.
My name is Jamie, I've been a Christian for about 9 years, Im an American
woman, and I've never been one to stick to the generally accepted rules of polite conversation. I tell it like it is, truthfully and hopefully not
offensively...but the truth usually offends anyway...so be it.
You've probably
figured out by now that most of those who vanished claimed to be Christians and
called this event "The Rapture", so I won't get into all of that. My purpose
with this letter is to help you to live and get to know Jesus Christ a little
better through my own experience as a believer in Christ and all the struggling
and learning that I'm going through now as I write this letter to you.
I would do
you no favor by telling you that the Christian life is easy and carefree
especially now in the time you are living, but there is joy and peace beyond
your understanding even in the midst of troubles and trials available to you if
you truly do trust in Jesus.
Once you decide to believe in Jesus, that is to
believe that He died for you so that you could be forgiven for your sins, tell
Jesus your sorry for your sins and make a conscious decision to not obey those
sins anymore(this is called repenting), and ask Him to be your Lord and
Savior...your journey has just begun. This doesn't mean that you will behave
perfectly from now on, you will mess up and sin as all humans do, but then you
can turn to Him and know that He will forgive you.
I have to say that the times
you are going to be living in now that the church(believers in Christ) is gone,
is going to be interesting but brutal. You are in a position to read the bible
and see those things described in it coming to pass before your very eyes,
day to day and moment by moment. Read these books especially to see what's
going to happen: Daniel, Ezekiel,
Matthew, II Thessalonians, Jude, and Revelation.
But right
now what I want to talk to you about is your faith. Your faith
in Jesus Christ is whats going to get you through to the end,
so this is my focus in this letter. When I first got saved I
found that I had a great quantity and a great quality of newfound faith. I used
to worry about how I would fare if I ever had to rely upon that faith in the
severest of ways such as giving up my life for it, or seeing family or friends
losing their lives for it. Would it prevail? Would I mess it up and give
in to denying Christ to live for the here and now, in the relatively short span
of life that I might live out?
These thoughts plagued me for years until I
realized that faith is a choice. You can choose to have faith in Jesus,
to believe the bible, to trust Him in much the same way that you make a hundred
other choices everyday, even in the most dire of circumstances.
While I have not, as yet, had to exhibit this kind of faith in that I
have not lost a loved one for it or had to face giving my life for it, there are
many of my brothers and sisters in Christ that don't have the luxury of living
in the USA who have endured jail for their faith, beatings, tortures, and many
other brutalities, and even losing their lives for it. And each one of
these beloved Christians have all had to keep choosing faith in Christ to
endure all of these tribulations
Please know that Jesus truly does
love you and has your best interests in mind at all times and He knows every
thought you have or ever will have and He wants you to choose to believe in Him
freely. That is a God given freedom that all Christians have, that
no circumstance or person can ever take away from you. Whether you realize
it or not at this time, you, as a new believer in Christ, have now been put on
the fast track to spiritual maturity that few Christians have ever
experienced.
You don't have time to be wishy-washy, you have to make some
serious decisions now. At this desparate time you find yourself in you
need to firmly decide that you will have faith in Jesus no matter what you
hear, or see, or even feel. What is the alternative? If you do not keep having
faith in Christ, if you do give in to hunger, pain, suffering, loneliness, or
even threat of death and deny Christ what will be the point of living after that
anyway...knowing that you will eventually, and probably sooner than later, die
anyway and be going to a lot worse place than you are now?
So even though you
will find that your newfound faith is tested severely, lots more severe than
mine was ever tested I'm sure, don't give up, never give in. In those moments
God Himself will strengthen your faith so that you will be willing and able to
give up everything, even your life so that you will be with Him. All you have to
do is pray(talk to God), and He will supernaturally help you.
My other advise to
you is to start reading the bible, especially the New Testament, and pray, and
pray, and pray, and yet still....pray. Try to find some other Christians who
believe now like you do. You all can help each other and you need each other. Be
careful in this however as it will get to the point that many people will turn
you into the authorities for being a believer in Christ during the coming
years, and think that they are doing the right thing in doing so. If I can
convey anything else to you my prayer is to give you some hope.
Jesus is the
source of all good things, things like faith, happiness, peace, love, etc...all
those good things that people desire to feel and experience. Without Jesus you
could never truly have those things, and the people who do not have Him will
soon go to hell where they will be eternally separated from Jesus, and will
never again experience anything good...not even laughter or hope nor will they
ever have any satisfaction. So no matter what happens to you in your body, no
pain, and no suffering while on earth can ever even be compared to what awaits
you at your death or the return of Jesus Christ, whichever comes first to you.
So be happy, be joyful, if you are in Christ, because this life is only
temporary and the best is yet to come. See you there.
