Mobile Phones

It has been over 50 years since the first mobile telephone call has been made. I was literally a baby when that call was made and although mobile phones were not commonplace in my childhood, I can certainly remember the ‘brick’ and have watched with interest as phones have become smaller and smaller and the number of us who use them got larger. 

Another amazing fact which I heard was that there are now more mobile phones in use than people on the planet! That quite frankly is astounding, there are over 11 billion mobile phones and about 8 billion people! The difference of 3 billion phones is down to those who maybe have work phones and personal ones. It is estimated that 12.4 billion calls are made each day and over 23 billion text messages sent in their various forms.

The numbers are staggering, and we use apps for so many different things from tracking our steps to paying for our parking to the restaurant we chose because we can view the menu on our phone at work. You begin to wonder how we all functioned before their invention!

New York Times Opinionator column

The New York Times Opinionator column for a period carried a five-part essay by Errol Morris entitled ‘The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is’. He leads with a story of a bank robber named McArthur Wheeler in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was told that if he rubbed lemon juice on his face, he need not use a mask to avoid detection, because his face would be invisible to the cameras. He bought a Polaroid camera and a couple of lemons, squeezed them and applied the juice to his face. Pointed the camera at his face and clicked, rotated the camera and clicked. What he finished up with was a photo of the ceiling but no image of his face and fully believed that the lemon juice did the trick.

GQ's list of 21 Books you don't have to read - they got at least one wrong!

GQ magazine has placed the Bible on its list of "21 Books You Don't Have to Read." This is quite a ridiculous stance even in terms of literature never mind ethics and morals. 

Here are some quotes from famous people about the Bible - they are not all Christians but they testify to the value of reading the Bible:

Access Denied - when your computer locks you out!

A friend of mine recently bought a new computer. He, like me, was not very computer literate. Having set up the various programs and their passwords he sought to type his first message. Diligently following the on-screen instructions he was asked for the password, which he carefully typed in. Disaster! A message flashed across the screen "Access Denied". He tried again with the same result. He contacted me for advice. All I could do was ask him if he was sure that he used the correct password. He was adamant that he had. He had done nothing wrong, was sure that all was correct but something was wrong.

#Apple Story - Sunday - A Bible Blogger's Daily Diary

Some people call Ronald Wayne the most unfortunate man in the world. He was one of the three co-founders of the Apple Computer Company in America, but on April 14th 1976, only 12 day as after the Apple Companystarted, thinking that he didn’t fit in, he sold his 10% share for just over £500. That 10% share would now be worth £50 billion! He spent many years of his later life selling stamps, and struggling with his finances. How sad, but there is a decision that we can make that has to do with our future, that can have even greater consequences.

The Lord Jesus said, ‘what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’, Mark’s Gospel in the New Testament, chapter eight verses 36 and 37. There is nothing more valuable to you than your soul and its eternal destiny. Even if you obtain all that you ever wanted, but have no thoughts and make no provision for your soul, beware! Your decision to reject Jesus Christ means that you will forfeit a place in heaven. 

Someone has calculated that the sum total of all global wealth is nearly £170 trillion. The richest person in the world, Bill Gates is worth nearly £56 billion. Even the 100th richest person is worth about £8 billion! These figures look impressive, but Jesus said that one human soul is worth more. He, the Son of God, died for our sins – ‘For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God’, 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18.

‘Christ’s death on the cross is the basis on which God can forgive our sins, ‘not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world’, John’s first epistle, chapter two, verse two. Have your sins been forgiven yet? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’, Acts chapter 16 verse 31.

 

 

 

Eavesdropping!

I was sitting in a shop listening to two shop assistants chat as they sort out the clothes on the display racks.

Eavesdropping is good fun sometimes; especially when it is harmless. You can learn a lot by just listening. I've had just been reading about how upset the FBI and the various security agencies in United States are about the highly secure encryption system of the new iPhone 6. Eavesdropping will be very difficult for them when it comes to these types of phones.

Did you realise that God is always able to eavesdrop on everything that you and I think and say. There is a little verse in the bible which seemed to be seriously scary when I was a child. It is this "Thou God seest me". This verse is found in the Bible, in the book of Genesis chapter 16 verse 13. It is really a statement describing the all seeing eye of God. In the calamities of life when we think the one else notices; God does. It was a relief to the lady in this story in Genesis to understand that God saw her and her circumstances even when she thought everybody had forgotten.

Maybe you find it a relief to know that God notices and understands your circumstances even though others seem to be unaware of them.

It could also be quite a frightening thing to realise that God is aware of everything that is going on in our lives. In a slightly different context it says in the gospel of John (John 2:25) that Jesus did not commit himself unto people because he knew exactly the way men operate and the way they think.

Again there is a passage in the Old Testament that is very very frightening. Frightening in the sense that God knows me inside out and knows everything about me (yet He still loves me - see ROMANS 5:8). David, the Shepherd King writes in Psalm 139 about his awareness of God's knowledge. He actually bares his soul to God and says "search me O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts". It is a brave man who invites God to analyse the depths of his mind and to determine and understand his thoughts. But David realises that God already knows his heart and he is willing to submit to God's scrutiny.

It is because of God's knowledge and awareness that he planned the scheme of salvation through the death of his own dear Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Before the world began God had already ordained that his Son would pay the price for sin upon the cross outside Jerusalem.

Christ died for sins, He was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead (1 Cor 15).

It is my privilege is to tell you that through this man, Jesus, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. If you turn from your sin, turning to God and confessing that you are guilty he will not turn you away.

Please get in touch if we can help you further through our website www.seekthetruth.org.uk.

Stephen


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