Author: Ramona Levacy Billingslea

I am a 50-something Texan with a feisty cat and a supportive husband of 25+ years. With a Master's degree in English with an emphasis on creative writing, I have taught creative writing at Texas Tech, won awards for my writing and been blessed to be mentored by Horn Professor and poet Dr. Walt McDonald. I earn a living by helping my husband's family run a health food store, but my avocation is writing. I hope you enjoy reading about some of my triumphs and tragedies as I continue to work on figuring out what life is all about and on growing my ability to share my writing. May your own journey be a blessed one.

Christian Living, Christianity

Seeing Past the Speck: Practical Steps to Shine His Light

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3

Jesus asks this question of us for such a valid reason. How easy is it for us, after all, to see what is “wrong” in others and not realize that we, too have faults. Isn’t it also often the case that the things that bother us most about ourselves, especially those things we haven’t fully acknowledged to ourselves that we possess, are the very things we think we see so clearly in somebody else?

If we manage with the help of the Holy Spirit to become master observers of our own actions and thoughts, then we take a step closer to doing the very thing Christ asks us to do: we look at others to see their true needs without judging them. In other words, we see right past any “specks” to reach out in what Paul would call “brotherly love.”

One of the easiest ways to start looking out for others without judging them is to pray for them. When you start bringing other people’s challenges before God, like illnesses, job issues, stresses, loss, etc., you realize how much we humans have in common. You come closer to walking a mile in the other person’s shoes, which means seeing the world through the other person’s eyes, the ultimate step toward achieving the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you or Treat others as you would treat yourself.

As with any Christian action we want to take, our prayers must begin and end with love. We cannot make a request of God that is actually a judgment we have wrapped up in “concern” to make it look better. God sees through our words to the true motives deep in our hearts, after all. By concentrating on the will of God to be done in any situation, we can become more peaceful about any situation because we have handed it over to Him.

Part of our prayers for others should include asking for guidance on what our actions should be in the situation. What should we be doing to help, if anything, beyond our prayers? Should we make some food to take to the person, send the person a card, offer to go with the person to a doctor’s visit, simply be sure to acknowledge the person and his/her pain when we see them, etc? If we ask God for guidance on a regular basis, He will provide it to us. And we will be more open to that guidance because we are in ongoing, open communication with Him.

Looking past the speck of those around us to try to see people as God sees them can be as simple as smiling at the people you pass in the hall at school, leaning down to help somebody pick up something they have dropped, holding open a door as you go in or out of a shop. If you see things in others that make you recoil, before reacting in judgment, take a moment to think about where you would be if God had looked at the REAL you without mercy and grace:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

Only because Christ loved us enough to die for us are we saved from our sin and able to approach the Almighty God in prayer. That gift of grace alone should make us gracious to others on a daily basis.

But, living in a fallen world where the devil takes stabs at us every chance he gets, being gracious takes dedication, devotion, the Holy Spirit, practice, and God. The most practical way to shine the light of Jesus may just be to realize that, though we stumble, it is the fact that we keep rising again, ready to start anew in our commitment, that makes us children of the Light that is Jesus.

My practical step to shine His light this week: I won’t be looking for specks. I’m going to see the part of me I want God to love in the faces of the people I encounter this week. And I’m going to treat them just like I want that inner, most vulnerable part of me to be treated. And I’m going to need God’s help to do that all the way. He will provide.

Christian Living, Christianity

Mastering Observation: Practical Steps to Shine His Light

Posted on September 1, 2013September 7, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Practical Steps to Shining the Light of Christ, Part II

September is National Yoga Month. That doesn’t have much to do with shining the light of Christ, except I’d like to borrow a concept from yoga to apply as a practical step in following Christ. Indulge me a bit here, please. Stick with me until the end and see if you agree or disagree with my idea.

One of the fundamental skills that makes yoga a success is one’s ability to focus, and I don’t mean focusing on some goal like winning the lottery or making all your dreams come true. What I am talking about is focusing on your own body, going inward with your thoughts to really feel what is going on inside your body.

By connecting the mind with the body in this way, in theory, you ultimately reach the kind of centeredness that allows you to stand on one leg for an hour or feel like your strongest, most peaceful self. When you are centered in this way, you are not affected by the things that happen around you. A rainy day doesn’t make you sad. Your decisions and your actions are not easily swayed like the wind.

To achieve this focus, yoga beginners first have to understand the difference in observing ourselves between watching and judging. All the while you are in a difficult pose, or even a relaxed, breathing posture, you are supposed to be paying attention to what you are feeling in your body. This can be hard to do at first. Most of the time, your mind wanders to what you didn’t finish on your to-do list for the day or what you plan to eat after workout.

As you improve in your skills at looking inward, the next difference between watching and judging becomes even more important. You may observe that your left leg feels tight. If you are watching, you breathe through the pain of the tight leg. You accept the tightness. You understand that, if you continue to practice your stretching and breathing, the tightness will eventually go away. Your mind stays inside your body. It stays focused.

If, instead of watching your left leg pain, you begin to judge it, you have a different outcome. As soon as thoughts like, my leg is always going to hurt, or I’ll never be able to do this enter your mind, you are no longer inside your body. Your focus has scattered and in a negative way that will not help you achieve your goals of a healthier body.

Just like a yoga master, a practical doer of God’s word has to master the art of observation: watching instead of judging. Watching means paying attention to our thoughts, words and actions. When we note that these do not align themselves with the word of God, we should immediately shift our efforts into getting back on the right path.

Jumping right into judging ourselves, and most often others, instead of watching is a sure way to get us focused on the wrong thing. In fact, I would venture to say judging is exactly what the devil would like to keep us busy doing.

But, judging is NOT in our job description. God tells us He is the judge. Christ tells us to worry about the log in our own eye before worrying about the speck in someone else’s eye. When the town wants to stone a woman to death, Christ challenges the crowd that if anyone there can look inside and see no sin, then let him cast the first stone.

At the same time, Christ holds us up to the Gold Standard. He promises His yoke is light, which means He is prepared to help us stay on the narrow path. When He tells the woman whom no one stones that He will also not judge her, He also tells her to “leave your life of sin” (John Chs. 7-8). It isn’t enough for the woman to acknowledge her sin. True repentance comes with her leaning on God to turn from the life of sin she had been leading.

So, not judging doesn’t mean not doing what is right in the eyes of God. And, the only way to really know what God says is right and wrong is to study His word. Some people like to think that they can go by how actions make them feel. “God wouldn’t want me to be unhappy,” they say. But God’s definition of happiness is not restricted by the vagaries of the human heart, “the great deceiver” (Jeremiah 17:9). God’s happiness includes what is ultimately the best thing for our spiritual life, which is the most important thing.

When we take it upon ourselves to judge our sin instead of observing it, we take away the strength we need to fight the nature of our flesh. Think about it: what do we gain by telling ourselves we don’t deserve to be loved by God because we have done something bad? Wouldn’t it be more productive, as an observer, to tell God, I acknowledge my sin. I need your help to do better the next time?

God knows we are going to stumble. That’s why He came to the world as a man and died for our sins to save us from our own weaknesses. He loves us enough to give us the freedom to choose Him. He loves us enough to forgive us. All we have to do is ask.

Spiritual watchers acknowledge their stumbles, repent, and continue trying to do better. Like becoming a Kung Fu master, growing as a Christian is a life-long practice that takes commitment, patience, and love.

Observation leads to improving your Holy Spirit muscle, just like watching your body in exercise instead of judging leads to improved muscles and health in the body because observing your spiritual life instead of judging it helps you stay inside yourself, where the Holy Spirit dwells and is waiting to help you back into the Light.

My shine-the-light practice for this week: I will work on improving my spiritual focus by practicing watching my spiritual walk this week instead of judging it.

Christian Living, Christianity

Practical Steps to a Better Christian Walk

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Walking to Shine the Light — SHINE THE LIGHT IN A DARK WORLD. http://images.all-free-download.com/images/graphiclarge/walking_in_the_dark_with_light_in_helmet_clip_art_16890.jpg

If you are new to Christianity, or if you have been walking with God since you were in short pants, each day is your next opportunity to grow as a Christian. Perhaps the true test of whether you are in-tune with the Holy Spirit within you is whether or not you face each day wondering what opportunities God will give you to grow that day, or if you are so busy taking care of the material things in your life that you don’t really think about God at all.

Grace is such a wonderful gift. For those who accept the gift of grace that is acknowledging the deity of Christ and the purpose of His crucifixion on the cross to save all of us sinners, grace means two very important things that all Christians, but especially those new to the Christian walk, should realize up front:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, . . . who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1 and 4b, NIV)

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit . . . (Ephesians 1:13a, ESV)

In other words, beyond going back on believing that Christ died for your sins, there is nothing that can separate you from God as far as God is concerned. As long as we repent of our sins, He will forgive us. Even when we aren’t talking to Him directly, He hears us. Especially when we ourselves have hardened our hearts to His callings, He knows the cracks through which to read our souls’ secrets.

Grace means there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, but it does not mean there is nothing for Christians to do. Jesus told his followers it was a “narrow way” to the Kingdom of Heaven. Study your copy of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7), and you’ll discover very quickly just how narrow that way can be.

Does the narrow way mean God expects us to be perfect? Of course not! He who knows us best knows that perfection is beyond us. That is why Christ came with the gift of salvation through grace in the first place. But, truly loving God and having the Spirit of God in us means we are compelled to get as close to perfection as a human can get–with the help and support of God all the way.

Romans 8:15 reads:

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (NIV)

My Ryrie Study Bible note for this verse explains:

His [those of us adopted into the family of God through our belief in Christ] position is one of full privilege; his practice involves growth in grace.

After accepting the gift of grace, which is a privilege we do absolutely nothing to earn accept bow down in obedience to the ONE who deserves our whole selves, the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit that is part of the grace package helps to guide us in our next step, which is to grow in that grace.

Have you ever played Monopoly? Remember how you saved the “Get Out of Jail Free” card to save yourself from lost turns and stiff fines? When you used the “Get Out of Jail Free” card, as a game player, was your first action to stop on the first property on which you landed and stay a while? Or did you continue to play the game, buying properties, improving properties, and trying to win? If you weren’t going to continue to play, why not just sit in jail and let the Monopoly game continue without you, right?

The first practical step to a Better Christian Walk, then, is acknowledging that grace is not a “get out of jail free” card to be wasted! God loves us enough to give us life after death. He certainly loves us enough to pick us up when we fall. He already knows how many times, in fact, we are going to fall in our walk with Him.

But He does expect us to keep moving forward. The Old Testament prophets are filled with the dire consequences that occurred when God’s chosen people, the Israelites, refused generation after generation after generation to follow God with all their minds, and all their spirits, and all their bodies. Do you think that just because He offered the ultimate sacrifice to free us from the impossibility of perfection that He actually also had in mind freeing us from growing in Him?

This is the first in a series of posts I plan to write on walking with Christ and being better Shiners of the Light in this world of darkness in which we live. So, let me end it with something practical you can do with the information I just wrote:

My Shine the Light Practice for this week: I will get in my quiet space and talk to God. I will acknowledge His gift of grace and what it means in my life. I will be honest with Him about the way my life would be if I didn’t have grace. I will ask Him to help me grow the Holy Spirit muscle in me by making me a better listener this week, revealing the quiet moments in my life when He is trying to tell me something. I will admit that growing in grace takes practice and dedication on my part, and I will ask Him to show me the way.

Christian Living, Christianity

Never Too Old to be Schooled

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

Anyone who has ever been a teacher in a formal setting knows that you learn materials best by having to teach others, but you also know that you have plenty of things you can also learn from your students, as long as you are open to the idea, which often means giving way to pride and being open to the possibilities of a humble heart.

But, anyone can benefit from the possibilities that occur when we are open to learning from others, no matter if we are supposed to be teaching those others or not. And those others can be young people half our age as well as our “elders,” can be people who make almost no money to those who make millions.

Case in point: I have been doing desktop publishing for our family health food store for almost 17 years, an outcropping of experience I started gaining when I was just in high school journalism classes. Lately, I have had to hand over some of my duties to a young woman who works for us. She is about to begin her junior year in college. I am almost 20 years out from my graduate degree. Sure, so far, I’ve had to edit her work as she puts together test ads for me, but they are fairly small changes that I can easily explain to her to improve upon the next time.

What I have learned so far is that it is very nice to have a second voice offering ideas about advertising slogans and perspectives. It is quite a bit quicker to edit an ad layout that is already quite strong than to have to come up with the entire ad to begin with. I also have been reminded that other people can come up with creative and intelligent ideas.

Today, I even learned that I could use a computer program I hadn’t even thought about in a while to create cropped pictures with traced transparencies that will be very useful for my advertising and marketing and website purposes. I was so happy to be able to say to my younger employee that we could learn from each other during this process! And the employee was excited too.

My point is that in order to learn from anyone, from a superior at work to a young person you might otherwise write off as naive or inexperienced, you have to be open to the possibilities and willing to see the world through an unbiased lens. Forget the attitude and especially the fear that keeps you from admitting that you still have things to learn, especially when you are dealing one-on-one with somebody. I think you will find that people will respect you more when you are honest about what you know and don’t know instead of putting on an act of bravado and never admitting that you still have something to learn.

God wants us to be always open to instruction. The Proverbs discuss the importance of discipline. The Old Testament is replete with reminders that God will humble us if we do not take care of our attitude ourselves. In the New Testament, Jesus reminds us that we must come to Him as little children, meaning with an attitude of full faith that includes admitting we don’t understand everything but are willing to believe anyway.

None of us are ever too old to be schooled. And since we never know exactly how God is working the things that happen in our lives to the good, don’t we all have every reason to be open to learning from anything and everything that happens to us? Even a two-year-old knows a few things that we have managed to forget as adults. Have you ever seen a better nap-taker?

“Life is a long lesson in humility.”
― J.M. Barrie, The Little Minister

Christian Living, Faith

The World’s Greatest BackUp Plan

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

My computer hard drive crashed earlier this week. I knew I was in trouble when I woke up to one of those blue screens filled with white type in a language that I know is English but doesn’t mean a thing to me. I rebooted to get an even worse message. My writing and all my business work were in the proverbial wastebasket.

And I hadn’t even had my morning bowl of cereal yet.

Twenty years ago, when we all accessed the fairly new internet through our phone lines, FTP’ed everything, and experienced conversations in semi-real time on black screens with just words and symbols, I loaded a new program onto my new computer without first creating a directory for it, thereby giving my computer a signal for two executables that left it confused. I was in tears, literally. I managed to remove all the files of the program I had just installed improperly (there weren’t so many files to a program back then), and my computer was up and running again. But, I was a basket case.

In contrast, Monday morning’s fiasco was just another day in the life of me. Why? Well, for one thing, I use an online backup service that constantly keeps all my files up-to-date, just in case. So, staring at a computer screen that wasn’t going to operate, I knew that, worst case scenario, I would be able to download everything that I needed if I had to start over. My second backup was the knowledge that I have a great guy for working on computers who has gotten me out of more than one mess. Before the day was out, I had a new, cloned drive and hadn’t lost a thing!

The moral of the story? Experience and a backup plan are the key to facing life’s challenges with the kind of calm demeanor we see portrayed on the big screen by great teachers like Yoda, or better yet, with the utter peace Christ, our greatest Teacher, demonstrates in the Bible.

Experience is one thing that time itself takes care of. The longer you live, the more things you have to deal with. As my Dad is always reminding me:

“90% of the things you worry about don’t even happen, and the 10% that do are never as bad as you thought they would be.”

With a growing body of lessons learned through actually living through problems or challenges, you discover as you age that, even though life always has curves to throw you, your growing arsenal of problem-solving skills makes those curves much more manageable.

Life’s backup plan works a lot like my own online backup subscription. All we have to do is “sign up” by knowing in our hearts that Christ died for us and then come before Him to ask for Him to be our Savior, repenting of our sins and taking on the guardian of the Holy Spirit who will guide us in our new life. With Christ as our backup, we cannot lose! He took on our sin so we would not be condemned by it to eternal death. He has in mind our ultimate best interest, which is glory in the eternity of Heaven. Jesus has our back.

Make no mistake: a Christian life still has problems. In fact, that is part of God’s design. Paul explains:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35-37)

We are going to face problems, in the name of Christ and as just a part of living in a fallen world. But God has a plan to bring us out on the other side of those problems. The better we get at leaning on Him during times of trouble and triumph, the more we will feel Him catching us even before we have time to get too worried about the problems we are facing.

Kind of like my reaction to a crashed computer Monday morning. Truly, I took the problem as a sign that I needed to take a break from the electronics for Monday and reflect on my own relationships with God, my family, and myself. It was a nice “break” that really helped me set up a happy, productive, and calm week.

Paul emphasizes the bonus of our backup plan:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

So, as you face challenges this week, remember that you have the greatest backup plan on the planet. And you not only have a lifetime subscription, but an eternal one:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Christianity, Faith

Three Reasons Old Testament Reading Is Fun . . . Really!

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

The Old Testament has a bad wrap. People often skip right over it and go straight to the “good stuff” of the New Testament. But, I’ve got three of I’m sure many reasons to find fun in reading Genesis to Malachi. Give me five minutes, and see if I can’t give you a more positive view of God’s word than you may have held once before.

Reason #1:

What we call the Old Testament is the Bible Jesus read! At the time that Jesus walked on the earth, the only Bible that existed was what we now call the Old Testament. Christ’s death and resurrection is what created the New Testament whose name we have applied to the part of our modern-day Bible beginning with the Gospels. When Jesus unrolled the scroll and read in the Temple, He was reading from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. When He spent time speaking with the priests of the Temple, He was discussing the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (which was the way the books were arranged at that time). The Laws that Jesus refers to in His parables come from the writings of Moses. John tells us that “In the beginning, was the Word,” equating Christ to the Word of God, and underscoring the first-hand knowledge that Christ has of what we call the Old Testament. Philip Yancey has written an entire study of this reason, aptly titled The Bible Jesus Read.

Reason #2:

The science and history that backs up what the Bible says. Don’t let your school textbooks or cynical college professors fool you. Real science and artifacts exist that back up what the Bible says. A good place to start exploring these truths is the website Reasons to Believe at reasons.org. If you are a DVD fan, I can recommend three series that explore the science and history behind the Bible, especially the Old Testament, really well (thanks to my friend and life-group member, Roger Jay!): If God Made the Universe… based on the work of Dr. Hugh Ross and TrueU: Does God Exist? Building the Scientific Case & TrueU: Is the Bible Reliable–Building the Historical Case . . . both based on the work of Dr. Stephen Meyer.

These DVDs do a much better job than I could in making the case for faith, so to speak. Also, I have an “Archaeological Study Bible” that is full of articles and references that point to real artifacts and known parallelisms between other historical sources and the Bible which makes reading the Old Testament an even more fulfilling experience.

Let me make myself clear on this fun point, however. The reason Christ said we must all come to Him “as little children,” doesn’t mean that you have to believe in Him before you become an adult. It means that believing in God and what He says is like having the open-mindedness and trust that only children can give us the purest examples of. No amount of scientific or historic evidence can change the reality of faith in Christ. He is Who He says He is. He does what He says He will do. Period.

Reason #3:

My final fun reason for reading the Old Testament is discovering in its pages for myself the connections to what I know from the many times I have read the New Testament, like when you see similar phrases to ones Christ uses in His parables and teachings. (Yeah, I know those connecting verses are clearly labeled for me in the margins of my New Testament, but I rarely look at those! Shame on me.)

What is even more fun about these connections is when God opens them up to you Himself. For example, my Bible reading includes a little bit of Old Testament and then a little bit of New Testament. Right now, I am still making it through my Old Testament in the order it is published in my Archaeological Bible. But, having long since made it through the New Testament in my copy of that Bible, I am now reading the New Testament in my Ryrie NASB study bible, not in the order it was printed, but in the order the scholars think the books were actually written. So, while I am making my way through Lamentations in the OT, I am reading Romans in the NT.

One day last week, I was struck to read in Lamentations:

For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land, to deny a man his rights before the Most High, to deprive a man of justice–would not the Lord see such things? (Lamentations 3:31-36)

Remember, this book follows a time in Jewish history when the entire people of God have been defeated by the Babylonians and cast to the far reaches of the earth. Jerusalem is razed, and almost no Jews remain. In Lamentations, the author is trying to reason out the unknowable, to find hope in a time of despair most of us can only imagine. During that same day of reading, by chance (or I like to think by the power of the Holy Spirit that guides us when we move out of the way), my NT passage took me here:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned–for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. . . . The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5: 12-16, 20-21)

The Lamenter, having survived a punishment brought about by God through the Babylonians because God’s people had turned so far from Him, He had no other choice in calling them back to Him, asks the question: “wouldn’t the Lord see our need for justice?” Generations later, Paul, writing to a group of newly-formed Christians, mostly non-Jews, answers with a resounding “Yes!” The Lord has indeed seen our need for justification, and He has given it to us in the only way we sinners can hope to achieve it–as a gift of GRACE through the sacrifice Christ made for each of us on the cross.

Reading these two passages in close proximity to each other, I was struck at how the members of Paul’s audience who may have been very acquainted with the passages from Lamentations would have heard his teachings on justification through grace with eyes so different from my own. I know I have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, but I don’t have stories told me at my father’s knee, passed down generationally, about whole civilizations of my people who paid the price for continued disobedience in ways that would keep me up at night if I took the time to dwell upon them. How much more wonderful did the promise of Christ’s gift to us sound to those ears?

My Old Testament view gave me the goosebumps as I read Romans this week. Now, there’s a fun reason to open the front half of your favorite book!

And one more P.S. on the subject of finding fun aspects to things you might not feel like doing. I began this post with the notes I had jotted down earlier in the week when this idea came to me, but I really didn’t feel like writing today. I had to say a quick prayer to have the willpower to begin my post. But, as I got to writing, I really started to enjoy exploring just why the OT is fun to read. I learned a few more reasons why myself, and if that’s the only reason this post got written according to His will, then that’s reason enough.

Have a blessed week, full of smiles, family-time, prayer-time, and a little time in the Old Testament. See what gems of truth or delight you uncover. And if you have the time, share them with the rest of us. I, for one, am eager to hear about your time in God’s word.

Christian Living

Days of Ice Cream and Air Conditioning

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Color me Disney. Last week, I pondered the positive side of a Pollyanna outlook. Today, I pulled up one of my WDW vacation pictures for a little inspiration.

The truth is, I have a couple of really juicy ideas to write about. I even have some excerpts from the book I am currently writing that I wouldn’t mind sharing. But, frankly, it’s the middle of summer, and the only thing saving me from the heat is my wonderful a/c and dreams of ice cream.

So, what about a list of five things we can be doing on hot summer days to offer the love of Christ to those who are of the world and not just in it?

Write a blog post! 🙂 Or better yet, read some blog posts and find someone you can encourage in their own walk with Christ. Many of us writers are much better communicators when we can put something on a page (or computer screen) then when we are speaking in person. Let’s put those skills to use to be encouragers of the Word.
Turn your favorite hobby into an act of giving. I enjoy knitting. I’m not very good at it, but I can at least cable-stitch a decent lap or baby blanket. I buy soft yarn and take my time knitting as I am able. When I complete a blanket, I wash it to make sure it smells nice and holds up. Then, I give it to a friend of mine who works for a community outreach group. She passes the handmade blankets on to nursing homes and/or programs that provide clothes to mamas who have nothing to take their newborns home in.
Clean out your closets. Did you know that anyone who has to go to the hospital for a suspected sexual assault has to give up all their clothing as evidence? Most hospitals have some kind of program to take in clean, nice clothes as replacements. Or, your nice clothes that you don’t wear anymore could go to your local outreach organization for them to distribute or sell in their thrift shop to fund programs that do things like help kids get supplies for school.
Stock up on some cool bottles of water and canned goods or snacks and make the circuit in your car. When you see one of the people on the street corner with the signs about needing work or money, hand them the bottle of water and a protein bar. You could even have a typed or handwritten message about God’s love for us to hand to the person as well. The policeman out on patrol wouldn’t mind some cool water on a hot day either, I’m sure.
Phone an acquaintance. We all have people in our lives that we know and have felt a call to reach out to, but we just haven’t gotten the courage to do it yet. What better excuse than a day too hot to be outside to give them a call? Depending on the situation, it could be under the guise of making sure the person has enough resources to make it through the heat (like an elderly neighbor on a fixed income who may not be able to afford the a/c) or to just say hello.

I know none of these suggestions are particularly earth-shattering. They also are nothing new. I have blatantly taken them from ideas of kind acts I have seen others do. Grace is such a wonderful gift, may we never take it for granted. So, even on lazy, summer days, we can find ways to be the hand of grace toward others for the One who makes all things new for us and through Whom all things are possible.

Christian Living, Christianity

Pollyanna World

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Copyright http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054195/

In a culture where even our favorite “good” guys often come with a bit of a dark side, it may be difficult to fathom (if you are younger) or remember (if you are older) the days when a hero could be so good, we used terms like “syrupy” or “wholesome” to describe them. But the 1960 Disney film, Pollyanna offers just such a hero. In fact, the young girl from this film who maintained a positive attitude in the face of all things to the contrary became so synonymous with the concept of goodness that those for whom goodness is an uncomfortable concept turned her name into an actual insult: “Don’t be such a Pollyanna,” they’ll say. And what they mean by that is that you are putting your head in the sand, ignoring reality, and being just, plain stupid.

But Pollyannas are actually quite the opposite. In fact, Pollyanna is a forerunner of an idea that has been around since time began, but that cycles in and out of popularity, like so many things: the concept of CHOICE. For no matter where you turn in the pages of history, or even your Bible, those who find peace are those who master the ability to realize that we choose how the things that happen to us will actually affect us. By choosing positive, God-directed thoughts, we keep ourselves on the narrow way of Kingdom citizens. Let’s see how Pollyanna did it.

As the story opens, Pollyanna has every reason to curl in the fetal position and hide in the attic room her aunt has stuck her in following the death of the young girl’s missionary parents. She could be angry that her aunt owns the town and yet sees her as a charity case. She could even be cowered by the servants who snarl at her and warn her not to get in the way.

But Pollyanna has been raised to be made of sterner stuff. First, she introduces to anyone who will listen the “glad game,” a way of thinking her father had taught her when the missionary barrels brought crutches instead of dolls to play with. If any situation comes up that might make Pollyanna feel down, instead she looks for a way of thinking about the circumstances that could be a good thing. She CHOOSES to be glad.

Guided by Pollyanna’s aunt, the local minister spews fire and brimstone from the pulpit each Sunday that leaves his congregation with a case of indigestion to last for the rest of the week! One day, as the preacher is alone at the top of a hill worrying himself over how little he seems to reach that congregation, up comes Pollyanna with a folded note to deliver from her aunt. As the preacher finds himself sharing his lamentations with the young girl, she has a bit more wisdom to impart from dear old dad.

If you look for the evil in mankind, expecting to find it, she tells the preacher, you surely will.

“Abraham Lincoln said that,” Pollyanna concludes. She goes on to explain that about the time her father found that quote, he had begun his study of what he called the “glad texts.” These were the verses where God instructed us to be happy, to find joy, to embrace love. Pollyanna tells the preacher there were 800 of them. “My dad said, ‘If God told us 800 times to be glad and rejoice, He must have wanted us to do it,'” she tells him.

The next Sunday, the preacher has obviously done some thinking about choice. He delivers the happiest sermon of his career. And, he lets Pollyanna know there are actually 862 glad verses. He knew because he had spent the better part of the night before staying up to count them.

Last week, I offered the roadmap to beginning your walk with Christ. With Christ in your life, you’ll soon discover that CHOOSING a Pollyanna world is more than possible, mainly because you are no longer facing the challenges of this world alone. The moment you accepted Christ as your Savior, repenting of the sinful life you have led, that we have all led, you were open for the entrance of the Holy Spirit, our Helper in this world to shine the light of Christ for those still in darkness.

There are many places in the Bible that likewise show a CHOOSING plan of action. Here is one of them, from Romans 12:9-21:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Each day, you are exposed to messages from television, the music you listen to, the billboards on the street. Many times, you don’t even have control over the messages that you are being bombarded with. But you do have the ability to CHOOSE which messages you will accept as truth. And you will have a growing understanding of God’s truth the more you study His word, communicate with fellow believers, and spend time in earnest prayer. Don’t forget, the devil has a real stake in making us believe the things that will keep us down, like “God can’t forgive me,” or “Nobody cares about me,” or “the Church will just judge me.” But God’s truth is about love and a believing community. Don’t let the devil make you confuse what feels good with what is good (but more on that another time).

For today, embrace the “glad game.” Choose to see the light in your situation instead of the darkness. Pollyanna managed to affect her entire new community in a positive way. It may have been a typical Disney ending, but it’s an ending God gives us the right to CHOOSE. Just open your hand and reach for it.

Christian Living, Christianity, Faith

The Promise We Carry

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

A Christian Treasure Map (clipartlog.com) — A Christian Treasure Map
(clipartlog.com)

It was a sunny, summer afternoon, but a cloud of sadness and worry and death hung over our house like the proverbial monster in the closet that nobody wanted to talk about. My grandfather had died eighteen months earlier at the young age of 52 in a faraway hospital in the big city. My grandmother had lived with us for a time, gone to help my aunt on her mission trip in Mexico, and was now going to live in the used but serviceable mobile home we could afford to get her with the small proceeds from the sale of my dad’s “ancestral” home and the pittance of a widow’s salary from social security, which for a carpenter who charged just what he thought a job was worth came to a whopping $400 a month in 1981.

In prepping the lot beside my great-uncle’s house for my grandmother’s trailer to set upon, my uncle, just 33, developed what appeared to be an appendicitis attack. When the doctors opened him up in the nearby Lamesa hospital, what they discovered was cancer, an overwhelming amount of it. They sewed him back up and sent him home with pain medications and hospice care. He had a three-year-old son, a four-year-old marriage and a handful of months to live.

When you are 11 years old, these things tend to happen more around you than to you, swirling around you in black clouds of that which cannot be defined. On this particular afternoon, alone at home with my sister somewhere in the house, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to do something.

I knew just enough about the Bible to be dangerous. I believed in God. I prayed to God. I had often wanted to go forward to be a part of what the preachers were talking about at the end of every sermon I attended. But, as my dad explained to me, I wasn’t old enough yet to really understand what it was I was stepping forward for. You’re fixing to agree with him.

Because what I knew about God included the use of sacrifices, I figured, why not give it a try? I thought about what meant a lot to me. My practically-flattened teddy bear, “Sugar Bear,” came to mind. (My sister to this day takes great delight in comparing her plump version of this same bear to the one I slept with and on, apparently, each night, as he resembles my sister’s version on permanent Weight Watchers). So, with not much assurance of what I was doing, but with the optimism born of ignorance only youth can bring, I snuck into the back yard with Sugar Bear, placed him on a pile of cinder blocks, and offered him as an exchange for my uncle’s improved health.

This take on theology was bad on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin. Also, note that since I wasn’t allowed around matches, I didn’t even think to light the teddy bear on fire, so who was I kidding? I thought the sacrifice would work by God just reaching down and taking my teddy bear? It may have been the most egotistical moment of my life. (Unfortunately, for me, it probably wasn’t the most egotistical moment in my life. I’m sure I’ve done worse.)

Luckily for me, I have since learned much more about the meaning of sacrifice in our relationship with God and the exact role of Christ in that relationship. Within a year of my ill-fated attempt at “miracle making,” I was indeed baptised into the family of God. And then the real learning began.

In my first adult Bible, a KJV from 1977, I have marked the step-by-step guide of verses to share with somebody who is ready to be led to Christ. I want to share those verses with you in case you have never seen them in this particular order before, or if you yourself have been wondering what all this Jesus “stuff” is all about. We begin in Romans 3:10:

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Romans 3:23 reiterates:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

After establishing that none of us are blameless before God, we need to understand why blamelessness is so important:

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:(Romans 5:12)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23)

And how is Jesus a gift to us? Turn to Romans 5:8:

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Now, we understand why we needed something to get closer to God, which is because we all have sinned, and we see that God’s plan was that Christ’s sacrifice would wash away that sin once and for all. So, what do we have to do? The next steps come in Romans 10: 9-13:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Even 31 years later, I can remember sitting in class with my Sunday school teacher, Patty Taylor, who had us all mark these verses in our Bible, including our starting point and the verses to go to next, like a treasure map to the greatest prize of all time! I have quoted this treasure map in the KJV from the original Bible where my young hands marked this all out, full of anticipation of being able to share this very map with somebody else some day.

Today, I’m sharing it with you. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I talk about God all the time because He is a part of my life (though, believe me, I am NO saint). However, in 31 years, I think this is the first time I have actually shared the treasure map I have offered to you today. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity.

I grew up in the era of fire and brimstone from the pulpit, and I tend to lean in that direction way too often, seeing the cup half empty instead of half full. But, the whole point of our Gospel Treasure, this thing we carry within us every day and everywhere, is that our cup is overflowing! What a wonderful gem to shine. No wonder Christ emphasized His role in casting Light into the darkness.

So, I say to that 11-year-old trying to pray away a teddy bear in the cool breeze of a summer afternoon many years ago, focus on the promise we carry, which is the love of God. The ultimate sacrifice has already been made. Now is the time to pay it forward.

Christianity, Love

Unmask Yourself

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

We all need a little bit of protection now and again, a face we put on for the world at large to keep our innermost self from being wounded. But I wonder how often the protections we put on daily, those invisible masks and personality traits that we have used to wall ourselves away from the potential hurts of this world, actually keep us from truly reaching out to others as God intended us to do? After all, He is more interested in us showing love to others than in keeping our sense of pride in tact.

Actually, God is quite against pride, a fact I seem to often forget. Pride keeps me from saying “I love you” to people who may need most to hear it. It keeps me from sharing my doubts with others when realizing that we all have similar questions about this world and our places in it might have been just what somebody else needed to hear. Pride lets me fall into the trap of thinking that I am doing a pretty good job in my Christian walk, blinding me to my own sin and making me judgmental about the sin it is so easy to see in others. I believe Jesus said something about a log and a toothpick.

I learned the value of stripping away masks when I began my yoga class several years ago. Having never been an athletic person, I pre-determined that I was going to be the worst student in the class and that THAT WAS GOING TO BE OK. Approaching my exercise in this way freed me to concentrate on what was most important for my yoga, which was paying attention to what my own body was telling me as I tried the exercises. This decision to strip away my masks also allowed me to share when it was asked of me in a way that would benefit both me and my sharing partner. I have become a more open person in all aspects of my life, just because I decided to be myself in an otherwise intimidating exercise class.

As for the protection part of masks, Paul gives us directions for a far superior form of protection, available to us through the grace of God. In Ephesians 6, he writes that we should put on the full armor of God:

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Our enemy isn’t really each other, after all. We are all in this same struggle together, and none of us escape the ultimate destiny of every human existence. Instead of masks that cut us off from each other, we should be banding together against our true enemy, the evil one who would keep us from the Ultimate One.

No mask is worth keeping someone else from the love of Christ. Next time your pride or insecurities tempt you to put one on, think about that. Loving others may mean looking a bit silly sometimes, but the ultimate goal of salvation far outweighs any indignities we might suffer.