RECENT LETTERS FROM SPIRITUAL FREEDOM BIBLE CORESPONDNCE STUDENTS

19.02.2011

Dear brothers and sisters! I asking for your invaluable assistance to study the Bible. I want to study the Holy Scripture very much, but I do not know where to start .I really hope that you won’t leave my letter without attention.

May God keep you!  Sergey, prisoner Stavropolskiy region

2/3/2011
 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,Not so long ago I happened to get some of your literature. And I want you to know I read it all. The books are very interesting and informative. I have learned a lot from them and I’d like to know more. That is the reason I’m writing you so that you would admit me to your correspondence school. I am not baptized but I believe in God before and now. I could not find a time to study about God before and I regret about it as I did not know a lot about God .But now I  want to correct this mistake and try to learn about our Creator as much as possible.  I want to study the Bible and I hope for your assistance.

May God bless you.

Sincerely yours, Alexey

3/12/2011

Dear SF Bible school teachers!
I have become a Christian on 08.08.2010. I sit in prison with false charges against me and I’m trying to have my conviction canceled. My wife, children and relatives are waiting for me. I suffer without them and they suffer without me. However I believe that God gave me this trial according to His plan. Being imprisoned I have approached Him and became a child of God. I read the Bible every day and sometimes some other spiritual literature. I pray regularly along with my brothers in Christ. I want to get closer to God. Due to this I ask you to admit me to your Bible correspondence school program. There are four more brothers from my prison team who also want to be accepted. Their names are……………..We hope to get your response soon. May God bless you.

Eugene

Krasnoyarsk City

Received 07.02.2011

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Dear Spiritual Freedom workers!

I’ve got your address from my friend. I decided to write you because there are many opinions

and many disagreements about God here in the prison. So I have decided to examine myself and to learn something new. My request is that you send me the first examine book “What the Bible Teaches”. I promise to return it to you with all questions sincerely answered. That is all for now.

Peace and Grace to you.

Truly yours, Roman

Vladimir region

25.01.2011 / Received 07.02.2011

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My name is Alexander and I’d like to know more about God and I saw that you can help me with that. I’m asking you for New Testament and any other Bible literature if of course you can. Thank you so much in advance!.

Alexander Altay region

Received 25.02.2011

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My name is Ilia. I have a Bible. I have already read it a few times, but I truly want to understand it. I was in a library and an old book got my attention it is the “Good News” Bible study. There I

found your  address  inviting me to learn  about  Holy Scripture. I’d like to know what truly essence of Christian faith is, how to get approval of the true God and what God requires from me personally. I consider myself as a Christian. But I understand that to consider myself a Christian and to be a Christian are not the same. Psychologists have a term “self-suggestion”. For example I can try to convince myself that I am a President and believe that. But I will be self deceived because I am in reality not 3/12/2011the President. I went to our prison church and spoke to a priest and other believers. I have figured out that the priest himself is not competent in some Bible issues and most of parishioners do not know what they are talking about. My desire is scrutinize the Bible but not mere to repeat the words without knowing their meaning. Wrong knowledge is worse than ignorance. Please help me in my seeking.

Truly yours,

Ilia

Krasnoyarsk City

31.01.2011 / Received 21.02.2011

ROMANS 13:8 OWE NO ONE ANYTHING EXCEPT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER,FOR HE WHO LOVES ANOTHER HAS FULFIILLED THE LAW.

Ro 13:7  Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Paul teaching believers that paying our taxes honor God. That paying of taxes and fees to the government we live under is the duty of every follower of Jesus Christ. According to historians the Christians were noted for their abiding by Laws of the Roman Empire. No doubt as the believers in Roman hear this section of the letter, heads were going up and down in agreement. Perhaps even in their hearts boasted in confidence that they submitted to the Roman authority and had paid the government their due taxes and fees. It is probably the same for most of you who have no problem abiding by the law and pay the appropriate taxes and fees that are due to government. We may have paid our due to the economy of man and that is to be commended, however Paul in the next verse declares that the believer has a greater obligation to the economy of God. It is an obligation that is much harder to fulfill than paying taxes and having all our bills paid. We as believers have a great debt we owe to Gods economy and that is the debt of love for another.

Ro 13:8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law .Here Paul is not talking about a debt that is owed to government so that we can have a better temporal existence on this earth, but a debt to love our neighbor so that God can influence their eternal existence. Paul understood the debt that had been paid on his behalf and so he qualified to proclaim this truth. Paul declared this truth earlier in his letter Romans 1:14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. Paul as a fellow follower of Jesus Christ understood the price that was paid for him to know the truth. That God Himself sent His only beloved Son to redeem Paul from a debt He could not pay, and Christ paid the debt that He did not owe. Paul therefore came to the conclusion that he owed Christ everything he had his heart, his soul, his mind, and his strength. Paul gave himself as a living sacrifice to the service of God. And so Paul compels the church in Roman and every follower of Jesus Christ to understand that a great debt was paid on our behalf, a debt that we would not have been able to pay for all of eternity. therefore we are to love our neighbor because Jesus who redeemed us first loved us. As believers we are to owe a debt to love one another. Not just in our family circles, Paul does not have to teach on the love that is expressed in a family. Paul is speaking about the greater family of mankind, to whom Jesus stepped out of heaven and into to the darkness of this world to redeem. Who are our neighbors it was asked? Any one who is breathing. This love does not come naturally and is really impossible apart from the love of Jesus Christ. This love that the believer is to owe his neighbor is not just for the sake of making them feel loved or making their lives more comfortable. What kind of love is that when a person’s soul is perishing from the lack of the truth of Jesus Christ? This action of love can never be separated from the truth of Jesus Christ. This debt that a believer is to owe to all men is to point the lost to the source of all love Jesus Christ. When we stop and consider what Christ has done for us, we owe all to Him.

Php 3:7-8 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

Ro 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God

Romans 13:1

Paul in Romans chapter 12-16 of his letter to the home church in Rome gives the believer a description of how we are to conduct ourselves in the world in which we live. What our conduct is to be among other believers, among non believers, who may be antagonistic towards our faith and the most controversial in the church today, our conduct towards the governmental authority under which we live. Before we read Paul’s Holy Spirit directed response as Christians to the authority under which we live we must as believers have a clear understanding of the God who created us and who saved us so that we recognize that every governmental authority is under the God of all creation. It is easy to lose proper perspective as a believer because of the fallen nature of all governments we see and read about on daily basics. In some parts of the world the government is hostile towards the Christian faith. Even in this country (Russia) not so many years ago this section of scripture would be hard to except because of the nature of the government against the Christian faith. And so it helps that as a believer we first look at what God says about Himself in His word the Bible so we have the proper perspective of the government of God and the government of man. The very first verse in the Bible says it all!

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Deuteronomy 4:39 "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

Psalm 147:4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Most high God, almighty God, Everlasting God, The Lord our maker! Awesome God! This and much, much more is who the true and living God is…Clearly from Genesis to Revelation, Our God is over everything and it is important for every believer to have this understanding of who our Creator is, and once we do will can never look at government, the president, prime minister, the miliztia, the police, the mayor, our boss, or any person in authority over us.

So Paul now gives the follower of Jesus Christ advice on how we as believers are to conduct ourselves under the systems of government He has placed us under.

Romans 13:1  Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Paul begins by making it clear that our God is the highest authority on this earth and that every leader over people, God puts into power, and removes them from power. So Paul as a spokesman for God tells every believer that we are to summit to the authority in which we live because our God is a Mighty God. No matter where we are living, even under harshest rule we as His followers are to submit to those who are above us because it is God who is over them. Understandingly for some believers that are living under very dangerous regimes, this verse may be a bit troubling especially if they are under a government that is atheistic or Islamic.

But consider that Paul and the believers he is writing to at the time,

both Jew and gentile were under the authority of the mighty Roman empire. Nero was the Cesar and he was a monster of a leader, executing killing both his Mother and step brother.  For sport he would have Christians sewn up in animal skins and have the attacked by wild animal, or cover the believers in tar and light them on fire to light up his out door parties. Nero in a few years from Paul writing this letter to the Christians in Rome would turn his wrath against the Christians. Understandingly we can see that it was very temping for the early church believers to fight against such an oppressive government.Many in the fellowship in Rome were Jews who had received the Messiah. They were particularly venerable to fighting against Rome and Paul understood it all to well. The Nation of Israel for years fought against the Roman authority that had ocuppied their land and they caused the Roman government much grief. Matter of fact their continued rebellion would lead to the demise of Jerusalem in 70 ad when Roman said enough of the rebelliousness of the Jewish nation and literally crushed them in a bloody horrifyingly slaughter of the Jews in Jerusalem where over a million Jews were killed , and the great temple was totally destroyed. So Paul knew the history of His people the Jews and the rebellion against the pagan Roman empire.He knew that the Nation of Israel was called to be a witness to the lost pagan world and their rebellion was a bad witness, and certainly was not God’s best for His chosen people. God’s best for those who are follows of His Son is first to recognize His authority over all the heavens and the earth. Second that we are not to fight against government,but be a model citizen as witness that there is a God! Of course when the laws of man over ride the laws of God, we as believers are to submit ourselves to the Laws of God.In the Book of Daniel we have the poplar account of the three Jewish boys that were taken into captivity in Babylon and they were indoctrinated into the culture, with the schooling and the language and even having their Jewish names taken away and given Babylonian names. They submitted to all what the government imposed upon them, but when it came to worshiping the gold image, they had a higher Law and that of God and they refused to obey even under threat of death.

Da 3:16-17 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.17 "If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.

 18 "But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up."

It is so important for us as believers never to forget who we are in Jesus Christ  and that we belong to a different kingdom. We are no longer citizens of this world, but that our citizenship is in heaven

Php 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the promises of God, we have received every mercy from Him. We as believers remain in this world by the will of God to bring attention to His name which is above all names! To be light to the lost, to guide them to the source of the light Jesus Christ. So that the world in which Jesus Christ came into to save the sinner may know that salvation is a free gift that the mercy of God is for all men. That Jesus came to tell us about an eternal citizenship. We as believers are a part of that work. We as believers live under the same government that non believers live under, but they do not have the same hope and promises that we as believers have. So it is important that they see a different citizenship that is not from man but from God. They suffer in many cases just the same as Christians under dictatorial regimes but they do not have the perspective that we are provided with. As a believer it is important that we show that our God is over all the governments and that we possess a peace from God that surpasses human understanding even when the authority over us may be difficult and even dangerous. This is the "peace" the lost world in which we live needs to see. We as followers of Christ are to be a witness of the confidence that Our God is over all governments of the earth. If as believers we find ourselves fighting, complaining and resisting the authorities above us, We portray a lack of confidence in the One we claim to be God over the entire universe and we can send the wrong message to someone God is trying to draw close to Him. We are to represent Christ and so our faith is never to be in the government but in the true and living God. It is perhaps one of the reasons that the earlier church spread throughout the world within 30 years. The pagan world saw a peace and confidence in the early Christians. Historians recorded about this group of people they called Christians and it was said they were model citizens that got the notice of even the Roman Empire because their submission to their authority. It was that witness under the influence of the Holy Spirit that the world was changed.