NOTE: If you landed on this page looking for the article about the most important thing you’ve lost, please click here and you’ll be directed to the appropriate blog entry.  Apologies for the confusion.  -Mark T.

Last week my computer started behaving badly.  Apparently it picked up a nasty virus somewhere, and I spent the better part of a morning trying to get everything functioning normally.  A computer virus is a first world problem.  A life-virus is a more serious problem.

Computer viruses (virii?) are instructions that govern your computer’s operation in unhealthy ways.  Too often we have “life-viruses” that govern our life’s operating system in unhealthy ways.  Here are some of the more prevalent viruses:

• We believe that our value is based on our performance
• We believe that life is better if we trust no one
• We believe that we should conceal our weaknesses in order to stay strong
• We believe that Jesus is only interested in the life after this life
• We believe that having more stuff is the pathway to happiness
• We believe that God only cares about certain kinds of people

These little “operating instructions” get into our lives and begin to do their nasty work.

• They mess up our relationships.
• They drive us into debt or workaholism.
• They prevent us from being who we really are.
• They lead to chronic loneliness.
• And they cut us off from the life Jesus calls us to.

It’s considered foolish to operate a computer without any antivirus protection.  So what about running life without antivirus protection?

The best antivirus for life is the truth about who God is, who we are, and why we’re here.  You won’t find that on the evening news, or on Facebook or Pinterest or Instagram.  You’ll find it in God’s revelation about himself.  Beginning with the Bible.

And if you’d like help understanding what that is, be sure to join us every Sunday at 8:30, 10:00, or 11:30.  Together we’ll root out the nasty viruses that the Enemy keeps trying to sneak into our lives.  Think of it as running a weekly antivirus scan on your life.

-Pastor Mark

P.S. If you missed last Sunday (and the Baptism Celebration), we looked at reasons to believe that the Bible actually IS God’s revelation to us.  You can check it out here.