A Remembrance from Someone Who was There When…….

Remember the days of the old “Victrolas” ? The Victrola ruled with a crank of the hand! Voila!! We could hear the scratchy sound of “His Master’s Voice. Nothing short of a miracle I always said. We’d sit by the hour and listen to one right after another of them ole tubular “records!” We’d crank ‘em out, grab our sweethearts and “cut a rug” with our dancing feet. We’d spin and spin all over the room.

Then we’d sit and listen to the comedy teams on the old victrola. Of course, not everyone owned a victrola…so we felt very fortunate!

Then one day a new word was coined.
“Hi Fidelity”.

Sure sounded impressive. What Hi Fidelity did for our recordings was another miracle! After all those years of scratching out a tune, sometimes barely audible and constantly fading in and out, we were able to hear something faithful, something true….something constant! They said it was all about “faithfulness to frequency”. They said “Hi Fidelity” removed something called “distortion”.

You know, what really grabbed me was that they said Hi Fidelity was about “faithfulness!”…said that’s what Fidelity meant!. .Yeah, I always thought of the “Pledge of Allegience” when I thought of “faithfulness”. I never thought about records and such.

I guess that is what “Hi Fidelity” really is , A Faithful Sound! A sound that is faithful to the truth of its pitch. In other words, it Stays Constant and never fades in and out like the sounds and tones of the Old Victrola!

We need more Hi Fidelity these days…not on our recordings but in our families! We need High Fidelity in our churches and cities, our states and in our country. We need a New High in America!!

A new High Fidelity.

Abraham Lincoln knew about this subject. Those he set free from slavery knew about this subject!

The “Keys to the Car”

The enemy of our souls loves to spin his own records: over and over and over again! He comes to kill, steal and destroy! He comes to attempt to deceive God’s people, get them off track, get them to despise faithfulness, loyalty and commitment, the very things that God stands for! These are the very things that keep families together and keep Godly relationships working toward Kingdom purposes.

Our faithfulness ( or High Fidelity) to God and to each other in the Body of Christ is extremely important .Self centeredness is the opposite of Godliness!

Famous words of John the Baptist: “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from Heaven.” (John 2:27) Jesus said it well in John 15 when He spoke these words,”I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for without ME you can do nothing.”

Increase always comes from Heaven! But when Increase comes it is usually because SOMETHING ELSE HAS DECREASED in order to RECEIVE THE INCREASE!

John the Baptist said these immortal words: “I must DECREASE BUT HE MUST INCREASE!”

The Decrease of Self is to Serving God As the ignition OF the Keys are to a Car!! (Say this twice!)

Without the “decrease of self” (self centeredness, self will, self propelled life) there can not really be great increase of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom purposes in our lives!

A car does not run without ignition from the key no matter how much gas it has in its tank. No matter how new the car or how beautiful the finish or the interior design, that car is useless with out the key firing correctly in its slot to bring IGNITION! Then…the car is profitable for what it was made!

Our fidelity or faithfulness to God, our Love for Jesus and our allowing of His Pre eminence over our lives are the KEYS to the CAR OF THE AWESOME SUCCESS AND RELEASE OF HIS POWERFUL IGNITION IN OUR LIVES AND MINISTRIES1 Wow!!

High! High! High….Fidelity!!!

When we have begun to decrease, we can start to hear His Voice more clearly! We can begin to understand His Direction and see with our spiritual eyes in a new way! The near-sightedness of self centered vision falls off our spiritual eyes like dissolving scales and our vision becomes Bright in His Righteousness!

God is doing a work of HEARING in the body of Christ……just like the work that was done in technology years ago when the old scratchy victrolas were transformed into the Hi Fi Sounds of the mid 50’s…then into Stereo and digital Sound components making the finished product of cassette tapes and CDs An awesome contrast to the distorted sounds of the victrola era.

Remember the white dog with the black spot that sat before the old victrola LISTENING!…..
The words printed beside this picture said “HIS MASTER’S VOICE”….
Hi Fidelity.
Faithfulness.
Loyalty to One Master.
Devotion.
Perserverence in Love.
Obedience.
Forgiveness.
Decrease of Self Centeredness
Increase of Christ Like–ness

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we come to you with hearts bending low asking for grace for this hour for ourselves and for the whole Body of Christ. We ask Lord that your Word would come and set free those that are captive to the “way things used to be”! We ask that self would be removed from the throne of our hearts and that you would lead and guide us in the pathways of righteousness for your name’s sake that we might become “oaks of righteousness” ourselves, leaning, depending upon and devoted to You, Your plans, Your Ways and Your Direction.

Give us Grace and Strength to Forge the River that lies ahead and to arrive at the other side where we will find our Destination and our Promised Land!! Help us to get there with the right attitude and the right heart before you, in faith believing for all you have laid before us. As we learn to “decrease” and allow You and Your Holy Spirit to grow within us, IGNITE US Oh Lord to Go Forth and to become the Harvesters You have called us to be, In Jesus Name!