Introduction:
LNG, or liquefied natural gas, has a volume that is only 1/600 of its gaseous state. This large compression ratio is particularly suitable for long-distance transportation, but the technical requirements for transport ships are extremely high. Few countries in the world possess such transport ships because building an LNG carrier is as difficult as building an aircraft carrier. The biggest danger of LNG carriers is leakage. A ship loaded with tens of thousands of tons of liquefied natural gas is like a sleeping giant hydrogen bomb. Leakage can be severe. The key to preventing liquefied natural gas leakage in LNG carriers is the construction of Invar steel containment, and there is a Chinese man named Zhang Dongwei whose job is to weld the steel plates that make up this containment.
The thickness of the Invar steel containment wall of an LNG ship is 0.7 millimeters. What is that concept? It is about the thickness of two layers of eggshells. Moreover, Invar steel is very delicate. Direct touching or contamination with sweat will cause it to rust. For an Invar steel welder, the biggest challenge is how to stabilize one's mental state, and this state of control cannot be easily achieved. Zhang Dongwei always has a way to calm himself down when he picks up the welding gun. It takes him a full 5 hours to weld a 3.5-meter-long weld. Because the welding requirements are extremely high, the error between each solder joint is less than 0.05 mm. 0.05 mm is almost indistinguishable. But for these 5 consecutive hours, Zhang Dongwei can be as calm as still water, his hands as light as feathers, and his body as steady as a mountain.
The most interesting thing in the whole process is how Zhang Dongwei instructs his apprentices. He said that after years of teaching apprentices, he has a skill: he can analyze the psychological state of his apprentices from the condition of the welds they have made. So he developed a habit of checking the results of his apprentices' welding work during off-duty hours, and then writing his comments on the steel plate next to the weld. For obvious welds with large fluctuations, he would write a word of encouragement. Zhang Dongwei often says that this line of work is related to the lives of many people, so technology is not the most important thing in teaching apprentices. The most important thing in the entire 5-hour uninterrupted welding work is cultivating the mind. So he said that what he often has to solve is not technical problems, but the psychological problems of his apprentices.
Scripture:
Proverbs 4:20-23, My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Heeding the Word of God
Proverbs 4:20-22, My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. To guard our hearts, we must begin by listening to God's word and understanding it more deeply.
Romans 10:17, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It turns out that listening to God's word and the word of preachers is the beginning of guarding your heart. If we do not know God, we have no way of knowing what kind of thoughts we must guard.
This trip to Shenzhen really allowed me to see the longing hearts of these brothers and sisters. The pastor was besieged wherever he went. I found that I am also a person with fans, haha. Some brothers and sisters are really cute, they grabbed me and said, You are not allowed to leave, explain to me what is happening in my life from a spiritual perspective, from a biblical perspective, what is going on? From the eyes of these people, you can clearly see their thirst for truth. A person who does not thirst for the word of God cannot guard his heart. If our heart is not on God, it must be on the world, so how can we talk about guarding it?
I think this also explains why many brothers and sisters are unable to read the Bible or listen to sermons quietly when they are controlled by evil spirits.
There is a passage of Scripture that we have not spoken about for a long time, which is Psalm 1, verses 1-2: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. It can be seen that thirsting for the word of God is key.
I wrote a short paragraph on each person's gift, and this short paragraph actually took me a long time, because I prayed for a long time when I was writing it. Then I wrote down the vision I saw on it. Later, when I was doing this, I had a feeling. It turns out that a vision is a 3D reaction to the word of God. You know, every TV series or movie has a script. If the script is compared to a 2D scene, then the play performed by the actors is a 3D version. If an actor does not read the script to act, the director will definitely freak out and it is impossible to film a play that matches the director's meaning. We are the same. If a person does not have a deep understanding of God's word, or is completely indifferent to God's word, if he says that he sees many visions, do not believe him, and our God will not be satisfied with his visions. I think it is difficult to say where these visions come from.
He who finds God finds life, and also finds the good medicine to heal all. How important it is to listen to God's word. If you have a disease in your body today, you must know that the effect is in your heart. The good medicine to heal the heart is the word of God. What does it mean to find God? It means pleasing God. How can a person who does not understand the word of God please God?
Excise the Perverse Mouth, Reject the Deviant Lips
I believe the Bible is truly a remarkable book. It is not merely a book of theory, but rather a book that can be put into practice and exercised. If the Bible only tells us to guard our hearts, that our hearts are important, concerning our name and foundation, then we would be very confused. Why? Because we would not know how to guard it. Anything that cannot be implemented is a fatal flaw. Let us examine the subsequent sentence in today's passage, which is Proverbs 4:24-27: Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Proverbs 4:24-27 tells us the concrete principles for guarding our hearts. The first priority is our mouths. As Matthew 12:34 says, For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If a person frequently speaks complaints, it indicates that their heart is filled with complaints. If they often speak bitter words, their heart is filled with bitterness. If they often speak negative words, their heart is filled with negativity. Conversely, if a person often speaks words of gratitude, their heart is filled with gratitude. If they often speak hopeful words, their heart is filled with hope. If they often speak encouraging words, their heart is filled with enthusiasm. A person's mouth is directly connected to their heart.
Eyes Look Directly Forward - Fixate on the Future
A person who constantly lives in the past is miserable because people rarely remember the happy moments of the past; they often remember the painful ones. During this trip to Shenzhen, I once again accompanied many brothers and sisters in watching a series of old films. Many were in tears as they shared their stories with me. In fact, as a pastor, I often have complex emotions when hearing such stories. On one hand, I am filled with compassion for the experiences of the brothers and sisters. On the other hand, I must immediately start thinking and mobilizing my energy on how to pull the brothers and sisters out of those painful memories. This is a topic a pastor must constantly ponder throughout their life.
One sister even shared with me some family matters concerning her relatives. A husband and wife argued from the 30th of the Lunar New Year to the 15th day of the first month over a poorly made dumpling wrapper, due to a single disagreement. As a result, the husband developed Alzheimer's in his early fifties, and the son's temperament became extremely unstable and eccentric. The thing a pastor fears most is when people ask, How do we solve their problem? This question is truly difficult to answer. Usually, my approach is to apply the advice to the questioner, encouraging them not to let the dumpling wrapper incident happen to themselves. They must guard their hearts. The biblical teaching that do not let the sun go down on your anger is not merely a requirement or law. Letting not the sun go down on your anger is related to a person's lifelong effectiveness and relates to the state that a person lives out in their life.
In other words, if you see a crooked dumpling wrapper made by your husband or wife, your eyes will certainly not look directly forward; they will look askance. If you see that your wife or husband is still willing to help you roll out dumpling wrappers, you will not look at them askance. The same situation applies: what a person sees in their eyes is what emanates from their heart. As pastors, we must constantly manage our inner state. When our inner state is not right, we will also often look at many people askance. But thank the Lord, during this trip to Shenzhen, the brothers and sisters were all so lovely that we wanted to pull each one over and take a closer look.
Ponder the Path of Your Feet - Forget What Lies Behind and Strive Forward
The only way to make the path for our feet straight is to strive forward with all our might. Do you know why David’s men could rise from a group of debtors?
The concept of family planning began to emerge in the early 1950s, and the 1980s and 1990s were the period when this plan was implemented and resolutely enforced as a constitutional mandate. Looking around, we can see that many young people of this age group in the church are now taking on the mission of serving God. I think this is a very divine matter because, due to family planning, we have been thrust into the position of firstborns, shouldering the responsibilities that firstborns should bear. Our church not only has aunties working hard, but also this group of children of the 80s and 90s, with boundless motivation, is running forward uncompromisingly on the path of serving God.
A church that tempers people's character is a church that cultivates the heart.
Conclusion: Guard Your Heart Above All Else
Asked a sister about the problem of the collapsed pillar.
The heart is the command center of all organs and tissues in the body and is also the key which a person lives out their whole life and has effects on everything.