Hanging Around Lookin' Purty

The old man worked for months on his project. He had purposefully chosen a beautiful piece of wood. He carefully cut out the curves and planed the surface to just the right thickness - a little thinner here, a little thicker there. The rough, oil-stained hands made sure the pieces were glued tightly together, gently sanded, stained and polished...

Holes were drilled, pegs were made, a bridge was set, strings were strung and tuned...

The bow was tightened and rosined...

The old man was very pleased with his handiwork and the beautiful sound that was made when the bow pulled the strings.

Grandad Kay was a metal machinist by trade and an old-time fiddler by night. In his retirement years he decided to use his skills to make fiddles. He made several and I'm proud to have a couple of them myself. He's the man I was describing at the beginning of this post.

Fast-forward to 2011.

I was at my in-law's home in Tulsa this past week. I went in the front bedroom closet to look for some wrapping paper - or something - I don't really remember right now - and behind some shirts on a shelf leaning against the wall was one of Grandad Kay's fiddles. "What a shame to have this pretty fiddle hidden in the closet" I thought to myself. "Someone should be playing it."

Before I could get to judgemental, however, it dawned on me that the two fiddles I have from Grandad may not be in a closet, but hanging on the wall in my guest bedroom isn't really what they were intended for either. They may be pretty to look at, (and if I was home I would take a picture of them and post it here) but even though guests in our home can see the fine workmanship, these fiddles still aren't being used for their intended purpose. Someone should tune them up and play them!

Sermon illustration.
So I won't try to pretend I wasn't already headed to a little New Year's Day sermon. Haha.

Many of us are just like the fiddle tucked away in the closet. God intends for us to make beautiful music - and I don't mean just singing in the choir. He created us for a higher purpose than just hanging around looking pretty or being hidden away in a closet (or church building).

We love to quote Ephesians 2:8-9 (Wonderful verses!)
8 For ²¹by grace you have been saved ²²through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is ²³the gift of God ; 9 ²⁴not as a result of works, so that ²⁵no one may boast.

But we should keep going. Look what verse 10 says
10 For we are His workmanship, ²⁶created in ²⁷Christ Jesus for ²⁸good works, which God ²⁹prepared beforehand so that we would ³⁰walk in them.

We were created for good works. God prepared before we were saved that we should walk around doing good works!

Just like those pretty fiddles were created to make music, God created YOU to do good works. That's why you were saved by grace.

I'm not going to tell give you any ideas of what those good works are. I know you want me to. "Like what?" you ask. That's the Holy Spirit's work in your life - not mine. If I give you an idea you won't bother trying to listen to His voice in your life.

So...

I thought this would be a good post for New Year's Day. Many of us are reflecting on what we did (or didn't do) last year and many are making resolutions for the new year.

Let me challenge you to start the year off by asking God if you've been hanging around looking pretty (so to speak) or if you've been hiding yourself and then ask Him what good works He created you for..

Oh... and then why don't you make a decision to DO something for the Kingdom in 2011.

Remembering

Have you noticed that as time passes memories sort of fade? Even memories of important things begin to lose their significance as life rushes on and new memories crowd out the old.

Sometimes this is a good thing. If we remembered every car wreck we ever witnessed (or were actually in) with the passion and vividness of the moment we would never be able to leave our house and get in a car. If mothers remembered too strongly the pain of childbirth there would be a whole lot of only children in the world.

But sometimes this fading of memories is not a good thing. We need to remember car wrecks a little so we don't drive like crazy people when we are on I-24 going to Nashville!

Today we are remembering 9-11. And even that has faded. We don't remember how horrific that event was. This morning on Fox and Friends (my favorite morning show) they showed actual footage and their coverage of that terrible morning. For a few years it was deemed too graphic and too horrible to show. I'm glad they showed it this year. We were starting to forget.

As I watched, all the emotions of that day flooded back. I fought back tears as I watched the reporter as he told about the plane hitting the World Trade Center and then another plane flew right behind him and hit the second tower.

These are images we need to remember. Not so we will remember to hate the people who did this. No. On the contrary it should remind us that the only hope for peace between men is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul was talking about in the second chapter of Ephesians. Read This Chapter

Paul is explaining in these verses how formerly there were two groups - the Gentiles and the Jews - and that now Christ had made them one body. v.14 "For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,"

There is so much more in this chapter that needs to be said. It would make a great sermon series. But let me give you a few more things I hope you will remember not only on 9-11, but every day.

1. You were dead in your trespasses and sins (vs.1-3)
2. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ" (vs.4-5)
3. You were created for good works - to live your life that way (v.10)
4. You need to remember that once you had no hope and were separate from God (vs.11-12)
5. "But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." (v.13)

(Someone aught to be shoutin' "Hallelujah" by now!)

So now that you remember all of that... go live the truth. Live like a child of the King. Do the good works you were created for. Satan wants us to live our lives like we are still in the ashes of the World Trade Center, without hope and without God. But the truth is found (summarized) in Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household,

There are people in your family, people that you work for, people around you, who have no hope. They are separated from God. YOU have the words of life living in you. Let them see by your good works and your good words that you have been brought near to God - that you are part of God's household. Give them some hope. Read Ephesians 2 Read This Chapter and then tell them - in your own words - how real that is in your life. The power of the Gospel doesn't depend on us. God is the one who convicts and saves and makes those who were formerly far oof to be near, but He lets us be a part of the process. How cool is that?

Now - get busy. There are a lot of people out there and we're behind.