I’m on vacation for a few weeks, but I wanted to still share new posts while I’m gone.  However, I didn’t necessarily want to create them while vacationing, so I cheated.  Kinda, anyway.  I pulled the concepts and words from a sermon series I preached a number of years ago and consolidated them into blog posts.  Consequently, these posts are a bit longer than usual.  However, as always, I pray you find them interesting and encouraging.  Dave

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When I was a young boy, my parents had one phone.  Yes, you read that correctly.  My parents owned and used just one phone between the two of them.

The phone was actually fastened to the wall in my parent’s house.  It stayed there … all the time.

They never carried it in their pocket or purse.  And the part of the phone that you listened to and spoke into was fastened to the phone cradle with a cord, and you couldn’t move beyond the length of the cord.

Some of you who are a bit older know exactly what I’m talking about.  It was the same way in your homes.  But some of the younger folks reading this are undoubtedly thinking, “What in the world are you talking about?”  And perhaps, “Where in the world did you live that had such isolated and challenging conditions when a boy?”

Some of you have trouble comprehending a world where there would only be one phone in the house.   Or that said phone would be attached to the wall!  Let me assure you that the phone in my parents’ house was just like the phone in everyone else’s houses at that time.  People only had one or maybe two phones, and they were all permanently connected in one way or another in the homes where they happened to live.

And here’s another thing about the old phones.  You didn’t push numbers on buttons or screens to call someone.  Rather, you had to dial a rotating gizmo.  You stuck your finger in the hole over the correct number on the phone and rotated the dial.  This was called a rotary phone.

Let me further astound the younger readers.  When I was young, my parents’ single phone was connected to a “party line,” as it was called.  Party lines were shared with other people.  We shared our phone line with our neighbors. If the phone rang in a series of one ring at a time, it was an incoming call for my parents.  If it rang twice in quick succession, that was a call for our neighbors. 

Consequently, one would know when calls were coming in for the neighbors, but a person did not know how long that call lasted or when the neighbors happened to be making a call.  Which meant that there were times when a person would pick up the phone off its cradle to make a call, only to hear one of the neighbors already speaking on the line.  At those times, unless it was an emergency, we would have to wait to place our phone call.  And, of course, the ongoing concern was who might be secretly listening in on your conversation.

Pretty weird, huh?  And no, I’m not a hundred years old.  That was the way it was just 50 years ago!

All of these things seem so strange to us today.  It’s hard for many to even comprehend living with a phone system like that.  But here is perhaps the strangest thing of all to the younger readers: back when I was a boy, people used their phones for one thing, and one thing only – to make or receive phone calls.  That’s it!  Fifty years ago phones had just one purpose – to talk with someone.  That’s all!  You didn’t use your phone for anything else.

I’m guessing this is a difficult concept for some to fathom.  To only use a phone to make phone calls seems ridiculous.  Unimaginable.  Preposterous.  Unbearable even!

If you’ve ever been in a public place and looked around, you know how many people are using their phones …and almost constantly!

Here are just a few ways that people use their cellphones today:

Keeping track of time – many people use their phones as their watches

As an alarm clock or a stopwatch

Weather reports … locally or anywhere in the world

Taking pictures and movies

Staying up-to-date by reading the latest news articles

Staying organized – one can put their entire schedule on their phones now

Taking notes – people can even write on their phones these days

For navigation – there’s a GPS on your phone

For tickets – for movies, concerts … even plane tickets

For a personal assistant – instant answers

To purchase items … to scan bar codes … to pay bills … or to deposit money

Calculators – phones come with them now

Magnifying glasses – yup, there’s an app for that too

Playing games – choose your favorite game and you can find an app for it

Watching television shows or movies

Listening to music

Reading books

As a mirror – you can get an app that will provide you with the ability to see yourself on your phone screen

To control functions in your house, like your lights and appliances

To monitor functions in your home – is someone trying to break in?

For unique functions like tuning your guitar … or finding studs in the wall … or as a metal detector … or to measure something

As a recorder

To hold a video conference – to be able to see and talk with someone at the same time

To send instant text messages

Oh yeah.  You can also use your phone to make a phone call

That’s a list of 25 different ways people can use their phones.  And there’s so much more that our phones can do today.  That’s why they are called “Smart Phones.”  And many people … especially younger people … can’t imagine getting along without their phones.

In a very real way, our phones have become like gods to us.  If there is something one needs, the first thing they typically wonder is if their phones can help them. 

Is the information they desire on their phones already?  Often it is!  If not, there’s probably an app that they can get which will allow them to fill whatever need that they have

Have a question about something?  Ask Siri or Google.

Want to know the time?  Need to know the weather tomorrow?  Interested in the stock market prices … or the score in the game?  Check your phone!

Desiring to order a pizza?  Need to burn some time playing a game while waiting?  Interested in a movie for you or your children?  Use your phone!

If the typical person has a need, what’s the first thing they tend to go to for a solution?  Their phones!

People look to their phones as the ultimate life-managing, life-entertaining, life-fulfilling, and even life-rescuing tool.  And honestly, it’s hard not to!  Modern technology has made our phones so extremely useful that it’s very easy to get sucked into the idea that they can provide anything we need.

Which brings us to our simile of the day.  Our Saving God Is like Our Phones … only much better!

We think that we can access the deep pools of wisdom through our phones.  Well, the knowledge on our phones is nothing compared to the wisdom of God.

“Where then does wisdom come from?  Where does understanding dwell? … God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens” (Job 28:20, 23-24).

Furthermore, all the “wisdom” we find through our phones is not necessarily wise.  There’s a lot of human philosophy and anti-biblical thinking that is presented as truth when it really isn’t. 

Remember what Jesus prayed just before his arrest and crucifixion?  Speaking to his Heavenly Father, Jesus said, “Sanctify them (the believers) by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

So here’s the first thing we should take to heart.  If we need basic information like the weather forecast for tomorrow or the hours when a store is open, by all means we should use our phones. But if we need life answers, we should put our phones in our pockets and open our Bibles.

If we want to know who the true God is, and how he feels about us, and what he has done for us, and how to act towards others, and what to do in different situations, we should search the Scriptures.

If we want to know the answers to anything significant in our lives, we should NOT go to our phones.  Rather we should go to the absolute truth … the Word of God.  We don’t need any extraneous teachings; all we need to learn is what our God tells us.

We don’t need our phones for that, though it’s awesome if you have the Bible on your phones!  If you have the Bible on your phones – and you use it – then at those times your phones actually become wonderful tools for holding the absolute truth.  But otherwise, your phones should be secondary to God’s Word.

And what about our day-to-day needs?  Are our phones the answer?  We are tempted to say “yes,” but the correct answer is “no!”  The true source of provision for what we need in life is much better than our phones.  It’s the Lord!

David makes this clear in Psalm 36: “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, LORD, preserve both people and animals.  How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!  People take refuge in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 36:5-7).

Do we need assistance with something?  Do we need provision or protection?  The first place we should approach for our life needs is NOT our phones, but our Lord, who is like our phones, only much, much better!  In fact, the Lord himself tells us unequivocally, “Call on ME in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15).

And who is hearing and answering our prayed calls for assistance?  The Lord who loves us and who has saved us!  As Paul reminds us, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

The Lord is so much better than our phones!

If you are skeptical about that concept, give some thought to this: what will happen someday if or when the phone networks crash?  What good will your phones do you then? 

Or maybe something more easily considered.  What happens when our phones stop working?  I’m sure you have been there. It’s horrifying when our phone croaks, isn’t it?  It can absolutely shut down almost every aspect of our lives.  Dead phones can paralyze us.  And sooner or later, every phone gives out, doesn’t it?

Well, our God never dies.  Our God never stops working.  He never stops providing for us and protecting us.  He never stops guiding us.  God’s Word never goes out-of-date.  The Lord is always faithful; always reliable.  Long after our phones are discarded, our God is still taking care of us.

How incredibly comforting this truth is!  Our God will always be taking care of us; his truths will always be true.  In that way, our Lord is far better than any phone we have, or any phone we ever will have.