THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VALUE AND SUBSTANCE: [Mark 6:37]
The story is told of a gifted musician who, with his violin, was able to sway an enormous number of music lovers. One day he played and played, manipulating his audience on till their enthusiasm reached its zenith. Pausing, he held his instrument aloft, and then smashed it over the back of a chair.
The people were enraged. They jumped to their feet as one and briefly surged toward the master-player for destroying the violin that produced such unearthly sounds, such glorious music. But there stood the musician, calm and serene.
When the audience’s rage abated, he said quietly, "I know how you feel, but I want to teach you a lesson. Do you see the shattered violin? Well, it only cost fifty dollars!”
Picking up another, he continued, "Now I am going to play on this instrument, my most treasured violin, costing me some fifty thousand dollars. By my action, which you’ve condemned, I want to teach you that music is not in the instrument, but in the player.” And then he played on the second violin. And there was no discernable difference in the music.
In the hands of a master, the cheap violin produced strains equal to that of the costlier instrument. We are
slow to learn music is not in the instrument but in the Player. It makes little difference to the Lord (who is the Creator of all true harmony) whether the violin of your life is worth a trifling or a fortune.
It isn’t what you have but what He imparts which counts. Why, He can take mere nobodies and use them in a mighty way! "Little is much, if God is in it.” The miracle of the loaves proves He is supreme at multiplication.
Source: Lockyer, Herbert, “The Ten Strings’” Union Gospel Press (nd) 28,29; edited for use.
The story is told of a gifted musician who, with his violin, was able to sway an enormous number of music lovers. One day he played and played, manipulating his audience on till their enthusiasm reached its zenith. Pausing, he held his instrument aloft, and then smashed it over the back of a chair.
The people were enraged. They jumped to their feet as one and briefly surged toward the master-player for destroying the violin that produced such unearthly sounds, such glorious music. But there stood the musician, calm and serene.
When the audience’s rage abated, he said quietly, "I know how you feel, but I want to teach you a lesson. Do you see the shattered violin? Well, it only cost fifty dollars!”
Picking up another, he continued, "Now I am going to play on this instrument, my most treasured violin, costing me some fifty thousand dollars. By my action, which you’ve condemned, I want to teach you that music is not in the instrument, but in the player.” And then he played on the second violin. And there was no discernable difference in the music.
In the hands of a master, the cheap violin produced strains equal to that of the costlier instrument. We are
slow to learn music is not in the instrument but in the Player. It makes little difference to the Lord (who is the Creator of all true harmony) whether the violin of your life is worth a trifling or a fortune.
It isn’t what you have but what He imparts which counts. Why, He can take mere nobodies and use them in a mighty way! "Little is much, if God is in it.” The miracle of the loaves proves He is supreme at multiplication.
Source: Lockyer, Herbert, “The Ten Strings’” Union Gospel Press (nd) 28,29; edited for use.
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