Children can ask the simplest of questions and answering those questions isn’t always easy.  My own children often challenge me with a question, and very often they’re not satisfied with the answer and end up saying “why?”

Today I had one of those times with my youngest son asking me about cars, one of the questions was “why do cars have aerials?”  So I explained that all cars have aerials, they are there so that the car can pick up the radio signal from the big mast so that we can listen to music in the car.  I then explained that without the aerial the radio is useless, you would not be able to get a good signal, so you couldnt listen to any music from any of the channels in the car. So my son asked “is that why we always listen to CDs in the car Dad?”  I explained that we haven’t got an aerial at the moment, I’ve got to get another but it still works with CD’s.  I sensed this wasn’t the end of the conversation…

Then came the second question “why do some cars have little aerials stuck onto their back windows”?  So I explained the different types of aerials and their uses.

At last, he seemed content with my answers, but it left me contemplating about ‘signals’ and could not stop thinking about the word ‘signal’ and how we can sometimes loose ‘service’ very easily.

Signal data is everywhere all you need is something to pick it up. That could be phone signals, internet data, satellite television, even down to game consoles in the house like the Wii or the Xbox, they all use signals all to receive data. It’s in the air, it’s something that’s always there but you just need the right device to pick up!  However, each device needs to be in tune with what it’s communicating with so when something happens like the batteries run out in the controllers for the game console or the tv will not turn over it’s all because the signal has been lost.

In life God speaks to us through many different ways, just like we now have many different options of communicating i.e. text message, phone call, email or fax.  God uses many different ways for getting people’s attention.

Deuteronomy 5:24

‘Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man.’

1 Kings 19

‘God speaks in a still small voice.’

Our daily lives are now wrapped up with technology that we all seem to be so busy, so many people say that they struggle to find the time to read and pray, and say that they struggle to talk to God, and to have that relationship with Him.  But it’s all about communication; communication is a two-way thing, the same as relationships. If just one person is talking all the time and the other person just sits there, then that relationship will not last.

Wherever we go there is normally one thing that always comes with us, that we will never forget, and we’re lost without – our mobile phone! It’s always on and is there in case someone needs to contact us, or we need to contact them.

Similarly, God is always there wherever we go, He is always waiting for us to communicate with Him, but the best thing of all is that with God the signal is always there, His line is never engaged and we will never get just a dialing tone. We will never need to leave a recorded message because He always wants to talk to us…

This has made me think, are our aerials tuned in to the right channels? Is our communication with God constant or have we put Him on silent…?

Wonder what questions my kids will have in store for me next…

Pastor Pete Jones

Being Called

Many have asked to hear the message I gave as a prophetic teaching on the churches decline and what God was saying to us to reverse this decline so heres’s the message on video!