Grandma's letter to the grandchildren

January 20, 2014

Letter to my Grandchildren:

I asked JESUS into my heart when I was 9 years old and began reading the Bible.  I have pretty much read it every day since then.  It is a wonderful book, but it always seemed that it was mixed up.  It made sense, but the time line was confusing.  Was Noah and the Ark  before Joshua and the Battle of Jericho or after?  Over the years, I discovered that God has told us in
 II Timothy 2:15 to “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (and that He hides things in plain sight so we can have the thrill of finding them.

I have learned a lot and although you will have to read every day and learn yourself, I thought I would give you a simple outline so you could find what you were looking for.   When JESUS lives in your heart, God begins to open His treasure house of information. 

The Bible is the master plan for all of humanity:  rich, poor, old, or young.  The thread of
His-story unfolds in its pages.  Simple outline:  God made everything good, the devil tempted Adam and Eve to do wrong.  When they disobeyed, they were locked out of the Garden of Eden and that’s where we find ourselves.  When sin came on them, it was passed down through every generation.  No one was born without sin.  (Only JESUS was because He is God’s Son.)

Because of everyone’s sin nature, mankind is cruel, hateful and unloving.  That explains why wars are fought and people are mean to one another. 

God’s great love for the people He created could only be realized if that sin could be cancelled.  JESUS, God’s Only Son, left Heaven and was born of Mary.  Remember Christmas?  That was God’s beginning of buying us back from the devil.  The most famous Bible verse John 3:16:  “For God SO loved the world (people) that He gave His Only Begotten Son (JESUS) that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have Eternal Life (live in Heaven with God when we die).  You are  precious to God as every person is.  God wants everyone to come to Heaven, but if you still have your old sin nature, you can’t enter because God will not allow sin to mess up Heaven.

When you ask JESUS to forgive your sin and come to live in your heart, you are SAVED.  Saved means that you have received JESUS’s payment for your sin and you get to go free.  Because someone has to pay for sin, what a wonderful gift JESUS gave us.  If you don’t ask JESUS to forgive your sin and turn away from it, then you will have to pay for your own sin.  Remember no sin can come into Heaven.  God did not make Hell for people.  It was made for the devil and the fallen angels.  Since there’s only Heaven or Hell and you can’t get into Heaven, you would have to be eternally separated from God – the One who really loves you.

I think that most of you children have already asked JESUS to come and live in your heart.  I am so glad.  Each generation must pass the baton to the next generation or no one will know God’s plan to buy us back.  It’s called “The Gospel”.

The Gospel can be explained in five simple facts:

            In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth and IT WAS GOOD!

            Because of Adam’s disobedience, sin entered the whole world

            JESUS died in our place to pay for our sin so we would be washed from sin.

            We are required to ask for our sins to be forgiven and must turn away from them.  It
            is not automatic. 

            It is our responsibility to grow up in Christ:  Read our Bible, pray and get to know
            God the Father, JESUS the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God since they all come to live
            inside of us to help us understand what He wants us to do and not do.

Pretty soon I will send you more information on where to find the Bible stories you are learning in Sunday School so you can read them for yourself.  God is so powerful that He did great miracles and they are recorded in the Bible.  Start in I Samuel 17 and read about David and Goliath – he was really scary and mean but God used a young boy to rescue His people.  There were good kings and bad kings – godly prophets who told the truth about was going to happen and lying prophets who just said words but they weren’t true.

It’s an exciting journey and I hope that you dig deep and enjoy the ride.

I love you,

Grandma