Got This App?
One of the by-product’s from the cell phone age that we live in is the ever burgeoning availability of applications – or apps – that can be downloaded to your cell phone. Do you have a need for something? “There’s an app for that” or “I wonder if there’s an app for that?” are common statements heard these days. Perhaps you didn’t even know that you had a need, but once you saw the app on someone else’s cell phone, you soon realized that you wanted the same app. And upon getting the same app, your “want” soon turned into a “need”. An app for this and an app for that. One popular “app store” boasts that it has over 250,000 apps available.
Yet, how many are truly useful? How many are used over and over again, once the thrill and novelty wears off? A recent Pew Internet Project survey http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/The-Rise-of-Apps-Culture/Overview/Main-Findings.aspx concluded that 35% of adults have cell phones with apps, but only two-thirds of those who have apps actually use them. Game apps were the most popular, followed by news and weather apps, map and navigation apps, social networking apps and music apps.
This may come as a surprise, but did you know that there is an app available for you – yours for the asking – that will have lifetime impacts on you? This app is truly useful, and you will definitely find yourself using it over and over again. There is no charge for it and it is guaranteed to work. It is the most useful app that you could hope for. It’s free and is given to those who obey God. Unlike other apps that come and go in popularity, this app has timeless qualities. It is available to rich and poor, young and old alike. When used, it will help you have more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Interested? The app is called the Holy Spirit, and those who receive this app become Christians. It is not, however, available for your cell phone. It is downloaded to you, upon repentance and baptism.
Jesus Christ described the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, which would guide us into all Truth. Make no mistake, however. The Holy Spirit is not the third part of a Holy Trinity. It is a well-known fact among Trinitarians and non-Trinitarians alike that the concept of the Trinity is foreign to the scriptures and is a concept that was developed gradually over an extended period of time, well after the time period of the apostolic church. It is the power of God. As stated in the “Fundamentals of Belief of Bethel Church of God”:
“We believe in the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of God and of Christ Jesus; the power of God with which all things were created and made; that thru the Holy Spirit, God is everywhere present; that the Holy Spirit is divine Love, Faith, Understanding, Power, Joy, and all the attributes of God-the Spirit of life eternal.”
As the song goes, what the world needs now, is love, sweet love. True enough, but without the help of the Holy Spirit, mankind’s best attempts at love – outgoing concern toward one another – will be, at best, a frustrating endeavor. One need only look at the history of mankind for historical proof. And contrary to the belief of many, mankind’s present situation has not improved. It has gotten progressively worse. So the next time you see or hear of something on the news that bothers you, whether it be crime, war, malnourishment, greed, hatred, or immorality, you can take great comfort in knowing that “there’s an app for that.”