Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Jeff Parrott.

Back in 1962, a random, unknown man entered a New York City pawn shop presenting a violin to exchange for a loan of $15.

The next morning, the owner of the pawn shop grew suspicious when he read in the newspaper that a

violin had been stolen from Carnegie Hall the day before. After looking at the violin in his shop

more closely, it was determined that what he had was,

in fact, the violin that had been stolen from Carnegie Hall. That $15 loan on the violin

paled in comparison to its true valuation of $15,000. And the worth of that violin was only

amplified when people learned that it was at

that time 220 years old that had been owned by virtuoso musicians in the past and it was played

the night of its theft by the one and only izzock pearlman that fifteen thousand violin, getting pawned for $15, is the story of severe undervaluation.

It was far more precious than the thief or the pawn shop owner could have possibly imagined.

And I wonder if you and I suffer from a kind of undervaluation of God and of his special presence with his people,

if we, like the Violinthe for the pawn shop owner, don't fully realize how precious or valuable

the presence of God really is. Our passage in 1 Samuel today shows us what happens when we

undervalue and miss the preciousness of God's

special presence with his people. And we'll be confronted with a choice, with a decision.

We can be like that violin thief who takes the severely undervalued loan of $15 and then leaves,

or we can be like the shop owner who investigates and slowly

comes to appreciate the full value and preciousness of the violin he holds. As we approach

God's word together, let's slow down and ask for his grace, for his truth to move through this time that we have with one another.

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