"L1037"

(A repeat from 2013)

"L1037"  

  

    I recently watched again one of  my favorite documentaries.  It involves the Steinway Piano Company, and chronicles the yearlong process of building one of their concert grand pianos.  From selection of the wood to the final tuning, we see "L1037" as master craftsman ply their art and trade to produce an instrument of unsurpassed aural and visual beauty (for a mere $100,000 or so, you can enjoy one of these jewels in your living room!  For $200,000, you can have one in your den also! :)  ).

    Steinway may be the last piano manufacturer that, for all practical purposes, constructs everything by hand.  Much technical knowledge is required, of course, but no school exists where a new Steinway employee can learn the process.  Everything is passed down from one generation of craftsmen to the next.  Moreover, there's much "art" in the building of the piano.  Certain aspects of the construction require an intuitive gift just as much as knowledge and skill.  "Every one of our pianos has its own voice" said one of those artisan/technicians, referring to the human touch that crafts the piano, along with technical principles of design and construction.  Finally, the tuning process requires a month, and is accomplished by ear.  This contrasts with most companies that rely on computers to effect perfect pitch and a "perfect" relationship of note to note, but which lack the mysterious, but beautiful voicing a gifted human tuner can create.

    The documentary always reminds me of the art, craft, and skill of Another.  "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (Ephesians 2:10).  Our Heavenly Father initiates a spiritual process in all who trust in the Lord Jesus, a masterpiece of wisdom, power, and love that culminates in our being like our Savior.  "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).  The process requires so much more than we can ever imagine.  Indeed, we are much unlikeChrist when we first believe.  The earthly traits and disposition of our forefather Adam constitute us as fleshly in our original birth.  Salvation births a new and spiritual person, but Christlikeness in character, nature, and way requires a long molding and melding accomplished by a Hand of wondrous craft, skill, and art.

    The "art" fascinates me the most.  We are all so different, and God's intentions for each of us involve a finished product like His Son.  Nevertheless, we all possess unique spiritual and moral facets through which the light of Christ shines in a beautifully singular way.  It would be one thing to fashion us in such a manner that Christ is uniformly established in us.  It is quite another to birth, rear, and craft a Paul who is like, but unlike Peter, or a Mary, like but unlike Martha.  This requires an artist, that is, someone technically skilled, but who infuses into His medium and finished product a "something" the viewer or listener can perceive and enjoy, but can't quite understand or explain.

    I had an opportunity to play a Steinway years ago, in the days when I moved pianos.  However, the instrument belonged to a woman who had survived the Holocaust in Auschwitz.  Age and health issues prevented her from playing anymore, and I just didn't feel right touching the keys dear to her, but which she could no longer enjoy.  I was honored to simply to move the piano for her.  In contrast, our Heavenly Father will eternally enjoy the fruit of His artistry, labor, and the sacrifice made by His Son for the purpose of "bringing many sons unto glory" (Hebrews 2:10).  We are His workmanship, and in this day and this moment, we can be sure that He works for the sublime purpose that will one day be perfectly fulfilled in all His trusting sons and daughters...

"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."

(Psalm 90:17)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

(Proverbs 17:28)

     

    

    

"Vessels of Mercy"

"Vessels of Mercy"  

  

    "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

    "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us… when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Romans 8:5; 10).

    God's attitude and treatment of enemies perhaps best reveals His transcendent moral difference and otherness.  His heart of gracious mercy leads Him to love those who do not love Him, and to work in human hearts to lead us to the fountain of forgiveness that springs up from our Lord's innermost being.  "He delighteth in mercy" exults the prophet, revealing not merely God's desire to pardon sin, but His literal joy therein (Micah 7:18).

    No such disposition independently exists in human hearts.  Left to ourselves, the tooth and the claw would govern every aspect of our existence.  Rather than forgive when offended, our natural response involves resentment, bitterness, and vengeance.  Only the influence of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God in the world leads humanity to even consider the existence of mercy.  Thereby we do see attitudes and actions of forgiveness, as practiced by people.  However, the source of such always originates in God, whether directly in born again believers, or indirectly in unbelievers influenced by the Lord's disposition revealed in the world despite its rejection of Him.

    "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).

    The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit constitutes Christians as "vessels of mercy" (Romans 9:23).  Dwelling within our redeemed spirits, the Spirit of God reveals in us our Lord's disposition to love both friend and foe.  We still do not possess innate merciful tendencies - "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit" (Galatians 5:17).  When offended, believers still feel the natural human impulses that tempt us to turn away from our offenders, or treat them as they have treated us.   Thus, the Holy Spirit works in us to reveal His natural disposition of mercy - "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).  By such working, along with His Word and the example of the Lord Jesus and our fellow believers, the Holy Spirit encourages and challenges us to affirm the indwelling love of God in us that establishes mercy as our delight, even as it delights our Heavenly Father.  "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22).

   God's transcendent goodness, greatness, and otherness requires His presence and working in us if we are to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus.  This especially applies to the treatment of enemies.  Only the wondrous Lord revealed in Scripture possesses the quality of mercy in and of Himself.  "I am God, and there is none like Me" (Isaiah 46:9).  However, His trusting children in Christ possess this quality through Him, that is, by being "partakers of the Divine nature" (II Peter 1:4).  Through Christ, God's delight becomes our delight.  Presently, however, we must believe in order to overcome our remaining fleshly tendencies toward resentment, bitterness, and vengeance.  As always, the dynamic New Testament way of grace as revealed through faith enables us - "I cannot… I can… through Christ!"

"I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

(Matthew 5:44-45)

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

(Philippians 4:13)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

(Proverbs 17:28)

     

    

    

“The Great (and Faithful) Coordinator”

"The Great (and Faithful) Coordinator"  

  

    In order for God to "work all things after the counsel of His own will", He must coordinate trillion upon trillions of cumulative moments, atoms, events, circumstances, conditions, angels - both faithful and fallen - and people (after writing that sentence, I read it to our beagle Sparrow, my editor.  She and I got then down on our knees in wonder and worship of so great a truth, and so great a God.  Well, I think she has knees).

   We do well to remember this thought when some detail of life seems impossible to fit into the understanding of our Lord's working in our lives.  Sometimes God's faithful servants are thrown into pits and then sold into slavery by their brothers.  Sometimes faithful Job finds his heretofore blessed life shredded, with no explanation and no way to understand why darkness swallowed up the light.  Sometimes the Psalmist loves and reveres his king, only to find Saul responding with hatred and a javelin.  Sometimes a cherished lamb, raised as a pet, is stolen and butchered by a wealthy man whose abundant flock made such cruelty completely unnecessary.  And sometimes - once, actually - the Son of God became the Lamb of God, to be rejected by all, including the Father who loved Him "before the world was".

   The bewildering chronicle could go on and on, and does.  Some things we understand regarding God's perfect way in our lives.  Much we do not understand.  We can, however, know this: when our Father must fit together those trillion upon trillions of realities, events, and volitional beings in a creation wherein sin exists, much of His working will loom before us in mystery.  We must therefore expect to not understand all, and that our blindness will disturb us.  "How, Lord?  Why, Lord?  What, Lord?"  No less than David often raised such pained inquiries in the Psalms.  He frequently did not understand.  However, before the Psalms in which he questioned God's ways ended, he almost invariably affirmed the faithfulness, wisdom, and power of God despite his inability to fathom what and how his Lord worked.  Herein we stand, having first kneeled before the altar of truth: "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31).  The Great Coordinator, beyond comprehension in His capacity to work all things together for the glory of Christ and our benefit, shines forth from the Bible in pristine clarity regarding His heart.  This we know, regardless of how little we may understand the ways of our Father's hand.  We can trust His heart.  Because no one has ever trusted in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and been disappointed for doing so.  And no one ever will…

"The Lord is good… The Lord is faithful… The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works."

(Psalm 100:5;  II Thessalonians 3:3; Psalm 145:17)

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

(Isaiah 55:8-9)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

(Hebrews 12:11)