You know what’s worse than listening to than an instrument that’s out of tune? Listening to TWO instruments that are out of tune! Even worse is an orchestra full of them. Although each person is trying to play the same piece of music, it sounds awful. And when you combine everybody together, you get an atrocity!

Now if you were the conductor, what would you do with an orchestra like this? Would you group everybody into pairs, and tell each pair of players to tune their instruments to each other? That wouldn’t work. Each pair would probably settle on a different pitch. What if you just tell everyone to be quiet and stop playing? That’s silly! Then you don’t have any music! You know what they really need? A tuning fork. You, the conductor, must give them a tuning fork.

We Christians are like instruments; the church is the orchestra; and our song is love. When we Christians love one another perfectly, we experience joy, and the world looks and listens in amazement. But guess what!? We’re notorious for being out of tune.

Maybe Erica’s tune is talking about introspective feelings and gushy things. If she gets together with someone who plays the same tune (also likes to talk about those things) then they’ll feel close to each other. They’re “in tune,” and it may feel like love. But it’s not God’s definition of love. And it doesn’t satisfy.

Maybe Jack’s tune is cracking 100 jokes per second and getting pumped on sports. If he gets together with someone who’s also crazy about those things, then they’ll feel close to each other. They’re “in tune,” and it may feel like love. But it’s not God’s definition of love. We will only be fully satisfied when we’re in tune with God the Conductor.

Your tune could be business, or video games, academics, gossip, or American Idol, or Star Wars. Perhaps you know people with these tunes. Their life seems to revolve around these things. But we must tune our instrument to God’s tuning fork…Christ! We watch Him, listen to Him, and imitate Him. The Holy Spirit enables us to do these things.

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (Jn 13:14-15)

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 Jn 3:16)

Jesus shocked the world by playing something so “out of tune” with everyone else. He said, when someone slaps you on one cheek, turn and let them slap you on the other. He said, when someone takes your video game, give them your gaming system as well. Then he went and died for us, to bring us to God. We also are to lay down our lives for one another. That means pouring yourself out for the good of others. Does that sound draining? Well, as we bless others, God promises to bless us in return. “One who waters shall himself be watered,” and:

If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will…satisfy your desire (Is. 58:10-11).

Christian, tune yourself to Christ. Close your ears to the bad tunes that are around you: perhaps in your own household, definitely on your TV. Study the person of Christ, observe his ambassadors, and imitate! Christians that are in tune with Christ will be in tune with each other: full of joy, and knit together in love.

Take care then how you walk…, making best use of the time. (Eph. v. 15-16)

The Apostle Paul tells us to “redeem” or “buy up” the time. Today I spent some time trying to figure out why time is so precious. Maybe this will be helpful to you too, maybe not:

12 Properties of Time Wherefore it is Precious

1. It is a gift. We did nothing to obtain a share of life and breath. God was in no way obliged to cause your birth; your small allotment of time is a gift from Him.
2. It is at our disposal. Though God as creator ultimately owns both you and your time, he has permitted us a measure of choice in how we use time.
3. It is finite. We have a predetermined amount of time, and when it is all gone we will have no more.
4. It is unknown in length. You do not know if your life may be snuffed out in the next moment, and your time be finished.
5. It is perpetually consumed. The flow of time does not respect its use. Whether you sleep, or labor, or idle, the floor of time’s hallway crumbles away at your heels.
6. It is prey. Both man and devil seek to tax our days with fruitless toil, devouring our precious moments to further their evil designs.
7. It is irreclaimable. You get one shot at every moment.
8. It is immutable. Not one of your deeds done in time can be undone or their effects erased.
9. It is repercussive. What is done in one moment of time bears on every successive moment for better or worse.
10. It determines our temporal happiness. An hour spent in communion with God will gladden the soul as surely as an hour spent estranged from Him will erode it.
11. It determines our eternal residence. Salvation may be obtained only within our alloted window of time.
12. It determines our recompense in eternity. To everyone shall be given according to his works, whether good or bad.

Beware (take heed), then, that you walk (live, deport yourself) carefully (exactly, circumspectly, diligently, perfectly) not as unwise (fools) but as wise, redeeming (ransoming, rescuing from loss, buying up) the time, because the days are evil (hurtful, vicious). Therefore do not be ignorant (unbelieving, unwise), but understand (comprehend, put together mentally) what is the will (determination, desire, pleasure) of the Lord.

(Ephesians 5:15-17)

Ever wanted to play a practical joke on a monkey? Find a jar with a mouth just wide enough for his hand to fit through, and put a peanut in it. Then give the jar to the monkey. Oh, we all know what happens. In his frenzy to seize the treat, the monkey reaches into the jar to grasp it. Unfortunately, as long as he clenches the peanut in his fist, he cannot remove his hand from the jar! It won’t fit! The poor monkey is bewildered. He goes about his day with a jar stuck over his hand. He simply sees no way other way to procure the treat.

I am often exactly like that monkey. Things such as winsomeness, friends, respect, and power are mere peanuts in a jar. Try as I might, they simply can’t be taken by force. These things belong to God! None of them can be taken by any human. They can only be given.

Think of the guy with the spiky hair, Nikes, and bulging muscles. He basically lives at the gym. Why? He has completely sold himself to looking attractive for the ladies. But he’ll never be attractive that way. Anyone with a true eye for beauty will find his kind of character disgusting. ALERT!! Monkey is clutching his peanut!!

Think of the woman scrambling for promotions at her job. She wants power. She wants control. Soon she is made a high-level manager in the company. For a little while, she is successful and happy. But very soon she begins to realize that no one wants to listen to her anymore! Her desire for power has made her proud and bossy. And nobody wants to obey a proud bossy person. ALERT!! Monkey is clutching her peanut!!

Attractiveness and power: such things simply can’t be taken. They can only be given by the God who created them. Returning to our poor monkey, it is now evening. The monkey’s eyelids begin to grow heavy; his hand relaxes its grip on the peanut. The jar slips onto the floor. The peanut rolls out and is summarily devoured by a colony of ants. If only our monkey could talk! He might have asked his caretakers for help.

I know that spending my energies to win friends, influence people, merit respect, and acquire power is foolishness. Again and again I have seen these pursuits backfire. When driven by selfishness, they always do! I also believe that the pursuit of God is categorically the most rewarding pursuit known to Man. I believe this with all my heart, and with all my heart do I commend it to you.

Matthew 6:31-33

So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unconverted  pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all pursue His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NET)

I once heard Ravi Zacharias say that only God is able to humble us without humiliating us and to exalt us without flattering us. Daniel in the Bible knew this.

Daniel 10:7-9

 7 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.

8 So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength.

9 Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground.

When God touches a place, no flesh there is left standing. To be touched by God’s holy finger is the most humbling experience humanly possible. For when God comes into a place, all human strength and glory withers. But for the one whom God loves, this is not humiliating– His touch comes from outside what is fleshly and comprehensible, and comes to quicken the spirit!

Daniel 10:10-12

10 And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.

11 And he said to me, O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.

12 Then he said to me, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.

If we are so helpless before a loving God, let us then humble ourselves before Him, and set ourselves to understand Him. He is not flesh, but Spirit, and his word can be understood only by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. If He does, then we will not fear: he who hears God is the one whom God hears. Here is the summary. The one without God thinks he is strong, and yet is dashed to pieces the moment God arrives on the scene. The one who knows God therefore knows he is feeble, and yet has God as his mighty strength and great fighter!

God alone is able to humble us without humiliating us, and to exalt us without flattering us.

There is nothing strange about evil. We know what it looks like. A homeless Zimbabwean with lung cancer is refused medical care and left to die in the gutter. My neighbor’s adorable terrier dashes into the street and gets flattened by an 18-wheeler. A good husband and father loses his job. A girl gets raped. Evil is both inflicted and suffered all the time. From a distance, we aren’t bewildered by it. Why should we be? News broadcasts keep us updated around the clock! We have the “5 o’clock Evil” and the “6 o’clock Evil” and graphic depictions of it pouring over the airwaves all night long. We were once shocked, maybe, as children. But it doesn’t take long to realize and accept that evil is part of life on earth.

Evil is simple, really. It has no secrets. There is nothing strange about it. Until we consider that God has allowed its existence. Realize that God could at any moment wipe evil from the face of the earth, and let only goodness and love abide for eternity. But He hasn’t. He lets evil be.

I typically am not bewildered by evil happening outside myself. But what about when it happens to me? When Josh gets shot in the foot with loneliness, evil suddenly seems crushing!

The Bible plainly states that one of God’s purposes for evil is as punishment for the ungodly. But it has another purpose which is an encouragement. For us Christians who suffer evil, God is giving us an opportunity to experience first-hand the sufferings of our Lord Jesus. God explicity wants me to resemble His one and only Son, Jesus, in every way. Why? Jesus was perfect, and the pinnacle of His perfection is in the way he dealt with evil. After His atonement for sin, one of the legacies Jesus left behind is His perfect response to evil.

Jesus “for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame…” Jesus’ example of suffering gives Christians three parts of a right response to evil:

• We despise it.
• We endure it.
• We look to the joy promised us as Christians.

Peter exhorts these things as well.

1 Peter 4
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Peter says that fiery trials are meant to test us. When an electrical wire is designed, its insulating sheath must be raised to a high temperature to test its response to heat. If the wire passes the test, its maker will approve it for use. Similarly, fiery trials test our semblence to Christ as God makes us. So it is not strange to suffer as a Christian. Suffering gives us cause for rejoicing, since it bring us into deeper knowledge of Christ! I often find myself wholly uninterested in Jesus’ glory and future coming. Sharing in Christ’s sufferings enables me to rejoice in His glory!

From a distance, we aren’t bewildered by evil. But when evil knock on our own door, we need Jesus to answer. If suddenly all my friends desert me, and my knowledge and reasoning disappear, there is absolutely no reason to think something strange is happening. Evil happens to other people all the time. It’s simple, really. But evil cannot harm me: whether I live or die, I am in God’s hands.

I love the opening lines to the hymn:

Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.

If life be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short, then why should I be sad
To soar to endless day?

Bear well.