Recorders

      Tape recorders are something that many of us have used in the past.  I remember one of the first tape recorders that I had as the School of music purchased one for every instructor.  It had two seven inch reels on it to hold the tape.  We were to use the recorders in our process of teaching the students..  Sometimes, what sounds good to you isn't good at all.  You notice mistake after mistake as the replay continues.  I also had a number of small personal recorders that I could carry around in my pocket.  I often forget something that I wanted to do or to remember and the recorder was a simple way of remembering.  Now, they use a new technology that makes them record without using a physical tape and so they are labeled as digital recorders.  John 17:1 says, "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:"  
        The Apostle John didn't have the use of a recorder in his day.  Peter, James and John were inside Gethsemane with the Lord Jesus Christ and probably didn't remember too much that happened as they were asleep some of the time.  Luke records that they were all asleep.  John 17 is an unusual chapter in that it records the words of the Lord Jesus Christ on that night.  There was no recorder.  That is, there was no physical object there to record the words that Christ prayed.  We have, however, the opening verse of this prayer which says, "These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said....."  The rest of the words in John 17 were uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  The content of the prayer itself is magnificent and has many lessons for us.  It also gives us a glimpse of inspiration.  We speak of Scripture as being inspired of God, that is, God breathed as it says in Second Timothy 3:16.   Here we are some 2,000 years later able to "play back" what was said that night so many years ago.  So many times, we read the words, "Thus saith the LORD..."  Again, we have the "recorded" words of God caught on a page for us to read time and time again.  Can you fathom just how great that is?  Today, we often hear the recorded words of Franklin D. Roosevelt as he made the Sunday announcement of the attack at Pearl Harbor and it sends chills up our spines.  We should be just as excited about the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that have been "recorded" for us in the pages of the New Testament.  We should be just as excited over the words of God Himself that are recorded in Exodus 20 when He gave the Ten Commandments.  Your Bible does not require batteries and you can read it any time and in any place.  Have you read a portion today?  Praise God for sending us His recording of His Words to us.