Recently, a group with the Keep La Marque Beautiful Commission in the city of La Marque, Texas, found a bottle while picking up trash at Highland Bayou Park.  Terry Pettijohn was walking along the shore when he found the bottle.  "It was buried about halfway," Pettijohn told the station. "I said, ‘You know, I think we’ve got a note in the bottle.’"

Opening the bottle, they found a handwritten note inside.  The note was written and signed by three young boys.  The note asked the finder to call one of two phone numbers listed.  “If not home, leave it on answer [sic] machine,” the note said. “Please leave phone #.”

Pettijohn called the two numbers listed, but they were both out-of-service.  Since the boys had signed their names, the Commission tried to track one of them down through Facebook.  They were successful; they reached Brian Standefer.

Standefer told Fox 26 Houston about his reaction when he saw the note that had been written on a piece of cardboard.  “I had to do a double take on the piece of cardboard,” Standefer told the station about when he saw the note. “[I thought] that’s my phone number. That’s my handwriting. That’s my signature.”

Standefer believes he was about 10-years-old when he and his friends wrote the note and put it into the bottle and launched it into the water hoping it would be found.  The note was found – about 27 years later, but only a couple of miles from where it was launched.

Finding the note has special meaning for Standefer as one of the friends – his best friend, Travis - that signed the note had passed away about a year-and-a-half ago. *

There is another message from the past that has extreme relevance for every person in the world, now and forever.  It is actually a collection of messages – 66 books, in fact – from about 40 different writers that lived in different parts of the world at different times.  They even spoke different languages.  The collection of books was written over a period of about 1600 years.  The collection of books composes the Bible.  The theme of the Bible is the salvation of man through Christ to the glory of God.  The theme indicates why it is vitally important for every human being in the world.

The Bible answers life’s biggest questions like “From where did man come?” (created by God), “Why are we here?” (to glorify God), and “Where are we going?” (we are headed to a day of judgment when our “verdict” determines our destiny).

The Bible identifies our greatest problem: sin.  It is a universal problem (Romans 3:23) with deadly consequences (Romans 6:23).  Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2).

The Bible reveals the Good News that despite our sins, God loves us and desires to save us (John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4).  God gave His own Son to die for our sins so that we can be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 6:23).

The Bible states that God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  God will continue to cleanse from sin and prepare an eternal home for those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

The Bible is a message from the past but it is eternally relevant.  It is not hidden; it is very likely that you own several copies of God’s Word.  Read it, study it, and apply it.  It will make an eternal difference.

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “Texas man reunited with 27-year-old message in a bottle he wrote as a child” by Ann W. Schmidt of Fox News, www.foxnews.com.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org