The famous Victrola from the early 20th century gives us the Victor Talking Machine’s most iconic symbol: a dog named Nipper listening to his master’s voice spoken from a phonograph.
Yet, in the early years of the phonograph, when Franc Barraud submitted his painting for exhibition at the Royal Academy, he was turned down. “No one would know what the dog was doing,” he was told.
He got the same response when he offered it for reproduction in magazines. Even the Edison Bell Company turned him down, saying, “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.”
Today the image of His Master’s Voice, trademarked in 1900 for the Victor Talking Machine, is known worldwide.
We have a master, and we have his words. Do we listen, or do we say, “No one would understand,” or “No one believes in God, anymore.”
Today God is as alive in the world as he was when Friedrich Nietzsche first said “God is Dead” in 1882.
Let’s listen to the Master’s voice and see what he has to say:
In John 19:11 he tells us, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
John 14:27 speaks words of comfort to us. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:6 is our signpost to heaven. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
In Luke 21:25-27, he gives us a warning. “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
Luke 10:27 stakes his claim to our hearts. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
In Matthew 24:6-8, our Master gives us his reassurance that “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.”
We need to be a Nipper, always attentive, and constantly trying to find our Master’s voice in every situation. When other people laugh at us, we’ll know the truth. It’s when words are spoken by the Master that they can lead us to life in him.
It’s only when we listen closely that we hear the words of our Lord telling us where to place our next footstep.
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Code: FGO.D.17.15b.vp