ERASING THE HARD DRIVE

I made a mistake in last week's MESSAGE. I said Arizona receives twelve inches of annual rainfall, when in fact it only receives seven. Seven inches of rain isn't much - one or two storms could total that in Minnesota. Only seven inches of annual rainfall makes agricultural production in Arizona even more amazing. I got this corrected information from an internet article, "Table of Annual Rainfall for U.S. States."  Yes, the internet gave me the correct info. 

Do you ever wonder how all that information gets on the internet? You can find something out there about most any topic, and probably many articles. But who puts all that information out there? Who writes it so we can read it? Who has the knowledge? And who has the time? There must be an army of people who wake up each morning with a list of articles to write just so you and I can read them.

People have always disputed the idea of a God who could know everything.  "No one can know that much," they say, and people agreed. There can't be a God who can know EVERYTHING. But today with computers getting smaller and more powerful, it ought to be easier than ever to believe in a God who can know everything. 

Think about it. I can copy eight gigabytes of data on a little two inch stick. That's a half million pages on something the size of a piece of chewing gum! A one terrabyte external drive the size of a pack of cigarettes can hold sixty-five million pages! The entire Library of Congress could probably be contained on a backup drive the size of a shoebox. Wow!

So why should it be so hard to believe in a God who can know everything? I don't know about you, but every time they make the computer smaller and hold more information, it's easier for me to believe in an almighty God who knows everything.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent in which we recall the road Jesus took to Calvary. It's the season we recount for the sacrifice God made for the sins of the world. And we recall what His sacrifice did for us, giving us eternal life. 

Lent shows us God in His almighty and amazing grace has removed the sins of the world. No matter how many they are, He has removed them, put them in the trash. And then He emptied it! Our personal hard drives (and they are VERY hard) are completely erased. Because of Jesus, God who knows all our sins forgets them. To me, that's the most amazing thing of all.

May the coming forty days of Lent be a blessing to you!

P.S. If you're unsure what "Lent" all about, check it out on the internet!