Garbage In Garbage Out

In computer science language, there is this phrase called ‘garbage in, garbage out’ or GIGO in short. What it basically means is that if you input nonsense or useless information to the computer, you will get faulty output as a result. The same can be said for practically everything else in life really. If we constantly feed ourselves with junk food, we will have bad body shape or even terrible health as a result.

Unlike our physical bodies which are easy to monitor as we can observe in the mirror everyday if we want to; our mind is what we have to watch out for it is less ‘visible’. If we constantly feed negative information into our mind, we will gradually form a mental perspective that life in general is just terrible. By telling ourselves that everything around us is bad (input), we end up feeling miserable and pessimistic (output).

The Christchurch mosque mass shooting in March 2019 is a perfect example of how bad input to the mind can cause horrible reaction in the physical world. In the midst of his shooting frenzy, the shooter filmed the entire process via Facebook live in an angle that look very much like a first person shooter game. By consistently feeding virtual reality into his mind, sadly it projected into reality in the real world. Perhaps this unfortunate incident may be prevented if the accused was playing Candy Crush instead.

Our mind is a very powerful tool given to us by GOD as a gift, we have to sacredly protect it, nurture it and grow it in a positive way. Think of our mind as a garden, if we are really so busy with our daily lives, we have to at least pull out the weed every now and then to prevent it from overgrown and dominate our entire garden. To go one step further is to obviously nurture the garden by applying fertiliser that will give nutrients to the soil. Our reward will be more beautiful flowers and bigger fruits in our gardens.

Proverbs Chapter 4 Verse 23 summarizes this point succinctly: ‘Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.’ How true this is! 

在电脑学里，有一个口头谈“垃圾进，垃圾出”。它的基本含义是，如果您把垃圾讯息输入电脑，你将得到糟糕的答案。我们的人生岂不是一样吗？如果我们不断吃快餐，那么我们就会变胖甚至也会影响到我们的健康。

我们的思想也是如此。它是上帝赐予我们的一种非常有力的工具，我们必须保护它，培育它和让它能继续成长。

箴言第4章第23节总结了这一点：“注意你的想法; 因它将影响你的人生。” 

The New Normal Sunday

In the past, I'll be getting ready to drive 20 minutes from home to attend the 10.30am service at church. I'll be turn on radio via wifi to listen to my favourite Malaysian radio station 988 while driving. This time is also my favourite segment which the DJ broadcasts all the classic old songs from the 80s and 90s.

Fast forward to today when the whole of Melbourne is still in Stage 4 Restriction Lock Down, I'm sitting at home eating my breakfast, typing these words, watching the rain drops dripping from the leaked gutter above me and of course still listening to my favourite station, currently playing the classic from Anita Mui. I'll be attending online worship in a short while.

How life has changed overnight due to Covid-19. Churches are empty and everyone is worshiping from home. At least there is no more excuse not to go to church on Sunday! Well there is always some people managed to come up with creative excuse every now and then.

All the GOD fearing Christians believe that the universe's every moves is being pre-planned by the Great Almighty. Therefore let's take this opportunity of more time that is made available to us during this pandemic and ponder upon this question: 'What is GOD's plan in all this?"

The excuse of not attending church is now being taken away from us as we can worship through internet from home. Unless someone come up with a lame excuse that his/ her computer broke down every Sunday morning! So no more excuse and we have to face GOD out in the open now. If anything, I think we now have the rare opportunity of being frank with ourselves and sincerely get to know GOD during this trying times. Ask Him what He wants from you out of this pandemic. There must be a reason why we suddenly have so much time at our disposal.

For me, the message I get is that I need to share my spiritual experience and that's why I'm writing this post now. We have to allocate this time fully to GOD. There are so many ways we can do that. We can sing and worship Him, we can fully immerse ourselves in the Bible, we can listen to sermon online, we can express our gratitude by listing all the good things around us on a piece of paper, we can refrain from having a bad feeling to anyone during this time and so much more. It is really not much to ask considering that we only reserve one Sunday morning to Him. If all the above is too hard for you, then at least stop thinking about your work, hobbies or entertainment during this time. Just find yourself a nice and quiet place to sit down and meditate. Use this precious moment to calm yourself down and just enjoy the wonderful experience while meditate to focus on GOD.

Don't waste this free time that is now available to us. Use it wisely. Don't ask what you want, ask what He wants instead. Happy Worship!

The Lost Envelope

We were on the way home from a visit with family in another state when I found it. I was pumping gas when I noticed a dirty, bulky envelope on the ground. I grabbed it, dirt and all, and looked inside. To my surprise, it contained one hundred dollars.

One hundred dollars that someone had lost and who at that very moment was possibly frantically searching to find. I gave our phone number to the attendants at the gas station in case anyone came back looking for it. But no one ever called. 

Someone had that money and lost it. Earthly treasure is often like that. It can be lost, stolen, or even squandered. It can be lost in bad investments or even in a monetary market over which we have no control. But the heavenly treasure we have in Jesus - a restored relationship with God and the promise of eternal life - isn't like that. We can't lose it at a gas station or anywhere else.

That's why Christ told us to store up "treasure in heaven" (Matthew 6:20). We do that when we become "rich in good deeds" (1 Timothy 6:18) or "rich in faith" (James 2:5) - lovingly helping others and sharing Jesus with them. As God leads and empowers us, may we store up eternal treasure even as we anticipate our eternal future with Him.

Source: Our Daily Bread

Story by Dave Branon

Such a great reminder to all of us to stay away from the temptation of the materialistic world which we find ourselves surrounded by in today's society. It's so true that money comes and go and we will never have possession of it forever. But the good things that we do will be registered in our lives' record forever. Go on and help someone today. It can be as simple as just listening to someone who is encountering personal problems.