Is Our Message Meaningful?...

Does the faith matter? Does The Bible have anything meaningful to say?

When in the 8th grade, I started going to church alone, most of my family never went. I went almost every week. I listened to the Pastor. No Sunday school. No Instruction Class. Only the preaching of the word. Maybe it helped that I was always barely on time. The only place to sit was up near the front. Fewer distractions.

I struggled with a question, “Why we do things that are wrong, even when we know they are wrong?” This wasn’t just my problem. I saw it in others. I could see it in the Newspaper and TV. My second question, “What is wrong with this world?”

The first service when I attended on my own was about the Book of Job. The problem of evil in the world. The behind the scenes contest between God and Satan. We don’t have all the answers for why there is evil in the world. Yet, God is still there for us and worthy of all worship.

I remember in one of those many services the Pastor’s Message was, “Who put the snake in the Valentine’s Box?” He talked about the Fall in Genesis three. He explained that human sin, which began in the Garden of Eden, spoiled the creation. This reality is why our relationships are so hard. Ever since the Fall, a sinner marries a sinner. We are all sinners from birth. Yet, all is not lost. Even in Genesis God lays the foundation for our salvation in Christ - the seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent.

Stray memories from a half century ago. Yet, I learned that the faith speaks to issues that we struggle with in life. The faith points us to a God who is at work in the world. His promise directs us to Jesus who died for us, rose for us, and comes again to give us a New Heaven and New Earth where sin is no more. Then, the world will be all it should be.

This coming Sunday, we read a glimpse of that new world when Jesus is Transfigured (Mark 9:2-8). We hear anew the words of the Father, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.”

(Editor’s Note: This column is written by a different Littlefield pastor for the Leader-News each week The columns are published on this page on Wednesdays.)