Founder's Letter

Smyrna Fellowship started out as a family Bible study, a way to spread God's word to those closest to us. At that time our founders presented their children with a book of resources to aid in their studies, many of which can be found on this site. This letter was the introduction to that book. While meant for their biological children it can be applied to all of us on the journey to understand God's word .

To our children,

I pray that these pages that I have prepared will help you in your study of God's word.

There are so many wonderful stories and events that I could not include in these summaries, therefore these summaries are not intended to replace your reading of the entire books of the Old Testament. My intent is to give you a brief synopsis of each book to maybe help you see the theme of God's great love for humans and how He seeks to restore us back into full fellowship with Himself for eternity.

There are four thousand years of history including the "early world" and the "nation of Israel". The key that is so evident throughout is humankind's unsuccessful attempts to please God through works. Works can never remove our sins, therefore we desperately needed a savior, someone that can pay the price, someone who has never sinned and is willing to die in our place (death is the penalty for sin).

If we focus only on the New Testament (the history of Jesus the Messiah and the early church); we are failing to see how God's big picture fits together so perfectly.

I want to back up for a minute and point out something. 

God "spoke" everything into existence, our world and everything in it, with the exception of humans, which He "formed" with His own hands. He made us in His likeness or image, and "breathed" His own breath into us (your spoken words are creative or destructive because you are made like Him). He then gave us the world to enjoy and dominate. He gave us free will to choose. When God declares something or puts a law into motion, He doesn't change it; nor does He take it back. He is omnipotent (all-powerful) but He does not change. Therefore, to redeem man from his sinful nature, He needed man's permission or agreement. Since the world belongs to man, God then had to get man's agreement or permission in order to send a Savior into this physical world. THIS IS THE PURPOSE FOR THE SAINTS OF OLD TO PROPHESY AND SPEAK OF OUR COMING MESSIAH, which was spoken of over 300 times in the Old Testament over a period of 4,000 years. It took a long time but it came to pass.

We sometimes have to hear things over and over before we believe it or agree. Our Lord said "if two o more agree on any one thing, it shall be done". Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, had to agree and give permission for her body to be used for the birth of our Lord. When the angel appeared to her and told her of God's planfor her to give birth to our Lord, she said "let it be so, that whih you have spoken of". Isn't that awesome?!? God had chosen her for this task but SHE had to agree! This was the only way for our Savior (the Word became flesh) to enter into the physical realm and accomplish His purpose. To die a physical death to reunite us back to our Heavenly Father, God. This is a good place to shout! It all started in the Old Testament! Now, if that isn't love! We cannot comprehend the depth of our Father's love for us. Better be careful what you are saying, your words are prophetic. There is an in-depth study on your spoken words, for another day.

I hope you can see that the history of the Old Testament reveals the pathway to redemption for mankind.

We are responsible for our children's spiritual teaching, we contributed to their physical bodies, but their spirit came from God, and He gave us that responsibility. We need to gather them together and study His Word. This is the way it was done in the Old Testament, generation after generation. Only a small portion of children's teaching comes from the Pastor or the church. You are first; the priest of your own home.

I love each of you dearly and pray for you always,

Mom (Bertie) and Dad (Travis)