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Imagine this. A concert violinist is performing a difficult piece in front of a large audience. Suddenly there is a loud snap that reverberates throughout the auditorium. The audience immediately knows that a string has broken and fully expects the concert to be suspended until another string, or instrument, is brought to the musician.

But instead, the violinist composes herself, closes her eyes and then signals the conductor to begin again. The orchestra resumes where they had left off and now the musician plays the music on three strings. In her mind she works out new fingering to compensate for the missing string.

A work that few people can play well on four strings, the violinist with the broken string plays on three. When she finishes, an awesome silence hangs in the room. And then as one, the crowd rises to their feet and cheers wildly.

The violinist smiles and wipes perspiration from her brow. When silence returns to the great room, she explains why she continued to play in spite of a broken string. “You know,” she says, still breathless, “sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”

We know what she means, don’t we? Maybe we’ve lived most of our lives and we have only a little time left. Can we still make music? Maybe disease has robbed us of our capacity to work. Can we still make music?

Perhaps a financial loss has left us impoverished. Can we still make music?

Or maybe a meaningful relationship has ended and we feel alone in the world. Can we still make music?

There will come a time when we all experience loss. Like the violinist, will we find the courage to discover just how much music we can still make with what we have left? How much good we can still do?

How much joy we can still share? For I’m convinced that the world, more than ever, needs the music only you can make. And if it takes extra courage to make the music, many will applaud your effort. For some people have lost more than others, and these brave souls inspire the rest of us to greater heights.

Just how much music can you make with what you have left? Let the Music Begin...

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 8.41. Live for God, on purpose, no matter what your situation or circumstance may be!

Beyond All Limits!

What an interesting day in which to live! There is world unrest, with conflicts throughout the middle-east as well as power struggles in many other nations. The economy is in turmoil with banks failing, government buy-outs, and rising inflationary prices on everything from fuel to food. There are political skirmishes, with Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of anything and everything as we are less than one month from perhaps the most significant local, state, and national elections in the history of our nation.

It would seem as though the problems are beyond all limits of comprehension to those of us simply trying to keep going from one day to the next!

As believers in Jesus Christ, though, we have a God on our side! We don’t have to face the dilemmas of our day alone or without any hope or help! Our God is an ever-present help in our time of need!

How much help can we expect from the Lord? As we work through any and all problems that we have, we can know that God can and will go beyond all limits of our expectations! In Ephesians 3:20, we read that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us!”

Be sure to join us this Sunday here at WFA as we examine this very passage, and learn together that we should never underestimate God’s power or goodness! He is able to go above and beyond all limits of our expectations!

Walking the Fence

by Jim Burns

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm- neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” – Revelation 3:15, 16

Everyone at one time or another has tried to keep his balance while walking on a fence. Sometimes we make it and sometimes we fall. When it comes to obedience, far too many Christians try to “walk the fence.” They keep one foot in the Spirit while one foot flirts with the world. These are some of the unhappiest people in the world.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “I never saw anybody try to walk on both sides of the street but a drunken man; he tried it, and it was awkward work indeed; but I have seen many people in a moral point of view try to walk on both sides of the street, and I thought there was some kind of intoxication in them.”

If God is God and Christ is our Savior, let us give our undivided attention and whole hearts to God. A lukewarm Christian never has the joy of knowing the fullness of God. Obedience is the key to real faith. This is real faith: believing and acting obediently regardless of circumstances.

as seen in “Today’s HomeWord,” a daily devotional with Jim Burns. Visit them online at www.homeword.com

Deadly Influence

Have you thought lately about the influence you are having on others? It is a sobering thought. You and I have the power to influence a person’s life for great good-or destruction.

In the Harold Morris video series, “Twice Pardoned,” Harold tells about a car accident in which a teenage boy was killed. He and his friends had been drinking. When the police reached the home of the deceased boy and explained the details of his death, his father’s immediate reaction was, “If I could find who sold those boys that alcohol, I’d kill him!” The dad was so shaken up he went to his liquor cabinet for a drink and there found a note that read, “Dear Dad, I knew you wouldn’t mind if we borrowed this bottle of liquor. We’ll pay you back soon.”

Matthew 18:1-7 (NIV) says: “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!”

Take a moment to evaluate the effect that you are having on the lives of others. Is there any action or habit in life that you need to change?

as seen in Laugh and Lift. Read all about Laugh and Lift at http://www.laughandlift.com/list.html

Escape from Lonely Island

by Ron Hutchcraft

There’s a beautiful spot on the coast of Maine called Bar Harbor, because there’s a bar in the harbor. It’s a sandbar that is totally exposed at low tide and totally submerged at high tide. The bar goes from the mainland to a little island called, yup, Bar Island. The island’s OK, but you wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time there. Although some people do – a lot more time than they planned to spend. When our family walked across the bar at low tide, we made sure to check that tide chart to see when the tide would be coming back. As we were walking back from the island, the bar was already a little narrower than it had been – the tide was coming in. Then there were those intelligent tourists who waited a little too long to start back, and there was no way back! Now no one has to be stranded on that island. There’s a way off, if you take it!

Lonely Island isn’t on any map, but it’s an island we all spend time on. Loneliness is an emotional island we can get stranded on when we have been isolated, or ignored, or left out, or forgotten, maybe misunderstood maybe even abandoned. Maybe even today finds you in the middle of another lonely time.

The good news is that you don’t have to be stuck on Lonely Island. Loneliness is ultimately not a prison sentence, it’s a choice! Feeling lonely is unavoidable, it’s part of being human. But staying lonely is a choice. Just like Bar Island, there are some steps to take to leave the island.

One way to make a lonely time a short time is to find someone who needs you. To reach out from your loneliness, even if you don’t feel like it, to make a difference for someone else. At a time when loneliness leaves you thinking about yourself, it’s important to decide to look beyond yourself. Another antidote to loneliness is to expand your world, especially your circle of friendships. If you take the risks to reach out to more people, you can reduce your trips to Lonely Island.

But even with all our efforts to cope with the lonely times, a lot of us carry this gnawing sense of loneliness with us most of the time. It isn’t necessarily that there aren’t people there for us, it’s just that those people have never been enough to fill us up inside. It’s like there is always someone missing. Well there is – the One you were made by, the One you were made for.

The incurable loneliness in the human heart is cosmic loneliness. We’re lonely for God. No earth relationship has ever been able to fill the God-shaped hole in our heart. In the words of the Bible, in Isaiah 59:2, “Your sins have separated you from your God.” Your sins, all those thousands of choices you’ve made in your lifetime that disregarded God’s way for “my way.” So here we are, away from the one Person who has the love we’re looking for. The only Person who knows why we were created, the Person we will meet the moment we die.

For our word for today from the Word of God, consider this promise from Jesus in light of the loneliness you know all too well. Hebrews 13:5, says of Jesus, “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.” Think of it – unloseable, unconditional love. Jesus’ love for you took Him all the way to a brutal death on a cross, where He gave His life to pay your sin-bill with God. The One whose love you’ve been looking for all these years is yours the moment you tell Jesus, “I’m Yours.” You are one step of faith away from the world’s only “never leave you” love.

Your anchor relationship could begin this very day and never end. Never, no matter what else changes and no matter who else leaves. And you will have spent your last day alone.

They Missed Him!

They were looking for A Lion, He came as a Lamb, and they missed him.
They were looking for a Warrior, He came as a Peace maker, and they missed him.
They were looking for a King, He came as a Servant, and they missed him.
They were looking for Liberation from Rome, He submitted to the Roman cross, and they missed him.
They were looking for a fit to their mold, He was the mold maker, and they missed him.
What are you looking for? Lion? Warrior? King? Liberator? What are you looking for?

They were looking for their temporal needs to be met. He came to meet their eternal needs, and they missed him.

He came as a Lamb to be sacrificed for your sin. Will you miss him?
He came to make peace between God and man. Will you miss him?
He came to model servanthood for all mankind. Will you miss him?
He came that we might have true Liberty. Will you miss him?
He came to give you eternal life. Will you miss him?

When we submit to the Lamb we will meet the Lion. Join with the Peacemaker and we will meet the Warrior. Work with the Servant and we will meet the King. Walk with the Submitted and we will meet the Liberator. Concern ourselves with the eternal and we will have the temporal.

If Jesus is not fitting into the mold you have, then come to the mold maker and get His new one. Submit to His plan for your life and you will see the eternal need met first, then all the other things you have need of will be taken care of as well.

Kids on Politics

Every year, teacher Mike Wilson of Ballwin, Mo., has his elementary students study the presidential election process in America. From the resulting essays and exam papers, Wilson has culled some gems of youthful insight and wisdom, not to mention skepticism worthy of a politics-weary adult.

• Calling a person a runner-up is the polite way of saying you lost.

• What I learned about elections is that we aren’t really getting to elect the president. It is some people in a college who get to. I have not decided what to do about it yet, but I am not going to just sit around.

• It is possible to get the majority of electoral votes without getting the majority of popular votes. Anyone who can ever understand how this works gets to be president.

• The more I think about trying to run for president the less I think of it.

• The president has the power to appoint and disappoint the members of his cabinet.

• In January, the president makes his Inaugural Address after he has been sworn at.

• Once he is elected, sometimes the president has to work 24 hours a day until he finds out what he is supposed to do.

• The nominees are usually called candidates, or campaigners, although I have heard them called other things.

• Popular votes tell who is the most popular. Electoral votes tell who is the most elected.

• The jobs of delegates is to resent their states.

• When the radio mentions a landslide, cross your fingers and hope it is talking about an election.

• A dark horse is a candidate that the delegates don’t know enough about to dislike yet.

• A split ticket is when you don’t like any of them on the ticket so you tear it up.

• When they talk about the most promising presidential candidate, they mean the one who can think of the most things to promise.

• Elephants and donkeys never fought until politics came along.

• Political strategy is when you don’t let people know you have run out of ideas and keep shouting anyway.

• A candidate should always renounce his words carefully.

• We are learning how to make our election results known quicker and quicker. It is our campaigns we are having trouble getting any shorter.

• One of the main rules of campaigning is you are not allowed to go on a whistle-stop tour without a train.

• Politician is the bawling out name for a candidate you don’t like.

• Campaigns give us a great deal of happiness by finally ending.

The Last Impression

A minister was asked to dinner by one of his parishioners, who he knew was an unkempt housekeeper.

When he sat down at the table, he noticed that the dishes were the dirtiest that he had ever seen in his life.

“Were these dishes ever washed?” he asked his hostess, running his fingers over the grit and grime.

She replied, “They’re as clean as soap and water could get them.”

He felt a bit apprehensive, but blessed the food anyway and started eating. It was really delicious and he said so, despite the dirty dishes.

When dinner was over, the hostess took the dishes outside and yelled, “Here Soap! Here Water!”

Come prepared for a wonderful time together this week at WFA! Following our worship service, we will all gather on the church grounds for our annual picnic! Great food, great fun and great fellowship for everyone! Hope to see you there!