Reformat
Revelations 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
It is totally incredible what can be accomplished/produced simply, effortlessly, and with very little knowledge- on a computer. You can design a publication, make a movie, record and publish a musical project, chat with someone on the other side of the world, have a video conference with a group of people from multiple locations- and utilize an endless, ever-growing list of cool applications with just a few mouse clicks. There really is no end to the possibilities, and it’s a bit like thetower ofBabel- whatever can be conceived will be accomplished. We’re really very privileged to live in this period of time in which this relationship with the computer is possible and for reasonable cost.
For all its functionality and cool applications, though, I’ve found that there can be some serious challenges to this wonderful world of possibilities. With the attack of little spies and viruses that have been given access through some open door to the internet, all of the computer’s incredible processing power can be brought to its knees and rendered useless. I recently had this take place on the laptop we use for our services at the most inopportune time on a Saturday evening. It began crashing arbitrarily and I, with my dangerous amount of obtained understanding, was able to locate the whereabouts of this little infestation, but the more I tried to extract it manually and with all the tools at my disposal, the problem only seemed to get worse. It finally got to where it couldn’t keep from crashing for more than a few moments. I was able to return to a level of operability once again, but not until everything was rebuilt on a different partition. Though it functioned for some time with the presence of that pesky little varmint, there came a point where total remove of the whole system it had touched was necessary.
There is this realm where everything really is possible- no limits, no restraints, and no exceptions. As this reference from Revelations states, it is the place where the presence of God has come to dwell. When and where He is truly the God, where He is unequivocally Lord of all, whatever is conceived can be accomplished. Like the computer’s operating system, however, there are some serious attacks that can make their way into the realm of the heart through an open door to the world and completely disrupt its functionality. Even though God has come to dwell, there are so many hurts, disillusionments, distractions, etc. that begin to cause ever more frequent crashes. Even though there is perfection in its design and in its purpose, the heart apart from its true source of processing power in the presence of God will cease to function as it was intended, and attempts to extract and heal those separation causes will yield only further frustration and discouragement.
For the broken operating system there is hope for a completely fresh start with the reformatting of the hard drive, and likewise I am grateful for this Revelation promise that God not only can, but is right now making all things new. He is not just trying to repair what is there, He is totally removing the former things and replacing them with perfection. All those things that came into rob, steal and destroy- all those deceptions and misrepresentations of who He really is are right now being worked on, they’re being completely thrown out with that old heart of stone and are being replaced with the new, highly improved and well functioning system of His new heart of flesh. All He needs is access. All He requires is the open door to our storage place, and the reformatting that He’s up to even now will be applied to the deepest and most hidden parts of the heart, bringing total and complete restoration. We really don’t have to put up with the sorrow, the tears and the pain, which are themselves disruptions of His purpose and design in us. We don’t have to stumble through life trying to keep from crashing. There is total restoration and total newness of life to be found in His presence and in the reformation that is ours right here and now in Him. All that is required is completely letting go of the former things for the fresh and the new.
