LETTERS
We don’t write letters much anymore. We send notes, messages, Emails but seldom letters.
My Dad used to get letters from a man in Poland. He would take them across town to a guy who spoke Polish and have them read, since he did not speak Polish. He would reply with a letter in English and assume the man took it to someone who could translate Dad’s English into Polish.
I hate getting a letter from a Lawyer. It is usually in Lawyerese. A language only spoken by other lawyers. To fully understand it you have to take it to a professional and have them translate it into common everyday speech. I guess that makes sure that Lawyers always have a job.
I have known some people who treated the Bible that way. They felt they could not just read it. They felt that you had to go to a professional to interpret it for you. Someone who had learned Greek and Hebrew—the languages the Bible was originally written in before the King James Version came out. (In case your wondering Jesus did NOT speak King James). We have lots of excellent translations of the Bible written in clear basic English.
I see the Bible in many respects as letters I sent Barbara when we were separated for some reason. IE. College, military assignments and such. That was in the day before we simply called and talked.
Our letters were meant to communicate our feelings, emotions and thoughts. They were love letters and conversations over distance. They were personal and mostly simple. Meant to communicate on paper the feelings and emotions we could not communicate directly.
It was not something we had to take to an intellectual or expert to interpret for us.
It was something we sat down with in stillness and quietness and visualized them saying those words directly to us. They were far more than words. The ending, “Love” was not a word it was an emotion and a promise.
When the Spirit of Jesus prompted the writing of the Scriptures he was not primarily writing a religious document or a legal paper to be scrutinized or analyzed but a love letter. Not a harsh book of rules, even though we call parts of it it Law, he was sending a message of love.
For instance when I read the 10 Commandments, I don’t visualize a stern Father with a belt in his hand shaking it at me “Saying if you break one of these your going to get it.” I did at one time in my life but now I hear it in the context of hearing a loving Dad saying these are the rules of life. You break them, it will hurt you and those around you. Listen to them. Live by them and you and your society will have the best life.
Society and relationships thrive under this guidance. Society and relationships fall apart when you don’t.
See it as a love letter, straightforward, to you.
Read it as a letter from a Father to a son or daughter telling them the path to the best life. As a path that will lead to an abundant life not as a list of rules to restrict life but to broaden life into eternity.
It changes what you hear.