As I stood in church enjoying the morning worship music my physical body finally gave in long before my spirit was ready to sit down. Edging myself down to the seat I placed my Bible on my lap and proceeded to sing with the crowd around me. In the middle of the song my Bible vibrated as if it was my cellphone telling me a message had come in.For a split second I thought maybe I did have my phone sitting under my Bible causing it to vibrate. Looking around I found my phone in my purse on the floor near my feet. Several times the Bible vibrated before I finally figured out what it was. Due to the sound system in the church and the volume in which they were running it, whenever they started to sing it created a vibration in my Bible.
The more I thought about it the more I looked down at the Bible in my hand. There it was before me larger than my cellphone smaller than my computer loaded with more messages than either of the other two could ever handle. As a smile came upon my face my imagination took flight as I thought about what it would be like if it too vibrated every time it had a message to send. It would never stop as it would be set on permanent vibrate.
The sad difference between the Bible and the cellphone and computer is our response to them. Whenever our phone goes off we instantly reach for it to check what the message would be. We excuse ourselves from the table, we leave the office room, and we stop in the middle of a conversation just to check our messages. We can't seem to get to them quick enough. We panic when we can’t find our phone; we need it beside us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When there is a pause in life we instantly bring out our phones to check or send messages, to play games, or to entertain us in some ways.
However, with our Bible we don't respond that quickly at all. We ignore all messages. We don't carry it around with us in our hip pocket like we do our phone. The chances of us “butt dialing” someone thru it is rare. We seem to be able to live without it on a daily basis. It’s the last thing we think about when we have a pause in life. It’s something that collects dust on the shelf quicker than the family photo. A necessity in life that isn’t needed 24/7 but on Sunday’s only if that. You will never see someone panic that they “can’t find their Bible!”
Bringing my imagination back to the scene of the crime I
began to wonder what message God had for me today. Was I going to sit there and
stare at my cellphone or was I going to open up God’s word and hear what He had
to say. I opened God’s word. Often opening up your Bible and randomly letting
your eyes fall where they may doesn’t always work but it works enough to give
us our messages from God.
For this Sunday morning the message that had come in thru my
Bible was the message the Preacher was talking about that very day. He talked
about the various reasons why people just don’t get the message of God. His
reasons were totally different than my cellphone analogy but we were both pretty
much traveling down the same path.
His reasons were: 1) the lack of information 2) a hard heart
3) lack of desire to hear and learn 4) Unwilling to accept a new reality 5)
Fear of “if I let go of my truth how do I know God’s truth will save me.” 6)
The fact that we love our sin more than we do the thought of a “new life”
without it.
The message of the day was to believe. Believing is
something we do and keep on doing. It’s a choice that is involved in all other
choices. Believing that God will see us thru anything in life, whether it is
cancer, troubled relationships, work, our daily desires and passions, grandchildren
issues, or anything else we need to believe.
We need to put our trust in the one that has everything in
control. As much as it doesn’t feel like that in certain moments we come upon it’s
the truth and it’s what we have to hold on to. Our message, our strength, our
guiding light in a darken world. It’s time to take our Bibles off “vibrate” and
turn the volume up in order to hear, listen to, and learn. When we let the dust
settle on our Bibles we allow it to settle in our hearts as well.
1 John 4:4 “You are of God, little children, and have
overcome them (the spirit of the
Antichrist), because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the
world.”
There’s our message. There’s our truth.
© 2012 Karen J.
Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes
for COCWF
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