A High-Tech Take on the Soul

I have to admit that I’m not very technical.  What is illustrated to the left is a piece of computer hardware.  It is called a flash drive or thumb drive or jump drive or a memory stick.  (So many names for something so small!)

Several years ago, I saw one of these before I knew what they were or, in fact, before I’d ever heard any one of those names.  It was longer than they are now and had a round section in the middle.  My thought was, “Why is that lady sticking a kazoo into the side of her laptop?”

A couple of years ago I was on the road and had the need to purchase one of these flash drives.  I walked into an Office Depot without a clue to what I was doing, and walked out as the proud owner of this bright red plastic and metal thing.  I learned that it holds two gigabytes of information…I have no idea what that means.  It weighs three-tenths of an ounce.  I purchased it on sale for $12.95, and its usefulness to me when I first bought it was very limited. 

But now this very same flash drive is loaded with documents, Quicken® files, photographs, and a mailing list data base.   The information on that flash drive is invaluable, especially if I have a hard drive crash on my computer.  In that case, if this little plastic thing were being held for ransom, I would pay any amount I could scrape together to get it back. 

However, it still weighs only three-tenths of an ounce.  That is because the information that is encoded on this drive, that which gives it value, that which is, in effect, its essence, has no mass.

There is a real parallel between that flash drive and each of us.  When our body dies, that is not the end of us…we live on.  Our hardware wears out, but the God-written software that is our true identity, that which is our essence, that which gives us our value, that which has no mass, our soul, is so valuable to God that He paid the ransom with what was most valuable to Him…the life of His only son, Jesus.

That ransom, the life of Jesus Christ, is a gift from God.  I’m certain of that gift.  Probably most of you are certain of that gift.  But if you don’t have that same confidence, you can change that.  It is a simple step of faith.  It is offering what you understand of yourself, to what you understand of God.  It is recognizing that your imperfections are a barrier between you and God, but that Jesus Christ, through his sacrificial death and resurrection, has paid the cost for those imperfections.  All you need to do is allow Him to pick up the check.  What I am speaking about is not a religion …it is a relationship with the eternal God.

If you have never allowed Christ to pay the price for you to establish that relationship, you can do that through a simple prayer in your heart and your mind to make Jesus your savior.  If you’re ready for that eternal relationship with God, you may pray something like this: “Dear God, I don’t understand it all, but I know that I need you in my life.  Thank you Jesus, for going to the cross, so that I may have that relationship with God, and never lose it.  I acknowledge that You are perfect, that I am not, and that I need you.  Please be my savior and Lord.  Amen.”

If you prayed this prayer, I recommend that you contact us for the free booklet, “Growing Faith.”  It will help you to grow in this new relationship. 

Bless you,
Paul Neighbors
Team RFC
PO Box 1208
Gilbert AZ 85299