ELECTRONIC SCROLLS

By Dee Wieninger

“Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: 

“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.

Revelation 1:11,19

I wrote a story about Facebook Faith a few weeks ago and something continues to gnaw at me about utilizing this amazing technology to share God’s Word. As I spoke of my concern for having the ability to scroll right past all the posts sharing God’s love and Christ’s provision for eternal salvation, I also struggled with the thought that I should still get By Faith Ministries off the internet and meet with people personally in a Bible study forum. Is that because that’s the way it was done when I was a new Christian, 34 years ago? A Bible study, at best, is usually once a week and you have to convince people to leave their homes after a busy workday to participate in a Bible study that they could now easily view or listen to, at any time, online, in the comfort of their own homes.

Why limit the opportunity to share God’s Word to once a week when it can be available 24/7? Why limit providing words of encouragement for hundreds in order to only share them with possibly three or four want-a-be committed Bible study members? Do both! Do it all!

Times are changing and people are adapting to apps providing their choice of entertainment, education, employment, and even evangelism. Watch people on planes, in terminals, waiting rooms, restaurants, in cars ☹ even our own living rooms. People are looking at their phone, computer, or iPad screens. I use my phone as my Bible in church and my iPad hosts 7 Bibles, (I like different features offered in each.) for devotions and study. All day long, Monday through Friday, I sit in front of a computer screen to do my job and at lunch I check my Facebook, phone messages, emails, and texts. I stopped for gas the other day and all of a sudden, as I watched traffic zooming by, I heard Elvis Presley singing, “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there”!

I turned around and there on the gas pump from which I was filling my truck was a monitor showing commercials. It’s everywhere! Oh, how communication has changed and frankly I would disagree with those nay sayers that it’s to our detriment. I’m in touch with more people than I have ever been before in my life. I have been a member of six churches in my Christian walk of 34 years and although I no longer attend all these churches now, I am still in touch with friends from all those congregations. I consider this a blessing! I’m connected with friends from high school, former addresses, places of employment, and my current as well as previous church families. I can contact my doctor, refill prescriptions, pay bills, shop, and get an education all from the comfort of my living room chair. I play games with home bound friends, family members hundreds of miles away and my son in the next room. I’m friends with complete strangers through groups like LinkedIn! Maybe “friends” is the wrong word, how about “respected colleagues with similar interests?” The point is we are connected to more people in this digital age then we could ever be without it. What an amazing mission field!!

I truly believe that God has allowed this marvelous age of technology to speed up the spreading of His Word! Jesus is coming back, probably sooner then we think, and what better way to continually share His plan, purpose, and provision with others then through these devices that everyone has in their face? I know many might consider it sacrilege to go so far as to say that when Jesus said; “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, Revelation 1:7a…could mean, not that He would physically fly around the globe crisscrossing the hemispheres for all to see, but that those who are blessed to view His return would be filming, face-timing, and texting pictures of this event; and after seeing my local gas station’s TV pump I know for sure world-wide media will televise it! I don’t know what that day will look like, but I know that however He intends “all eyes to see Him” we will no doubt be using our phones to spread the great news…or not so great news to those ignoring so great a gift! How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? Hebrews 2:3 (NIV)

Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. Revelation 1:11,19

Folks, our scrolls are our phones, computers, laptops, iPads, notebooks, and TV screens. We are commanded to write what we know. We can only hope that as His Word says, Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. Revelations 1:3