Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday September 27, 2005

I enjoy reading and in my reading I read all sorts of books, magazines and news papers. I find many ideas for articles in the mound of reading each week. The book I read the most is the Bible, then biographies of unusual men and women. I am more than happy at the number of books coming on the market by Christian authors who are writing from a Christian world view. In other words, not the sermon books thinly disguised as a novel, but really good stories, yet maintain the reality of the struggle and flaws of ordinary men and women who happened to profess faith.

This trend is not new to literature as the great Russian writers of former times such as Tolstoy and Dostevsky blazed this trail in time past. The trend may bring about a revival of true faith. Most of us have enough of the hypocritical, vanilla Christianity of the last 50 to 75 years and we long for a dynamic faith that deals with the reality of the human experience, especially the one energized by the power of Christ within.

The importance of Christian literature has long been recognized as an imperative to a healthy populace.

Daniel Webster wrote:

"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be."

While it is true that the simplicity of the gospel will reach even the most uneducated man or woman, even attracting the mind and heart of young children, to be appreciated, the truth of Christ must be studied over a lifetime, hence the utter importance of solid writing by Christians.

I recently helped a friend, fairly new in the things of faith, work on his computer. The problem was simple, so I could fix it. It was plugged into the surge protector, though the protector was not plugged into an outlet! Being the genius my mother's genes made me, I solved this complex problem.

While we talked, for you always must talk when fixing a friends computer, or if a friend fixes your car, there must be talk. Sometimes this talk is helpful to one, the other or in rare occasions both. As I fiddled with the machine that childishly demanded electrical power, my friend talked with me about his inability to grow and be faithful in the things of Christ. I sat him down in front of his computer screen. I then told him to open his online Bible. He did not have one. I then told to open his online copy of Pilgrim's Progress. Of course he did not have this or any book stored on the computer.

My growth stunted friend did have about 80 gigabytes of games and downloaded popular music. He knew many songs by heart but not one hymn of the faith. He was a whiz at games, but did not know a Christian author by name, except for a mere smattering of few Bible authors such as Peter, Paul and Hezekiah. Many if not most, Christians homes do not have a copy of a concordance, let alone use one. But, praise be to God, we sure feel good. I wonder if feeling good will get us through the times that are coming in the future? I sure hope so.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit.

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