Most people who have ever...
Illustration
Object:
Most people who have ever used an IBM personal computer (or one of its clones) know
the meaning of this expression: "Control-Alt-Delete." It describes the sequence of three
keys you must enter, if you want to reboot -- or restart -- the computer.
Nowadays, in Windows operating systems, those three keys call up a menu that lets you check the status of the programs you're running. But, back in the old DOS days, hitting those three keys meant you were taking a very drastic step. You would lose everything you were working on in order to start all over again. That's the reason that particular sequence of keys was chosen. Two are on the lower left of the keyboard, and the other on the upper right. You have to use two hands to do it, and you have to be very intentional about it. There's no way you could hit those three keys accidentally.
Sometimes, though, rebooting is the only thing to do. If your computer has developed some kind of glitch and gotten stuck, if the program has frozen up and every other solution has failed to get it going again, then rebooting is your last, best hope.
Romans, chapter 6, talks about God's "control-alt-delete" combination. Like the software operating-system designer, God has provided for us, in our lives, a sort of "reset" button - - an effective way to start all over again, when all else fails.
It's called baptism. For some people, the rebirth comes in literally being baptized, as adults -- as they come to Christ for the very first time. But for those who were baptized as infants, it's the intentional remembrance of baptism that's effective for rebirth. It is the taking up of the promises that were made for us, long ago, by our parents, and renewing them -- making those promises our own.
Nowadays, in Windows operating systems, those three keys call up a menu that lets you check the status of the programs you're running. But, back in the old DOS days, hitting those three keys meant you were taking a very drastic step. You would lose everything you were working on in order to start all over again. That's the reason that particular sequence of keys was chosen. Two are on the lower left of the keyboard, and the other on the upper right. You have to use two hands to do it, and you have to be very intentional about it. There's no way you could hit those three keys accidentally.
Sometimes, though, rebooting is the only thing to do. If your computer has developed some kind of glitch and gotten stuck, if the program has frozen up and every other solution has failed to get it going again, then rebooting is your last, best hope.
Romans, chapter 6, talks about God's "control-alt-delete" combination. Like the software operating-system designer, God has provided for us, in our lives, a sort of "reset" button - - an effective way to start all over again, when all else fails.
It's called baptism. For some people, the rebirth comes in literally being baptized, as adults -- as they come to Christ for the very first time. But for those who were baptized as infants, it's the intentional remembrance of baptism that's effective for rebirth. It is the taking up of the promises that were made for us, long ago, by our parents, and renewing them -- making those promises our own.
