play the record

My daughter Bethany recently sent me three custom recorded CD's of mountain music, folk music and Irish music...all favorite styles of mine.  Yesterday I enjoyed cranking up the stereo and filling the cabin of my car with the twang of those vocals, the crisp guitar and banjo picks and the emotion of the fiddle.  It struck me that I was having a pretty intense experience listening to something that had been amazingly recorded on a flat disk that was the size of a one dimensional donut (how about those IPOD's and MP3 players with thousands of songs in something the size of a cigarette lighter!).  Anytime I want, I can push a few buttons and play any favorite song I want and sing along (I know it's not safe to use cell phones in the car...I think it's safe to sing as long as you are alone!).  With this technology something very small and compact that doesn't appear to have anything to do with music or emotion transforms into a virtual orchestra or concert.  I can activate this enjoyable experience whenever I want.  I thought about the Bible.  Although not as small as an MP3 player (unless we're talking "recorded Bible") there are thousands of spiritual recordings that I can play whenever I want.  These recordings transform something that appears to be an ordinary book into a living, dynamic orchestra of meaning that can grab my heart and soul, spin my mind, and realign my life to satisfying truth.  More than that, it becomes a vehicle that can transport me directly into the teaching and comforting presence of God, Himself!  Yesterday I gained a fresh appreciation for the concentrated power of man's music technology and for the spiritual power concentrated in God's Word.  I suppose the degree of appreciation I have for each really turns on my willingness to listen and my attitude of appreciation and involvement.  He has recorded the music of life and made it available to us in a compact and accessible form.

 

2 Chronicles 34:³⁰ The king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD. ³¹ Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

 

blessings,

Rob Smith