Open letter to my friends

This is an open letter to all my friends. If you are not a Christian, the natural man in you will want to laugh this off and perhaps not even finish this letter, and certianly not think seriously about it. However since you are my friend, please do me one last favor and think hard about this.

To my dear friends, both old and new. I beg you read this. Whether you are my oldest and dearest friends I grew up with through middle and high school, or a new friend I have met in the last 13 years. I beg you read this with great discernment. Knowing that my only motive is a love for you. A strong love and desire for you to not go the broad way which leads to pain, suffering and destruction that so many take.

First of all, those of you that know me know I am not some crazy religious wacko. My friends, those from high school. We grew up together as a family. All of us had problems at home in some way or another. We escaped that trough our friendship. Every day we spent together, it's not supposed to be like that. Now that I have a family, four beautiful children, I see the way we were all raised as a tragedy. The family unit should be woven together tightly, a bond that cannot be replaced with friends, drugs, alcohol, and parties. Those things ended up defining us in our very important and impressionable teen years. It saddens me that now in our 30s many of you still have that exact same life. This is not a rebuke, nor a rip on you, as you all I know I am not like that. I know how hard it is to leave a lifestyle that defined who you are when relying on yourself. I also know that many of you have no desire to move on, to learn truth, and what life truly is about; which is to serve our Father The Lord Jesus Christ. He truly wants you to be His son and it hurts Him, that you live your life with out acknowledging all that He has given you. I have lost touch with some of you, I know most of my friends do not even know the names of my children, and have not even seen the younger ones. I miss you guys, and do love you. Although we lived our lives all wrong I have many great memories with you. To my new friends, my earnestness is just as sincere. I pray you to listen.

I am now a Christian. I had studied the claims of The Bible for over 10 years. This wonderful book with hundreds to thousands (depending on what you consider a prophecy) of 100% accurately fulfilled prophecies. Ones that name specific countries and times. Ones that you can confirm with a Bible and encyclopedia. The scientific, archeological, historical and prophetic evidence, led me to believe the claims of The Bible were true. However, I was not a Christian after those 10 years. I had an intellectual belief in The Christ Jesus, but that alone cannot save you. Of course demons believe in Christ, we know that they are not children of God.
Awaken your senses! Look around at this wonderful world we live in. It is created with order and complexity that could not happen by accident coming from nothing. Look at your eye and all it's complexities. From the universes and galaxies, all the way down to the single cell, everything has order and design. Your conscience is God's law written on your heart. Your DNA is an actual language, much like Morse code! Who wrote that language and designed all this stuff? As a Christian, I can proudly proclaim My Father did.

The truth about God has been distorted, and my concern is you do not have a correct understanding of God. Sadly, there has been a move in America that says God is all love. Believe in God, pray to him when you need to be picked up, or even at night in your bed. Than He will love you and save you. This is not true; this is not what The Bible says. The Bible says unless you are born again you will not see the kingdom of God. I know that word makes you cringe, but brace yourself, I am born again. Being born again means you die to yourself and become a new creature in Christ. The good news is you don't have to have the strength to leave the old ways and become this new creature. That would be work righteousness, which God hates. There is nothing you can do to save yourself, it is a gift granted from God. Also it is such a radical change; you know there is no way you could do it yourself, that it truly is God manifesting Himself with you. He gets all the credit and glory. You just have to be willing to let Him turn your life upside down and inside out and mold you into His image. You have to be willing to admit: in and of yourself you are a lowly sinner, nothing more. You have to be willing to bend a knee and worship God. As a good child would respect and revere their father, you need to do the same to your Heavenly Father. If you can humble yourself in front of God, remove the pride, He will do the rest. You have to be willing to take on the trials and tribulations that come with being a soldier in the battle of good versus evil. Friends and family will turn on you. People will call you names and you will lose friendships, but I assure you, you will have the strength to endure and march forward. It also strengthens your faith because The Bible says that is exactly what will happen; and has happened to me.

I know many of you believe in God, but have been fooled by the "God loves you, and is an all loving God" gospel. God does love you. But he is also good, just, and righteous. God always existed he did not make Himself, and He cannot change. He is what He is and always was. He has to give justice; otherwise he would not be good. As you would not consider a human judge to be good if he did not punish law breakers, God cannot be good if He does not either.
You see we are all in transgression of God's law. Many people think Christians are "holier than thou" goody two shoes. The fact is we are just like non-Christians, with one difference. As a sinner, you are a sinner period. As a Christian, I am a sinner saved by Grace. That is it. If you take an honest look in God's mirror (The 10 commandments) you will see you have a very ugly face. Have you loved God above all else, ever stolen, ever lied, ever taken God's name in vain, ever had sexual desires about someone else's spouse? You will see you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, lustful, coveting creature. One who does not love God, or thank Him for all things He does for you. One that has created a God in your own image, that suits you and that you are comfortable with. How many times have you used God's name in vain this week? Whether it be GD, JC, or just Oh My G**! This is showing no respect for your Father. You would never use your mother's name this way. Nor would you even use Hitler, or Mohammed's name this way. The Bible says people naturally hate God and that is why we use His name this way. I did not even touch all the commandments, but that is enough for you to see you are guilty of breaking God's law.

God has to punish you, but He loves you and the thought of you perishing grieves Him greatly. God does not want you to perish, so He came up with a plan to reconcile His love for you, with His righteousness, His justice, His goodness, and His holiness. He decided to lay the punishment on Himself. He lowered Himself to our form. He came in humility born in a filthy manger with the dirt and filth that is in barn animals homes. He lived His adult life as a servant to us; our mighty God who created billions of universes with a flick of His finger came to us. What did we do? We killed Him. He became sin so He could lay the punishment that we deserve on Himself. After a gruesome scourging that would have killed many, he was crucified. A horrible, torturous and painful death. He had fear, felt pain like any human. While in other religions people die for their God, our God died for us.

Now you have a decision to make. Picture this. You were in a court room owing a million dollar fine, or being dragged off to prison. A man comes in that you don't know gives the judge the million to set you free. Would you say, "I can't accept this man's money, please take me to prison" or would you take the gift? Jesus did this very thing, he stepped into the courtroom 2000 years ago. You can accept His payment for your sin, or let the punishment fall on you. It's your choice. One day all will bend a knee and declare Jesus Christ as Lord, please do it now, because if you do it on the day of judgement it will be too late.

Look at the world today. It's getting worse with every passing day. Everything that is going on right now is in The Bible. It's all going by The Book proving it's supernatural origin. Don't take my word for it, start reading it. If you do want to live for The Lord, tell Him you are sorry. Sorry for living your whole life in rebellion to Him. Believe in The Lord Jesus Christ. Confess Him with your mouth. Admit your sins, and turn from them. That is called repenting. Ask God for a new heart with new desires, repentance is granted from God, it is not a work you can do. He will turn you from your sin when you turn toward Him. Get a Bible and read it every day. Do what it says. God will not let you down. He is patient and longsuffering that not one will perish that is willing to come to Him.

I pray for all of you every night. Not just I, but Andrea and the kids do as well. I cannot explain the radical changes that happen when you give your life to The Lord. Things you could never do on your own. In fact things you would never desire to do on your own. God reveals Himself to you. Don't love your sin so much that you are not willing to let God take it from you. Please don't let sin cloud truth. Pride and sin are the only things stopping you from doing this. The choice is life and death. Eternal life or the second death, it's up to you.

With sincere love in Christ,
Paul