I just read in the news that Western Union, the company that began in the mid-1840’s has stopped sending telegrams. Hard to imagine no more telegrams to announce the birth of a baby, the death of a family member or an “I love you!” on Valentine’s Day from a lover.
In their day, telegrams expressed the heart of the person sending it. I didn’t know this, but in the days of early telegrams, the punctuation mark called the “period” cost more than a “four-letter” word! So, people sending the costly telegrams decided to save some money and came up with the four-letter word “stop” to end a sentence STOP
Since the telegram, we’ve seen the heyday of the telephone, the fax, the cell phone and now the worldwide web called the “internet STOP” My, how simple it has become to communicate STOP Speaking of communication, did you know it’s made up of three components? First one has to have a thought STOP Secondly, the thought becomes words STOP And thirdly, the words result in actions, or re-actions. Take a look at the picture below and think about the amount of communication that may be occurring STOP
These countless wires hang on poles over a small street in front of the train station in the city of Nagasaki, Japan, where an atom bomb fell over sixty years ago STOP What do you suppose could be going on inside these wires? Thoughts, words and actions STOP
⎯ Someone may be thinking, “I should give Mom a call and tell her I love her,” and does it STOP The mother cries on the other end STOP
Look at what else might be happening in these wires ⎯ someone is shaving; someone is toasting a bagel; someone is vacuuming their kitchen floor; someone is drying their hair; someone is surfing the net; someone is turning on the street lights; someone’s telephone is ringing; someone is mixing up a cake; someone is watching TV; the light comes on when the refrigerator door is opened; an automatic timer kicks in and on turns a space heater because a wife set it before heading out the door to work STOP The list is inexhaustible STOP
When someone does something bad to us, we think of how we can get back at them and begin yelling, screaming and maybe even beating on them (thoughts, words, actions)STOP If we do something real bad, I mean really, really bad, do you suppose God would react the same way?
He wouldn’t, because the Good Book says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways (of reacting and doing things) my ways (of reacting and doing things) STOP” Isaiah 55:8
When you’ve been up life’s creek without a paddle, you probably called on God: “Help!” We all have times in life like this STOP Just remember, when you’re in the pits of life, it is then you’ll have the thought to call on God STOP And the action you’ll get from God is that He’ll send His Word and heal you and set you free from whatever it may be that’s causing to be up that creek without a paddle STOP
Why? Because God has been thinking about you from since the time you were in your mother’s womb. God loves you so much, that He sends His WORD.
STOP Every Word that God speaks will not return to Him empty. It will accomplish exactly what He plans, purposes and pleases, and it will prosper in the thing to whom He sends it STOP
That’s you STOP