I love the idea of sending a message in a bottle. I have always wanted to write something on a piece of plain white paper, roll it up, slip it into a bottle and let the ocean’s currents take it away to a far away land. Safe inside the confines of the glass bottle, the words would travel through time and vast oceanic expanses. After many months or years, the bottle would wash up onto the shore and eventually into someone’s hands.
How exciting it would be to find that bottle and read the contents of the note contained inside. Now suppose the writer of the note was a president, a king or what if the message came from outside of our world, beyond time and space, wouldn’t you be interested in reading it?
The fact is that we have a message just like that. The bible is a love letter from our Creator. What a treasure we have at our fingertips and what a tragedy if we never discover the wisdom contained inside.
I talk to people who say they don’t believe in God. They give me all sorts of reasons for their lack of faith but basically it comes down to the absence of solid evidence. Although misguided, they are in good company. Even one of Jesus’ disciples, Thomas, said “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” John 20:25 NKJV.
We know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, but unless we open and hear the word, the seeds of faith can’t be planted in our hearts. All faith needs to grow is a seed, some water and some warm light from the Sun.
Found in the book of Hebrews is a verse describing what the substance of faith looks like. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 NKJV.
From the beginning, God had instructed that sin can only be covered up with blood. “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin”. Hebrews 9:22. Standing on your faith, trusting God’s instructions, is always the best line of action.
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by offering up a lamb from the flock. Cain on the other hand trusted in his own abilities to give an offering of wheat.
Noah, who had never seen one drop of rain, by faith built an ark to God’s specifications and saved his entire household. The souls who did not perish in the flood were only the people who obeyed God and boarded the ark. Once they were inside, it was God who shut the door and kept them safe while the earth was flooded.
On faith Abraham left his homeland and journeyed to a land he had never seen before. Even when God asked him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, Abraham obeys but God delivers Isaac from certain death by providing a ram caught in the thicket. Two thousand years later, on that same mountain, Moriah, God would provide His one and only son to become payment for our sin.
So God did send us a message but it was not hidden inside of a bottle. Instead, He carefully inspired men to record ahead of time foretelling what was going to happen in the future. Then through the blood of many martyrs, the books were canonized, published and distributed worldwide.
One day Jesus will return as the King of kings and the Lord of lords to shepherd His people and put an end to sin. At that time all of us who have put our trust in Him, will rejoice as the Lamb of God takes the scroll and breaks its seals, redeeming the earth.
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1,2 NKJV.
Dean Kellio is senior pastor at Oakzanita Springs Fellowship, Thousand Trails Campground, Highway 79 in Descanso. He is also the author of a new book titled “The Well with the Holy Name” written by Daniel Thomas.
