Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday January 10, 2011

Have you ever spent time trying to figure out a problem, and then even more time attempting to figure out a remedy? No one has ever accused me of being the sharpest knife in the drawer and more than a few wonder if I am even in the drawer. You can imagine my relief when I read the following clearly identified problem and the solution. I wept.

I wept, not due to an epiphany, but because of the book from which the following leaped off the page. I had not read the book, even though I have had it for years.

Bill Bright stated in a devotional:

"Our Lord never intended that we be His casual acquaintances. He wants us to be His disciples, fully dedicated to following Him and lifting up His Holy Name to the world. Our Lord is repulsed by mediocre commitment."

You would think that anyone who can breathe without a prompter would have figured this out years ago. Jesus used the three years of His ministry to show those of us who would come in from the cold millenniums later how it is supposed to work. He called us sheep, sheep that know His voice and thus are not susceptible to the Siren song voices of this or any age. We are to be sheep that depend on the Great Shepherd for guidance and protection. In addition we follow Him.

He further called us His friends, whom He loves so much that He lays down His life for us, and as any true friendship is reciprocal, we do the same for Him. Over and again He made this plain. His agenda is to reach the world and our agenda is not to be our own, but His, as He has plainly explained via His Word.

His words of comfort, encouragement and praise are all through the New Testament and they emphasize His "well done" attitude toward those who are fully dedicated to Him and to His agenda. He made the conditions of commitment plain in Matthew 16:24:

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

That the bulk of Christian literature is written with the purpose of increasing the intensity of discipleship is observable so please note the utter contempt of the Lord for those who pretend to truly love and yet remain "casual acquaintances." Notice Revelation 3:15-17:

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: *****

"Our Lord never intended that we be His casual acquaintances. He wants us to be His disciples, fully dedicated to following Him and lifting up His Holy Name to the world. Our Lord is repulsed by mediocre commitment." Bill Bright

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit

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