Pastor Exposes the Shocking Truth: Why Most Christians Don't Truly Know Jesus Through His Word — And What He Did About It
— Pastor James Mitchell, 18-Year Bible Teacher & Founder, Our Faith
They loved Jesus. They just didn't truly know Him.
They had been Christians for years — some their whole lives.
They prayed. They worshipped. They believed with everything they had.
But when it came to the Word Jesus left them — they were lost.
If you open your Bible and still feel like you are on the outside looking in...
If you have been a Christian for years and Scripture still feels like a locked door...
If you have ever wondered whether you truly know Jesus — or just know facts about Him...
Then what this pastor discovered could be the most important thing you read this year.
There is a quiet crisis inside the church.
It is not a crisis of belief. It is a crisis of understanding.
And it is separating sincere, faithful Christians from the very God they love.
18 Years of Ministry. One Question That Changed Everything.
Pastor James Mitchell had been teaching Scripture for nearly two decades.
He led Bible studies every Wednesday night. Watched his congregation grow. By every measure — he was doing everything right.
Then one night, a young man visiting the group — a skeptic — asked the question every believer dreads:
"If God is so loving, why does He let people suffer?"
Mitchell gave the answer we all give. "Free will."
The young man pushed back. "That sounds convenient. God gets the credit for the love, but humans get blamed for the suffering."
And in that moment — with all his years of ministry — Mitchell realized his answer was one sentence.
He could quote the verses. He just could not connect them.
He looked around the room at his people — and saw they could not either.
He sat alone in that empty room for a long time after everyone left.
Eighteen years of ministry. And he had been handing them stories — without ever giving them the whole story.
The Real Crisis Nobody Is Naming
The problem was not his congregation's faith. Not their devotion. Not how often they came to church.
The problem was that nobody had ever given them the foundation to understand what they were reading.
The Bible's real answer to suffering is not one verse — it is the whole book.
Genesis shows the fall. Romans explains why death spread. Job wrestles with innocent pain. Isaiah promises a suffering servant. The Gospels show God stepping into the suffering. Revelation ends with every tear wiped away.
When you can see that, Scripture speaks with its full weight.
When you cannot — it is just confusing sentences you have heard a hundred times and never truly understood.
So most believers open their Bible with genuine intention. And walk away more discouraged than when they started.
They close it. Put it back on the nightstand. And feel the quiet shame of loving a God whose own Word they cannot understand.
That is not knowing Him. That is knowing about Him.
And according to Jesus in Matthew 7 — those are two very different things.
The Three Signs You Only Know About Him
Pastor Mitchell began to see the same pattern in nearly every believer he met. Three quiet signs that someone knows a great deal about Jesus — but has never truly met Him in the Word.
You know John 3:16. You know Philippians 4:13. But you could not explain what the book around those verses is even about, who it was written to, or why. The words are familiar. The story holding them together is missing.
You move through Psalms just fine. Then you hit Leviticus, the prophets, Revelation — and quietly give up. Not because you lack faith. Because no one ever handed you the map to understand them.
"Can you actually meet God in the pages — or do you only know what you were told about Him?"
When someone asks why God allows suffering — or why you believe at all — you reach for one sentence.
Because you were handed the stories, but never the structure that holds them together.
And you cannot truly know someone whose own words you were never taught to understand.
Why Every Traditional Solution Keeps Failing
Pastor Mitchell spent months after that night trying to solve the problem.
Longer sermons. Did not work. His congregation went home and were lost again.
Devotionals. Did not work. Inspiration without foundation.
Commentaries and thick study Bibles. Did not work. Too dense. Too complicated.
Every traditional solution assumes you already have the foundation.
They give you more words about the Bible — without ever giving you what you need to understand the Bible itself.
The missing piece was never more explanation. It was foundation.
Who wrote each book. When. Why. Who they were writing to. What was happening in the world at the time. And how every book points to Jesus.
Once you have that — everything else falls into place.
What He Built — And What Happened Next
Pastor Mitchell spent weeks writing. Genesis first. Everything a person needs to know before opening Genesis. In plain language. No seminary terms.
He wrote it and rewrote it until his teenage daughter could read it and understand it completely on her own.
Then Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers. Every book of the Bible.
Sixty-six cards. One for every book.
The following Wednesday he put a copy at every seat. He asked everyone to read the card on the Gospels first. Then said — "Now open to Matthew."
"Their eyes changed," he recalls. "Not confusion. No blank staring. Understanding. True understanding. For the first time in 18 years of ministry — they were reading Scripture and actually meeting the Jesus behind it."
What These Cards Actually Give You
Our Faith Bible Study Tip-In Cards. 66 cards — one for every book of the Bible.
Each card gives you everything you need before you open that book:
✦ Why they wrote it and who they were writing to
✦ What was happening in the world at the time
✦ The key themes God was communicating
✦ How the book connects back to Jesus
✦ Practical steps to bring what you read into your life today
Written in plain language. No seminary terms. No complicated theology.
Designed to slip directly into your Bible — slightly smaller than the page, printed on premium cardstock.
Read the card before you read the chapter. Five minutes of context. Then open Scripture.
And the Bible you thought you knew becomes something you have never actually encountered before.
What Readers Are Saying
You Don't Need More Faith. You Need the Foundation.
You do not need another devotional. You do not need someone telling you to just read more.
You need the foundation you were never given.
There is nothing wrong with you. You are not a bad Christian. You are not too slow to understand God's Word. You were simply never handed the structure that makes it make sense.
And once you have it, the Bible stops feeling like 66 disconnected books. It starts feeling like one story — all pointing to Jesus.
66 cards. One for every book. Everything you need to finally know the Jesus who has been speaking to you your whole life.