Today’s Bible Reading:
2 Kings 15
Titus 1
Hosea 8
Psalms 123-125
Today’s Bible Verse(s):
Titus 1:15 (CSB): “To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled.”
Reflections on Today’s Bible Verse(s):
It appears that a man named George Fuechsel was the man who coined the term, “Garbage In Garbage Out.” In its early days of business, he was an IBM programmer who also taught other programmers. By using the phrase, “Garbage In Garbage Out” (GIGO for short), he meant that a computer’s output was only as good as a programmer’s input. If you put bat data or a bad program into a computer, you would get “garbage out.”
“Garbage In, Garbage Out” doesn’t just apply to computers. It applies to so many other things, including the human brain. That’s what our verse for today is addressing.
Titus 1:15 (CSB): “To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled.”
Have you ever said something only to have someone else start to chuckle at what you said? You knew that what you said was harmless … and then you realized that your comments had been distorted to mean something else in the mind of the person in front of you. It became crystal clear to you that the person in front of you had a dirty mind.
Or maybe it was you who chuckled. Someone said something and, because you had been feeding your mind with filthy movies or shows from television, your mind distorted what the other person said. You were embarrassed that your laughter gave away the fact that you had a dirty mind.
Titus 1:15 tells us that someone who has worked to cultivate a pure mind sees the world through that lens. Since they guard their mind and hearts and try to only allow good, pure, wholesome thoughts into their mind, everything they hear and observe is received purely.
But, Titus 1:15 also tells us that if someone has cultivated a dirty mind, if their “mind and conscience are defiled,” then everything they hear and observe is filtered through that mindset.
Friend, what you regularly put into your mind will wire your brain so that it filters how you experience the world. It makes no sense to fill your mind with ungodly stuff. Our perspective becomes so much better when we determine to put in only what is good and pure and wholesome.
How do we do this? Well, among other things, the most important is regularly time in God’s Word. Read it. Study it. Write a verse or two down and reflect deeply on them throughout the day. Let Philippians 4:8 determine what you should think about what you should chase out of your mind.
“Garbage In Garbage Out” is a reality of life. But so is “Pure In Pure Out.”
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Lord Jesus, I want a pure mind. I want the way I see the world around me to be pure. I realize that in order to develop that mindset, I have to intentionally put pure things into my mind and chase out the impure, ungodly things. By Your grace and with Your strength, I will do this. Amen.
Matt’s Musings 