The beginning

I recently began a journey. After talking with an old friend, I am now on a mission. This friend is one i have known for quite sometime. She is Catholic. She is like many Catholics, in that she feels as if her faith has transformed into a ritual, rather than a personal relationship with God. She is looking for something more to it all. A close relative of hers recently found Christianity. She is amazed at the happiness that relative now has. She is pursuing this happiness. She has also observed the immense amount of change in myself, and also wants the common happiness.
In her Catholic faith she was never encouraged to read the bible. This is a common place within Catholicism. There are a lot of Catholic traditions, and practices which have little to no biblical backing. By biblical backing I mean they are not mentioned anywhere in between the covers of the worlds number one best seller. Purgatory, confessions, and being baptised at birth are just a few examples of this. The argument can be made that they could be mentioned in the old testament. In Hebrews we are told on 3 occasions that because Jesus came, died, and arose we no longer need to observe the old testament.
If we observed the old testament we would be walking around in robes with a sheep following us. Some old testament rules include: not being able to wear clothes of mixed fibers, not cutting your hair, or even something as crazy building a prayer hut the first week of every month. If we observed the old testament and sinned by not following one of these rules we then must offer a burnt offering. This means sacrificing an animal. As you can see when Jesus came and died it made our lives ALOT easier.
Back to my journey I encouraged my friend to partake in a quest. A quest for Christ. i told her i wanted her to read the New Testament. I wanted her to learn about Jesus and how EASY it is to find him. So we are going to read a chapter or two of Luke and have a bible study every night. In this journey I'm going to teach her what i know, and hopefully learn just as much about my faith.
If anyone is curious enough about what changed me, or simply want to talk, or maybe even join us in our reading I strongly encourage you to email me at keirshcochran@gmail.com. I really want to hear from you. Some initial problems you may have is the simple one of not being able to understand the bible you have. I suggest that you find a translation that is good for you. If you go to biblegateway.com it has just about every translation that is out there. I suggest and I read out of the New International Version, the New Living Translation is just as good, both are very understandable. The next problem she had was a complete loss in how to pray. I gave her this suggestion, break your prayers down to 4 simple steps:
1. STEP 1: PRAISE!! It says in revelation that God created a creature in heaven that says "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come." If God created a creature that says that all day everyday, don't you think he like to hear you praise him, tell him who he is. This is also a great way to just get in the mood of prayer.
STEP 2: REPENT!! Ask God to forgive you of your sins. Ask him to completely erase everything you have done wrong. This will make the next two steps effective.
STEP 3: THANK!!!! Think about all the things you HAVE...not want, HAVE. Thank him for it. You come into this world with nothing, you leave this world with nothing, so in theory any thing you have is profit. Even if you have nothing more to your name than a pair of socks. That's one more pair of socks that you came into this world with.
STEP4: ASK!! This is the best part. You can ask him for anything. If you are sincere, and its in God's will you will receive it. It can be anything from strength, to compassion, from knowledge, to a job.

Thanks for reading,
Keirsh.