I don’t make the practice of making international calls every day. Somehow, I was under the impression that cell phones are those magical devices that once you are on a plan, the whole world is at your fingertips. No more long-distance charges like we once had. Now we have cell phones! And, guess what, when I got ready to call one of our missionaries in India, presto! I discovered that this wonderful device, with the proper number keyed in, reached our missionary in India as quick and as easy as if he was next door! Not a problem. After all, just about every month, I meet with one of our missionaries on Google Zoom, using my cell phone, and have about a forty-minute ministry session preaching to about thirty pastors. Been doing it for a year or so. Everything has been fine. No extra charges on the phone bill. Doing great. But the other day, Barbara noticed a charge on the phone bill that was three times the norm. “Jackie, what is this?” So, we did a little research. What is this charge all about? So here is the deal. Dialing a number on the phone is different than using the Google Zoom app. Using Google Zoom does not generate a direct cost on the phone bill. The missionary uses Google Zoom every month to contact me, and I hit the link and boom! We’re in. And the meeting proceeds. No extra charges. So now my understanding is that with Google Zoom, we are using the internet—over the phone. But here is a revelation. When you dial the number to India over the phone, you are not using the internet. You are using the phone company. Same little cell phone in your hand—different company. The phone company likes to charge you lots of money for their minutes—four dollars a minute, and fifty percent more that amount for taxes, and fees. So that is why the three-hundred-dollar plus phone bill! Sometimes what feels good and seems free will come around later and bite you in the backside! Sometimes ignorance is not bliss! It pays to have knowledge and understanding. In eternal spiritual matters this is even more important. It is easy to assume things. It is easy to just let things rock on until it is too late, and we pay the high price. We don’t want to have to pay the high cost in spiritual things. Jesus paid the high price for us so we would not have to pay that cost. That cost is sin, sickness, death, and hell for eternity, separated from God. We don’t need to pay that cost. We can hear the good news and believe that Word and give our life to Jesus. When we really do that, when we really make the total surrender of our sin, our past and our future to Him, and receive what He did for us, we can go free; we can be right with God.
Four Dollars a Minute
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