THE BELIEVER'S GPS
Last week we introduced a device known as a GPS or Global Positioning Systems. This device allows the user to know where they are and where they want to go. It works through a process known as triangulation. There are 24 Dept. of Defense satellites constantly circling our earth at a very precise orbit of approximately 1200 miles (show graphic of satellites in orbit). These satellites send signals back to earth and our GPS units need to pick up signals from 3 to 4 of these satellites and calculate the time it takes for that signal to arrive from each of them. Based on that information, the GPS can tell you where you are within 50 feet.
It hasn't taken long for people to realize some useful applications of this device. One specialized form of GPS works in tandem with an RFID or a "Radio Frequency Identification Tag". RFIDs can be as simple as the bar codes that are used in Grocery stores. But the military has found a way to combine the GPS and RFID to form a device that can be placed inside a shipping container. The U.S. military then use those GPS units to track supplies resources for our troops overseas in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. At any given time, the military can know exactly where that container is. And those shipments are NEVER lost. Their location is ALWAYS known.
In Colossians 1:27 we're told that God has placed His own GPS unit inside of us: "... God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory."
(From a sermon by Jeff Strite, GPS - Christ In You, 6/26/2011)