Middle 'C'

Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort - Mobile, AL

Lloyd C. Douglas, the author of The Robe and other novels, lived in a boarding house when he was a student. On the first floor of that boarding house lived a retired music teacher who was in poor health, unable to leave his apartment. He and Douglas developed a friendship and a daily ritual. Each morning Douglas would come down the steps from his apartment, open the music teacher's door and ask him, "What's the good news?" The music teacher would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair, and say "That's middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but my friend, that is middle C!" *

When I was in the concert band in Jr. High and High School, the band director would begin each practice and performance session by asking the 1^st chair clarinet player to play a “C” note.  The rest of the band members, one-by-one, began playing the corresponding note on their instruments seeking to match the tone.  This was the way we “tuned” our instruments.  The “C” note from the 1^st clarinet was the tone from which the whole band became “in tune.”

What the “C”  from the clarinet was to the band, Christ should be to our lives.  He is the Note by which we get our lives "in tune”  with God!

What causes us to be "out of tune”  is what the Bible calls SIN.  Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2) and from life’s true purpose.  Sin seeks to dominate our lives (Romans 6:16), and unless it is remedied, will bring about our eternal destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).

Christ makes it possible for us to get our lives "in tune.”  He died on the cross 
paying the price for our sins so that we might have forgiveness of sin (Ephesians 1:7).  God will forgive those who believe in Jesus (Acts 16:31), repent of their sins (Acts 17:30-31),  confess Jesus (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:27).  God will continue to keep 
"in tune” (forgive) those who continue to follow the "sheet music" of His Word 
(1 John 1:7).  Christ enables us to be "in tune” with God, one another, and ourselves.

In other words, Christ is to be the "center"  of our lives or "Middle C.”  
He was middle C yesterday; He will be middle C tomorrow; He will be middle C a thousand years from now. The world outside sings flat, sin causes us to be out of tune, but my friend, Christ IS "Middle C!”   Only HE can bring us into "harmony"  with God's will.

The Hebrew writer declared, "JESUS CHRIST - the SAME yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

Are YOU ” in tune”  with Christ, the Middle C?

God bless you!

David A. Sargent, Minister

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

*From “Middle C”  by Tom Moore, North Main Church of Christ, 823 N. Main Street, Malvern, AR 72104, http://www.malvernchurchofchrist.com

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