The Cracked Acorn: Texting

“You shall have no other gods before me. ” – Exodus 20:3 

Text messaging, or texting is a colloquial term referring to the exchange of brief written messages between mobile phones, over cellular networks. While the term most often refers to messages sent using the Short Message Service (SMS), it has been extended to include messages containing images, videos, and sound content, such as MMS messages. Individual messages are referred to as “text messages” or “texts”. The most common application of the service is person-to-person messaging, but text messages are also used to interact with automated systems, such as ordering products and services for mobile phones or participating in contests. Advertisers and service providers use texts to notify mobile phone users about promotions, payment due dates, and other notifications that were previously sent by post or left in voicemail. There are internet services available that allow users to send text messages free of direct charge to the sender. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

This is not really news. Over the years the service has attempted to cope with emergency beepers and cell phones that go off with YANKEE DOODLE and kids toys that play songs from SNOW WHITE; these interruptions may provide comic relief, but they remind us that the world is just an electronic impulse away. If you pay a few hundred dollars to go to the opera or to a special one-time presentation at the Kennedy Center, a cell phone or any interruption while the tenor is singing can cause your removal from the audience.

Multimedia screens are another encroachment in the church. Some are using this device to display the bulletin, immediate news for the church family, and later the lyrics to the songs being sung. Many are saying this is good for visitors who see this type of outreach used elsewhere and expect us to follow. Those of us who do not hear too well could possibly understand the need for a multi-media project. There is nothing new under the sun this is true. Many years ago I was involved in a project to wire the church building to make sure that wherever you were when preaching was going on, that you would not miss the sermon. It went as far as breaking a hole through the cement blocks in the back to put a window in the “baby room”: preacher said he didn’t like that one!

Texting shortened English:

Little bird in d sky dropped snuff in my eye, i didn’t scream, i didn’t cry,just thanked God dat cows don’t fly , bcoz it myt cover d CUTE face of mine.

A husband coming home from church and lifts his wife and carries her on his shoulder. Wife: Did d preacher tell u 2 b so romantic like this? Husband: No, he told me 2 carry my cross.