From Texting to Reading Bible Apps

December 1 2018

Recently, I was traveling out of town on a work-related business trip. As I normally do, I park at my favorite location and then take a shuttle to the airport terminal. I have followed the same routine for the past 29 years. Why change when it works efficiently and keeps the parking expense for the company at a minimum?

After everyone was picked up and on the shuttle, I noticed that two thirds of the riders were on their cell phones checking emails or sending and reading text messages. This is not a new phenomenon, but I took note of how occupied people were with their devices.

After I made it through TSA Security and arrived at my gate, almost every person sitting around me was on some type of mobile device. Once again, I could tell that they were either reading emails or reading or sending text messages. We rarely talk anymore. We do most of our communicating through our texts or emails. At sporting events, while shopping, at restaurants or while attending various functions, we can always find someone using their devices for one reason or another. We have become so dependent on them that it is hard to separate for any extended period.

I am sure you have made similar observations. We have developed an obsession. As I thought about our extensive use of our devices, I couldn’t help but wonder what the world would be like if we took the same passion we have for our phones and used it to study God’s word. What if every time we started to text or read a text, we pulled up a Bible App instead and read Scriptures. I wonder how the world would be impacted? Would the same level of violence persist? Would we hold on to grudges and offenses the same way we do today? Would it motivate us to become peacemakers? Would our love for God and our neighbors increase?

I believe the answers to these questions is a resounding “yes”. God’s word changes us and the more we study and apply it to our lives, the better we become. Coals of fire are heaped on our heads and our hearts start to melt. We would begin looking at things differently and find ourselves being filled with greater levels of compassion.Our relationship would God grow and all we would want to do is please Him.

I know this is hard to fathom, but it would be awesome to experience this level of worship for just one day. I’m sure it would be something we would want to experience repeatedly. The world might not participate in aggregate, but individually we can “fast” from our devices and use that time to worship the Lord. The change in us will incrementally help to change things in the world.