Service Not Available

A thought crossed my mind this morning as I tried to use my cell-phone. I was standing outside a coffee shop in Dubuque, Iowa. A friend, that I am visiting in Wausau, Wisconsin, had to bring two of his kids back to college. I stepped out of the shop, into the cold air, with a hot cup of coffee and tried to make a call…silence. I looked at the phone and tried to figure out what was going on…why doesn’t it work. I tried again…silence. I got more than a little irritated when I saw a notice pop up…”Service not Available.”

What made me so mad was, the fact that I pay a hefty monthly fee in order to be able to use my phone whenever and wherever I want. It is, many times, my only way to contact people or even more important, for people to be able to contact me. So… “Service not Available,” was a notice I did not want to see…especially with the price I pay to have service available.

The Holy Spirit whispered to me after I shoved the phone back into my pocket. The thought was that Jesus paid a much greater price to make his service available but, much of the time, we don’t get that signal out to people that need it most. We were told to take it to the ends of the earth and much of the time we don’t even take it next door…even though the expensive service has been paid in full. We have no excuse!

Truth is, that my phone eventually started working again, but 2.2 billion people on this planet have yet to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel in a language that they can understand. The word Gospel literally means Good News. It is only Good News if it gets to people on time. It is not getting to people on time because of us…you and me! We are not making the “Service Available.”