World Magazine reported: "A message in a bottle tossed into the Atlantic Ocean more than five decades ago recently made its way into a beachcomber's hands in Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the Bahamas. Paula Pierce of Hampton Beach, N.H., said her father tossed the bottle into the Atlantic near their seaside family motel sometime more than 50 years ago with a note inside that read "Return to 419 Ocean Boulevard and receive a $150 reward." Clint Buffington, who combs through beach trash for messages in bottles and posts the findings on his blog, found Pierce's father's erstwhile Coke bottle and made contact with the New Hampshire woman. No word on whether she plans to honor her father's $150 pledge." (http://www.worldmag.com/articles/18489)
What a neat story! But greater still is the message that God has given to us in His Word, the Bible. Certainly His message is not in a bottle. It is a book that is readily available to anyone who desires to have one to read. You can purchase one at a bookstore or you can receive one as a gift from the Gideons or you can get one at your local Christian church or you can even read it online! The Bible is readily accessible around the world and it is literally at your fingertips.
So what's the story? What gives? I've heard the Bible referred to as the Words of Life. What a great way to refer to God's Word. For in this Word you do find Life! The Word is this: that the Lord Jesus died according to the Scriptures, was buried, and was raised again according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4). That's the story!
Throughout the pages of the Bible you read about the need that each one of us has. What's the need? For our sins to be forgiven. The Bible clearly states that none of us is righteous in and of ourselves (Romans 3:10-18). And because none of us are righteous in our own right we fall desperately short of meeting God's standard (Romans 3:23). Now because of our sin we have a debt; the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). That is a hopeless situation, wouldn't you agree? But thanks be to God that His message doesn't stop there!
You see, if you accept God's story (that the Lord Jesus died according to the Scriptures, was buried, and was raised again according to the Scriptures) then you can receive the free gift that He is offering to you. What's the free gift? It's eternal life in the Lord Jesus (Romans 6:23).
For what reason did God do all of this through the Lord Jesus? Because while we were still sinners the Lord Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8). Wow! As you can tell just from these few verses, God is very interested in forgiving us of our sins! And I know what some of you might be thinking: "This seems to simple. After all, I've done some really bad stuff in my life." Guess what -- all of us have! And the offer of receiving His free gift is the same for all of us because all of us come to Him on equal footing. Every single one of us is guilty of sin and every one of us needs to be forgiven.
"So how do I get this forgiveness?" Again, a simple answer is given to us in the Words of Life:
That's how simple it is to believe the Words of Life that God Himself wrote so that we might have life -- and that the life He gives is eternal life. Here's a final thought:If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. (Romans 10:9, 10)
For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
