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From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Dear Rev. Graham: The world is filled with images that are hard to erase, particularly all that is so accessible on the internet today. I work with a youth group, and they are trying to reconcile how the Bible relates to their high-tech world today. Surely it can’t be true that technology has overpowered God’s written Word! – O.S.

Dear O.S.: A computer needs an operating system, or OS, to manage its hardware, memory, processes, and any other software it is running. The operating system controls what the computer can do, and if the OS gets a virus or some other problem, the computer won’t work right at all. In this age of technology, there is also an emphasis about having a “clean” operating system.

The Bible teaches that we need Jesus to be the operating system of our minds, because how we think determines what we do. The psalmist wrote, “How can a young person stay pure? By obeying [God’s] word” (Psalm 119:9, NLT). Obeying God begins with knowing what God says, and we learn this from Scripture.

God wants to change us to be like Jesus, so first He changes our thinking as we fill up our minds with His Word. And He tells us to keep our minds working the way they should by keeping the wrong things out. This is why we should be careful about the music we listen to, the movies and TV programs we watch, the books we read, and everything that we expose our minds to day in and day out – this goes for children and adults!

We need to keep our operating system “clean.” When we saturate our minds with the things of Jesus, our minds are shaped by His Word that directs us along the right pathways.

(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)