Message by Larry Thacker Jr from July 5: Lessons From Little Things
In this age of technology, we aren’t writing many actual letters. Some of us even find them to be a nuisance. I have often joked that I plan to put a paper shredder in place of my mail box and save myself a step. But a letter can be a thing of great value. Much of what we know of our nation’s history comes from the letters written by the people who made that history. They reveal the personality and motivations of the people who wrote them, giving us insight beyond that which would be provided by official records. It is from their letters that we learn the deep Christian convictions of many of our founders.
But there is another collection of letters that is much older and much more important. They make up around a third of the New Testament, and account for 21 of the 27 books. Just as the founders’ letters reveal the values that shaped our nation, these letters reveal the values that define God’s kingdom. They give us instruction in the way we should live, and they also reveal something of the people who wrote them. Details that we might be tempted to skip over because they don’t seem all that important actually help to authenticate the historical accounts and the people behind them.
As we near the end of our study of one such letter, the one Paul wrote to the church in Rome, we come to some of these seemingly insignificant details. There is a lot we can learn from them. This week we cover Romans 15:14-33. Nothing in God’s word is wasted.
