Deleted

I bought a new cell phone recently. I wanted to be able to keep everything in one place. So, I found one that had all the functions of my PDA, calendar and contacts, plus email. It also works as a phone.

I had a little trouble, at first, getting the email to work. It came with a program that linked to my computer at home. I thought that was great. I could keep up with all my information and it would give me the last 25 emails that I received at home. I have my home computer set to pick up email on several accounts, including my Church account. I also get some spam and junk mail.

I was out of town and had some time on my hands so I thought I would trouble shoot my phone to see if I could get everything working. Soon I had it figured out and was excited to see my emails coming into my phone. I looked them over and decided that I did not want to carry them all around with me so I started deleting them. Shortly after I deleted most of them I noticed that other, older emails, had taken the place of the delted ones always leaving me with 25 emails. I deleted another bunch and soon they to were replaced by older emails. I tried it again and it happened again. Then I got tired of that and went to bed.

When I got home the next day one of the first things my wife told me was that the email program had gone crazy while I was gone. Almost all of our recent emails had mysteriously disappeared. I thought to myself, "oops." Some of the emails were important and I had apparently deleted them at home when I deleted them on my phone.

I went to the computer and checked the trash can. My daughter then told me that she had closed the email program while I was gone and it had asked her if she was sure about emptying the trash can on exit and she had clicked, "yes." Double "oops."

I had a backup on another computer so all was not lost. The experience got me to thinking, though. Sin is a lot like those emails. When I pray down here on earth and ask God to forgive me He not only forgives me here but He also deletes them from my record in Heaven. He takes my sins as far away as the east is from the west, (Psalm 103:12). His forgiveness, through Jesus Christ, is complete. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Dr. Robin