Lost dogs

Everyday, my mom and I go on the same walk. We have to drive to get to this particular road so we load the dogs into the back of the car and drive a few minutes down the street so we can walk undisturbed down this pretty country road. 


Today, after we finished, we pulled into the driveway and my mom asked me to get the mail. I headed to the mailbox and she went inside. 


It was only a moment after I walked in the house, mail in hand, that I noticed the absence of jingling collars. "Did you let the dogs in?" I asked. Absent-mindedly, my mom told me they were still outside. "Mom, they don't have their boundary collars on!" I said, worried about my new pup. I didn't trust her not to run away quite yet. "Oh, they'll be there," she replied. 


My dad and I, both much more concerned, called for them. When they didn't come, the panic set in. I pulled my boots back on and went outside calling for them. I remembered the last time this happened, I had found Bella in the middle of a swamp. I had to put on my big rubber boots and fish her out of pond sludge three feet deep. 

Bella

In the winter, I had no idea what sort of things could happen. My mind raced, thinking about soft spots on the lake where they could fall through the ice, crazy drivers on icy roads, hillbilly hunters in the woods that would mistake Bella for a deer... 

Maya

I got into my car to conduct a proper search. As I went to turn the ignition I glanced over at my mom's car and saw my puppy, Maya, staring at me from the driver's seat. 


We had never let the dogs out of the car.


I jumped out and opened the doors to let them out. By that time, my mom had her boots on too and was calling for the dogs in the front yard. 


"MOM! You never let them out of the car!" I yelled.
"You were supposed to!" She yelled back.


We argued back and forth over who was the bigger ditz for a couple of minutes then both resigned. Mom went back to baking and I sat down to write. 


What a perfect example, I thought. Here we were going berserk looking everywhere for our dogs who were right where we started all along. Similarly, people are desperately seeking meaning to their lives, trying to find their purpose, all the while arguing back and forth about who's right, who's wrong when typically they both are in one way or another.  


Admittedly, finding the truth is not as simple as just going back where you started. Centuries of misplaced doctrine has been assigned to our generation by the Greeks, Romans, as well as generations of depraved and self-serving religious leaders who all have turned faith into a game of telephone. He said do this and she said do that. No wonder people are fed up with the idea of a higher power. Even those that believe still follow the misguided dogma of those who came before them.


I walked through the halls of the church I grew up in yesterday where I saw balloons lining the halls reading 'Happy Birthday' in honor of the Christmas season as if Christmas is a big birthday party for Jesus. I couldn't help but be so FRUSTRATED. This is not a personal attack on my church, or the people who attend it, but if we are going to believe in Christ, shouldn't we KNOW that his birthday is not on December 25th? I learned that in high school! But furthermore, shouldn't we know Christ's ACTUAL birthday (the Feast of Tabernacles) and celebrate it as such instead of a pagan day on which Jews were shamelessly persecuted throughout history? 


All I saw when I looked at those balloons were more generations of people who would undoubtedly find holes in the faith that they depend on. I saw the kids who would grow up like me, believing and then being disappointed when the God they were told about didn't make ANY sense. When the stupid rules that the church set in place would become too much of a burden to bear and prayers would slowly grow silent, suffocated by disbelief. 


But all the while, we know there has to be something. We are not just here to live, have babies and die, are we? We are animals, yes, but mankind is undeniably set apart in the sense that we question our meaning. 


Bill Muehlenberg, author of 'The Unbearable Heaviness of Being', wrote, "Announcing, and believing, that God is dead has consequences. And it is we who suffer the most for it. We cannot bear the whole universe on our shoulders. We were not meant to. We must let God be God. Only then can men be men. Only then can we find the way forward to be possible, and the burdens not insurmountable."


This was true, at least for me, when I declared in my own heart that there was no God. I needed something, though. I read countless books on philosophy and buddhism, trying to find a way to live without God and also, peaceably. I meditated, sometimes for hours. I searched for ways to discredit the bible and ignorantly spouted off statistics and biblical mistranslations, mainly to piss off my devout Christian parents. 


I said a lot of stupid things back then, but I was right about one of them. Religion is, in large part, terribly misguided and the bible mistranslated. I knew there had to be a God, but I knew that the God of the modern day Christian church could not be plausible. 


Amazingly, like my "lost dogs," I found the answers where it all began: the bible. 


Painfully obvious, right? Let me explain. 


My bible study no longer consists of a colorful book full of feelings and an NIV. The books I use are bigger and heavier then all the ones I used in college put together! I often need two or three just to work through a page or two of scripture. I have a copy of the bible in its original Hebrew and Greek and I have to use several other books to slowly pick through and properly translate the passages. I research the history and context of what is being written as well why it was included in the cannon of scripture in the first place. 


What I have found would BLOW your MIND. You see, we miss the coolest parts of the bible simply because we read it in English. We misunderstand these translations further in our ignorance of the Hebrew culture and human history in general. When we study it in the original Hebrew, there are countless prophecies that have already come to pass, hidden meanings and words that in Hebrew are FAR BEYOND coincidence, but are lost in translation. Sometimes, I get CHILLS because it's so CREEPILY accurate. 


There is more than enough within the bible alone to prove its scientific and historic accuracy, as well as a TON of supporting evidence outside of it. You just have to dig! You can't just pop in a tape or read a book and believe that that person knows what they're talking about just because they're a pastor. The bible has been taught incorrectly for too long. We need to see for ourselves. We need to go back to the beginning! 


Now, I realize that not all of you are willing to bury yourselves under a pile of books that weigh forty pounds everyday for fun. Who has time for that?!


I'll tell you who: THIS GIRL! 


I am studying everyday so that I can give my readers the most accurate historical accounts of the bible as well as the truth about what it says in its original form. And I have an AMAZING group of women here who have been such a huge help to me in so many ways; (Special thanks to Kelly Greene and Donna Corker who have been an ENORMOUS help, both in freely providing me with costly research tools as well teaching me how to use them! HOW will I ever thank you?) 


Also, I apologize if parts of this blog come off as being offensive. I don't mean to attack the church or the people who go to church. I can only speak the truth as I see it, and the what I have found is that the truth is not what the church has been telling me. 


I've made it my mission to question ALL that the church has taught me, sift the truth from the garbage, and write about it in this blog. 


I hope that what I find helps you as much as it helped me.


Love,


Ashley 




Do YOU want to know the truth about Christmas? Click HERE! 


If you would like to learn about Christ's real birthday as well as the actual holidays God called us to celebrate, click HERE! 


Finally if you would like to read more about why I started this blog, click HERE!