FR OM YO UR H O P E F U L B R OT H ER IN C H R I ST

JAME S A L AN B US H

[Give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:20
May 2, 2016
Timothy Ross #V92842
Pelican Bay State Prison
P.O. Box 7500 B3-225
Crescent City, CA 95532
Dear Brother Ross,
Your letter was truly a Godsend, in that such a sincere expression of gratitude for my
letter, as was yours in your response, was most needed in my life, particularly given the
circumstances under which I live it. Because I am exposed to so many ungrateful,
cynical, angry, hate-filled and selfish people in this worldpeople who have everything
you and I never will (albeit people quite happy to have those things)it was painful to
read a letter from someone who dug as deep as you did to find every aspect of Gods
contribution to my efforts on your behalf, and to acknowledge each one with such
heartfelt sincerity, given that it was written by someone who has to endure the life that
is now yours. You deserve better, and by God, you will have it soon enough.
Here is what you should know about gratitude, what it says about you, and where it
will take you from here:
Gratitude is worship. To God, saying, Thank you, is a form of worship; in fact, He
recognizes thanksgiving as a sacrifice that brings Glory to His name:
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me.
Psalm 50:23
Gratitude heralds Gods elect. Heartfelt gratefulness at-the-ready is the hallmark of a
true child of God, and, as their defining quality, is how you find and come to know
your fellow brethren in Christ:
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

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This quality is one you possess in abundance, making it clear to me that you have
placed all of your hope in God, and making it equally clear that, in spite of your
circumstances and the prospect of a grave future, you have made great effort to (and
have succeeded at) keeping your heart a soft and open one.
You are chosen by Christ. The ability to recognize and appreciate things for which you
should be grateful is just a reflection of your souls desire to be called a true child of
God; however, the actual definition of such is made by a distinction between the two
classes of people that belong to this world, specifically, sons of God1 and sons of
Belial2. Ephesians 2 defines the difference:
And you hath he quickened1, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time
past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience2: among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even
as others.
Ephesians 2:1-2
You are distinctly different among others. One must accept as fact the assertion that
there is only one relevant difference among people in these latter days, and must also
acknowledge who arbitrates that distinction:
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of
the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us
understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by
being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
1 John 5:13-15, 19-20
God set you apart for His own. This is all the easier to accept when you consider that
God has a history of setting people apart as His own:
And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other
people, that ye should be mine.
Leviticus 20:26
For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is
it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from
all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?
Exodus 33:16
Your goal, then, should be to grow into that distinction more and more every day; and,
to do that, we look at the next step in your walk of faith: love.

Love leads to faith. From a heart of gratitude springs love and charity, the two
together being instrumental to the salvation of your soul. While its true that, in just two
short years, you will arise from the furnace of adversity that is your prison, your
freedom will avail you nothing if you do not know how to love, or if you have
developed an indifference to the needs of others or, worse, have learned how to hate.
Love is the focus of both the first and second greatest commandments; you cannot be
successful anywherefree or otherwisewithout it:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is
like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. All the Law and the Prophets hang
on these two commandments.
Matthew 22:37-40
Love is the power of God through you. Even those known for having the highest of
virtue and the greatest of righteousness acknowledge love as the more important,
counting all those things as loss in the absence of love:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom
all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do
not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to
hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
In the next letter (which I pray I can deliver much sooner than this one), I intend to list
ways you can grow in love, specifically, how to feel it, recognize it, express it and give
it in the manner in which Christ intended, and, in particular, under the circumstances
in which you suffer. That is a hard one, to be sure; but, I am convinced it is key to your
survival, so a great effort will be made.
In the meantime, hopefully you will write me again, and this time, with more about
you. It will be easier to be of service to you (and God) when I know where you want to
go from here.
Yours in Christ,

James Alan Bush