Summary: This paper is about the nature of Christianity. Christianity is not a religion. It is about a loving relationship with the Creator through his revealed image, that is, Jesus Christ.

A Letter to Mary

This is a copy of a personal letter I sent to someone who wrote to me and said, "I believe in God, but religion is confusing." The person was not really named Mary, but other than that the letter is genuine. I was pleased with how it came out and thought that the letter may bless others who might read it, so I have included it at SeekersTrove.com.

Hi Mary:

I was sure glad to get your card. It's nice to hear from you, as well as, hear about you. My parents talk about you a lot, and always have such good things to say. They love you and tell me you are loving, kind, thoughtful, intelligent, and hard working. Well, to hear such a good report always makes my heart glad. Glad for you, glad for my parents, and also glad for your mom. I have always loved your mom and I am sure your fine character pleases her as well as God. You said in your note that you believe in God and that religion is confusing. I must agree completely. I do not believe that Jesus is a religious person. He never walked in the traditions of the popular religion of the day. He walked in reality. Jesus followed God and not religious customs.

In my opinion, all religions center on how a person can approach God. They have rules that must be obeyed and customs that must be followed and basically all deal with the question: "How can I make myself acceptable to God?" Well, you can't make yourself acceptable to God. It is impossible for any person to earn acceptance from God. I will explain this shortly.

Let me briefly explain what true religion is. The Bible is a revelation from God that tells us what we could never find out for ourselves. It tells us where we came from and for what purpose. God wanted children for himself. Children he could enjoy and dote over showering them with his love and giving them present after present. Children who could love him and who could relate to him. So the Bible tells us that God made man in his exact image and likeness. Man was created to be like God, not in power, but in his heart having the same capacity to love.

God's plan from the beginning, (even before he created the earth), was for us to see what life separated from him is like, and then us choosing to be united to him in love through Jesus Christ. The Bible frequently compares this union, God-to-us, to the union of a man and woman, husband-to-wife (See Ephesians 5:25-33).We choose a wife because we want to be united to her, and this union is life long and is one of love. God is wooing us with his love talk, down deep inside our hearts. Those who respond to his quiet call, he joins to himself through Jesus.

People frequently want to see physical evidence of God, but this is not God's way. He doesn't want to threaten or frighten us into union with him. What kind of love-marriage would that be? God through Jesus Christ fully revealed himself so that we could see him and fall in love with him. I am very serious about this. God is courting you with the intent of having you come to him, with open arms, willing and eager to please the one you have come to love. And he is waiting patiently, hoping you will respond and come, and he will pour into you what your heart truly desires, love, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, patience and control over yourself (See Galatians 5:22-23).

The Bible calls Satan, 'the god of this world.' (See 2 Corinthians 4:4, and Ephesians 2:2). Even though the world is exactly where God said it would be, he is not its Father. When mankind separated themselves from God they were united to another Satan. Satan is the god of self-centeredness. "What's in it for me"; calls the world. Love says: "What can I do for you?" The world and God are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Man stands in the middle and must make a choice. As for me, I choose God. I choose to be obedient to Love. The world has only two things I want, people to love, and the creation to marvel at.

The choice is simple; selfishness or selflessness; a self-centered, or God-centered existence. God has promised to those who desire to be conformed into his likeness, those in Christ Jesus, the power and ability to do so. To those people who will take God at his word and accept what God said concerning our state of separation and his salvation which he brought about in Jesus Christ, he gives his Holy Spirit, who comes to live in our hearts. This is a real thing God in us. (See Colossians 1:27). The evidence that all this is true comes from within our hearts from God's Spirit.

The scriptures plainly tell us that the world thinks that this is absurd, (See 1 Corinthians 1:18-Corinthians 2:16), but we who have hoped that God's promises are true, and have acted on that hope, and have received his Spirit into our hearts, know that it is true. Praise God! This is really what faith is, believing God will make good his promises (See Hebrews 11:6). This faith comes after we have acted on the hope that we got from God; hope which sprang from our hearts as we hear from God through the scriptures and from his small voice within us. Faith is not believing what we don't understand, it's believing what we do understand; God's promises. Faith is believing what we can see with our heart.

Is what God is asking of us so difficult? Is it unreasonable of God to expect us to walk in love, especially since he is Love and he gives us to power to do so?

1 John 4:13-17

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. (NIV)

First we have hope, then if we respond to hope we get faith, then God fills us with love. God has done his part, Jesus paid the price for our salvation, God has raised him from the dead, defeating death and paving the way to life for us. We, when we hear the message, reach out in hope, and God who has been waiting for us to respond, immediately makes good his promise. God wants us to respond. It's the reason he made us in the first place so that he could receive us as sons and daughters of God.

Mary, I share your confusion and probable dislike of religion. God is real and I want to walk in that reality. Christianity should not be thought of as a religion. We go to church not to be made worthy of God, but to share in our joy over what God has done. We support one another, help one another, enjoy one another. God has called all who believe to form one body, the body of Christ (See 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). And he wants us to all to work together, supporting one another, as we seek to be conformed to his image.

So I recommend to you Mary; to read your Bible daily, (especially the New Testament), with the intent to obey and the expectation that God will do. If you haven't already got a good translation, I recommend the New International Version.

Mary, my impression of you is that you want the good things in life. That you want to feel good about yourself. Not everyone is like that, some aren't happy unless they crush the other person. Some want all the power, or prestige, or recognition. People that seek these things are doomed. As loving and kind as God is, there is still the final day of reckoning. The day in which God gathers all who wanted to please him through their thoughts and actions, to himself. Those people who's thoughts and actions demonstrated that they wanted no part of God, will get exactly that, no part of God.

A heart felt, honest, obedience to God is a good thing. God will pour out his blessings to anyone who seeks him in this way. God is not fooled by what we do to impress other people. He wants us to do the right thing out of respect for him to please him. This is honest religion.

Mary, I hope you aren't offended by the directness of this letter. Since I believe all this to be true I would be guilty of lying to you if I said anything else. I am also fully persuaded that following God has only good benefits and no drawbacks--what could you lose?

One last thing: I don't ask you to believe what you don't see or understand. I ask you to seek out God in all honesty and be obedient to what you see that God wants from you. God has promised to make himself known to anyone who seeks him honestly. Oh, I almost forgot, earlier I said that we can't make ourselves acceptable to God and I said I would explain. We do not earn acceptability, how could we? How could we measure up to God? What baby earns acceptability from its parents? The acceptability is just a matter of love and trust between the parents and the child. It is the exact same thing between you and God. He has made you acceptable, if you embrace him in Christ, and snuggle to him, trusting him to care for you. God loves us and wants us to come to him like any child comes to its parents.

I am sending a copy of this letter to your mother. I want to give her a chance to respond to any point that she may disagree with, or she may want to add something.

May you find the source of all peace.

Love Mark

Ephesians 5:25-33
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing
with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant
church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and
blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as
their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one
ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ
does the church -- for we are members of his body. "For this reason a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery -- but I am
talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also
must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect
her husband. (NIV) Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (NIV) 2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that
they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who
is the image of God. (NIV) Ephesians 2:1-2
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the
ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those
who are disobedient. (NIV) Colossians 1:27
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious
riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (NIV) 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved
it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the
intelligent I will frustrate."
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made
foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not
know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling
block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the
weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards;
not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to
shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of
this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no
one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us
wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him
who boasts boast in the Lord."
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you
the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and
him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my
preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that
your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the
rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been
hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it,
for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: "No eye has seen,
no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" -- but God has revealed
it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man
except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of
God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God
has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the
Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come
from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (NIV) Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those
who earnestly seek him. (NIV) 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though
all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body -- whether Jews
or Greeks, slave or free -- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should
say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would
not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should
say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not
for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye,
where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear,
where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the
parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If
they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many
parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say
to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem
to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable
we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated
with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But
God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the
parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its
parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part
suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (NIV) Ambassadors As a true Christian you renounce your citizenship of
any earthly government and accept the
citizenship of heaven and then therefore
act as an Ambassador from Heaven
assigned to the Earth. Apostles and Prophets in the Modern ChurchHas the day of Apostles and Prophets pasted in the
modern church? The Bible says no.
The Bible says that that day does not
pass until the Lord's Second Coming.
Believing in JesusTo believe in Jesus Christ is NOT to believe
that he EXISTS, but rather that he is
the Son of God and therefore every
single word that he spoke is to be
completely obeyed and worshipped.
Bible AxiomsBiblical Axioms, that is,
unchangeable laws, that help us understand the Bible.
Born AgainWhat does it mean to be Born Again?
It is your spirit nature, that is, your
eternal person, that is born again and
not the flesh. The born again experience
is a real tangible event and not a
metaphor for something.
ChildlikenessUnless you receive God's instruction
like a small child does with his or her
parents you will never truly come to
know God or enter into the Kingdom
of God.
DoctrineWhat is Doctrine? Is Doctrine bad?
What makes for good Doctrine? These
questions are examined in this paper.
FaithfulnessWe must be faithful toward God. It is
our faith that makes us holy. All our
relationships must be faithful. God must
be our focus. We must look only to
God for our needs.
False ProphetsThere are many false prophets among
us. False prophets are deceived and they
deceive others with their own sincerely
held beliefs. False prophets always quote
the Bible. False prophets and their followers
always think that they are following the
Bible's teachings. Read the Bible and be
totally honest with yourself about everything.
The GoalOur goal as seeking Children of God is to become
like Jesus Christ. We must hang out with
him until we become like him. We must
have a true love relationship with Jesus
Christ. We must have a faith relationship
with God.
God AlmightyGod is bigger than ANYONE can imagine--
infinitely bigger. God can tell you how many
individual cells are in your body and the state
of health of each and every one of them.
There is nothing that God doesn't know. If
we will honestly look and think we can see
God's brilliance through his creation. The
world is not an accident. God's revealed
answers are found in the Bible--read it.
God FollowersBeing a Christian is not a matter of words,
but of actions. Those that call themselves
Christians should be following God,
that is, living their lives as Jesus would.
How to Become God's FriendA relationship with God is more than just words.
It is a relationship of love and friendship.
If you want to be God's friend then act
like it. Be the type of person that God
would want for a friend.
In the Garden of EdenThe biblical account of the Creation
of the world and of mankind as found
in the first two chapters of the Bible are
filled with spiritual meanings. This paper
contains some descriptions of some of
the more interesting aspects of those stories.
The Lord's DesireWhat is the Lord's desire? This paper
reveals some of the things that God
wants from you.
Lucifer and Satan the DevilThe popular image and understanding of
Lucifer/Satan is nowhere near the truth.
Only by reading the Bible for ourselves
can we come to understand who he was/is.
What is the Meaning of Life?What is the meaning of life? This paper
talks about that and also some other obscure
things, such as why a woman takes her
husband's name upon marriage and why
homosexuality is wrong, (spiritually).
Noble VesselsWe are to be noble vessels that are worthy
of a relationship with the Creator. We have
been forgiven of our sins through the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ on the cross so that we can
live pure and guiltless lives before God,
and not so that we can walk in sin with
a clear conscience.
RacismGod has accepted every people of
the earth and so must you.
Religion is ConfusingThis paper is about the nature of Christianity.
Christianity is not a religion. It is about a
loving relationship with the Creator through
his revealed image, that is, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is Our Role ModelJesus Christ is our Role Model.
We must imitate him and become like him.
It is through our imitation of Jesus that
we come to truly understand the Truth
and to truly know God.
Spiritual FulfillmentThis paper explains some of the secrets
of the universe! The Bible has many very
interesting secrets hidden in plain sight.
If you will open your heart
you can see these secrets and thereby see
the way to spiritual fulfillment.
SpiritualismSpiritualism and how it relates to the Bible.
Speaking in TonguesWhat is speaking in tongues? Is it biblical?
Should you be speaking in tongues? This
paper examines these questions and more.
Ticket to HeavenDo you have a ticket to heaven? What is required
to go there? What does it mean to go to
heaven or hell? These are answered and
more too.
Tithing to the ChurchDo members of the Church need to tithe?
Tithing is a part of the Law of Moses and
the Church is not subject to the law, however
we are to give. This paper examines the law
of tithing and our need to give.
Understanding the BibleThe Bible is a pretty bizarre book.
It cannot be understood as other books
might be. This paper talks about how to
read and understand the Bible.