Pepper A-Notes from a Jazz Singer by Art Pepper

Pepper A-Notes from a Jazz Singer by Art Pepper

Do you live life that others may make much of you, or that they might make much of another? Do you point endlessly to you, or do you in every way point to Jesus Christ? John the Baptist understood that he must diminish as Jesus came onto the scene, simply for this reason: it was all about him - it was all about Jesus. Just as a friend of the bridegroom wouldn't become jealous or enraged when the bridegroom's time had come, and all attention was now paid to the bridegroom instead, so John understood that he must not become jealous of the ministry of the Christ. Imagine if a friend of a bridegroom at a wedding would, in the middle of the ceremony, stand up and make a scene to draw attention because no one was looking at him. How could they all be looking at the bridegroom on this day, and not at him? His would be a misplaced estimation of who the day is all about.

God created everything for himself, yet we live our lives much like we are no friend of the bridegroom, as if we are no lovers of the living God. We strive endlessly over possessions, and we don't possess him, nor do we care to. We care more that we have been dishonored than that we have dishonored him, and horrifically so. We care more that others might recognize our gifts and talents than we are concerned that we use them for the purposes for which he gave them to us. We live lives out of fear rather than out of confidence in him, and in this we betray the name. Again, we look only inward. We still live and talk as though it is all about us. We still have desires that are all about us. The flesh is not yet sanctified and is not fully given over to him.

This is a herald's call to become less so that he might become more in us, through us, and in the world. This is a call for many to become true friends of the bridegroom. This is a call to become willing to be forgotten, so that he might be remembered forever. This is a call to find my joy completed only when and once it is completed in him.