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Pre-existence, Heavenly Mother and Father, and Jesus is our Brother… Say what?

My sister and I talk about those moments, the “is that just a Mormon thing” moments. Let me tell you, friends, there is a lot of stuff that is VERY different about the doctrine. And years and years later we still have moments where we are sitting in a bible study, we will say something about such and such and everyone will turn and look at us with the most perplexed look on their face.

And then we have to say, “that’s a Mormon thing, isn’t it?” 😂

Fortunately, we have both found places where people are pretty forgiving on this and laugh along with us.

Pre-existence has been one of those things for me. I genuinely mourned the loss of this concept. I 100% legit did not realize for a VERRRRRY long time that this is not a Christian thing. Well, let me say that again-

It is not a bible thing.

Whether you want to ride this train with me today and get some truth or not, I realize is going to depend on your belief in the bible. THAT is my biggest stumbling block with all of you and was MY biggest stumbling block as well. I was taught at five years old that the bible was not trustworthy. “So long as it is translated correctly.” Right? Manmade and corrupted.

Owie, that feels icky saying that now that I know God’s word, but regardless- I want for you, if you don’t currently believe, just for the sake of today’s episode, just say for this moment that you have faith in God’s word- the Bible.

Watch this video to help with this. Tim Mackie changed my life and the view of the bible completely. Well, that and God speaking His truth to me through it. But watch this video of Tim explaining the origins of the Hebrew Bible (old testament). So cool!

The Making of the Bible- Can I Trust it? 👇

Here is a shorter version 👆

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I’ve talked to my dad about the church

So Scary! But I finally did it. We have not talked God in so long. Never open and honest.

But it brought all this to the forefront. I sent him the video, Unveiling Grace. He sent me a church website article. He adamantly refused to watch the video, but I said I’d totally read his if he watched mine. And so the door of communication has finally been opened. Of course, this is all through text, but hey, you got to start somewhere.

But the article that he sent me, The War Goes On, from the church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints brought me back to a whole different place.

I know he thought it would bring me comfort, but if you are not lds the first sentence is going to send you into a place of huh? 🤔 It is a very different take on the beginning.

A View of Creation, God as a Man

And it reminded me of how small I once thought of God. I thought of him as a man, an exalted man. He was literally our father in that we were born in heaven of spirit to heavenly mother, where we all hung out. There were those that rebelled against God. They didn’t fear him or love him. They had no loyalty. Jesus was our older brother. He was like us. We were all like each other. God made Earth out of matter that was previously here, leftover from another God’s world, no doubt. God was someone who had once lived like us and did a really, really good job. He had done all the works required of him and was perfect. Jesus was His firstborn. Jesus loved us as an older brother should and offered to be the sacrifice for us. He chose this. In fact, we all chose to come. We chose it because we had done all the work in heaven we could possibly do. If we wanted to truly be like God, our father we had to come down here and get a body. Free agency.

Is this Biblical?

Okay, yuck, yuck, yuck. 🤢

No, none of what I just said was biblical. None of it. In the words of Taylor Swift, “Shake it off, Shake it off” 🎶

But it is what they believe, what I believed once upon a time because it was what I was taught.

But then…

John 1:1

Back when I first really gave my life to Christ, my daughter started in a homeschool program. It is Christian-based. Here, I gave my life to Christ, but I was still really learning. They memorized a verse in English and in Latin. Every day alongside her I had to recite John 1:1-7.

God is so good. He was so gentle with me. He allowed me to see how incredibly BIG he really is in such small steps.

So let’s look at John 1:1-13. Keep on reading, but we are going to start here.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:1-13 ESV

Let’s Break this down pretty ladies… How BIG is our God!?!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. 

The Word, my friends is Jesus. In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus WAS God.

We are going to get much more into the trinity in another episode, but friends, come on. Good right!?!

In the beginning- There was only God. Such a simple sentence. We were not there. We were not with them. No one was there but God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

NOT ANYTHING that was made. Nothing was made except what was made through Him. ALL things were made through Him.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Where does our life come from? In Him. In Jesus. His light shines in the darkness. Nothing is too big or too dark for His light. The light of the world is Jesus.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

This is John the baptist who was prophesied about in Isaiah. He would help to prepare the world for our God to become flesh and be the light in our dark world.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Our God would come in the flesh, Jesus, and give himself as light to all of us who believe. And through this belief, not before, but through this belief, we can become adopted into His family as a child of God as it says in Romans. Only then are we born again as children of God.

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Did I Just Blow your Mind? How BIG is God?

I’m sorry if you are new to all this and that was really heavy. As I said, I truly mourned that loss of pre-existence.

He says…

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”

Psalm 139.13

This happened as a creation of God. Not before.

Okay, I know this is a lot…

But I want you to think about something…
At the exact moment, I told you how young, how small, how insignificant you are, how BIG did God just get?

You see, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the literal beginning and the end. The great I AM.

He existed before anything that was made was made.

He created it all.

And with the most extreme care, like a master painter, like a sculptor of creation, He also created you. He didn’t just have you as a spirit child. No, He deliberately created you in your mother’s womb.

How BIG is our GOD!?!

What was in the Beginning?

The Bible has two, In the Beginnings- Genesis and John.

Have you all seen the Chosen? The first episode of the second season is all about John 1:1. I got me all choked up.

But in both accounts of the beginning, there is God.

I don’t think it requires much more than that.

The beautiful thing is how big He is, how small we are, yet how much He loves His creation.

Grace. How unbelievably lucky we are to have God so big.

If He can create all this from nothing and know us so intimately at the same time, wow, there is nothing He can’t do.

A Common Theme in Biblical Christianity- It’s not about you!

Remember at the beginning of this episode when I was talking about my mindset before I learned these BIG GOD, BIG BIBLE TRUTHS- I was convinced of my superiority, my understanding, my age, my imprint on this universe as someone who had hung out with God. I had things in order. Even if I didn’t really have much faith in God, at least at one point we had hung together.

A theme you are going to find as you get closer and closer to God in a build that relationship- it is not about you. It is not about me. It is about God. Whenever we put anything else above Him, even our own importance we are not living our purpose which is to know Him and make Him known. Idolatry is probably, I’m going to argue our easiest sin which leads directly to pride.

But before your like, wow, I am important Shelby, I want to say your right, but how prideful was I that I thought I was like God. He is so much bigger than I could ever know, and how cool is it that even though I am so small and so prideful at times and so full of sin He became flesh, a poor servant and died for me and I am still forgiven because He that is so big, made himself so small like me and to do the biggest thing that I could never do for myself. The cross.

My relationship gets closer when I always remember the magnitude of who He is and what He did.

A Prayer

Today, I pray for you. I pray that you know God’s, immense love.

I pray for those who don’t know Him. And while sometimes I do get sad that some people I love are so far from Him and I worry, my flesh worries that there is no hope, I am reminded once again of how big our God is. Nothing is beyond His grace. That is who He is. Hope.

So if you are at a place where you are feeling overwhelmed and maybe things just feel too much, remember nothing is too big for our God.

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“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Desuteronomy 31:6

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