Christianity – Page 6 – goodchristianfiction

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.

Christian Living, Christianity, Faith

Peace that surpasses cat naps

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

So, I’ve been working on emptying myself, paying attention to my thoughts, and realizing the difference between seeing people for what they need versus what they deserve.

These steps would be a hard struggle, even without a world of temptation around me. In fact, without the Spirit that dwells within me, I would find it impossible to see the narrow lane that is the way of God, much less stay anywhere near within its bounds.

Even though the love of Christ makes who I am more important than what I do, the process of being love and goodness is not without obstacles. The television beckons on a daily basis, slipping past me words and actions that would not have passed the censors when I was a child and yet are OK for even day-time airwaves. I still turn the television on. With the boon of electronic publishing, I have thousands of books at my fingertips. Do historical romances count as “clean” fiction? I doubt it. But, you’ll find quite a few of them on my Nook account.

“Do not be deceived,” Paul tells the Corinthians. “‘Bad company corrupts good morals'” (1 Cor 15:33).

The devil doesn’t show up looking like some horrible creature you want to shrink from, but as the appealing figure you only know as a deceiver if you really pay attention.

Which brings me back to the Spirit that dwells within us, the mechanism by which Christ makes “His burden light” (Matt. 11:30). Through the help of concentrating on the Spirit, we will find ourselves more sure-footed on the narrow path:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
Galatians 5:16-18

The last part of Paul’s admonition to the Galatians may seem contradictory. What did he mean by not being under the Law? Remember, for one, that in the time that Jesus walked the earth, the Law had become a thing that lost sight of its main goal in overwhelming minutiae. Christ told the Pharisees it was not what was on the outside that made them unclean, but what was in their hearts, remember? In living by the Spirit, what Paul is saying is that we are no longer caught under the minutiae of the Law that gets us focused on the wrong things. Instead, with the Spirit, we are guided by the love and goodness that Christ exhibited while He was on this earth. And this kind of living, rather than losing sight of the Law, inevitably ups the ante.

This piece has turned into one of those “sinners in the hands of an angry God” kind of approaches, when it promised something very different, so let me deliver on the promise of the title. Spending time in the Spirit takes practice, just like any other skill. You build up to it. You have to commit to it. But, the more you do it, the more you realize that it is so much more rewarding than the entertainments or activities that you used to do to fill the voids in your life that simply don’t cut it any more. (And you do still seek television time and good books to read. You just find yourself liking a different variety of entertainment on television more than what once interested you.)

Whenever somebody goes through a great tragedy, we often wish them the “peace that surpasses all understanding,” the peace that comes from God alone because He alone knows the truth about what is (Philipians 4:7) . But I think we get flashes of understanding when we practice our Holy Spirit muscles.

For those of you that own a cat or dog, there is nothing more peaceful than one of these creatures curled up in perfect slumber. How many times during a week do I find myself scurrying around with chores and work, glancing up to see my cats in blissful slumber and envy them their perfect peace?

And yet, if I would just take a page out of their books, stop for a few minutes, or an hour, and go to my Father with a request for that same kind of peace, won’t He grant it? Didn’t Christ give us that very example throughout His time on earth? Look at all the examples of moments when He took Himself aside to be alone in prayer.

So, here’s to knowing the peace that surpasses my cats’ naps, to daily exercises in the Spirit, to a world of wonder when we see through the eyes of God’s love.

Christianity, Faith

To Begin Again

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Nothing can hinder The Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. 1 Samuel 14:6b

When it comes to facing my many real and mostly imagined challenges, how often do I forget that I am not facing anything alone! The moment I accepted Christ as my Savior, I was “sealed in that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13-14), given the armor of God with which to face the world.

If you read much of my writing, you know that in facing the world, I mostly struggle with facing myself, with all the expectations and worries and thoughts swirling in my brain like so many images flitting across a television screen. With my brain so full of shoulds and didn’ts, is it any wonder that I fail to hear the Spirit within me more often than not?

You have probably already guessed that my goal of listening more carefully to my thoughts this past week was an epic fail! That’s OK. Preparing to write today, I looked back at my post from last week. I was supposed to be chanting, “I will not be anxious. I will grow my faith!,” whenever the blues or fear started to get me down.

That lasted about a day. Then, like the seed thrown in the shallow ground, I got distracted by the stresses of work and household upkeep, and taking cats to the vet.

But, thankfully, God is patient. He also isn’t going anywhere. So, I can pick up the pieces of my tattered resolve and begin again this week. If God can work with a mustard seed, He can work with me!

One good thing I did this week was take Joyce Meyer’s advice and really look at Psalm 143. If you are a person who struggles with sadness or anxiety, I suggest you read this Psalm as well. You will find in it some practical strategies for dealing with unhappy days and even great despair. Perhaps, I will write more on this comforting Psalm next week.

What struggles have you faced this week? Did you face them in full knowledge of what God can do? If so, good for you! If not, do like me and remind yourself that nothing can keep us from God–except our own lack of faith (and we can even pray for more of that!).

Christianity, Poetry

National Poetry Writing Month #24

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Elemental Series: Water

Is it the crystal -clear promise
of thirst-quenching delight,
the cool cascade of that so pure
its only blemish is bubbles?

Or perhaps it is the sound
it makes, rumbling over rocks,
hurtling through no will of its own
to the end of gravity’s pull,
as loud as a jet’s engine,
as quiet as a single drip.

Mayhap, the need for it,
its vitality so set that even trees
grow miles of roots to reach
a life-giving drop. The next Great War,
they say, will be fought
over the right to control
what falls freely from the sky.

We humans mock its power,
mistake the easy way we make it splash
for superior strength we do not have, for it
has sliced mammoth caverns,
flashed across dry beds with a force
to wash away everything,
faced toxins and garbage and mud,
still cycling through vapor, rain,
stream, river, ocean.

No, it is the image of our God,
the Son of Man, putting on humanness,
standing in a still pool, blameless,
eyes open to the sky as heaven parted
to offer its benediction. And so, He rose
from the muddy waters,
cleansed.

Ramona Levacy
April 24, 2013

Christian Living, Christianity

Let’s Not Lie To Each Other

Posted on April 21, 2013April 21, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Today is one of those days. It comes at the end of a week full of my usual challenges, which have been made to seem even more pathetic in my eyes when I compare them to the actual, horrific tragedies that others have faced this week instead. My existence could be much worse, but knowing that doesn’t make it better. Praying for those who are suffering instead of thinking about myself should improve my disposition, but my prayers seem like so little, and my own lack of control just adds fuel to my depression/anxiety cycle.

So, today I am supremely human. I am battered down by my own failings. This week, I gave the “cut direct” to a work associate who had irritated me at a past meeting, wrote off my employees in my own mind when they (in my opinion) failed once again at what seemed to me the simplest of tasks, watched gossipy television and engaged in my share of saying a few things about others that I would not say to the person herself, and put reading a romance novel before going to sleep in front of taking more awake time for a longer night-time prayer.

It is much easier to write about being a good Christian than it is to actually be one. It is much more appealing to feel oneself compelled by the Spirit to expound on the requirements of the narrow-path walk than to reflect on just how wide your path really is on a regular basis.

Do not misunderstand me. If you have found anything of value in anything I have written, anything that has brought you closer to the truth of God and His love, then realize that I give total credit for that revelation to Him. I know that nothing good comes from me except through God.

But on my human days, when I am supremely reminded of my need for the forgiveness of Christ, even knowing I am forgiven does not keep me from feeling like something that has crawled out from under a rock.

This feeling does not come from God. It is the exact opposite of how He wants us to feel. What He would prefer would be a reaction in which I lean that much harder on Him. Only when I completely surrender myself to the Spirit will I find that walking the narrow path is more practical than I have so far experienced.

At least I am not alone in this struggle to “be good.” In his letter to the Romans, Paul discusses the battle between the good in him, which comes from the Spirit, and the evil in him, which comes from his sinful nature. “I do not understand what I do,” he writes. “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (7:15). In other words, Paul says he doesn’t understand how he keeps doing the things he feels ashamed about doing instead of the things that he knows he should be doing that would make him feel at peace with God.

But, there is hope for all of us. Paul concludes, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). We will always be fighting our sinful nature, the nature that we die to each morning we arise anew in Christ, but by leaning on God, we have a chance to excel at God’s law of love instead of the devil’s sinful nature.

Christ tells us in Matthew, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (5:19). This truth applies to the mind as well. Where our mind is, what it dwells on throughout the day, that is where our actions will go. If we are dwelling in a place close to God, then our actions should reflect the love of Christ. If we are dwelling on television, or gossip, or work worries, or judging, then our actions will reflect the sinful nature that Paul laments in Romans.

We can’t go through life not thinking about the basic things that we are doing, the tasks we need to finish at work, the goals we have for ourselves or our children. But if we discipline ourselves to look through God’s eyes instead of just our own, then hopefully we will reflect a more Christian walk.

How will I exactly walk my talk this week? What do I need to change to avoid having another Sunday where I’m feeling the failure blues? I am going to begin by trying to watch my inner voice more closely this week. If I start thinking negative thoughts, I am going to stop myself and think about God instead, or say a prayer for the people in Boston or West, or open my Bible to one of a thousand verses I have marked that I should have memorized. If I want to avoid somebody, I am going to make myself smile at them, give them a hug (if that is appropriate) and offer a compliment that I will really mean. I will remember that Jesus had to look at the likes of me and love me. Being passingly nice to someone who otherwise annoys me is honestly the very least I can do.

If you have made it this far in this post, then maybe God is talking to you like He talked to me this week. I will close with a couple of verses from my Bible reading this week that really struck me with the poetic way that they expressed the power of God and what He desires most. (It is, after all, National Poetry Writing Month!)

From the book of Jeremiah:

But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. (10: 12-13)

and

This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight. (9:23-24)

May we delight the Holy One this week by inviting Him into our minds on a moment-by-moment basis, for “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 8:39).

Christianity, Faith

HE’s Alive!

Posted on March 31, 2013March 31, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

This is our day to celebrate the greatest moment in Christian history: the moment when Christ rose again! Because He rose again, because of the faith of His disciples in the messages He preached to spread the truth of that resurrection, we are all given the gift of grace that, once accepted, ensures our own salvation.

I have concentrated my writing efforts in the realm of prose more often of late, but at the core of me is the heart of a poet and songwriter. One of the most stirring songs about the experience of the disciples in the days after the very worst day of their lives (the day when the One they thought would lead them to victory in a literally-earthly kingdom was instead humiliated and slaughtered right before their very eyes), tells the narrative of what it was like to discover that, rather than being defeated, Christ had indeed triumphed. The song is “He’s Alive,” by Don Francisco.

It begins right in the thick of things:

The gates and doors were barred
And all the windows fastened down
I spent the night in sleeplessness
And rose at every sound
Half in hopeless sorrow
And half in fear the day
Would find the soldiers breakin’ through
To drag us all away

Mary arrives to inform the disciples she has found an empty grave! Everyone runs to the cemetery to see for themselves. Back from the indeed empty tomb, Peter thinks about all of the things he has done to actually disappoint Jesus. But, just when Peter is at his lowest point, Christ arrives to literally raise Peter from his fetal position and show the apostle the absolute love that Christ feels for all of us, a love so grand that He was willing to die, suffer the ignominies of hell and fight His way back so that, through His sacrifice, we all might be saved.

If you want to read the full, stirring lyrics for yourself, please use the link below. (I don’t want to give them to you here and infringe on Mr. Francisco’s copyrights.)

“He’s Alive” lyrics

If you want to hear a truly powerful performance of the song, I highly recommend Dolly Parton’s recording. It appeared in her “White Limousine” album. I never fail to listen to it without getting goosebumps by the end of the piece.

In 1980, Francisco received the Dove Award for “He’s Alive.” The website, Songfacts.com, explains:

Francisco’s original intention when writing the song was to tell it from the perspective of the Apostle Thomas. He planned to set it in the room where the disciples were when Jesus appeared to them and spoke to Thomas. However he couldn’t make it work, so he tried instead to do it from Peter’s perspective. By putting a lot of his deepest feelings into Peter’s experience he crafted a consummate telling of the Resurrection story, which ended up as his best known tune.
(from Songfacts.com)

I do not come from a very emotive family. But we do know how to whoop it up for a great sports play, a patriotic movie ending, or a well-played fiddle tune. Today is the day to whoop it up for the greatest “play” of all. As Francisco puts it:

He’s alive yes He’s alive
Hallelujah He’s alive
He’s alive and I’m forgiven
Heaven’s gates are open wide
He’s alive He’s alive He’s alive
I believe it He’s alive
Sweet Jesus

Embrace the joy of His living today with no restraints. And if you truly believe it, live every day by putting proof to today’s celebrations. Love like you believe it. Remember that the love that “shone out from Him like sunlight in the skies” toward Peter in the song shines for you too. Do your best through the grace of God to shine that love on everyone you meet.

Yee-hah, He’ ALIVE!

Christianity, Faith

Why Easter Trumps Christmas

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Christmas and Easter each have different reasons to bring about celebration. Why both of them are vitally important to us, I would argue that Easter’s reason edges out Christmas. And, yes, I know we actually couldn’t have one without the other. Still, here are the reasons that I think Easter gives us just a smidgen more to celebrate.

On Christmas, we celebrate the fact that God loved us so much, He came to earth to live like one of us in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. Some people have trouble with the concept of God in the form of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I read recently a really interesting metaphor to help us understand this concept (sorry, I can’t remember where I read it to give full credit). Think about the sun and all the power and life it brings to our planet. The sun itself is visible in the sky. The rays that we can’t see give life to plants. We also feel the heat the sun provides on our skin. The Son and the Holy Spirit are functioning like the heat and UV rays of the sun as far as the relationship between all three are concerned. Like the sun and its physical properties, almighty God exists in the three forms we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As Christ walked on this earth, He referred to Himself as the Son of God. He also told us that He would send the Holy Spirit to be with us when He no longer was physically walking the planet. God, despite what the deists or materialists might say, is in everything and about everything that we experience in this world, if we will just open our minds and hearts to let Him in.

So why is Easter about so much more than bunny rabbits and chocolate eggs? Easter celebrates the triumph of Jesus, God-made-man, as the culmination of His walk on the earth sees fruition through His resurrection from the grave. If Christ had not allowed Himself to be taken prisoner by the Roman authorities,to be beaten and mocked by soldiers He could have called a legion of angels to defend Himself from, to be nailed to a cross to die an ignominious death, to have suffered the humiliation, pain, and torture of that death as a sacrifice for all of us, when He Himself was perfect and required no sacrifice on His own behalf, then there would be no hope for salvation for the rest of humanity.

In order for the promise of Easter to be true, Christ has to be the divine living as a man, dying as a perfect man for the sins of all, rising as a triumphant God who has set all sinners who are willing to believe free, and making Himself continually accessible for those believers through the strength of His Holy Spirit made available through the gift of grace.

Easter celebrates the faith that lets us believe without seeing. It celebrates the truth that the omnipotent God, whom no one can fully understand, makes Himself available to us in multiple, wondrous ways that open to us as easily as the plastic, pastel eggs that will hold prizes and candy on Sunday morning, as long as we open our arms in faith and believe.

Yes, Christmas celebrates the miraculous birth of God-made-man. But Easter celebrates the awesome gift of grace that became available when that same man rose from the grave to offer salvation to all who believe.

Have you accepted this gift of grace? Does your life reflect an Easter-every-day attitude? You don’t have to wait until this Sunday to accept the gift of grace and live the kind of love that spreads that gift to the rest of your world.

Now, that’s something to celebrate.

Christian Living, Christianity

How One Vowel Can Change Your Life

Posted on March 17, 2013March 17, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Within the last couple of weeks, I had the pleasure/challenge of spending some time at one of the happiest places on earth, otherwise known as Disneyland. Along with all the wonderful sights of the magic land, I also got to witness up close and personal the bare truth of the mass of humanity: crying children, frustrated parents, bickering spouses, selfish line jumpers, immodest dressers. Fortunately, I also got to witness the happy side of being human, the smiles, laughter, fun and acts of kindness a happy atmosphere generates that are all part of the reason so many people are willing to open their wallets, literally, and partake in the wonderful world of Disney.

Once I got home and had time to decompress and reflect on my time in the “land,” I was struck by the awesomeness of the love that God has for us, all of us, even in our frustrated or downright mean moments, a love so strong and all-encompassing that He sent Jesus, His Son, God-made-man, to sacrifice Himself so that we might be saved. How short did I fall standing in the long line waiting to ride Space Mountain from loving the people around me as Jesus loved them, even the bored kids swinging on the aisle chains despite being told by park authorities and their parents not to? As I was soaking in the bright colors of the varied architecture and the sightings of costumed characters from various cartoon movies, did I once take time to think about the opportunities before me to love people I would likely never see again?

The answer is, of course I didn’t. I was too busy trying to get the most out of my $300 tickets, too concentrated on not giving into the exhaustion of going and going for 15 hours straight each day in order to get the most out of this opportunity to experience something I don’t normally get to experience.

Today at church, I learned a new way of looking at opportunities like the ones I missed at Disneyland. The elder speaking to us before the offering plate was passed around encouraged us to begin to think about the power of changing just one vowel in our self-talk, making the word “got” to “get.” In other words, I have “got” to be nice to strangers, even when they are rude, becomes I “get” to be nice to strangers because I understand how much God loves even me, a sinner. When I have been forgiven, how can I not also be forgiving? Why wouldn’t I want to grab hold of the opportunities afforded to every Christian to spread the grace that is the only gift we don’t do anything to deserve?

This shift from “got” to GET is profound. GET is something we want to do. GET is special. GET holds promise. GET is going to Disneyland!

In the last few weeks, I have been concentrating more and more on the spiritual practice and practices that bring us closer to God. We are only saved by the grace of God, not because of anything we do, but that in no way means that what Christians do or do not isn’t important. In fact, we can argue from the Bible that professing Christians are expected to bear fruit, to strive to be in the Spirit and not of the flesh. For those Christians who are not striving to do these things, GET is not likely to be in their vocabulary. But it can be with just the shifting of a single vowel.

Paul implores the Galatians, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (6:7-10).

In this season leading to the greatest holiday of all, Easter, the celebration that He lives, that Christ has risen, we GET to reap the benefits of His love. We GET to share that gift of grace with those who may never have heard about it before. We GET to sow the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, faithfulness, goodness, peace, joy, kindness, patience, meekness, self-control. We GET to be Christ to the world.

Change got to GET this week. The life you change may not just be your own.

Christian Living, Christianity

Are You Really In It?

Posted on March 12, 2013March 12, 2013 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Last week, I discussed how we are not meant to “know” God through any capability on our part, that is through any ability in relation to what we humans refer to as wisdom. Human wisdom is generally limited to what we can see, hear, touch, or “prove” in one of our scientific experiments.

Paul discusses this truth in his first letter to the Corinthians, a church founded in a city with one of the worst reputations of its era. In his first letter to these challenged believers, Paul also has to address the level of growth these Christians were experiencing, or lack thereof.

The admonitions Paul gives the Corinthians are quite understandable. What an easy trap lay before these believers to fall into: if you lived in the most carnal city of your time, wouldn’t it be hard to release yourself from the carnal nature of everyday life that surrounded you, even once you had accepted Jesus into your heart? Wouldn’t it also be just as tempting to think you were doing just fine because when you looked around you, it wouldn’t take much to do better than just about anybody else you chose to compare yourself to?

Paul’s words to the Corinthians apply to any Christian at any point and time in their Christian walk, for we are all meant to grow in Christ, not just rest on the laurels of belief. Growth takes practice, work, prayer, study, fellowship and faith–all of which can be encroached upon by the demands and temptations of the world in which we live. That is one reason why we are so often encouraged to be in the world but not of the world.

Here, then, is how Paul lays out his arguments against giving in to the flesh for his Corinthian audience. First, he gives the foundation of “proof” for the difference between worldly wisdom and the Spiritual knowing that is our gift when we accept Jesus as our Lord.

“For to us God revealed them [the things eye has not seen nor ear heard of verse 2:9] through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God,” Paul writes (2:10). He goes on to explain that, just as only the spirit of a person can truly know the person, so too the Spirit of God is all-knowing of God. Paul concludes, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God (2:12).

To the non-believer, the person who has not received this Spirit, what Christians like Paul talk about seems like “foolishness” (2:14). However, for those who believe, the Spirit’s wisdom is the basis for potentially wonderful growth, helping the believer live more of the Spirit than of the world.

Alas, the Corinthians, in a world filled with corruption and temptation (sound familiar?), were really struggling not to be of that world. Their spiritual growth was so stunted, in fact, that Paul was writing to them to encourage them to get back on the road to growing spiritually. He explains how he had begun them on “spiritual milk,” knowing that they were not ready for the “solid food” gospel (3:2). And despite the time they had had in the Spirit, the Corinthians were still not ready for solid food: “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (3:3).

Because the Corinthians lived in a reality much like our own, the challenges they faced and the ways that Paul addresses those challenges give modern-day Christians many valuable lessons to learn from studying the two letters Paul wrote to this troubled church. Perhaps this first lesson is one of the most important of all. If we fail to mature to solid food, how can we hope to achieve good fruit for the work of Christ, work to which we were called the moment we accepted the gift of grace?

We only know God through the Spirit that enters us when we step out in faith. But once we take that step of faith, we still have an obligation to ourselves and to God to work to be good shepherds of the present of grace Christ so freely gave to us. Being in the world but not of it is a daily struggle, one we may never master. It is also a skill we will only master with the help of the One who sacrificed all and who deserves the submission of our complete will. When we are in the world but not of the world, surely fruitful things will happen for the heavenly kingdom.