A Party Line

A Party Line

“Call to me and I will answer you and show you
 great and mighty things which you do not know.”

                                       Jeremiah 33:3

To really put the changes in communication that have taken place over the years into perspective, you only have to go back to the party line phone system. My earliest memory of having phones in the house was the party line that we shared with our neighbors, the DiPiazzas on one side and the Tetts on the other. Having a party line meant that you might pick up the phone to find no dial tone and the neighbor’s daughter Kathy talking to one of her friends. You would keep trying, to the point of being annoying when you were in a hurry, until the line was free and then it was your turn to make a call. And in case you were wondering, opportunities to listen in to neighbors’ conversations were never (well, almost never) taken advantage of.

Finally getting a private line years later was a big deal because it meant you could make a phone call whenever you wanted. That worked tremendously except for the holidays when everyone tried to make a call at once and you would dial the phone only to receive the standard “all circuits are busy, please try your call again later” message. And sometimes we would try for hours before being able to complete a call to one of our family members living in another city or state. Looking back over time, the jump in technology from those party lines of the 50’s to now being able to talk over the internet to people thousands of miles away in other nations has been incredible.

And maybe that what makes God being “the same yesterday, today and forever” even more awesome than we often realize. Think of the fact that the peasant farmer in Medieval France would call on the Lord in prayer and expect an answer exactly the same way that you and I do today. God hasn’t changed a single prerequisite for receiving an answer to prayer; He hasn’t deviated one degree from the plans and purposes He laid out before the worlds were formed. And that is why God says so emphatically in Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change!!!!”

Methods of communication may change but God remains a constant in our lives, a Rock that we can rely on. And that goes for His Word too! The Word of God is so dynamic and alive that it crosses every generational line without losing one spec of its power.  The Word that George Washington meditated on in the 1700’s has the same application, the same importance, and the same relevance, never goes out of date, and is undiminished in every way, to the web-cam, video chat, iPad generation of today. In an ever changing world, having God as the one constant that we can rely on is a treasure beyond compare.

God Bless
Pastor Joe

Gateway Church