Race to the Throne

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,

and Christ shall give you light.” — Ephesians 5:14

Seeing the Christian life as a foot race is a common Biblical illustration. Paul uses it a number of times to explain spiritual truths. One of my favorite uses of this analogy is in Hebrews 12:2 where the author states, "Who for the joy that was set before him..." The truth revealed here is that, as important as it was, the cross was not Jesus' goal. His goal was the joy found beyond the agony of the cross.

In like manner, our race does not end at the moment we leave this earth but, rather, concludes at the foot of the throne in heaven (Revelation 20:12). So, if the goal line is found in eternity, shouldn't our objectives also be focused there? Why, after all, would anyone want to create goals that fall short of the finish line? And, if the finish line is in eternity, it seems reasonable that our goals should have certain everlasting qualities and characteristics about them. Not everything we do and nothing we accumulate — save the souls of men — will make the transition from this world to the next (1 Corinthians 3:13). So it is incumbent upon us to carefully consider the quality of the goals we choose in this life.

The most valuable possession we have on this earth is immaterial. I am speaking of time. It seems odd that that would be true, but it is. We each receive the same amount of sand in our hourglass every day. Once spent, it can never be recovered. "Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives," was the tagline from a long-running soap opera. Watching it may have been a waste of a lot of good sand, but the saying did have the ring of truth to it.  Moses' wise prayer was that God would teach us to number our days (Psalm 90:12). What we trade for those seconds in a day, what we mix with the minutes, determines how much actual regard we have for our days.

The door which opens into eternity is not in the future, it is behind the believer (John 10:9). You and I enter into eternity the moment we are born from above. If we have been born again, we are already dwelling in eternity. We can choose to embue the day with eternal qualities or let it slip through our hands, squandered in activities that have no everlasting ingredients mixed with them. Let us ask God to give us a heart of wisdom regarding our todays in light of the eternal tomorrow.

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil." — Ephesians 5:15,16

• 1 Thessalonians 5:5,6     • John 10:10

The Luthier

Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars! — Psalms 148:3

Imagine, if you will, a craftsman, a violin maker, desiring to create an instrument whose sound could express all the inner mysteries of the heart. Having spent years apprenticed to a master craftsman, he now has the opportunity to build his own instruments and put into practice, not only all the skills he learned from his mentor, but also the ideas flowing from his own gifted genius.

While he conceives the finished instrument and can hear it's wonderful tone within his own imagination, he knows it will be long months before he will hold a finished labor of love that matches his vision. He must first prepare forms, select the perfect, properly aged hardwoods and pine, put sketches of his ideas to paper, and ready all his tools to facilitate the creation.

After long days and even longer months the instrument he so lovingly crafted is finally complete, and now has arrived the moment wherein the violin is strung for the first time and lifted to be tentatively tuned and sounded. While he is not a virtuoso violinist, he can play competently enough, and his excitement builds as he stresses the instrument, listening to the mellow timber of its low notes and the sweet, crystalline high notes imparting their own character to the piece his hand has chosen to play on its maiden voyage.

Pouring out from his heart, down through his arm, radiating out through the fingers of his one hand and bow in the other, onto the fingerboard of the instrument and out through its body flows the symphony of his soul. He can hardly contain his excitement as he visualizes his unique instrument in the hands of a true master, and imagines the sound he will be capable of coaxing the instrument to produce.

Read again the verse at the top of the page. Did you ever wonder, how in the world do the sun and moon and all the shining stars praise God? I considered that for some time and finally came to the realization that everything God created praises Him, in that each effortlessly fulfils the task for which it was designed. Every creation, that is, except man. Every one of us is, at best, a broken instrument, unable to glorify God as He intended.

The solution is not a matter of restringing our violin; we need an entirely new instrument; one which God creates when we are born anew. Realizing we are not our own, but have been bought with a priceless price, He remakes us as instruments of His choosing. 

As of this writing, the most expensive Stradivarius at auction sold for a bid of $16 million, but that is nothing when compared to the cost of our redemption. The Father asked me recently, "How much gold would you have Me make so you might pay for Christ's redemption?" There is nothing we can give in exchange for our lives, since all that we have comes from His hand. For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money" (Isaiah 52:3).

Yet, if we will surrender what we do have, He will craft from our lives such an instrument as the world has never heard, one so winsome it will be as though heaven itself opened up and poured out the music of the universe. But, it will be His Spirit poured out through your yielded heart strings into a dying world, finding its seat in the great symphony of life in Christ Jesus.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

                                                        ― Francis of Assisi