Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday August 20, 2009

A few weeks ago a dear and longtime friend, Dr. Phil Stringer, pastor of the Ravenswood Baptist Church in Chicago called and as we talked he shared a statement with me that I have mused upon since. W.L. Alexander said:

"To be in the society of a good man for one hour leaves a purifying and elevating stimulus behind."

Two disciples walked with Jesus after His resurrection and when He departed they remarked as recorded in Luke 24:32:

"And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"

I know that I feel better in a positive way when I am around certain people. Being a student of such things I long ago eliminated any response to flattery and note the person and then attempt to figure out the dynamics of the "elevated" sense of things after talking with them. I am NOT having much success, though some progress.

To be stimulated toward good and noble action involves trusting the person to whom you're listening is considered, by you, to be a good and noble person, one whom the Bible would call, "without guile." Current thought requires the person to be without wax, to be truly sincere. To experience the sense of personal elevation is to be lifted to a higher plane inwardly. This covers a vast field in that you can feel happier by conversations that involve inappropriate laughter at the expense of others, or a little off color story ad infinitum. Happier is not necessarily elevated.

To be stimulated to a higher thought and action is an hour worth spending, for we tend to spin downward in our thoughts and thus our actions become less than they could and should be.

Gene Woodcox and I were talking to an uneducated man from the inner city and Chaplain Woodcox was really connecting with this man about Jesus. When Gene left the room I asked the man, "What is it about Gene that you like so much? You and Gene are from two different worlds?" His answer is worth a text book: "Gene, he be real man, he be real." I have no way to argue with this answer. He be real.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2009 Use with credit.

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