As I sail, more literally, fly through the year of our Lord 2015, I am becoming aware of the utter importance of seriously growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Strange as it may seem, a neat little statement from an unexpected source leaped off the page and rushed into my mind. I suppose I was enjoying one of my rare conscious moments.
The flash came from the pen of the late Lillian Hellman. I have a few kind words for Lillian. She had a way with words. I don’t care for much else about her, but I do want to share a few of her words:
“People change and forget to tell each other.” Lillian Hellman.
President Reagan had people like this in mind when he coined the phrase Silent Majority.
I wonder if it is possible to count the people who with lips have “made a change,” a colloquial way of saying, “I am a Christian” or whatever. Yet people close to them never picked up on this change. I recall the night Christ came into my heart as though it were yesterday. By the next morning when I went to work the news that a hardened ruffian had received Christ had swept the little burg where I grew up. I was totally surprised by the men who came to me prior to the buzzer to tell me how wonderful to hear of my conversion. I didn’t know much about the nuances of salvation, but over a period of years I had seen nothing in these men to cause me to have even the remotest idea that they were any sort of religious fanatic. They had “changed,” but failed to tell me or anyone else, with their mouth or lifestyle.
I don’t know if Lillian Hellman had something like this in mind or not, but I do confess it is more common than you may think. What you really are all about will seep out and be seen by others in your actions, to biblically put it, your conversation, or lifestyle. Peter describes a man who “changed” but had made no progress in the graces of the Christian experience.
Notice 2 Peter 1:9, “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
The context lists several markers of Christian change or growth. Contextually, having received Christ, trusting the precious promises and therefore adapting a life of diligence, nine graces are working and growing. If we lose sight of the precious promises, these graces begin to wane in meaning to us and we wither on the vine. A person in whom these promises are treasured will have a hard time remaining a secret follower of Christ. Sadly, Lillian Hellman was on point when she wrote, “People change and forget to tell each other.” May this never be said about you. Or me!
Copyright © 2015 Larry Lilly
Computer need work? Check with Oral Deckard
The flash came from the pen of the late Lillian Hellman. I have a few kind words for Lillian. She had a way with words. I don’t care for much else about her, but I do want to share a few of her words:
“People change and forget to tell each other.” Lillian Hellman.
President Reagan had people like this in mind when he coined the phrase Silent Majority.
I wonder if it is possible to count the people who with lips have “made a change,” a colloquial way of saying, “I am a Christian” or whatever. Yet people close to them never picked up on this change. I recall the night Christ came into my heart as though it were yesterday. By the next morning when I went to work the news that a hardened ruffian had received Christ had swept the little burg where I grew up. I was totally surprised by the men who came to me prior to the buzzer to tell me how wonderful to hear of my conversion. I didn’t know much about the nuances of salvation, but over a period of years I had seen nothing in these men to cause me to have even the remotest idea that they were any sort of religious fanatic. They had “changed,” but failed to tell me or anyone else, with their mouth or lifestyle.
I don’t know if Lillian Hellman had something like this in mind or not, but I do confess it is more common than you may think. What you really are all about will seep out and be seen by others in your actions, to biblically put it, your conversation, or lifestyle. Peter describes a man who “changed” but had made no progress in the graces of the Christian experience.
Notice 2 Peter 1:9, “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
The context lists several markers of Christian change or growth. Contextually, having received Christ, trusting the precious promises and therefore adapting a life of diligence, nine graces are working and growing. If we lose sight of the precious promises, these graces begin to wane in meaning to us and we wither on the vine. A person in whom these promises are treasured will have a hard time remaining a secret follower of Christ. Sadly, Lillian Hellman was on point when she wrote, “People change and forget to tell each other.” May this never be said about you. Or me!
Copyright © 2015 Larry Lilly
Computer need work? Check with Oral Deckard
RSS Feed