In March, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, transmitted the very first discernible speech over a telephone system. He called his assistant Thomas Watson in another room, saying to him, “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.” He used a device to transmit speech vibrations electrically between two receivers. He later also invented a device which transmitted speech by light rays, and another device to record sound.
In “Words from Above” in the Bible we can find a recurrent message from God which says, “I want you.” There are many reasons why God sends this message to us, and one of the most important one is that He wants us to be in a personal relationship with us. He created us and He wants to have an intimate fellowship with us, to be our God and our Savior, and for us to be His children. This is why He created us, according to Genesis, “in His image and after His likeness.”
God has consistently transmitted His message to us through His Word, the Bible, through His prophets, as well as through His interactions with all His many faithful followers, like Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, and lots of others. Not only does He want us to have a relationship with Him, but He also want us to be His instruments through which He can accomplish His many purposes. For a period of about thirty-three years, God accomplished His purposes through His Son Jesus, who came to this earth in human form to live among us and to die for us. But eventually Jesus returned to His original home in heaven, and it is now the responsibility of God’s followers to do the work of His kingdom.
About 100 years ago, a poster appeared in America displaying a man with a white goatee on a chiseled face, bushy eyebrows over burning eyes, silver hair flowing out from under a tall top hat decorated with stars, and a bony finger pointed toward those observing the poster. These attributes belonged to “Uncle Sam” as was seen in the famous “I WANT YOU” poster recruiting for the U. S. Army to fight in World Wars I and II. It proved to be very effective and was printed more than four million times in the final year of World War I, and a total of 5,350,000 times.
So, what will it take for us to answer the call of God to give our lives in service to the work of His kingdom? Whatever it takes, it will absolutely be worth the effort to answer that call, not only for the rewards in this life but also in the life to come.
Larry R. Steffee is pastor of the Center Hill Brethren In Christ Church on Miller Road in Smithville. Everyone is welcome to attend. For information, you may email lrsteffeetn@yahoo.com.
