Christian Living – Page 4 – goodchristianfiction

Are You A Weed?

Posted on November 16, 2015January 24, 2016 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who bear fruit for God and those who do not. In the parable of the tares, Jesus defines these two types of people as the wheat and the weeds. Even though they are both sown at the same time, God waits until the harvest to separate the two.

What does it mean to be wheat instead of a weed? What does bearing fruit for God look like? Paul tells the Ephesians:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Good works may best be understood as James defines it: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (1:27). The more we do things to honor God and extend the mercy He has shown us to others, the more practically we ensure that we are growing into wheat, the fruit of the harvest, instead of the weeds to be burned when the harvest is done.

Becoming wheat involves a conscious decision every day to do the will of God. Joshua puts it this way:

Now respect the LORD and serve him fully and sincerely. Throw away the gods that your ancestors worshiped on the other side of the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD. But if you don’t want to serve the LORD, you must choose for yourselves today whom you will serve. (Josh 24:14-15a)

These words were spoken as an entreaty to the Israelites who had conquered the promised land with God’s help. They promptly swore to serve the God who had led their ancestors out of Egypt. But, as the story continues, the people very quickly forget this sincere promise, turning to the very gods they had sworn to Joshua to forget.

How easy it is to become distracted from the promise of heaven by the immediacy of the material things in this life. Just like the Israelites, we too place more importance on things than on our devotion to God. But we don’t have to be that way.

Being wheat instead of a weed can be as simple as having bottles of water to hand to the beggar on the side of the road, spending a few hours each week visiting a nursing home, sending cards to people who are recovering or serving overseas. Being wheat means embracing Jesus’s imperative that we love others as we ourselves wish to be loved.

At first, risking looking stupid by extending a part of ourselves to strangers will be scary. Pray about it. Remember that God promised us that the Holy Spirit will give us words even when we have none. Know that even when we look most stupid in the eyes of the world, we may be shining the brightest in the kingdom of heaven.

James contends that faith without works is a dead faith:

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

If you really believe on a loving God who died to save you, James is saying, then how could you not do good things for other people? How could you not put love first when God’s love for you is your only chance for eternal life?

Extend some living water to those who are thirsty around you. Be wheat.

Christian Living, Faith

The Sower of Seeds: A Parable of Jesus

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Jesus often taught His lessons to the masses in the form of parables–spiritual truths gleaned from comparison to everyday experiences using analogy. The parable of the sower of seeds is one such parable, which gives us a good picture of the different kinds of responses that are possible to the message of Christ.

The sower’s seeds fall on four different kinds of ground:

Beside the road
On rocky places
Among thorns
On good soil.

The seeds beside the road never have a chance to grow because the birds eat them up before they can take any root. These represent people who have no response to the message of salvation. They hear His Word but don’t understand because Satan snatches the message away before they have a chance to believe.

The seeds that land on rocky places spring up quickly, but have no roots. Without roots, these same seeds just as quickly whither when the sun beats down on them. These seeds represent the emotional response to the Word. The rocky soil person hears God’s Word with joy, but because he has no root in himself, he gives up at the first challenge to his faith.

The seeds among thorns spring up, but get choked out by the thorns that surround them. This is a worldly response to the Word. Even though this person allows the seed to grow, very soon the worries of this world, the charms of wealth, and the pleasures of this world choke out the core message of the Word.

The seeds on good soil yield crops one hundred, sixty, thirty times the quantity of the original seed. These seeds represent the fruitful response to the Word, those people who understand Christ’s Truth and act in such a way as to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God because of that belief:

“But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.” (Luke 8:15)

Even though we cannot earn salvation, once we attain salvation through our faith, we don’t have any choice but to do the works that are the natural result of a true faith. The Ryrie Study Bible (NASB) explains it this way: “Both Paul and James define faith as a living, productive trust in Christ.” James writes,

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith [which is a dead faith] save him? . . . You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? (James 2: 14, 19-20)

The seeds in good soil bear fruit, whether that is taking a meal to a widow or paying a compliment to a perfect stranger to brighten someone’s day. Any action that reflects the light of the Lord takes a step in faith of bearing fruit. “For just as the body without the spirit is dead,” James concludes, “so also faith without works is dead” (2:26). To grow our roots, we have to work to create the good soil that will foster our faith in the One and Only.

Perseverance is the key to making the parable of the sower a reality in your own life. Without perseverance, you might let the worries of this world choke out your faith. Without perseverance, you might fail to attain the roots you need to hold on to your faith when the troubles of this life challenge you. We fertilize our good soil by studying the Word, praying continually, and finding fellowship with other believers.

In good soil, we can truly persevere to bear fruit that is the end result of a faith that is fully awake.

*Note: The parable of the sower, made during Christ’s sermon on the seashore, can be read in Matthew 13:5, Mark 4:3-8 and Luke 8:5-8.

Christian Living

This House Divided

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Rather than take away tomorrow’s trouble, worry voids today’s strength. –Max Lucado, from Come Thirsty

Everyone talks about worry being a waste of time, but my morning reading pointed out to me a much more compelling reason to avoid this wasteful habit. Worry actually divides my mind, keeping me from putting everything I have into today.

When Christ spoke about a house divided, He meant a couple of different things. One time, He uses this metaphor to argue against the accusation that He is from the devil since He could cast out demons. Why would Satan, Jesus reasons, do something to hurt himself? Another time, Christ uses this metaphor to explain why it is so important to put our whole selves into the pursuit of our love of God instead of being distracted by the things of this world that tarnish and will do us no good in heaven.

When worry takes my mind away from the things of today, it also takes me away from my closeness to Christ. I want to be engulfed in that closeness, not separated from it, for as Paul explains:

Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. And God’s peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Paul’s words give us the steps for living what contemporary thinkers term “with mindfulness:”

Pray about everything– I need to concentrate on what is happening to me and around me in every moment. When we pray about something, we naturally focus our minds to what is most important. By voicing what concerns us to God, we might even realize how ridiculous some of our concerns actually are.
Be thankful– Gratitude makes us be more truthful with ourselves. Often, my inner voice tells me things that are downright lies, but it can be hard to call myself on these unless I bring my mind to what is actually true. When I take the time to name the many things I have to be thankful for, I inevitably unearth some of the lies I have been letting my worries tell me.
Never stop– Paul says not to pray at certain times of the day or week, but about everything. It is possible to have hearts and minds that are in Christ as long as we actively engage our ability to foster our relationship with our Father. We cannot be thankful and worry at the same time. If we bring our concerns to God in prayer, we will find that what was a worry is overshadowed by the peace that is found in the presence of Christ.

How often because of worry have I raced through a day without giving full attention to really living it? By being a house divided, I have lost many opportunities to fully participate in the gift of life God mercifully grants to each of us.

The next time I catch myself being engrossed more by my worry than by the beauty of the day, I think I will imagine the scene from II Kings, where Elisha and his servant face a horde of enemies, assured of victory because of the “invisible” army of fiery chariots prepared to defend them:

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (II Kings 6: 15-17)

Just as God protected Elisha, we are assured that He also has our best interests at heart. He will be there for us during good times and bad. He did not design us to worry, but to follow the two commands that Jesus said summed up everything:

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27)

If I am truly working to follow both these important instructions, what time do I have to worry? Indeed, if I truly love God with everything I have and then extend that love to others, when will I ever have time to worry?

A mindful life is truly a house undivided, unified in its goal to love God, obey His commands, and be thankful. May your prayers leave you with a mind unified in the love of Christ.

Christian Living, Love

For Those Whom We Remember

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

The people who make a difference are not the ones with the credentials, but the ones with the concern. –Max Lucado, And The Angels Were Silent

In a world where a YouTube video can make a dancing toddler or wacky kitten “famous,” it doesn’t hurt to step back every once in a while to gain some much-needed perspective. Max Lucado gives this perspective with just a few questions:

Can you name the last five Nobel Peace Prize Winners?
How about the Pulitzer Prize Winner from last year?
Name five people who had a profound impact on your life.
How about ten people you have a great memory about?

Like me, I’m sure you had a difficult, or impossible, time with the first two questions, but a much quicker response to the final two questions. Lucado explains that the difference in your ability to answer these questions comes from the value of the second set of people in your life.

Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners may be the best in their area of expertise, but knowing how to write a profound play, ultimately, doesn’t mean as much to me as experiencing the helping hand I really need from a person who knows me and cares enough to do something for me.

Isn’t the difference between credentials and concern summed up in Hosea, in the verse that Christ repeats during one of his encounters with the Pharisees?:

If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent (Matthew 12:7).

The truth of Christ’s sacrifice for us is that God’s main desire is not the continued spilling of blood (Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice for us once and for all on the cross), but our earnest striving to be kind, to love, to show concern.

How do you measure your success? Do you spend too much time, like I often fall into the trap of doing, measuring yourself against the kinds of jobs other people have, or what’s in your bank account, or what kind of clothes you wear? Even when you think you are trying to measure yourself according to God’s standards, do you fall into the trap of thinking bigger is better? In other words, if you aren’t building a church or working on a mission trip, do you consider yourself a failure?

Luckily for us, God has a different measuring stick. If we can be that concerned person for even one other, then we have made strides in His kingdom we may never totally fathom. Do you want to think according to God’s measurement of success or man’s?

I always answer God’s to that question, and I always find myself slipping back into a laundry list of credentials instead of concern! So, I propose thinking about success from a concern perspective. How will that look? Where do I begin?

It seems one of the best places to begin is by thinking hard about the people, outside of my family, who have shown the most concern for me in my life. What impact did they have, exactly? What did they do to make me feel appreciated, worthy, loved?

I might begin with Miss Patty, who taught me the Bible every Sunday during a particularly trying time in my life. She was the one who walked me through the path to salvation as it is explained in the book of Romans. She pointed out the verse in Ephesians that assured me I had been “sealed in that holy spirit of promise” when I had my first doubts. She checked up on me long after I was in her Sunday school class.

Then there were the “mighty four,” a group of women a generation older than I who befriended me as I entered full adulthood. We worked together at a community college, shared meals and miseries, my first real gang of friends. When they teamed up to surprise me for one of my birthdays, I felt like one of the most important people in the world. They probably won’t even know that until they read this paragraph. These are the women whose love will be in me for the rest of my life.

Some of those who show concern are in my life for but a moment. Every time a gentleman opens a door for me, I feel respected and thankful. When I walk into a place I haven’t been in a while and yet someone remembers me, I feel “important.” Even when more than one person seems genuinely interested in seeing me on a Sunday morning, I think, wow, maybe I’m not such a pain. Like Sally Field, my inner self thinks, “They like me; they really like me.”

And no, I am not always a pathetic dweeb whose self talk is negative. I often have to humble myself or be humbled. But, my point is that because others have focused on concern and not credentials, I have been drug out of many a down moment. And don’t we all have down moments that could use a little concern now and again?

I think that’s the kind of love God uses to measure us by, the treasures in heaven that Jesus admonishes us to strive for. So, the next time I try to berate myself for not doing enough, I think I’ll make sure my measuring stick is marked with concern and not credentials, with kindness and love instead of silver and gold.

In Christ,
Ramona

Christian Living

Four Lessons From My Cat

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Lesson One: If You Want Something, Ask For It

If you have never had a cat, then you might find the concept of being in the house with your pet for an entire day without ever interacting with him a bit jarring. But, in the feline world, such days are business as usual.

However, whenever my cat is ready to need me, he has no problem making his needs known. He might meow loudly and arch his back at you. He also loves to plant his front legs squarely and heavily on the middle of your sleeping chest. If you are bald like my husband, he may even use the method of licking your forehead with his sandpaper tongue.

The bottom line is, the cat lets you know he means business. And the business he is always about, or at least mostly about, is being fed. In addition to his three squares, he also likes fish flakes, treats, and even carrots! Getting food and water for my indoor cat is the only essential need he cannot achieve for himself.

Lesson Two: Be Careful What You Ask For

Mastering the manipulative art of begging for his supper has an unwanted side effect for my isolationist feline. He often has to suffer my unwanted attentions.

Sometimes, despite his desire to be out of my arms, my cat’s body responds seemingly against his own will. A deep, melodious purr emits from his belly, a calming balm to me that seems at odds with the semi-wild look in his eye as he gauges when best to wiggle out of my grip.

Like so many of us, he seems at times like this, almost double-minded. He wants to be near me, but not so near that my person comes in contact with his catness. He has yet to master the actually comfortable position of being loved and free at one and the same time. Instead, he mistakes my affection for a cage he is all too eager to escape, even if he purrs while doing the escaping!

Lesson Three: Be Still

No one sleeps more peacefully than a cat. We humans toss and turn. Even dogs chase rabbits in their dreams. But cats know how to curl in a ball or stretch upside down and breathe in perfect peace for hours on end.

It is not uncommon to leave the house and come back several hours later to find my cat in the same sleepy position in which I left him. Just watching his fur slowly rise and fall can make me feel less stressed.

The rain may pour outside, the electricity may flash on and off in the house, and the television may blare away the hours, but my cat sleeps through all of it in perfect harmony with himself and the world around him, all he knows of reality.

Lesson Four: Go With The Flow

When I brought home a second cat many years ago, my tomcat’s first response was to run into the bedroom and hide under the bed! As I hauled him out by his back legs and carried him through the house to show him the new member of the family had been isolated for the time being, he even had the temerity to hiss at me.

After I told him he was being silly, he didn’t take long to figure out he still had reign over his domain. Within a few hours, he was sniffing at the door where the new cat was staying. In just a few days, he was so determined to meet the newest member of our family that we decided to take our chances, forget the two week isolation rule for new pets, and opened the bedroom door.

My tomcat didn’t take long to adjust to his new reality. He happily shared his food bowl and water dish, took turns at the bathroom faucet, and even slept within inches of his new buddy.

Despite the seeming closeness of my two pets, when I had to put the second cat to sleep, my tomcat also took this in stride. I never noticed that he even looked for his former housemate. If anything, I might go so far as to say that he is happier being the only cat in the house.

No matter if his household changes or he has to spend a few days at the vet’s, this cat manages to go with the flow. Because he knows that he has very limited control over what happens to him, he takes his situation at face value. He adjusts moment to moment. What else, after all, can he do?

I often think that if I were more like my cat, I would be a better servant of my God. God encourages me to ask for anything I desire that would please Him, assuring me that He will answer my request. He tells me that He will take care of my every need for the basics of this life. He makes Himself known to me best when I am still enough to listen for Him. And my relationship with Him is strongest when I face the challenges of this life in full knowledge of His promise to always have my back.

Most importantly, my God loves me enough to let me go, to give me the free will to choose Him. In the end, my devotion to my God is all the stronger because I long to know Him, not because He has made me follow.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a virtual slave to my cat, but I love him all the more because, in his own way, he draws me closer to the Creator who gives us the freedom to choose Him as our Saviour.

May the peace of the cat, and of our awesome God, be with you today and always.

In Christ,
Ramona

Christian Living, Faith

Get Off the Political Bandwagon

Posted on July 5, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

In these past weeks of Supreme Court rulings and inexcusable church burnings, I have been disappointed but not astounded, disenchanted but not disenfranchised. Like many, I have purposely refrained from a knee-jerk reaction and have instead taken these days to reflect and pray.

As one who longs to live a life worthy of the me Christ’s grace has already made possible, I am obligated to approach all the craziness of this world with two overriding principles:

To make God the first and greatest priority in my life. Everything else comes second.
To love everyone else the way I too want to be loved.

If I make God the first priority in my life, that means I spend time in His Word, and that time means that I will be able to test what others say against what the Bible actually proclaims. I will not agree with whatever the media says is OK or all my “friends” think is right without first testing the correctness of a stance against what God’s Word actually has to say about it.

In order to do that well, I have to be regularly and often in the Word. I also have to understand that Word in its totality, not just pick and choose the verses that best serve my own interests. For example, I need to understand that many of the verses that speak out against homosexuality also are against any form of sexual immorality. That includes sex outside of marriage and people who are married to spouses who were not Biblically divorced. In other words, the Bible is against a slew of activities no one has been too riled up about for far too long.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul gives a focus for what the Christian church should concentrate on not doing as well as doing:

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:19-23 NLT)

Notice that, to God, any and all of this comprehensive list of “don’ts” are on equal footing. We humans want to put sin on a sliding scale, but God does not. In other words, if I really take Christ’s admonition to take care of the moat in my own eye before worrying about the speck in anybody else’s, I have much too much to worry about improving in my own behavior to get into the business of anybody else’s.

This concept doesn’t mean I consider any behavior by someone else OK. From a truly Christian perspective, there is no “live and let live.” If I am not acting in alignment with the Word of God, I want my fellow Christians to gently point this out to me. I want them to go so far as to shut me out of the community for a time if that is necessary in order to potentially bring me back into alignment with God’s Word. I want them to pray for me unceasingly.

For those who do not walk with Christ, I can disagree without condemning. I can hold to the Truth without leaving a feeling of hatred in the hearer. But I can only do these things if I am actively seeking to see the non-believers around me through the eyes of my loving God. Just as Jesus held those around Him to God’s truth through compassion and a firmness for that truth, I too can seek to do the same.

If Christ is our Savior, then we strive to be loving, patient, joyful, kind, good, faithful. We also strive to stay away from the behaviors that displease God, from lying and being jealous to hating and being sexually immoral. These times we live in are challenging, which means that now, more than ever, we Christians must live our faith. And if we are really doing that, we will be much too busy to get caught up in the political machinations of this world that detract us from what is truly important–the potential relationship with the Savior of the world each one of us has the right to claim.

Christian Living, Christianity

Christianity Is A Verb

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:8)

When I was around 8, my 15-year-old uncle went around singing the lyrics to a song he really liked. I can still remember walking on the sidewalks of the open-air elementary school near my grandparents’ house that summer, feeling the dry, West Texas wind tickle across the back of my neck as my uncle belted out:

Only the good die young, bum, bum, bum. Yeah, only the good die yo-o-o-ung.

Being 8 and a hypochondriac, I took the lyrics at their literal level, and I wondered why my uncle would like a song that seemed to say that if I were good, I would certainly ensure my premature demise. I found the familiar swings on the playground and concentrated on the clear, blue sky, trying hard to forget about the tune floating somewhere in the air above us.

Only years later, hearing that song again, did it dawn on me that what the lyrics really meant was that being good was somehow like a living death. This concept of goodness is typical of a world view governed by the ruler of the dark. But God is the ruler of the Light, and everything about a life following the Light is far from the world’s concept of a living death.

Everything about the Christian life involves action. James reminds us that “. . . faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (2:17). If you truly believe in Christ as your Savior, then your walk by faith is not just a statement of feeling but a way of being. You do things for others because of what Christ did for you.

Sometimes, your greatest action as a Christian is to keep yourself from acting. In Charles Martin’s book, Wrapped in Rain, one of the main characters symbolizes this kind of Christianity. Rather than taking the revenge that is human nature to desire, Miss Ella Rain instead chooses to hold onto the Light that is the Holy Spirit in us. She warns one of her charges:

“”Tucker, I want to tell you a secret.” Miss Ella curled my hand into a fist and showed it to me.”

“”Life is a battle, but you can’t fight it with your fists. You got to fight it with your heart.””

A heart actively in the heart of Christ truly practices forgiving what seems unforgivable, giving when your first instinct is to take, and using the gifts of the Spirit to show others the truth about our loving God.

When we make Christianity a verb in our lives, surely Christ will ensure that our efforts bear fruit for His Kingdom. A life lived in the Light of Christ is so active, how could anyone really think that the “good die young?”

I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

Christian Living, Christianity, Love

Even as He Loved Me

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Do you ever read a verse you may have seen a hundred times before and suddenly see it in a different, clearer light?

Besides underscoring the importance of continual Bible study, these moments always take me one step closer to understanding the Spirit in me. As I become more knowledgeable about my relationship with that Spirit, I find myself more comfortable in my own skin. The “peace that surpasses understanding” is always there, these ah-ha moments remind me, we just have to push away the cares of this world that keep us from seeing and feeling our connectedness to the One and Only.

I grew up in the ’70s in the Bible belt. My first Bibles were hard core King James Versions. When I read the Bible through for the first time, it was with a King James version book. It took me until well into my twenties to “trust” any other version of the Lord’s Word. Besides, the poet in me loved the lyricism, the alliteration, the rhythm and the language of the King James Word, even when the phrasing that I loved sometimes made the meaning in a modern world more difficult to comprehend.

For example, even though, “When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17) has a rhythm and parallelism that any writer can truly appreciate, when I read the New Living Translation version of these words, I see an even fuller picture:

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor–sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

When Jesus came to sacrifice Himself for us, ALL of the people around Him needed it. Always before, when I would read the KJV of this verse, I would think to myself that the verses meant Jesus came to call those who had not already been following the Word of God, those who weren’t going to believe what Jesus was saying at that time. But the NLT version of these words makes it clear that this verse speaks to all of us. Jesus came to heal those of us who are willing to admit that we are sinners and thus are in need of Him.

Knowing I am a sinner as opposed to thinking I am righteous is also a daily reminder of my need to be on my knees in humility before the God who made me. In that position, I cannot judge others or think I am better than a task I have been called upon to do. On my knees, I know my sin and have a chance to repent of it, be healed daily if necessary by the cleansing power of Jesus, and keep moving forward in my relationship with the Holy Spirit that became a part of me the moment I accepted Christ as my Savior.

Because of the power of the salvation of Christ, I am not only delivered from a damned eternity, I am delivered from the vise grip of a life filled with sin. This is the freedom that Paul writes so frequently about. This is the element of the salvation story that we tend to spend the least time on, but that we need the most on a day-to-day basis. We need Jesus every day to help us not step into the darkness but rather to shine His light.

But, I still haven’t shared my verse in a new light for this week, and it is a doozy! Turn to John 13:34 and read a verse I am sure you may already know by heart. Jesus is speaking to His disciples as His coming crucifixion approaches. One of the things He tells them is this:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (NASB).

In the past, I have read this verse and assumed it to be another way to say the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But the footnotes in my Ryrie Study Bible helped me to see that this commandment takes the Golden Rule to a completely different level.

Think about the implications of the phrase, “even as I have loved you.” How did Jesus love His disciples and all of us, for that matter? He, being God, was willing to be abused, mocked, and even slain for sins He didn’t commit. He loved us so much, He died for us!

How many times do we turn the other cheek, not in the way that Christ turned His cheek, but to keep ourselves from seeing another person in need? I live in a big city where people make a living by holding a cardboard sign asking for money at every other corner. I have gotten good at turning another cheek, justifying my action by deciding that a con artist doesn’t deserve a quarter.

Jesus, on the other hand, took the servants’ role and washed the feet of Judas Iscariot, the disciple Jesus knew was going to betray Him, even as the Lord knelt at Judas’ feet at the Last Supper.

From us humans, blanket statements are dangerous, so don’t think I am trying to interpret this one verse to mean that women who are in abusive relationships are just supposed to keep getting hit or anything like that. We always have to take the Bible in its totality, not just in the one or two verses that seem to serve our purpose. It is the veracity and consistency of the Word that is part of the reason that we KNOW that we worship the one, true God.

Besides reminding me just how much God loves me, my ah-ha moment in the Word this week also has me thinking about ways I can up my game in the loving others department. I am a far cry from achieving Christ’s level of love, but He promised that the great Helper, the Holy Spirit, is in me to guide me on this narrow path that leads to the Light. I may stumble; I may fall; but Christ will always pick me up.

Through true repentance, I can continue to grow in God. Because of how He loved me, I may fall, but I will rise again.

Christian Living, Faith

These “Short” Verses Say Everything

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

The shortest verse in the English translation of the Bible is found in John 11:35, which reads, “Jesus wept.”

The weeping of this verse is not bawling, but the gentle rolling of uncontrolled tears as Jesus encounters the pain Mary and Martha feel over the loss of their brother Lazarus. Even though Jesus knows He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He still feels and empathizes with the pain of death that is part of the fallen world He has come to save.

The implications of the concept of a God who weeps should not be underestimated. Naysayers and non-believers like to say that a God who truly loved us would not let anything bad happen to us. But we who believe understand that because we are born into sin, bad things are going to happen. “Healthy people don’t need a doctor,” Jesus tells His followers. “Sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Mark 2:17 NLT–emphasis added). The difference between the bad that happens to those in Christ as opposed to those who do not believe is that we know that God has our back in every situation we face.

Jesus wept. God cares for us. He loves us enough to die for us, and His sacrifice was not something He did easily. In my New Living Translation Bible, Jesus explains it this way:

“I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished” (Luke 12:49-50).

Thankfully for us, Christ lay down His life so that we have the promise of eternal life. That truth brings us to the shortest verse in the original Greek of the Bible, which is 1 Thessalonians 5:16–Rejoice always. No matter how many bad things happen to us, we still have reason to rejoice, to be thankful that we have God to lean on.

God’s love is unconditional. Even though we are sinners, He died for us. We can repent of our sins against Him, and He will forgive us. We have every reason to rejoice, even through our tears.

Because we have a God who wept, we rejoice! The two shortest verses in the Bible encompass the entire message of the truth of Christ.

No wonder gratitude journals are so popular. When we face each day with an attitude of rejoicing, we find that smiles come more easily, being forgiving of others becomes second nature, and loving God first and others as we ourselves wish to be loved defines our days.

Christian Living

One “Greedy” Reason to Bear Fruit

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

We inherit salvation by grace, but how we bear fruit is another reward altogether.

In a final day so secret that no being save ONE knows its exact date, a great scroll will unfurl, and all souls gathered will join in a celebration like no other, for their journey as mutual heirs to the most mighty kingdom of all will be complete. On that day, what every soul yearns for, to be re-united with its eternal Creator, will wonderfully come to pass. From those who committed a lifetime of fruitful living, like Paul, to the criminal who died on the cross beside Christ believing only moments before he died, every person who confessed the deity of the Son of God and accepted the gift of Grace will realize their kinship as heirs to the kingdom of heaven on that day.

This Grace provides us with an inheritance like no other. Paul writes to the Ephesians:

So that in ages to come He (God) might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (2:7-10).

In the final lesson of “Amazing Place,” pastor Rick Atchley’s series on what heaven will be like, he makes a distinction between our inheritance as heirs to the kingdom of God, which is equal to all Christians, and the kind of judgment (actually a rewards system) that will be taking place in heaven. Of course, we believers who have accepted Christ want to fulfill the promise of good works God put us on this earth to complete for Him, but Atchley’s comparison of inheritance versus judgment in heaven also gives us a very “human” incentive to do our best while we are here on earth.

First, let’s make it clear that those who have asked for the redemption bought for us with the very blood of Christ, are no longer under the yoke of judgment that cloaks a fallen world:

“He who believes in Him is not judged,” John writes; “he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3: 18). Jesus tells us, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). Paul assures us, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

True, the book of Revelations is full of examples of the kind of ultimate defeat that will happen when God once and for all finishes the destruction of evil that was begun when Jesus died and rose again. However, the judgment that takes place for Christians at this time will be more like a reward system tallying how well we did at bearing the fruit of the Spirit. My Ryrie Study Bible explains in the footnote to the famous verse of John 3:16 that the “eternal life” promised is “a new quality of life, not an everlasting ‘this-life.'”

Part of that new quality of life is casting off the sinful nature and becoming a “new creation,” as Paul puts it. Christ admonishes us to “store up treasures in heaven” where nothing can rust or corrode what we have collected. We all inherit equal amounts of Grace, but we do not all tally equal amounts of heavenly treasure.

As one of my life group members pointed out, this way of looking at inheritance versus judgment/reward puts a different spin on some of the more perplexing parables in the Bible. When you read about the workers of the vineyard who come to work only in the last hour and yet get paid the same amount as the workers who have put in a full day, doesn’t the human nature in you think, how exactly is that fair? Well, if you consider the wages of the story the inheritance of salvation, the parable makes a different kind of sense. Surely, when it comes time to hand out the rewards for the work of that day, those who bore the most fruit will receive more of a reward than those who came in the final hour. In the same way, some who worked unfruitfully for the entire day may actually receive fewer rewards than some who made the most of the less time in the vineyard they had to sow seeds.

So, if we really will see a reward system in heaven according to how well we have used God’s gifts to store up treasures in heaven and not on earth, doesn’t it give us something to look forward to about the Day of Judgment? Instead of picturing myself cringing at every stupid and willful thing I have done in this life being shown to me on some huge type of movie-screen while everyone watches, I can look forward to seeing, hopefully, that I have managed to do some good things for God!

As a perfectionist who is pathetically seeking “A’s” in a reality that has been outside the classroom for almost two decades, the concept of getting a “well done” from the only Judge who really matters frankly gives me goose bumps. I used to imagine Christ’s second coming as a moment of awe and love so wonderful, followed by a period of having to be shown all my mistakes during life so I can “start clean” in heaven. There probably isn’t any theological reason for me to have been imagining the second coming that way. It’s just the impression I had of the way things might go, even with the grace of God that is my salvation through Christ.

Now, instead of dreading Judgment Day, I actually have something to look forward to. I also have even more reasons to strive to use my God-given talents to love, love, love while I am on this planet.

As heirs in Christ, we may get in by the skin of our belief, but let’s not spend eternity wishing we had done just a little bit more for Him while we were still here on earth. Let’s build up as much treasure in heaven as we possibly can by doing as God commanded: loving Him first and foremost and loving all others as we ourselves wish to be loved (Matthew 22: 36-40).

The Last Will and Testament of our LORD Jesus Christ is the most generous will of all time. And, if you want to become one of His heirs, all you have to do is ask Him.

Category: Christian Living

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