Ba-Woooooosh!

I recently had a little issue with my iPod…it being?

Everything on it was erased.

Taken off iTunes? No.

But NOTHING was being let on to my iPod…it kept saying that all my music was on it, while the screen read 0 songs, 0 videos, 0 pod casts…etc…even trying to take my pictures off was an adventure.

How so? It wouldn’t allow me to take them off.

The whole thing is really a long story in and of itself…being without an iPod for a day though sure did make me edgy (ask around…) but thankfully I was in the Apple store within the next 24 hours…little did I know that the Apple store only took appointments. But what was to become a week long wait to see someone about it became 30 minutes when my name was suddenly called (now THAT is a God thing…there were TONS of other people before me and my name was called…thank goodness! A day without my iPod made me edgy…a WEEK without it? Let’s not go there…)

The overall problem? There was some software corruption on my iPod that could have been caused by many things…the biggest factor being that I could have improperly ejected my iPod after syncing it (something I am now SERIOUSLY careful about not messing up again).

To FIX the problem however? My iPod needed to be flushed. Completely ridden of any if it’s pervious memory…kinda like getting a brand new one with nothing on it and nothing set by hand…the moment he flushed my iPod clean was the moment that all of the sudden, BOOM! It was back up and running again…good as new, able to hold everything again with no technical issue in sight.

Looking back on it now after a few days, like all things in my life, God has used to be show Himself again. I really do think He has a way of doing that in everything we go though, we can learn something out of anything if we are willing to sit back and listen to His voice…

But that’s for another time…lets get back to my point:

My iPod was corrupted due to improper care. The ONLY way to get it back was to flush it, wipe it’s slate clean, remove all the ignobility in it and NOT do those things that made it corrupt ever again.

MUCH like we humans.

It’s easy to be corrupted. It was easy to be corrupted back then and it’s even easier to be corrupted now (there was no daytime television back in the 1800’s …OR nighttime television for that matter…’nuff said). It’s like the world thinks up new ways to try and create mindless people who want nothing but more and more and more and more and more…until finally, your broken. Your empty, numb and unable to handle anything anymore…

Your corrupted.

The only way to end the corruption?

To be made clean. To start anew. To remove all the impurities that got you to where you were, and to not do them again so that you can go forward in your growth and in your walk.

How can you get a new start? Through Jesus Christ…His blood was shed so that we would have a new beginning…to have the slate wiped clean, to live in all that He is, to receive all that He has done for us…

But I’m getting off the topic again (although the topic that I’m speaking of is an OUTSTANDING one that I could go on about for hours…)

Once we are made new again, much like my iPod, I can’t go back to the way it was. I can’t take it out of the dock 12 seconds early without syncing it properly or even damaging it again…I need to take care of it, it was flushed so that it would remain in good condition.

We can’t go back to the way we used to live, the way we used to act, the way we used to talk, we can’t go back to the ‘old us’ without bringing another around of corruption into our lives and damaging ourselves again…we were flushed so that we would remain in good condition, able to receive the fullness of what God has for us.

When you think about it, it’s a never ending flushing process. We need to continually be flushed. Not just every Sunday at church, but it needs to be an every day, every minute, every second choice to rid ourselves of the sin that so easily ensnares us.

It’s the choice between watching that suggestive R rated movie or watching another movie that you wouldn’t be ashamed to say that you saw with your family…

It’s the choice between watching some trashy late night TV show or reading your Bible and spending time hearing from God…

It’s the choice between cussing out the guy that cut you off in traffic or asking God to give you patience and grace…

It says in -Philippians 4:8:
Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.

Once you’ve TRULY ‘tasted and seen’ the Lord and all that He is, you know that your desire will be to make the right choice. To flush yourself of all the junk this world tries to feed us and tells us will make us ‘fuller’, and to fill ourselves with GOD, and all the things HE has for us that will leave us without corruption, and with ultimate joy, happiness, freedom and so much more!

God’s ways our better than our ways…don’t even doubt that for a second. I seen that enough times in my life to know that I can trust Him, trust what He tells me, trust that He ALWAYS keeps His promises. Our God is so good!

I challenge you this week to flush yourselves. Even if it’s just for a day, and see the difference it makes in your life…I promises you, you will never want to ‘unsync’ too soon again.