Purpose Series

A 320-year-old Stradivarius cello that had been missing for three weeks has been returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra after it avoided becoming the world’s most expensive CD rack.

The primary cellist for the Philharmonic accidentally left the instrument outside his home in April. Nearby video surveillance cameras revealed that a bicyclist had stolen it. Recently, 29 year-old nurse, Melanie Stevens, found the $3.5 million dollar instrument made by master craftsman Antonio Stradivari lying beside a trash bin about a mile from where it was stolen.

Stevens found the instrument inside its silver coated plastic case and put it in her car’s trunk for two days. Then she asked her boyfriend, who is a cabinetmaker, to either repair the instrument or convert it into a unique CD holder. Stevens did not know the significance of the instrument until she saw a news report about it. She said, "I had the idea to possibly put a hinge on the front. He would install little shelves inside. It would be a very elaborate CD case. I know it sounds crazy."

The cello made in 1684 was one of about 60 made by Stradivari in his Cremona,Italy works. The Los Angeles Philharmonic bought it about 30 years ago. Robert Cauer, a Los Angeles-based instrument restoration specialist says the valuable instrument is damaged but repairable and should be back in service by this fall. Cauer added the prospect that the prized instrument could have been turned into a CD holder "is so abominable, I get sick when I hear it."

—Associated Press. Stolen 320-Year-Old Cello is Found, May 19, 2004, by Ryan Pearson, Submitted by Jim Sandell.1

What I have realized in my life about purpose is that when I have discovered it, when I have found it, when I walk in it, it makes me come alive. Like the cellist that makes the cello come alive with music, so God makes me come alive when I am fulfilling my purpose.

When I am not fulfilling my purpose, my self-worth diminishes and I feel like God should just turn me into a CD holder.

What I’ve come to understand is that God has a purpose for my life, I must discover it; fulfill it.

Have you ever felt like you didn’t have any prupose? I have. Have you ever felt like you’ve known your purpose but you are not fulfilling your purpose for whatever reason? I have.

Thomas Carlyle said, “A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder--a waif, a nothing, a no man.”

Ever feel like a ship without a rudder?

Billy Sunday said, "More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent."

What we need to understand is that God has a purpose for our life, we must discover it; fulfill it.

***God Section***

Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (28) And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

These few verses are nestled right toward the end of Genesis Chapter 1. The word “genesis” means “beginning”, and we have here in this chapter an account of the beginning of life as we know it.

We find in this chapter the Divine revelation of the very first thing God wanted us to know about—He is at the beginning of it all.

Now there are 7 evangelical theories that exist in regard to the facts that are laid down in this chapter. Please understand that any evangelical position that is taken doesn’t have anything to do with one’s salvation.

With that said, however, I would caution all of us in regard to the Theistic Evolution position, as that theory believes that God creates by means of evolution and natural science. The reason I would caution you against that is that I feel it diminishes who God is in order to reconcile with science.

Most of us are probably familiar with and subscribe to the Creationism theory. God created everything in six 24 hour days and the earth is young.

There is also Progressive Creationism (day-age theory), Gap Theory (Universe in 1:1; whole earth in rest of chapter), Literary Creationism, Eclectic View (no really sure, just takes bits and pieces of other theories), and lastly,