I did a mass mailing to thousands of my readers one time, and I received a return notice that two of the people on my list had died. One of them had this autoreply on his e-mail: “I Have Passed on to My Heavenly Reward. God does not have an email server so your message will never be seen.”
I thought that was a clever way to reach out beyond the grave and encourage people.
Encourage?
Yes! He is free from e-mail forever . . . Now that is encouraging. He could have added that he wouldn’t be watching any more hate-filled 24/7 Fake News blaring from every corner of the world. Now that is also very encouraging.
I’m old enough to remember when cell phones, fax machines, the internet, and e-mail did not exist. Heck I remember getting our first black and white television set which was limited to three channels. Things were better back then.
I left my house without my cell phone the other day and one would have thought I had committed the unforgivable sin to those who were trying to reach me. I ate lunch at a crowded restaurant and practically everyone in the place was looking at their cell phone oblivious to whom they were dining with.. What happened to looking someone in the eye and having an old-fashioned conversation and enjoying a good laugh together.
What is everyone looking at that is so important? As I surveyed the restaurant, some were texting, and some news hounds appeared to be browsing the internet,. They are the most curious of all. Why would someone spend their lunch time staring at politics and politicians, violence, and mayhem. it must affect one’s digestion to look at that junk while trying to eat a meal.
I am studying James and it tells us to consider it all joy to undergo trials. I wonder if President Trump has ever read that? He has been under attack since he began his first campaign long before he was ever inaugurated. He should be jumping for joy for the trials he has undergone. A friend told me that he would be glad when the truth was finally exposed. I laughed and said that we would not hear the truth aside from the Bible until the Rapture and we go “toe up”. Truth is far from the twisted worldview we currently endure. Power at any cost is the lone objective.
My Christian brother who passed on to his heavenly reward is free from all of it. And sooner or later we will be in the same boat. Until then just hunker down my friends and be joyful, knowing that patience will be produced from our current struggles. And in this current age it is needed more than ever. All these trials are nothing to God who looks down on us like a bunch of grasshoppers crazily hopping around. It is probably far more interesting for my departed friend to watch grasshoppers with Jesus than browsing his former personal device . . .
Isaiah 40:22
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
Have a great weekend and go to church this weekend!