E. Stanley Jones' The Divine Yes has had the biggest impact over me compared to any other book. I never knew about Second Corinthians 1:18-20 like he expressed. That everything is a Yes is eternally powerful.
Therefore, I share a lengthy quote simply to stabilize your day; hopefully.
It was said of the Samaritans that they would not let Jesus come into their village because his face was set as if he were going to Jerusalem, so they refused him entrance. James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven, but Jesus refused them and went to another village. Is that the open door? If life shuts you out of one village, does life also have another village to which you can go? Yes, I have found that when life shuts one door, it opens another if you have eyes to see and initiative to follow.
As a violinist tightens the strings of the violin, he does not do it to torture them, but to bring out music better than before. This pause in my life work is not misery; it is music in the making. It was said that the early Christians overcame that pagan world of wrong for they out-thought the pagans, outlived the pagans, out-suffered the pagans, out-died the pagans. That is what we must do in a world of this kind.
It could be said that we know misery. What some may not know that this assumed energy drainer, once converted from misery to music, will be our new energy booster. The best visual is to look at the disciples of Jesus during the first and second days of his crucifixion. Notice the new dynamic in Acts 2 after his resurrection.
Dead Jesus (misery) was in reality the most powerful hope (music) the world has ever known.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison....II Cor. 4:16-17.
Today? I personally am having a very low day. Surprise! Due to feeling bummed, He gives me this to write. Go figure! I guess God is tightening my violin strings!
Music is coming soon!
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