Several years ago I taxied a small plane to the end of the runway in Santa Rosa, California. I did my run up, went through my checklist and called the tower for takeoff clearance. All I heard was silence. Normally they respond immediately with “cleared for takeoff” or “wait for incoming traffic.” But this time I got nothing. I continued to try to contact the tower for about 15 minutes when another plane pulled in beside me and did his run up and departed while I sat and watched. Another 10 minutes passed with numerous attempts on my part to communicate when I finally noticed my radio was one frequency number different than that of the tower. Changing to the correct number I tried again and received immediate clearance. So much for being bone headed.
This is just like people that pray to pagan gods. They are on the wrong channel. There isn’t anyone or thing listening other than themselves. No wonder they twirl prayer wheels, they couldn’t possibly continue to make endless verbal requests. When there is no one listening you can say anything any number of times, but it is quite useless. This is why God gave us the first Commandment of the Ten. Other gods, if there be any, are quite useless, powerless and deaf.
While in Athens Paul referred to Him as the unknown God. That was for the Greeks because He was well known to Paul. Paul’s personal encounters with Him began on the Road to Damascus and continued throughout the rest of Paul’s years. Fortunately God does not demand that we address Him by a specific name. In the Bible He has many names. If we need to talk with Him, “Hey God” works. He is that anxious to hear us.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 26, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org