THE STEINWAY EXPERIENCE

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our God, EL-ELYON, "God Most High", is in control of all the adverse, unpleasant, unfavorable, and difficult circumstances of our lives. You may be going through an adverse experience as you read these notes. Let's call it, for illustration purposes, a "STEINWAY EXPERIENCE" (read on).

If you had to name the most famous piano, the one that produced the most beautiful sound in the world which one would you name? Most people would say "Steinway". The STEINWAY PIANO has been preferred by keyboard masters such as Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Cliburn, and Liszt and for good reason. It is a skillfully crafted instrument that produces a phenomenal sound. Steinway pianos are built today the same way they were 140 years ago when Henry Steinway started his business. 200 craftsmen and12,000 parts are required to produce one of these magnificent instruments. Most crucial is the RIM-BENDING PROCESS, where 18 layers of maple are bent around an iron press to create the shape of a Steinway grand. Five coats of lacquer are applied and then HAND-RUBBED to give the piano its outer glow. The instrument then goes into the "POUNDER ROOM", where each key is pounded 10,000 times to ensure QUALITY and DURABILITY. Followers of Jesus Christ, much like the grand Steinway, are being "HANDCRAFTED" with all of the steps being watched over and directed by our Most High God, El Elyon , the One Who is in sovereign control of every detail of this process often referred to as "sanctification". We are being PRESSED and FORMED and SHAPED, all that we might "become conformed (molded with an inner and essential and not merely superficial conformity) to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29). God’s ultimate goal for us is to make us like Christ (1 John 3:2). As we become more and more like him, we discover our true selves, the persons we were created to be. How can we be conformed to Christ’s likeness? By reading and heeding the Word, by studying his life on earth through the Gospels, by being filled with his Spirit, and by doing his work in the world. We are being polished, sometimes with what seems like a great amount of what we could call the "rubbing of affliction", until we "glow." We are then being continually tested in the laboratory of everyday human experience. The process of sanctification is not always pleasant, but we can persevere with hope, knowing that our lives will increasingly reflect the beauty of holiness to the eternal praise of the Most High God.

Amen!