Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday April 27, 2010

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth I was drawn to Jesus via the preaching of a Southern Evangelist whom God used to make Christ very personal to me. At that time I did NOT believe the Bible, had no idea if God existed and really didn't care. Yet, yet there I was kneeling at the front of a church with a dirt floor, being told what happened, led by a man I used to drink and carouse with.

A saying of the time concerning "religious feeling" asked, "If you have never felt the feeling, how will you know it when you feel the feeling?" There were many other quaint sayings, all equally theologically correct. I have been learning that conviction and mere feeling quite different.

Since then the dinosaurs have disappeared and I still hear about the importance of "feeling." Recently one man told me that he abandoned his family because he felt so strongly about it, that this "feeling" had to be God's leading. I suspected the aroma of his secretaries' perfume had more to do with his "feeling" than did God and said as much. He realized that since I did not agree with him, I must NOT be a man of God and refused to talk any further with me. I somehow managed to survive the terrible emotional blow and went on with life, wounded, but moving on.

The Christian Martyr, Jim Elliott commented on the roller coaster Christian life that depends on feeling when he wrote:

"I may no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather respond to principle I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not."

In order to "respond to principles you know to be right" you must have a working knowledge of God's Life Manual, the Holy Bible. Wow. Yep. Simple ain't it. Over the years I have observed that more people who say "ain't" seem to live closer to Jesus than the host who use "isn't it" or the more long nosed proper, "is it not."

Jim Elliott was referring to the battle he fought concerning impulse living/serving verses obeying the Lord. If a thing is right, and God has given you the means, then it is scripturally right to be about Father's business, even if there are Wild Indians in the path. My Grandmother said, "Honey, they ain't no such a thing as tame Indians." My savage heartthrob says amen. (The Great Blonde). I think the words of Mary are appropriate here: John 2:5 "His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." Jim Elliott was familiar with this principle.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit

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