Lasting Impressions

​My father had beautiful handwriting. Growing up I desired to write just like him. I practiced and practiced trying to perfect my letters with precision and accuracy. There is just something about beautiful handwriting that speaks to my heart and leaves a lasting impression! Receiving a letter or card from a friend who does calligraphy captivates my attention. I know each word was written with love and care, causing me to linger and admire.

​My father had beautiful handwriting. Growing up I desired to write just like him. I practiced and practiced trying to perfect my letters with precision and accuracy. There is just something about beautiful handwriting that speaks to my heart and leaves a lasting impression! Receiving a letter or card from a friend who does calligraphy captivates my attention. I know each word was written with love and care, causing me to linger and admire.
Paul was a man who wanted to leave a lasting impression on men’s lives and hearts. That lasting impression, however, was not about who he was or what he had done but about his Lord and Savior! So how did he do that? He wrote 13 or 14 letters or books in the Bible! Think a moment about those letters and books. They are still changing lives some 2,000 years later. I would call that a lasting impression!
To the Christians in Corinth Paul wrote:
“You are an epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Holy Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” (2 Cor. 3:2-3)
Many years ago a man by the name of Dr. Walter Wilson wrote an analogy about the Christian life and a fountain pen, which I would like to share with you. He said, “A pen is not a natural growth; it is not found in the woods; it does not grow on plants. Some intelligent being conceived the idea and then produced it in its present form. So the Christian is not a natural product. We are born a sinner, and naturally sin.”
No other God or thing can save us, only the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
In our natural, sinful state, we are of no use to God. Just like the fountain pen having no use until it is filled with ink and picked up and applied to the paper. At the moment the ink touches the paper, the pen has a purpose.
Think for a moment about a pen. It is totally subject to the will and desire of its owner. A hand has to hold it. It cannot write by itself or of its own volition. Ink has to be placed in it so the impressions or thoughts of the writer can go onto the paper.
In order for our lives to leave a lasting impression, we have to acknowledge that it is the Holy Spirit who is the ink of our lives, and God is the One who holds the pen. At the moment of salvation, we have been indwelt with the ink of the Holy Spirit so that God might use us.
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:8-11)
Even though we have the ink of the Spirit in our pen and that pen is in the hand of God, we must allow God to transfer His Word onto the pages of our lives.
“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God, and we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom and taught by the Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2:10-13)
As God writes on our hearts His Words of life through His Spirit, we will in turn, like Paul, leave a lasting impression on all those who read the letters of our lives.
From Paul to Timothy:
“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you.” (2 Tim. 1:13-14)
The Lord stood with Timothy and Paul giving them and us strength and a lasting message – a message that can leave a lasting impression on all whose hearts it is written on. Oh, what an amazing letter inked on our hearts for the world to read and see!
Thank you, Father God, for the Holy Spirit and these amazing men who left us an eternal, lasting impression.
P.S. - Can’t wait to meet you, Timothy and Paul!