First Nations Version

by Terry M. Wildman

  LEARN FROM THE ANCESTORS

  18For you have not come, as your ancestors did, to something that can be touched—a mountain blazing with fire and smoke, with clouds of darkness and gloom, and a windstorm.

  This happened long ago when Drawn from the Water (Moses) was given the tribal law on Mountain of Small Trees (Sinai).39

  19There the eagle bone whistle40 was sounded. A voice spoke out from the mountain, but the people begged the voice to stop and not speak to them again. 20For the instruction, “Even if an animal touches the mountain, it must be put to death with stones,”41 was too much for them to bear. 21The vision set before their eyes was so fearful that Drawn from the Water (Moses) cried out, “I am trembling with fear!”

  A NEW PEACE TREATY

  22But you, my much-loved relatives, have not come to a mountain like this. Instead, you have come to Strong Mountain (Zion) and to the Village of Peace (Jerusalem) from the spirit-world above, the village of our Creator who is the Maker of Life. This is where many thousands of the spirit-messengers have gathered to celebrate a great festival!

  23This is also a gathering of the great sacred family, who are the firstborn whose names have been written down in the book of life kept in the spirit-world above. You have come to the Great Spirit, the one who decides for everyone who has done right and who has done wrong, and to the ones in good standing whose spirits have been made whole. 24Yes, you have come to Creator Sets Free (Jesus), the peacemaker of the new peace treaty between the Great Spirit and human beings. You have come to the blood that has been sprinkled, which says better things than the blood of His Breath Goes Up (Abel).

  A SHAKING OF ALL THINGS

  25Make sure you do not turn away from the voice of the one who now speaks! For if the ones who turned away from him who warned them on earth did not escape, how will we escape if we turn away the one who speaks from the spirit-world above? 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but he has now promised once more to shake both the earth and the spirit-world above.42 27When he says “once more,” this means he is removing those things that can be shaken, things that are of this creation, so that which cannot be shaken will remain.

  28So then, since we are welcoming a good road that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks to the Great Spirit and serve him in a good way, with much honor and respect. 29For our Creator is an all-consuming fire.

  LOVE AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS

  1Keep loving each other as brothers and sisters of the sacred family. 2Do not forget to be kind and welcoming to strangers, for in this way some have welcomed spirit-messengers without knowing it. 3Keep the ones who are in prison in your thoughts as if you were there with them, and those who are mistreated as if you in your own body shared their suffering.

  4Marriage is honorable, and the marriage bed is pure, but Creator will decide the guilt of all who are sexually impure and unfaithful in marriage. 5Keep yourselves free from the love of possessions and be at peace with what you have. For the Great Spirit himself has said, “I will never leave you or give up on you.”43 6Because of this we can boldly say, “The Great Spirit Chief is the one who stands with me. Why would I fear what human beings can do?”44

  WISE WORDS OF COUNSEL AND COURAGE

  7Never forget the ones who blazed the trail before you, the ones who were first to tell you the message of Creator’s good story. Think deeply about the manner in which they lived and died, and follow in their way of trusting.

  8Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One remains the same yesterday, today, and to the time beyond the end of all days.

  9Do not let all kinds of strange teachings take you down a wrong path. For our hearts are made strong by the gift of Creator’s great kindness, not from following rules about what foods to eat. These kinds of rules have not helped those who have followed after them.

  10The ones who still serve in the tent lodge on earth have no right to share in45 our ceremonial altar. 11For each year the chief holy man takes the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as an offering for the people’s broken ways. The bodies of those animals are then burned outside the camp. 12Creator Sets Free (Jesus) offered his own lifeblood to make the people holy and suffered outside the village gate. 13So then, let us join him outside the camp, sharing in the same kind of disrespect and shame that he suffered. 14For we are not seeking an earthly village that will fade away. We are seeking the village that is coming down from the spirit-world above, one that will remain.46

  MORE WISE COUNSEL

  15So then, through Creator Sets Free (Jesus), let us keep giving thanks as a sacrificial offering to the Great Spirit. This is the fruit of our lips, giving honor to him and all that his name represents. 16And do not forget to do good and share with those who are in need, for these are also sacrificial gifts that make Creator’s heart glad.

  17Follow the guidance of your spiritual leaders and give way to their instructions. For they must give an answer for the guidance they provide. So let them do so with glad hearts and not with sorrow, for that would not be a good thing for you.

  KEEP SENDING UP PRAYERS

  18Keep sending up prayers for us, for deep inside we are sure that we are walking in a good and honorable way. 19I ask you this with all my heart, so that I may soon return to you.

  20The Great Spirit of Peace is the one who raised up from the dead our Honored Chief Creator Sets Free (Jesus), the Great Shepherd of the sheep. It is through his lifeblood that we now have a peace treaty that will last beyond the end of all days. 21May the Great Provider give you everything you need to do what he wants done. He is working, through Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One, to do in us the things that make his heart glad. He is to be given all honor to the time beyond the end of all days. Aho! May it be so!

  FINAL WORDS

  22So now, my relatives, I counsel you to take to heart this short message. I have written it to lift you up and give you strength. 23I want you to know that our spiritual brother He Gives Honor (Timothy) has been set free from prison. If he comes soon, we will travel together to see you. 24Greet all your spiritual leaders and all of Creator’s holy ones. I send you greetings from those in Land of Young Bulls (Italy).

  25May the gift of Creator’s great kindness be with you all.

  Aho! May it be so!

  HE LEADS THE WAY TO THE SCATTERED TRIBES

  JAMES

  GREETINGS

  1From He Leads the Way (James), a sacred servant of the Great Spirit and of our Honored Chief, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One.

  To the twelve tribes scattered like seeds among the nations. I send joyful greetings!

  WISDOM FOR TIMES OF TESTING

  2My sacred family members, whenever your trust in the Great Spirit is tested, count it as a reason to dance for joy. 3For you know that when your trust is put to the test, your ability to stand firm grows stronger. 4So keep standing firm until you have passed the test. Then you will have gained all the maturity and strength of character needed to finish walking the good road.

  5If wisdom is needed, ask the Great Spirit, for he freely gives wisdom to all who ask and never holds back. 6But when you ask, you must put all your trust in him without doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave in the sea tossed about by the wind. 7People who doubt should not hope to receive anything from our Honored Chief, 8for they have two minds, not knowing which one to follow.

  WISDOM FOR THE POOR AND THE RICH

  9Those sacred family members who have little should take joy in the honor Creator bestows on them. 10And the ones who have much should take joy in knowing that they will be humbled because they will fade away like a wildflower in the grass. 11For the sun rises with its fiery heat and dries up the grass, causing the wildflower to fall to the ground and its beauty to fade away. This is how it will be for those who go about working so hard to get many possessions.

  12Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who stand firm under testing, for once they have passed the test, they will receive the headdress of life that ha
s been promised to those who love the Great Spirit.

  WISDOM FOR TIMES OF TEMPTATION

  13When tempted, no one should say, “Creator is tempting me.” For the Great Spirit cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. 14We are the ones who tempt ourselves when we are lured away and trapped by our own desires. 15When an evil desire takes root in our hearts, it gives birth to broken ways. When these broken ways have taken over, they drag us down a path that leads to death.

  GOOD GIFTS COME FROM THE FATHER ABOVE

  16Do not be misled, my sacred family members. 17Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above, who gave us the sun, moon, and stars. But unlike them, the light that comes from the Great Spirit never dims, flickers, or casts a shadow. 18Creator is the one who chose to birth us into being by his word of truth so that we would be the first of all creation to truly be who he made us to be.

  TURN AWAY FROM HUMAN ANGER

  19Knowing this, my much-loved family members, we must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. 20For human anger will not take us down the path of Creator’s right ways. 21So scrape off all the mud of your evil ways and humbly receive the message that the Great Spirit has planted deep within you. This will set your heart free and make your mind whole.

  DO NOT ONLY HEAR THE MESSAGE

  22But make sure you do not fool yourselves. You must not only hear this message. You must also walk in its truth. 23For if you only hear but fail to walk true to the message, you are like a man who sees his own face reflected in a pool of water. 24Then, right after looking at himself, he walks away and forgets what he looks like. 25But take a good long look into the perfect way of life, the law of love that sets people free. Stay true to its message, not forgetting what you have heard but walking in all its ways, and Creator’s blessing will rest on all you do.

  26All who represent themselves as spiritual but do not keep their tongue under control are only fooling themselves—their spirituality is worthless. 27But the one whose spirituality is pure and spotless before our Father the Great Spirit takes care of widows and orphans, and keeps himself free from the evil ways of this world.

  TREAT ALL PEOPLE IN THE SAME WAY

  1My sacred family members, as you trust in our bright and shining Honored Chief, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One, do not treat one person better than another. 2Let us say someone comes into your sacred gathering wearing fine clothes and costly jewelry, and some poor person comes in dressed in rags. 3Then you give more honor to the one wearing fine clothes, saying, “Come, sit here in this honored place,” but you say to the one dressed in rags, “Go, stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor where people lay their feet.” 4If you treat people in this way, have you not decided that some among you are better than others and acted like crooked council members with bad hearts?

  5Hear me, my much-loved sacred family members! Did not the Great Spirit choose the ones the world looks down on as poor to be rich in trusting and sharers together in the good road that Creator has promised to those who love him? 6Why would you show no respect for the poor? Is it not the rich who drag you down and bring you before their own corrupt councils? 7Are they not the ones who speak evil against the Honorable Name spoken over you?

  THE TRUE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF THE LAW

  8If you “love your fellow human beings in the same way you love yourselves,” as it says in our Sacred Teachings,1 you are doing well, for you are walking in the true meaning and purpose of the law of our Honored Chief. 9But if you treat one person better than another, you are walking in broken ways and guilty of not following our Sacred Teachings. 10For whoever does everything our tribal law requires yet fails in one thing is guilty of breaking all of it. 11The one who told us to be faithful in marriage2 also told us not to take the life of another.3 If you are faithful in marriage but take away the life of another, you have become one who fails to keep the law.

  12In all that you say or do, remember that it is the Chosen One’s law of freedom that Creator will use to decide for or against you. 13When the Great Spirit decides, no mercy will be shown to those who have not shown mercy. On the other hand, the ones who have shown mercy will have mercy shown to them. So then, mercy wins the victory over judgment.

  HARMONY BETWEEN FAITH AND DEEDS

  14What good is it, my sacred family members, if a man says “I have faith,” but has no deeds to show for it? Can that kind of “faith” set him free and make him whole? 15If a family member or any human being has no clothes to wear or no food to eat, 16and you say, “Go in peace, stay warm, and eat well,” but fail to give what is needed, what good have you done?

  17In the same way, without deeds, faith by itself is dead. 18But someone will say, “Faith is what is needed,” while another says, “Good deeds are what is needed.”4 I say that both are needed. You show me your faith without good deeds, and I will show you my faith by the good deeds I have done.

  EXAMPLES OF FAITH AND GOOD DEEDS

  19You believe there is only one Great Spirit. Good! But evil spirits also believe and tremble with fear! 20Are you the kind of shallow person who needs to be shown over and over again that faith without good deeds has no worth? 21So I ask you, was not Father of Many Nations (Abraham) shown to be in good standing when he put his son He Made Us Laugh (Isaac) on the sacred altar as a sacrifice?

  Long ago the Great Spirit promised Father of Many Nations (Abraham) a son even though he was too old to father a child. For many winters he kept trusting that the promise would come true. Finally, his promised son was born, the son whom the Great Spirit said his descendants would come from and through whom all nations would be blessed. But Creator told Father of Many Nations (Abraham) to take his son and offer him as a sacrifice. His trust in the Great Spirit was so strong that he believed even if he sacrificed his only son Creator would bring him back from death. So he began to do what he was told, but the Great Spirit sent a spirit-messenger to stop him just as he was about to sacrifice his son.5

  22It is clear to see that his faith was in harmony with what he did. His faith was completed by his deeds. 23This gives full meaning to the Sacred Teaching that says, “Father of Many Nations (Abraham) trusted the Great Spirit, and this gave him good standing in Creator’s eyes.” It was for this reason that he was called the friend of the Great Spirit.

  24So you can see that human beings do not have good standing only by trusting but also by what they do.

  25It was the same for Boastful Woman (Rahab), one who traded her body for possessions. Did she not do what was right in Creator’s eyes when she took in the spies that were sent from our tribes and helped them escape by sending them out another way?

  26In the same way that a body has no life without the spirit, so faith has no life without deeds.

  THE POWER OF WORDS

  1My sacred family members, not many of you should become teachers of our spiritual ways. For you know that we who teach will face a stricter judgment. 2We all stumble on the path in many ways. But if we could keep our words from hurting others, we would be mature human beings, able to aim our whole lives in the right direction.

  3Those who put bits into the mouths of horses are able to move them in the direction they want them to go. 4It is the same with a canoe. Even when a large canoe is being pushed by strong winds, it takes only a small paddle to steer it where someone wants it to go.

  5In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts about great things. A large forest can be set on fire by a tiny flame, 6and the tongue is itself a flame of fire. The tongue is a world full of evil and spreads its poison throughout the body. The words spoken by the tongue have the power to set on fire the very circle of life itself, and its flames come from the Valley of Smoldering Fire.6

  NO ONE CAN TAME THE TONGUE

  7Every kind of four-legged beast or winged one of the air and every reptile or sea creature can be tamed and have been tamed by human beings. 8But no one can tame the tongue. It is an evil that ne
ver rests, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless the Great Spirit, our Honored Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in his image. 10Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My sacred family members, this should not be. 11Does both sweet and bitter water come from the same spring? 12Can olives and figs come from the same tree? Can a grapevine bear figs, my sacred family members? Not at all! And neither can saltwater be used to make water fresh again.

  TRUE AND FALSE WISDOM

  13Are any among you wise and understanding? Then show it in the way you live, doing good from a humble and wise heart. 14But if your hearts are full of bitter envy and selfish desires, then stop boasting and speaking lies to cover up the truth about yourselves. 15This is not the kind of wisdom that comes down from the One Above Us All. Instead, it is from this world. It is unspiritual and of the evil one. 16For where there is jealousy and selfish ways, you will also find confusion and all kinds of evil at work.

  17But the wisdom that comes from the One Above Us All is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, full of mercy, and open to another’s way of seeing and thinking. People with this kind of wisdom are like trees filled with good fruit. They have open hearts with nothing to hide. 18This wisdom will bring about a harvest of doing what is right, because they are peacemakers planting seeds of peace.