What Goes In, Must Come Out!

Okay!...so this is one of my favorite stories!...mainly because I find it to be EXTREMELY relevant to our society today. And, to me, what makes it so cool is that the story really isn't that cool. (I know...that contradicts what I just said!) But, what I mean by that, is that it's just something really simple (that nobody else probably remembers), yet it had a cool impact on my life.

So, one summer back in high school, my youth group was at South Mountain Baptist Camp. Now, during the afternoon time, people are free to do whatever they want until it is time to go to supper. So one day my youth minister asked a group of us if any of us had an iPod that he could borrow so that he could listen to some music during his free time. I ALMOST raised my hand and said, "Sure!" I mean, I had an iPod with me, that was fully charged and ready to go and everything! But- I didn't say anything. Why? Because in that split second after he asked us, I realized: There is some songs on my iPod that I would NOT want my youth minister to know that I had. This situation, in return, allowed me to really think.

In the above story, from a Christian standpoint, there are two big problems:
1) The obvious problem: I should not be listening or exposing myself to things that are not of God!
and
2) I should have been more concerned with what God would think of the music rather than what my youth minister would think about my music.

Now, I can try to make myself feel a little better by thinking more along the mindset of: "Well...I only had a few bad songs...but everything else was just good Christian or country music." But, to say this to myself, would be me pretty much saying, "I give most of myself to Christ when it comes to the music that I listen to." So, my response to the first problem would be this: God wants ALL of us....not just part of us. He doesn't just want us on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. He doesn't just want us when we're at Christian camps or retreats. He doesn't just want us when we're around our Christian friends. He wants us to die to ourselves everyday and live a life reflecting of Christ.

Galations 2:20 says: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

If we want to live sold-out lives for Christ, we have to allow our own flesh to die upon a daily basis. Do the lives that we live in the body truly reflect lives living by faith in the Son of God?


In Matthew 15, Jesus is sharing a parable. I think that the heart of the parable is best explained in verses 17 and 18, when He says: "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out the body? But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them." 

Now, in the society that we live in today, it is very hard to avoid "bad" stuff altogether. With television, music, movies, and everything in between, ungodly things that expose the things of this world are found on every corner! However, as Christians, we should strive to censor ourselves and allow the things of Christ to be what we expose ourselves to each and every day. Now, in case you haven't realized, that is quite a challenge!!

I don't always expose myself to music or television that is pure to my Christian faith....I actually fall short to that constantly. But, I would like to remind us all that sin and temptation normally start with one thing: a thought. And these thoughts normally originate from the things of this world that we expose ourselves to.

So, my challenge to us all, is to cling to Christ in all that we watch or hear...because doing so is the life we are called to live, as well as the life that desires clean hands and a pure heart.