Wed. Night Impact

A cell phones purpose is to make a way for people to communicate. You must be able to speak and to hear the person that you are communicating with. Sometimes, my faith is like cell-phones that I have had.

I have a toy cell phone for Parker. It looks like a cell phone. It has a ringer. It has an antenna. But it doesn't receive calls. I will never hear somebody talking to me from another land, because the ear piece is a mirror. Sometimes, my relationship with God has been like this phone. I look like a Believer on the outside, but there's no relationship there. I'm not talking to God, and I'm not listening or hearing from God.

I have another cell phone that I broke. But I kept it charged because it had the best cell phone game of all time on it, "Snake." I would keep that cell phone just so I could play the game if I was ever standing in line or having to wait on somebody. Sometimes my relationship with God is like that cell phone. I would go to church, but it was just a game. I was there for the fun and the people. I really wasn't there to hear from God. I wasn't there to communicate with God. I was just there for the games...so to speak.

I have another cell phone that I dropped off the fire escape 4 floors. It didn't look like anything was messed up. However, I found out that people could hear me, but I couldn't hear them. I kept thinking people were pranking me. Then I realized, that my speaker wasn't working. Sometimes my relationship with God has been like this, where I'm talking to him, but I'm not hearing anything back.

My cell phone now is a Treo. It's got all kinds of cool stuff on it. I can get on the Internet. I can get e-mail. I can IM. I can play games. It's got a video camera and a digital camera. I can even see traffic on it. But the ringer is very, very soft. So a lot of times, it's in my pocket and when somebody calls I can't hear it. Sometimes my relationship with God has been like this. I have so much going on in my life, that I can't hear from God. Busyness gets the best of me, and I can't hear from God or do what He wants me to do.


I'm sure most kids can relate to one of these examples. Why does our relationship with God fall into these things so easily? We talked about sin in our lives. We talked about busyness and distraction getting between us and God. Then I talked about Moses. Moses had all sorts of excuses when God came to him at the burning bush and told him to lead the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. He didn't think he was good enough. He didn't think he was a good enough speaker and that nobody would listen to him. But God used Moses in spite of himself. God used Moses to do amazing things, not only start a country, but to write 5 books of the OT, bring down the 10 commandments, and to talk with God as if they were face to face.

God showed the Israelites that He wanted a relationship with them. He used Moses to show that God cares individually for the people. And still today, God wants a relationship with us. And like Moses, He has a purpose for us. If we aren't worshiping God, learning about God, communicating with God, then we are like a cell phone that doesn't make calls. It's just a toy or a gadget that doesn't fulfill it's purpose. We must put God as our priority.

So, I'm not going to let my relationship with God be a game anymore. I'm not going to be fake. I'm not going to put God and church as just another thing in my life. I'm going to listen. I'm going to talk to God. I'm going to fulfill the purpose for my life that God has for it. This is what we talked about last night, and the next time you use your cell phone, think about your purpose with God.

This is a funny video about cell phones that I showed last night too.