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"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!
David
A. Sargent
/ M.
Eddlemon
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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