Cell Phones

Cell phones are wonderful inventions. As long as you have your phone with you and it is changed up, you can make a call from almost anywhere. Unfortunately telemarketers are starting to get a hold of some of the numbers. Suddenly it seems almost impossible to get away from them- unless you live in Bancroft. Fortunately the reception in town is bad enough that you can hope your call will be dropped if a telemarketer happens to call you.
-
Now I really should not complain because the reception is better in some parts of town, and even in some parts of the house, than in others. For example, I get the best reception of all in my office. That is truly a blessing, because that is where I make most of my calls. I‘ve learned however, that if I have an important call, I should not walk around with the phone. I recently did that with my brother and the call was dropped. I talk to him often enough that he has gotten used to it and knows that I am not just hanging up on him.
-
In spite of the challenges of dropped calls, the cell phone is still a useful tool. I really like the caller ID feature. This lets me know the number and often the name of the person calling me. Sometimes, however, I get calls that have no identifying number. After a while, I figured out that these are often the telemarketers. Aha, that gave me a caller idea. If I am in the middle of something and do not want to be disturbed, I do not have to answer the calls with no number by them. If it is really important, they can always leave a message.
-
As I write this, I must ask if there are any lessons we can learn about God based on the illustration of the cell phone. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing.” With the cell phone we often wait to make our calls until we have free minutes, but we should not just wait for our free minutes to talk to God.
-
Now I must ask, do we ever have to worry about dropped calls with God? Our first thought may be to say no, but is that really what the Scripture teaches? Psalms 66:18 makes it clear that, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” May we be careful not to shut down communication between God through sin. Thankfully, that problem is easier to rectify than a lost cell phone signal. For, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9.
-
Essentially sin is the only thing that can interfere with our communication with God. We are not dependant on signals, towers, satellites, or even other men. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” I Timothy 2:5.
-
Finally, I cannot make a call on my cell phone if I have no battery. Without power, my phone is useless. We have already established that if we regard sin in our hearts, the Lord will not hear. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. That means that all humanity has the problem of sin standing between them and their prayers to God. The only way to have our sins forgiven is through Christ alone. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:24-26.
-
These verses make it clear that Jesus is the justifier, no one else. The sin problem for all humanity is presented in verse 23, then Jesus Christ is presented as the solution. It is through His righteousness, not our own. This fact is made even more clear as we read the very next verse of this passage: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” Romans 3:27.
-
When our sins are forgiven so that we can be reconciled to God, we have nothing to brag about, because it was through the righteousness of Christ, not through any of our own works. This brings us to a final point, I have to pay to use my cell phone, but I do not have to pay for salvation- Christ paid it for me by grace. Romans 11:6 says, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” Titus 3:5-7 affirms, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”