"Off-Center"

Before CD and DVD players there were records -- phonograph albums -- that were played on electric machines called turntables or record players. Depending upon your age, you may or may not know about this mode of playing music. These records, just in case you don’t know about them (or remember), are disks (usually black in color) with a hole in the middle for the correct placement of the record onto the turntable.  Sound is produced (and then amplified) when a needle or stylus makes contact with grooves on the surface as the record spins.  Many, including this writer, have experienced hours of listening enjoyment using this apparatus.

I read about a young boy who received in the mail a record that he had ordered.  
When he opened the package he found that the company had failed to perforate a 
hole in the record.  So the boy decided to make his OWN hole.  It’s not hard to guess what happened.  The hole that the boy made was so off-center that the record swaggered and wobbled all over the turntable.  And the sound?  It was horrible!

This is exactly what happens when we ignore God’s design for our lives and make 
up our OWN rules. This is what the Bible calls SIN.  Sin operates life with SELF, 
NOT God, as the center. 

Just like the mis-punched hole in the record, we as descendants of Adam are also imperfect due to the introduction of sin into the world through disobedience.  And when we place that which is imperfect (self) at the center, and allow our lives to revolve around ourselves - we are off balance. The result?  Discord and frustration as we swagger and wobble through our self-centered lives.

In order to have the harmony and balance in our lives that we were designed by God to have, we must have HIS will NOT OURS at the CENTER of our lives.  Jesus said, “Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

Once we recognize that God MUST be the CENTER of our lives, we will understand from His Word that we were created to live in fellowship with Him.  It is God’s desire that we become His children.  Our adoption into God’s family has been made possible through Jesus Christ, God’s Son.  Through our faith (Hebrews 11:6), repentance 
(2 Corinthians 7:10), confession (Romans 10:9-10) and baptism into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38), we become children of God -- what we were created to be.  

It is IN Christ -- IN the family of God -- where we find the TRUE center of our lives.  Then, with God’s help, we can make harmonious music with our lives to the glory of God!

SELF-centered is OFF-center!

Find your TRUE center in the middle of God’s will!

God bless you!

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

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