Letters

For the longest time I have felt abandoned and deserted in this world. I see the world move fast   around, feeling dizzy of the haste and hurry of each day and yet in spite of the all the color and life of the world I still felt like I’m in a desert, alone and far from anything alive. Reading this book has opened my eyes and has led me to see God in my everyday life. In my life where I have felt alone and deserted for the longest time, it seems like a miracle that when you try and open your eyes and arms to embrace God’s presence you realize that he is indeed here with us. This book has taught me to open my heart to God and keep him welcome to stay and guide me. I believe that I felt that way for the longest time because I failed to recognize that everyday God is with me. That every achievement is a gift from God even the down times are gifts from God. You emphasized in your book that god is always with us, in the flesh of our brethren as Jesus has said in the bible that whatever we have done unto our brothers we have done unto him. Everyday God touches our lives through our fellowmen. I remember last Christmas, as I was walking home from the sweetshop, lonesome as I was, a young boy gave me a lollipop and it brightened my day. But back then I failed to recognize that it was God telling me that he is always with me, watching me and intending for me to be happy always. As I look back now I see that the emptiness that I felt is because I failed to recognize God’s presence in my life and my failure to offer back to his glory everything that I do in my life. It is more fulfilling to offer back to God everything that we do and to return to him all the praise and glory that we can give. There is no meaning in working for ourselves alone, but there is meaning in working for God and his people. Finally, I learned about forgiveness. I learned to forgive myself and other people as well by recognizing how forgiving God is with our trespasses. That no matter what we do, how much we have sinned, He always welcomes us with open arms and with his eternal love. This book is a call to return to God’s embrace. The Lord has used Elephant to call back his flock to return unto him. One chapter captures the great message of returning to God, the one which deals with Jesus, and who Jesus is. Indeed Jesus is the greatest love of all, he is God’s love for us all. He gave us Jesus his only son to save us from eternal damnation. As it is said in the Bible in John 3:16, â€Å"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever shall believe in Him, will not perish, but will receive eternal life.† All the discussion about life,Who is God, God’s presence, Marriage, who the devil is, and others are all to me suppletory to the renewal of our faith in God. Elephant has aptly summed in a single chapter the greatest reason to believe and return to God and his embrace. To know the sacrifice that God has made in order to save us and give us the eternal life which he intended for us in the beginning as can be seen in Exodus 20:3-7â€Å"I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. Worship no other god but me. Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws.†Ã‚   Is enough reason for us to believe and believe firmly in God’s presence in our life. The small manifestations of his presence through our brethren should serve only to strengthen what he has proven when he gave us Jesus for our salvation. His greatest message of all, which God has conveyed through you, is that he, is here with us, he has always been here, and will always be here for us. There is no room for our faith to flicker because he is real and each of us is a living proof. I have angered God. In a lot of ways I have failed God. I have failed to render help to those who needed my help. I have failed to receive God when he needed shelter. I have failed to live a life that is pleasing to him. I have failed to be the child of God. I recognize all my failures but now I realize that I am wrong, I may have done all these but I have never angered God. God who has eternal love and a fountain of mercy and forgiveness. God who has given his son to save me from the fires of hell. I may be a sinner, but God has not given up on sinners like me. All throughout the bible, sinners are always given the chance to repent for their sins and God has always made a way for them to return back to him. I have realized, by reading this book that no matter how much you have sinned, if you receive God in your heart he will forgive you and receive you. If man comes with sincerity and bow before God, then God’s grace will forgive, and ultimately, save him Because God is love and love flows from him. I have long kept a fear that God hates me because I have angered him greatly through all my sins and wrongdoings but you have proven me wrong. I now know that His grace is eternal and unending. And I am no longer afraid of the end of my days because I know that God is with me and will always be with me, forgiving and loving until the end of time.