{"id":137,"date":"2014-02-10T19:28:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T19:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=137"},"modified":"2014-02-10T19:28:56","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T19:28:56","slug":"making-a-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/10\/making-a-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the light of positive recommendations from local people, I decided a couple of years ago that I would entrust Orange<\/em> with the task of providing me with a mobile phone service.\u00a0 At the time it was a good choice; certainly it was an improvement on my previous provider.\u00a0 But since just before Christmas, I\u2019ve been having some difficulty.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s now more usual for me when I check my phone to see the messages \u201cSOS\u201d or \u201cSearching for Network\u201d than to see the little graphic with \u201cbars\u201d of signal strength showing.\u00a0 Indeed, I\u2019ve been starting to feel that the nickname \u201cNo Range\u201d that I have heard used occasionally of Orange evidently has some foundation in reality.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve noticed another thing, too.\u00a0 The battery on my phone is running down really quickly. Currently (no pun intended!), I\u2019m charging it about three times every two days.\u00a0 It normally lasts at least four times as long. \u00a0I think this problem is occurring because when the phone tries to connect to the mobile phone network, it uses some power. \u00a0Obviously, if it is always trying, it is always draining power from the battery!<\/p>\n

According to the Geordie on the call-centre help-desk, there\u2019s a problem with the Widford transmitter (the fake tree near Widford Rise).\u00a0 Apparently, the storm of 19th December damaged \u201ca chip\u201d, and the company is looking into fixing the fault, but this requires \u201cplanning permission.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m a bit vague on the details because I wasn\u2019t able to ask clarifying questions \u2013 my phone lost signal during the call, so he just left me a message to let me know the basic details!<\/p>\n

It strikes me that there\u2019s a parallel here to prayer (albeit an inexact parallel \u2013 don\u2019t stretch it too far!). \u00a0The important thing for a mobile phone is to gain a connection to the network.\u00a0 When the connection is made, communication can happen freely. In my situation, there\u2019s a problem; my phone is having trouble connecting, and is wearing itself out trying.\u00a0 In the realm of communicating with God, we also need a connection with God to be established.\u00a0 But there\u2019s no automatic connection in place.\u00a0 In fact, our default position is dis<\/span>connection.\u00a0 In the Bible we read these words; \u201cSurely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.\u00a0 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.\u201d (Isaiah 59:1-2)<\/em>\u00a0 Here, the prophet Isaiah records his message to the people of Israel that, though they were trying to pray (and even wearing themselves out trying), their prayers would not be heard.\u00a0 They had no connection \u2013 indeed, their channel of communication was blocked; their sin was in the way.\u00a0 And we\u2019re no different.\u00a0 However good we think we are, we all have the same sin problem.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there\u2019s a solution to this problem.\u00a0 Obviously, we can\u2019t change our past record of sin \u2013 what\u2019s done is done.\u00a0 But, as the angel told Joseph, God has sent Jesus to \u201csave his people from their sins.\u201d (Matthew 1:21)<\/em>\u00a0 When we put our trust in Jesus, we are made clean, our sin is removed from us as far as the east is from the west, and we are reconnected to God \u2013 and this means we can be confident our prayers will be heard.\u00a0 #goodnews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the light of positive recommendations from local people, I decided a couple of years ago that I would entrust Orange with the task of providing me with a mobile phone service.\u00a0 At the time it was a good choice; certainly it was an improvement on my previous provider.\u00a0 But since just before Christmas, I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,41],"tags":[50,19,42],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel","category-prayer","tag-gospel","tag-jesus","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}