Hello,
Friend.
I hope you're in good health and are doing well.
I wanted to share this poem with you,
The Touch of the Master's Hand.
I was battered and scarred in the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
What am I bidding,
Good folks?
He cried.
Who will start the bidding for me?
A dollar?
A dollar?
Then two?
Only two?
Two dollars?
And who will make it three?
Three dollars,
Once.
Three dollars,
Twice.
Going for three.
But no,
From the room.
Far back,
A gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow.
Then,
Wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet as Carolyn and Joe sing.
The music ceased and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said,
What am I bid for the old violin?
And he held it up with the bow.
A thousand dollars?
And who will make it two?
Two thousand?
And who will make it three?
Three thousand,
Once.
Three thousand,
Twice.
And going,
Gone,
He said.
The people cheered,
But some of them cried.
We do not quite understand what change is worth.
Swift came the reply,
The touch of a master's hand.
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd.
Much like the old violin,
A mess of pottage,
A glass of wine,
A game,
And he travels on.
He's going once and going twice.
He's going and almost gone.
But the master comes.
And the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that's wrought by the touch of the master's hand.
Friend,
I hope you enjoyed listening to this.
But more importantly,
The message of this quorum.
As we go through life,
You know,
We get out of tune,
We get in a mess.
And sometimes we look at our life and it's just a colossal failure,
A one giant mess,
And we wonder,
Is life even worth living?
All kinds of things going through our head.
You know,
Maybe everything you try doesn't work out.
You get discouraged.
But the point of this quorum is very,
Very simple.
Yeah,
We're all going through issues and things like that.
But what we need is a touch of the master.
Where do you need touch today in your life?
Is it your marriage?
Is it your relationships?
Is it your job,
Your career,
Your health?
Where do you need a touch?
And who am I even talking about as the master?
Oh,
As a believer in Christ,
I'm talking about Christ.
All things were made by him and for him and for his glory.
Just like the master in the quorum,
He can touch you.
The master in the quorum,
He can clean the dust off of your life,
Clean out the mess,
And play a beautiful tune out of your life.
All it takes is to give your life to him.
It's very simple.
It's not that complicated.
The master just picked up the violin and started playing.
In our case,
We just have to surrender and say,
I'm tired of trying things my own way.
I'm surrendering,
I'm giving everything to you.
Play a beautiful tune,
Play a song out of my life.
And the master knows exactly what notes to put together to make a beautiful tune.
Don't keep running.
Don't keep going and going and going,
Thinking you can fix all the problems in your life.
You cannot.
I cannot.
Nobody can.
It's only the master who can.
And the question is,
Are you going to let the master touch you or are you going to keep running?
You're going to continue your exercise in futility or are you going to let the master take charge today?
Don't waste time.
The world has nothing good to offer.
Only Christ can change your life.
How do you surrender?
It's very simple.
All you say is,
Lord Jesus,
I know I'm a sinner and I know there's nothing I could do to save myself.
But I know you died in my place.
You paid for my sins so that I may live.
Come and live in my heart.
Come and take over this life.
That's all you need to say.
Don't keep running.
Let the Lord in.
Let him play a beautiful tune out of your life.
And people around you,
The crowd,
Can look at your life and wonder,
What changed?
Oh,
He used to be a drunk.
He used to be this.
He used to be up to no good.
Then you can tell them,
Well,
It took the touch of the master's hand.
