Abby to God:

Dear God, I have so much to ask You! Lots of times it isn't even so much because I have to know the answers to my questions as I am eager to talk with You, about anything. Much as I try to constantly remind myself that I am never really separate from You, I forget more often than I would like to. I'll read something in the Bible and then go off to write to You about it, as if You were not with me at that moment, but would be later.

One thing my Bible study friends and I do agree on about You is the fact that You desire to have a relationship with all of us.

A question that they asked me a lot in the Bible studies was: how do you know? "How do you know it's really God in you telling you these things and not just your own thoughts?"

I could not answer them, not because I doubted the things that You tell me, but because I did not know how to explain to them what You say without sounding as if I were completely bashing their beliefs. What I wanted to say was, "How do we know anything? How do you know that this book of yours is, as you believe, from God and not from 'just men'? You have faith."

They also kept referring to the Bible as a standard for us to live by. I was thinking to myself, "But standards are for earthly things, aren't they? Can there be standards in Heaven? Do we have to have a standard?"

I came to the idea that the Bible is one of many guides. Kind of like a map. We don't necessarily have to use it to get where we're going, but it makes things much easier if we do. Could it be that maybe I have sort of a sense of direction without this map?

I'm not even entirely certain what I'm asking You here, but I would love to hear whatever comments or answers You have for me.

God to Abby:

Ah, My dear Abby, you want to talk to Me because I want you to talk to Me because I want to talk to you.

You and your friends agree on a vital issue. I do desire to have a conscious relationship with you. I desire you to be conscious of what We are to each other.

You answer your own questions very well, dear one.

I would like to talk a little about how the tightness of your friends' belief has separated you from one another. You even refer to the Bible as their book. They made it theirs rather than everyone's. Remind yourself that no one owns a book. They may own a copy of it, but no book belongs to one and not another. They do not own it. They have no more right to it than you do. They have no more right to Me than you do. What is of Me is for all. It is not rationed nor hoarded nor saved nor exclusive, for I am not exclusive. I am the most common thing there is. I am common to all.

And My truth is common to all. It is not reserved. It is not set aside for later. It is yours right now, according to your bidding.

Faith is not trust alone. You don't know something because you have faith. You know something because you have seen it or touched it. You know something because you have met it. I am talking true earnest face-to-face knowing. I am not talking learned knowledge. I am talking fresh knowledge.

If I exist now, and I assure you that I do, then I can be known now. If time does not exist, then I must be known now.

Yes, you have a sense of direction. I am your sense of direction. I lead you to Me. I leave breadcrumbs along the path so you can find your way to Me.

There are many messengers along the way that point My children to Me. You may be one, Abby. The Bible another. The Koran another. Poetry another. Great literature another. A Course in Miracles another. Jesus Christ Superstar. Godspell. Christ himself. Another's thoughts. Beauty of nature. The sky. A flower. Beauty of art. A baby. Music. Someone's voice. Someone's eyes.

There are many signposts pointing to Me. And there are many roads to Me. But there is only one Me to come to, and I share Myself with all. All.

And one can come to Me even from an island because I am calling him to Me. Someone can be deaf and blind and paralyzed and come to me still because I call him unto Me.

Ultimately, true knowledge comes from within. No book can do it without your heart. No heart can do it without Me.

A standard? That sounds like judgment.

I have one standard. You are Mine. That is all. That is your eligibility. And all are Mine. What judgment is needed? How could I separate My one child if I wanted to? And I never would want to. That is the one thing I cannot do. I cannot pick one and not another. I take the whole crop. I made it, and I reap it. It is Mine. Of that I am very sure and very possessive. Yet I give you freedom to find that out for yourself. That is the Truth.