G.I.G.O.
Wednesday 9th July
The computer age has given us a new way to understand our brain. The most complex computer man has yet developed has nowhere near the complexity of the human brain, and our attempts to approximate a human brain only show how inadequate human inventions are. However, computer terminology is often used to describe the operation of the brain and to make its functions easier to understand. The input is any information received by our senses. The output is our speech and actions. The software is the data that is fed into the hardware. The hardware is the physical equipment, that is, our brain and body.
When it comes to salvation, it is God who has written the software program. It is called the Bible. We, in a sense, are the hardware; and, if we are programmed by God’s software, then we produce the output that has been programmed into us by the Bible. Jesus explains it differently because he did not use computer language, but the message is the same. ”Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” What we put in is what we get out. If bad stuff goes in, bad stuff comes out.
In the language of the computer world, it is called, G.I.G.O., i.e. ”garbage in, garbage out.” When a computer is full of garbage, that garbage is on the screen and that is what the printer prints. We, the hardware, must respond to the program that is in us. If we fill our minds with the garbage of the world, there is no way that we can think, talk, or act godly. If we fill our minds with the knowledge of God, we will act accordingly.
The world today is full of computer programmers. They make their living writing programs to tell computers what to do. The world is also full of those who are busy telling us what to do, and their thoughts and suggestions are as different from God’s as the heavens are high above the earth. The worldly programmers of our minds bombard our thoughts through advertising in its many forms such as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc. We are also affected by those we know through work, school, neighborhood, sports and the meetings. All of these ”programmers” affect our thinking.
Whether we like it or not, the world is having an effect upon our thinking and doing. If we are not careful, their programmers will erase from our minds all the godly programs that God has created for our salvation and will replace them with garbage. Unless we vigorously resist the world’s bombardment by reading, studying, meditating, and praying, our brain will automatically absorb the world’s input. Great effort and determination are required to resist an almost overwhelming flood of input with which the world deluges us.
Since we are in control of the programs and the software that we put inside of ourselves, we had better be careful that the world does not win the battle for our minds by erasing God’s word and replacing it with the garbage that is so prevalent around us. Let us fill our minds with the word of God so that our printout is godly rather than worldly.
”The thoughts of the righteous are right,” said Solomon, and ”as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”