God is all-knowing, even about disasters.

SAO PAULO (Brazil) - AN AIR Air France jet Flight 447carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris hit strong turbulance and lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said on Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.

God is omnipotent, omniscient - all-powerful, all-knowing...

Flight 447 left Rio on Sunday 31 May 2009, 7 pm local time. At 10.15 pm, the 3 pilots on board steered the plane through a thunderous zone of strong turbulence. The pilots did not know that in 2 minutes time, disaster would strike and the plane would sink to the bottom of the ocean, somewhere 300 km northeast of the coastal city of Natal.

But at 10.15 pm, God knew exactly what would happen in 2 minutes time. God is all-knowing. He knew that 228 lives would perish.

He could do something to avert the disaster because He is all-powerful. But He did not.

He allowed "acts of nature" to take their course.

God had been asked a billion times "Why don't you intervene to save the innocent from disasters?" How can all disasters "...work together for the good of those who believe Him?"

God did not answer the questions. It will remain a mystery. We will never know.

And this is where FAITH takes over. If we know the answer, or if we know of an explanation which is acceptable to us, then where is faith? Then our belief in God is based on knowledge, and not by faith.

"Faith is the assurance of things hope for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11.1.

In the end, our Christian belief is based on Jesus Christ, who died, was buried and rose again and appeared to hundreds of believers.

Besides Jesus Christ, all our belief is faith - because we really don't know anything else for sure.

And our faith actually comes from God. Thank God for His grace for giving us the gift of faith.