I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Gospel of John 16:33, Jesus said:

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” 

What a beautiful, reassuring scripture that is. I want to read a little story to you today which was told by Charles Francis Richardson. It goes like this: 

“Paganini, the great Italian violinist, once stepped on stage only to discover something wrong with his violin. Just as the audience was ending their applause, he looked at the instrument for a moment and suddenly realised it was not his best and most valuable one. In fact, the violin was not his at all. Momentarily, he felt paralysed but he quickly turned to his audience, telling them there had been some mistake and he did not have his own violin. He stepped back behind the curtain, thinking he must have left it backstage but discovered that someone had stolen his and left the inferior one in it’s place. After remaining behind the curtain for a moment, Paganini stepped on stage again to speak to the audience. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I will now demonstrate to you that the music is not in the instrument but in the soul.” Then he played as never before and beautiful music flowed from that inferior instrument until the audience was so enraptured that their enthusiastic applause nearly lifted the ceiling of the concert hall. He had indeed revealed to them that the music was not in his instrument but in his own soul.” 

Be a tested and tried believer. It is your mission to walk onto the stage of this world to reveal to all Heaven and earth, that the music of life lies not in your circumstances or external things but in your soul.

Today, go out and be Jesus to a dying world. 
God bless you and goodbye.