Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever.
As I read the words in 1 Chronicles 28:8 and the commentary, I said to the Lord, “I cannot tell anyone anything new about this verse, but please help me tell them something relevant to the day.” And He is faithful.
Earlier in the day I was blessed to receive a call from Dewey Moede, Pastor, Evangelist, man of God and friend from New Mexico, and during our conversation mention was made of his desire to someday hear me play the fiddle. It might be short lived if he were to actually hear me play, but I was humbled none the less. You see, my fiddle playing skills are not concert worthy by any stretch of the imagination, I play because I love the music and the fellowship involved.
When a group of bluegrass musicians congregate together on the streets of a festival or the Bearfork Trading Post Bluegrass venue it’s a sweet time of camaraderie. Even an amateur fiddler such as I is permitted the opportunity to take the break (play the melody solo) as the audience gathers around to enjoy the music. It’s both enjoyable to be in the audience and in the congregation of musicians yet the pressure on the performer can be in degrees higher from none to extreme, depending upon their ability to play. You can guess which end of the spectrum I’m on. But when you stand in the audience of God… wow. Then the pressure’s on.
I think the judgment of the church is taking place while we are here, but we alone will one day be in the audience of God to stand accountable for how we lived our lives before our family, and they may or may not inherit the Kingdom of God because of our testimony. Scary thought…
While in a congregation of musicians I can miss an occasional note and the audience may not even notice, but when I stand across from my music instructor and expert musician, he knows. And while as a congregation we may appear as if we’ve got it all together, our Instructor knows the truth. While God does not expect perfection He expects us to at least be practicing for it. If we lived every day with the idea that we were performing life in the “Audience of God,” what would change?
I know for certain I’d have read the manual more. Evidently I’m not alone. According to a recent study
- More than 60 percent of Americans can’t name either half of the Ten Commandments or the four Gospels of the New Testament.
- Some 80 percent including “born again” Christians believe that “God helps those who help themselves” is a direct quote from the Bible.
- And 31 percent believe a good person can earn his/her way into heaven.
I think we need to do a little more seeking so that we may be found also keeping those commandments.
There’s a couple of life lessons you can learn from a fiddler.
1. If you don’t practice you’ll never get any better. And practicing requires picking up the fiddle and playing.
- If you never read your bible, you’ll never understand it. It too requires picking it up.
2. There’s a need to be in the congregation. If a fiddler never plays music with anyone else, their timing gets off and it becomes harder to hear if you’re playing in tune.
- The same hold true if you’re not a part of a congregation of the Lord. If you’re not in a body of believers who can walk with you and encourage you, you’ll have a hard time staying in tune. Your heart will stray.
God said to keep and seek all the commandments. Well… I have yet to play a fiddle tune to perfection, nor have I lived a life of keeping all the commandments. Some days I feel like I’ve broken all ten. But I keep practicing. So that one day when I stand in the audience of God I will hear Him say “Well done!”
