Christ's Influence on the World via St. Patrick

D.O.A. at 11:59

2/27/2013

02-28-13 D.O.A. at 11:59

The importance of now cannot be over emphasized, especially on things spiritual. Consider the concept of new beginnings. New starts are part and parcel of the biblical message and an often overlooked point is extremely important.

Can you undo time? Can you go back and start over, say in 1974? If this were possible I would get the old time travel vehicle out and head to that year, or any year, and make adjustments. We can’t do this. We can have forgiveness, but to make a new start in 1974 is not going to happen.

Maria Robinson shares a truth that really helps, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

Many life trainers insist that a plan be mapped out and repeat the mantra, “We start today.” Have you ever said, “I wish I had started this years ago?” If so, you are in the vast majority. Dennis Waitley made a fortune convincing people that there is no such place as “Someday Isle.”

God is on record as insisting on now rather than later. Notice Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians 6:2, “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)” Many who plan on 12:00 O’Clock die at 11:59. Now.

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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Signs of the Times

2/26/2013

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Gandalf and Frodo

02-27-13 Signs of the Times?

I have heard an old Jewish curse, which like many thing associated with ancient Chosen People is stated thusly, “May you live in interesting times.” The morning news on any day will at least give you the impression that this curse is in full force.

The current Pope retired due to his tiring of dealing with Catholics, a noted Evangelical says the next Pope, the 113th, will be the Anti-Christ, and Obama is jockeying for position to change laws to enable the blind to reelect him to a third term. The list goes on, but you get the idea.

People have worried about the “times” for all of time and I suppose this waste will continue as long as time.

J.R.R. Tolkien, in Fellowship of the Ring, deals with troublesome times with this exchange: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I love the closing line which gives solid, even biblical advice on the wise use of our allotted time on the earth. Paul makes this plain in Romans 13:11, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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If Not For You?

2/25/2013

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Old Dogs, Children and Black Coffee

02-26-13 ..If Not For You?

One of the songs of my early teen years had a line, “What am I living for, if not for you?” Most who sing or mumble this song will learn the answer in the futility of the question. No doubt that others are to play important roles in our life. Sometimes we will grasp that though others are important, there is only one who will never cause you to regret that you wondered how you could live were it not for them.

A few days ago I wrote of the line by Fred Allen concerning one his friends whom he last saw walking down lovers lane holding his own hand. Perhaps he hummed our song for today as he was infatuated with himself. His tribe is larger than you may think.

Discovering just what or whom is worth living for may be a life long journey. You may grasp it early in life. I discovered this truth when I was twenty. A gifted Russian writer said:

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

Too many Americans, even Christian Americans, have missed the point of life and thus are engulfed in the vacuum of “just staying alive.”

Acts 17:28, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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Searching For Place? Why?

2/24/2013

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02-25-13 Searching for Place? Why?

The understanding of place is essential to living a simple, opulent or Christian life. Much of the anxiety, trouble and actual emotional problems in life are centered in the search for place.

People are searching for that place, that niche, where they can find safety, a true welcome, fellowship at the camaraderie level and a deep sense of belonging. Such a place is sold as part of knowing the Lord and belonging to a local church. Bartenders sell the same concept sans the religion part. The Cheers myth, where everybody knows your name, is a case in point. Communist Party Cell Groups pushed the same idea. Below the surface level, all of the above fail. Here’s why.

What we humans deeply long for is not available from another human or group of humans. As created beings we are in a fallen state and thus denied the environment for which we are created, Philippians 3:20, and thus we join a host folks mentioned in scripture who are searching as did Abraham in Hebrews 11:10, “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Abraham searched for a place. So do we, and in Christ we have a deed to a place beyond the river. The longing for place will be satisfied when we see Christ. Until then take comfort in Psalms 119:114 “Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.”

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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A Tree With A Bitter Past

2/20/2013

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02-21-13 A Tree With A Bitter Past

Whenever I read, or hear a story about a tree, the closing line of Joyce Kilmer’s Trees comes to mind. I was compelled in the third grade to learn and quote the entire poem, with emphasis. I’m sure you recall at least some of the poem. Mr. Kilmer was quite the character.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

A story recounted in the Worthy Brief set me to thinking all sorts of things about trees. George Worthy tells the following about a great Southern Hero:

“After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a once beautiful old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, ‘Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it.’” Worthy Brief 02 19 13

We Christians must learn the value of “cutting down” the reminders of hurtful events and people from yesterday through the grace of our Lord Jesus. We tend to do the opposite, and raise memorials to the pain, instead of forgetting it.

We can choose to look at and nurture yesterday’s ruins, or cut them down through forgiveness and get on with living for Jesus. Today.

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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The World's Most Destructive Disease?

2/19/2013

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Negative Ned

02-20-13 The World’s Most Destructive Disease?

If I could give you the antidote for one of, if not the, most destructive disease in the world, would you take it? Avoidance of a known contagious disease is the best protection, but in this case there is a cure. Read on for Og Mandino’s take on this terrible and rampant disease.

“Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious.”

As a rule the ultra-negative people have sunk into some sort of despair over the rigors of life, death of loved ones, loss of money, possessions, status in the community and numerous other events. The resulting despair grows into bitterness, and out of a heart full of this arsenic of the soul the mouth utters and spreads the contagious plague.

Symptoms of the plague are a tendency to give up on God’s promises, loss of hope, marked impatience, and an acceptance of the poisoned speech of others, along with the willful spreading of the toxic words and thoughts. Dr. Peter’s symptoms resulted in his famous but utterly negative phrase, “I go a fishing.” His negative activity resulted in John’s statement concerning the effort, “and that night they caught nothing.”

Solomon identified the root of the disease, and the cure, in Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

As long as Christ lives, the empty tomb is filled with hope.

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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J. Paul Getty and Twenty Five Dollars

2/19/2013

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J. Paul Getty and Twenty Five Dollars

Jonathan Swift, one of the great Irish writers, was noted for his satire and for Gulliver’s Travels. Swift had, and used, some good old fashioned common sense. Notice:

“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.”

Hats off to Mr. Swift. Most of us Americans attempt to operate financially in the emotional, heart realm. This results in houses so full of junk that we have to rent storage space from people who think money instead of feeling it. By the way, I like Dave Ramsey’s financial planning seminars. Joyce’s grandmother taught her about putting money in marked envelopes to pay bills.

Swift’s philosophy on money is good, and I believe biblical, in that by using his approach you control money, rather than the opposite. Money in your head instead of your heart does away with impulse buying, which is a major waste of money.

Years ago I read a book by J. Paul Getty titled How To Be Rich. It was not about getting rich, but being rich. A good book. J. Paul Getty, at the time reputed to be among the richest men in the world, never carried more than Twenty Five dollars in cash, with the idea of resisting impulse buying. I seldom carry much more than that, but for a far different reason.

Ecclesiastes 10:19 “A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.”

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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Wannabee Sailor on President's Day

2/17/2013

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02-18-13 A Thought For President's Day

As I thought on the celebration of Presidents Day, especially in these turbulent times, Dale Byers sent the following to me.

“He is a boy fourteen years old. He comes down the stairs of his boyhood home with his suitcase. He sets it down by the door of this mother’s room and goes in to bid her good-bye. As long as he can remember, his ambition has been to go to sea, and now the hour has come, and because she is gradually growing blind, he sees the grief which the thought of his departure is causing her. So instead of bidding her farewell, he goes out, picks up his bag, mounts the stairs and stays at home.

The picture that goes with that is of a man astride a horse beneath an elm tree on the edge of a college campus. He is assuming command of the armies of his people whom he is to lead to victory in their fight for independence, a service he is to fulfill as their first President and - first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” The boy became a man.
(Mountain Trailways for Youth, Jan. 10 page 10)

It brings home the truth of Psalms 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.”

It’s not hard to apply the verse to Dale’s offering. Thanks Dale.

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly/Dale Byers

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The Truest Love of All

2/13/2013

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Larry and Joyce 52 Valentine Days

02-14-13 The Truest Love of All

Fred Allen said concerning a friend, “The last time I saw him he was walking down lover’s lane holding his own hand.” Such love is rampant, especially in Washington.

Today more is said about love than is practiced. True love is part romance, to be sure, and is often typed as romance as in the case of Boaz and Ruth. The story shares the care of the man for the woman by his making things easier for her, making certain others did not take advantage of her, caring for her family and giving himself to her. Along with his passion, compassion and understanding was woven into the fabric of their relationship. Their love was stronger than ethnic barriers and former loves.

Paul writes in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” thus laying a test by fire at the feet of the husband to test the reality or lack of his professed love for his wife. Christ did not love His wife, the church, consisting of born again ones, because she made Him feel good about himself. He loved her, us, enough to give Himself for her. He, in effect, does not walk through life and eternity holding His own hand, but hers. He demonstrates letting go of self and embracing the one who is loved.

The poet said, “True love is a, many splendored thing.”

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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Sweeter As The Years Go By

2/12/2013

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Larry and Joyce (The Great Blonde)

02-13-13 Sweeter as the Years go by.

When Joyce and I first met we fell for each other like a ton of bricks. We were really too young to be truly in love, but we went full speed ahead and Christ entered our life and fifty two years later we are still together, soon married forty nine. And even though we get seriously mad at each other, we manage to madly love each other. Strange mixture, but then that’s sort of how we started.

As you can tell by the picture she is as gorgeous as ever today on her I better not say how many birthdays. I am the embodiment of what E.W. Howe said a married man should be..

“A man should be taller, older, heavier, uglier, and hoarser than his wife.”

A friend asked her the secret of her youth to which she answered, “I captured Larry when I was young and just relaxed about it.”

Good women seem to figure out their man pretty quick and wise ones keep his buttons pushed and an ever so long list of things he simply must do, because mother is coming, the evangelist is spending some time with us, and as the years go by, “Larry we cannot let the grandchildren see the place like this.”

When I was young my theme was from a song of those days, “I was born to wander and I was born to roam.” Settling in was hard for me, but with Jesus and a look that reminded me that Joyce was a markswomen with a loaded pistol got through to me. Being a sharpshooter makes a good woman a better one. You should hear her pray. When she is praying and fondling a pistol, you should hear me pray.

Happy Birthday, Gorgeous.

Copyright © 2013 Larry Lilly

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