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PROGRAM D-8386
No doubt you’ve heard the familiar saying, “Garbage in, garbage out,” or its familiar acronym, GIGO. It was popular in the early days of computing, but applies even more today when powerful computers can produce large amounts of information in a short time. If you put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out—no matter how sophisticated, fast, or smart the electronics may be.
This is a principle that dates back long before computers. Jesus said, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45).
I want to examine ear garbage, eye garbage and heart garbage: What happens to us when we knowingly or unknowingly allow garbage into our ears, our eyes, or our heart? Obviously, this was a problem in Jesus’ day, but think of how many more assaults are made on our eyes, ears, and heart in this day where all kinds of media—invited and uninvited—surround us every minute of every day?
Have you become so accustomed to the garbage around you that it no longer seems that bad? I think of what happens to a frog when you put him in a pot of cold water. If you bring that pot to a boil slowly, the frog will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. However, if you put him in a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out at once.
For those of us who are Christ-followers, God’s principles don’t change with time. His standards are time-tested and true; they don’t change with culture, fads, or fashion. I wonder how immune we have become to the garbage of this world just because it’s been fed to us bit by bit, little by little? What would have been alarming a generation ago is now considered the norm!
Isaiah spoke of this in his time when he said, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Could you not make a list of all the things that are called good today which God calls evil? Have you been swept into the thinking that these things must be okay because so many people say they are? If so, like the frog, the water in your pot has gradually been increased and it’s getting near the boiling point.