Hi Pastor John,
I came home and started reading what we read this morning in Hosea again. I loved hearing all of the history. When we were reading about the priest not teaching the people and you said most of the people could not read and lived off what the priest told them. That struck me. I thought of all of the years sitting in those pews in the Catholic Church and not learning one thing. I did not even learn what they deemed “children stories”. I knew Jonah was swallowed by a whale and spit back out, and I was then given a coloring sheet to color. I knew nothing of David and his heart for God facing Goliath, Daniel holding fast to God against hungry lions, or Jesus bringing life to Lazarus. I knew nothing of Joseph knowing it was God who sent him into slavery. I just knew nothing about my God. It was a miracle that I met a man (my husband) who made God so real to me, the man who said he cried out to God and his whole life changed. How would I ever have known to hope in God? I knew nothing.
I thought about opening Jerry’s Bible for the first time and trying to read page after page, and not being able to understand anything I read, but Jesus, our Priest, pulling on my heart to read it and seek him. Then after I finished it the first time through, I started again and began to learn little things. Small understandings came, and then Jesus sent me to Jimmy and Sue’s house for the Old Testament class.
Now I am here in NC with you, learning and being fed straight from Jesus. Now two of my children know why Jesus left heaven, came here, and died. What God has done is amazing. I love the stories God writes. I love every one of them that I hear. Nothing stirs me like hearing of God speaking to someone. It is exciting what stories of God we may learn.
I also love that Jesus is our Priest.
Beth 