Tag: faith

Posted in Christianity, Faith

Is Your God Big Enough?

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

God is Big Enough

Ayiesha Woods’ song, Big Enough, asks us why we ever doubt the help that an uncreated God who created everything out of nothing can offer us:

You turned water into wine – how extraordinary
Gave sight to the blind – and still I carry
My own load when you told me
To take your yoke ’cause yours is easy

And I don’t wanna box you in
You’ve been doing big things since the world began
Sometimes I just don’t wanna believe
That you’re big enough – but you’re big enough yeah!

(http://www.lyricsmania.com/big_enough_lyrics_ayiesha_woods.html)

Jesus proclaims the definitive surety of our safety in the hands of an almighty God:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Matthew 6:26

Still, we humans find it difficult not to worry when we are waiting for test results in a doctor’s office or watching serious weather bear down on us.  We even often get so caught up in worrying about our personal issues that we often forget to look outward, failing to help others because we are so busy trying to take care of our own problems that we suffer from a tunnel vision that keeps us from even seeing anybody else.

Besides keeping us from truly loving others because we are too busy worrying about ourselves, failing to trust that God is “big enough” also keeps us further away from Him.

In his series, “Amazing Place,” preacher Rick Atchley points out that besides worry, another thing that keeps us from fully trusting God is having too small a vision of what His promise of eternity really means.  If your idea of heaven is small, then what you manage to learn in this life in your preparation for the next one inevitably suffers.

But instead, if you embrace the infinite power and possibilities that our Creator God IS, then how you live moves towards the goal of His perfectness:

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen  (Jude 1:24-25)

So, what does having a big enough God look like?  How about putting the needs of other people before your own, even people you do not know?  Or what about having the courage or gumption to help out at a local food bank, even though doing that is out of your comfort zone?  Maybe it looks like waking up in the morning feeling anxious and immediately saying a prayer that gives that anxiousness to God, that asks for the insight during the day to see the lessons He wants you to learn, that thanks Him for times in the past when He has proven that He will see you through tough situations.

God doesn’t lie.  People make mistakes.  People get zealous and condemn before learning all the facts.  People fail to keep their promises.  But God doesn’t lie.

And God has promised through His Son to save us from ourselves, to forgive us for every sin we profess as long as we are willing to accept Christ as our Savior.  But that forgiveness is the promise of more than just escaping eternal damnation.  It is the reality of an eternal existence that is so awesome, that even the apostle whom Christ most loved found it difficult to describe the vision he was given of it:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  (Revelation 21:1-4)

God is big enough.

Posted in Christian Living, Faith

3 Lessons from David

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

David's_Grief_Over_Absolom_(Bible_Card)

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’  (Acts 13:22)

When you read about one of Israel’s greatest heroes, David, you can see his passion for God, but you also see his humanity.  Despite David’s love for God, he still does things that go against God.  He takes another man’s wife.  He takes a census of his people, even though that denied God’s claim that Israel would become a nation so large, it could not be counted.   He lives a life of such violence to secure the Israelite nation that God leaves the building of His temple to David’s son, Solomon, whom God promises will be able to live in a peaceful kingdom.

There are many lessons to learn from the story of David’s life.  Here are three pointers that have stuck out for me in the previous weeks:

Lesson 1: Repent with everything you’ve got

When David returns the Ark to its home in Jerusalem, he rejoices in God’s glory with his whole self, dancing with such exuberance in front of all his people that one of his wives reprimands him for it because she finds his actions undignified.  But God, who sees the heart, knows the truth of David’s love for God and actually punishes the woman for her attitude towards David.

When David messes up, he repents with the same kind of passion with which he rejoices.  He wears burlap, he fasts, he begs for God to forgive him, he doesn’t try to blame anyone else or his circumstances for what he ultimately did.  Most importantly, his repentance means something because he really intends not to mess up in the same way again.  He wants to do what is right in God’s eyes.

David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” (2 Samuel 24:10)

Lesson 2: Acknowledge God’s Sovereignty

David had plenty of opportunities to let his worldly successes go to his head.  Even though he had to fight many, many battles during his lifetime, he won.  As a young shepherd, he even took on a giant an entire army didn’t want to fight and killed Goliath!  Women fell at his feet, men bowed to his will, and almost no one had a bad word to say about him.  Think about how we Americans idolize the famous in our country and how few of them even believe in God, and you will begin to realize the real challenges David faced to not let his successes make him think he was close to being a god himself.

But, because David did have a heart for God, he didn’t fall into the trap of claiming his worldly successes for himself.  As you read through David’s story, he always gives God the credit for any success he has.  He asks for God’s permission before making battle plans.  He begs for God’s help for every problem that he faces.  In short, David understood that every step he took was under the protection and oversight of his heavenly Father.

I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. (of David, Psalm 34:1)

Lesson 3: Believe in God’s Love for YOU

No matter what bad things happen to David in his life, whether he felt he deserved them or not, he never doubted that God loved him and would see him through according to God’s ultimate plan.  When David’s son born out of his sinful relations with Bathsheba ultimately dies, David rises from the fasting he had been doing to ask God to change His mind, cleans himself up and begins the hard task of living again.  Because David accepts that God knows best and realizes that God loves him, he can continue to live by trying to follow God’s edicts and worship God for the One and Only God that He is.

Throughout the story of David, in even his most despairing Psalms, David always expresses the belief that God is good, God loves him, and God’s will being done is what is ultimately the best thing to happen–even when what happens really hurts.  Ultimately, I think, it is David’s sincere commitment to believing in God’s love for us that makes David’s heart like God’s own.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.   Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;  so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.  Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.   Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;  you taught me wisdom in that secret place.  Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;  wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness;  let the bones you have crushed rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins  and blot out all my iniquity.  Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence  or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation  and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Then I will teach transgressors your ways,  so that sinners will turn back to you.  Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,  you who are God my Savior,  and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.  Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.  You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;  you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;  a broken and contrite heart  you, God, will not despise.  (Psalm 51:1-17)

The Next Step

Being like David, flawed but loving God with all your heart, is a really grand goal.  You might consider it a first step toward the ultimate goal of being like Jesus, who had nothing to repent, but loved God, acknowledged His sovereignty and followed His will as an example for all of us.

Luckily for us Christians, we have Christ’s sacrifice so that the wrath we so deserve He took upon Himself on the cross.  With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have a guide to help us be more Christ-like each day.  Following David’s, and Christ’s, examples, we should find ourselves praying more, throwing our whole selves into our relationship with God, and growing our faith.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

Posted in Christian Living, Christianity, Faith

3 Lessons from Numbers for Christians

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

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My Bible readings have me in the beginning of this only Book that truly matters, and so I am asking God to help me see the lessons I should be learning from what can sometimes seem tedious study, since so much of the story of the Jews’ time in the desert is filled with specifics about measurements for building the tabernacle, the specific punishments for different crimes, etc.  Still, I believe God is showing me some pretty interesting things because I have asked for Him to, in faith.

Reading in the book of Numbers, I tried to see myself in the shoes of the Jews.  They might have had the privilege of witnessing God’s miracles and seeing His presence up close–like having manna and water delivered to them out of nothing and seeing God appear in a great cloud and column of fire to guide them, but I have the knowledge of God’s greatest miracle: that He gave His only Son to die for our sins.

Knowing this, can I see my own worries and misplaced concerns about everyday life as the same kind of backsliding that I scoff at when I read about the Jews and their golden calves or whining about being tired of the same kind of food every day?  Reading the early parts of Numbers in this way, I have come up with three conclusions I can try to apply to my walk with Christ.

  1. God keeps His promises
    • God said He would rescue the Jews from Egypt and take care of them.  But, every time you turn around, the Jews keep wanting to go back to Egypt, back to slavery and harsh taskmasters.  However, the Jews don’t remember these negative sides to life in Egypt when they are whining to Moses.  All they remember is having a variety of food there and not just manna.
    • Don’t we Christians do similar things?  Christ promises that He will be with us always.  Christ admonishes us to look toward treasures in heaven and not on earth.  He wants us to understand that our relationship with Him is what matters most, not the car repair we have to find a way to pay for.  And yet, how many times do we fret instead of trusting that Christ also keeps His promises?  He brings us through the storms in this life, often not in ways we expected, but usually we can look back and see the good Christ works in the things that happen to us, especially when we approach those things by putting our belief in Him first.
  2. God doesn’t want us to fail.
    • I think it is a mistake to place on an omnipotent God an understanding of emotions that is limited by our human perceptions.  In other words, when God gets angry, it is in no way the same as when we humans get angry.  There just isn’t a way for us to understand God’s “emotions” unless He chooses to reveal them to us.
    • I say all that to propose that the punishments that God metes out when the Jews fall short should not necessarily be seen so much as an anger response as a disappointment that borders on mourning.  And what, exactly, is God mourning except the loss of those who fail to have faith in Him despite everything He is doing to show the Jews that He alone is God?
    • If God mourned the failure of the people He had chosen to establish Himself as the one and only God of the universe, how much more must he mourn when people reject Christ, or when we Christians reject the lessons Christ worked so hard to teach us?
    • The bottom line of the cycle of lack of faith and punishment as the Jews wandered in the desert is the lesson that God does not want us to fail.  Think about how many times God allowed the Jews to begin again with their relationship with Him.  Then, think about how Christ allows us to awake each morning as a new creature.  As long as we acknowledge our sins to Him and repent of them, we get to walk with Christ in the presence of God once again!
    • No greater love….
  3. God wants our BEST.
    • Every sin or uncleanness in the book of Numbers requires sacrifices that begin with the offering of the best that the person has to offer.  Lambs with no defect, the best grain, the finest incense.  Only by giving the very best that a person owned could the person really feel the sacrifice required to make things right with God again.
    • The Jews’ relationship with God in the desert always involved barriers.  God spoke to Moses directly, who then conveyed God’s messages to the people.  Thick, wonderfully made curtains separated the unconsecrated masses from the inner sanctuary, where only the anointed, clean priests could enter to present the best of the best to God to redeem those who had sinned.
    • With Christ, the inner curtain has been rent in two!  With the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and with Christ as our High Priest, we can speak to God directly and know that He is listening and hears us.
    • If God wanted the best of what the Jews in the desert had to offer, what do you think He wants from those of us who have chosen to accept the Grace and gift of the Cross?  Do you give Christ your BEST every day?  Do you at least think about giving Him your BEST?
    • If you are wondering what the BEST is for a Christian, begin with a study of the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ expounds what it looks like to be a true citizen of the kingdom of heaven.  He doesn’t promise that it will be easy, but He does promise to be with us every step of the way.

There are lessons in the Bible for all of us, not just in the New Testament.  Even though the Old Testament books include some cultural references and ways of life that are thousands of years removed from modern life, people still retain the same basics of human nature that can bring us closer to God or push us farther apart from Him.

The choice, as always in a fallen world where free will exists, is ours to make.  As you study the Bible, remember to ask God to show you ways you can apply what you read in your every day life, no matter how far removed the events you are reading about seem to be from your usual experiences.  God keeps His promises.  And one of those promises is that those who ask, believing, will receive.

Posted in Christian Living, Faith

Believing God’s Good Intention: Practical Steps to Shine His Light

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Wheat

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  (Hebrews 11:1)

Believing is the basis of everything a Christian does.  It is with faith like that of a child that we are encouraged to come to Christ (Luke 18:17).  It is faith that gives Abraham the courage to follow God’s commands to the point of almost sacrificing the very child God had promised him, a faith that is credited to Abraham as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).  It is faith that allows Joseph to see his exile in Egypt as a positive thing.  He tells his brothers:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20).

Faith guides Peter to found Christ’s church, sees Paul through more than one perilous mission trip and long periods of imprisonment, gives Ruth the courage to follow her mother-in-law, heals the woman who touches the edge of Jesus’ garment with her fingertips.  Throughout God’s word, we are provided with examples of faith-based responses to the best moments and the worst moments in a person’s life.

So, even though I know all this, why do I still worry?  I don’t have an answer for that, except maybe the same prayer as the father of the demon-possessed boy, who cried out,  “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

In a media-driven world, we have plenty of heroes, usually action stars like Indiana Jones or Rocky or Captain America.  These men usually hold in their emotions, are good in a fight, and ultimately win.  But most of them are not heroes of faith.  In fact, most profess a faith in nothing except themselves, the individualism that marks American culture.

However, in the last few weeks, I’ve been struck by the heroes of faith in the Old Testament like Abraham and Joseph.  When I read how Joseph had such conviction that the events of his life were worked to the good by God, I found a new hero.  I thought to myself, what kind of power would I give to my life if I started seeing it in light of the same kind of conviction?  Wouldn’t I worry less if I kept reminding myself that God will work to the good everything in my life, maybe even especially the challenges?

Courage that can face the good and the bad in life with perfect peace is the kind of courage that means true heroism.  Read the rest of Hebrews 11 for a list of other heroes of faith.  Shining the light of Jesus starts with the first bold step of faith.  And if you don’t think you have it, all you need do is ask:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Posted in Christian Living, Christianity, Faith

The Promise We Carry

Posted on 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.

Posted in Christian Living, Faith

Family Blog Award–Spreading the WordPress Love

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Wordpress family award logo

Thanks to one of my biggest encouragers in the WordPress community, Cathy, I am honored to be nominated for the Family Blog Award, which emphasizes the concept of community that proves blogging is more than just a passing fad.

Longer ago than I care to remember, I studied anthropology as well as English at the university.  For one graduate class, I was able to combine the two disciplines in a paper that used the theories on how cultures change espoused by anthropologist Frank Turner to analyze the poetry of my writing mentor, a great poet named Walt McDonald.

One of Turner’s main principles about social change is that it begins on the outskirts of society, in what he calls the realm of anti-structure.  In this environment of anti-structure, the outcasts exist on equal footing, actually finding more successful “solutions” to the “problems” in the conventional way of doing things.  The bad news?  Eventually, the anti-structure itself becomes structured, and the process begins again.

We can apply this principle to the way Christ exacted change during His time on earth.  He and the disciples definitely worked outside of the structured rules of the Pharisees.  When Christ rose again, the early church continued this tradition.  Remember the early monasteries, where the brothers shared all things equally?  Eventually, though, these brotherhoods became institutions.  Martin Luther, working on the outside of church thinking, sowed the seeds of the Reformation.  The cycle began again.

Now, I’m not saying that blogging on Christian faith will lead to a revolution in church thinking or doctrine, but I do look upon my blogging as a way to spread the word of what I pray the Holy Spirit has given me the skill and the insight to say.   Reading the blogs of other writers on the subject of Christianity, I feel that I have found a community of believers out there who feel the same way.  Some of you may be very active extroverts in your churches or communities.  Many of you, like me, may be more introverted, tending to view the world from the edges, but still having so much to say that the outlet of blogging has been a real blessing.

The rules of this award including nominating fellow bloggers whom you feel have helped you in your WordPress journey.  I believe you are supposed to shoot for ten other people.  Being a strong believer in anti-structure, I will likely fail to get ten listed :), but here are some bloggers who have helped me feel a part of a growing community of believers who are speaking so that the rocks have no need to cry out:

Does Jesus Have a Facebook Page?

From biblical-based advice on living a more God-centered life to honest reflections on the challenges of daily living (including the ever-dreaded visit to Wal-Mart!), this blogger means what she says and says what she means–and she takes the time to give others encouragement with personal comments, too!

A Devoted Life

This blogger’s daily devotionals are deep, insightful and end with a great prayer to get you started on a God-filled day.  I appreciate getting to read such good writing that is also obviously prayerfully considered.

Along the Way

This young blogger has been given a real talent by God that she is openly struggling to find the best use for.  Honestly, I see a lot of my own struggles in her posts.  Some, I have overcome.  Some, I still struggle with.  But, it always helps to know that we are not alone in our feelings.  I appreciate her honesty and openness.

 

Encouragement in this writing life can come from many places.  It might be awards like this one, where you get to take a moment and reflect on the fellow writers who have helped you grow your own skill.  Or, it may come from stranger places.  Flipping through radio channels this week in my car, I happened on a Glenn Beck interview.  I don’t really know that much about Beck.  I don’t keep up with politics.  But in this interview, he was discussing a book he’s written.  What struck me was that he spoke about the Holy Spirit as a kind of muscle that we need to exercise if we expect to be able to use it with any effectiveness.  We can’t just let it lie dormant in us once we have accepted Christ and then expect it to work wonders when we’ve been walking around as if it weren’t even there.

For a person who has been trying to grow her faith and lessen her fear, what a wonderful analogy to hear!  God is so powerful.  It was nice to be reminded (as I was heading to yoga to do some exercise for my body) that I need to keep up the work I have started of exercising my Spirit muscle as well.  Blogging is one way I exercise that Spirit.

What have you done for your Holy Spirit muscle lately?

Thanks to all of you bloggers for the words that fill spaces you don’t even know exist each week in people’s lives.  Let’s keep encouraging each other and strengthen our walk by faith.

 

Posted in Christianity, Faith

To Begin Again

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

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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!).

Posted in Christian Living, Faith

Faith-Challenged

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

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Last week, I talked about starting the journey of emptying myself to make room for God in my thoughts, choices, and way of life. I also noted that this is a process of growing that I will have to begin again each day. So, what practical steps can I take to make my mission a reality?

My first step has to be paying more attention to my thoughts. Do you ever really listen to yourself? My brain is going all the time, and most of that time does not involve thoughts one would call “God-worthy.” In fact, many times, my thoughts are busy being critical of myself and others. If I can do a better job of listening to my inner dialogue, I will immediately improve what my tongue actually says as well.

One of my current reads is the book on the Sermon on the Mount, Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution, by Paul Earnhart. This morning, I read his thoughts about Christ’s teachings on faith. Like the emptying of the self, faith is also a daily practice. Earnhart defines faith as “an active, practical force which affects the whole of life,” and little faith as that “which has not been carefully thought out and applied.”

When I allow myself to get worried about anything, I am practicing little faith, or actually no faith at all. But, as Earnhart points out, I am not alone. He uses the example of the episode when the disciples were in the boat with Jesus in the storm and got so nervous. They had seen Jesus perform so many miracles, but they still didn’t fully understand the truth of Christ. If you understood and had faith that the One who had created all things was in the rocking boat with you, would you have any reason to worry about the storm swirling around you?

Like the man who came to Jesus for healing for his son, but at the same time plead with Jesus to “help me with my unbelief,” I spend my days tottering between facing the world with open, peaceful arms and worrying over the smallest of issues. But, what Earnhart had to say this morning was worth applying to my life:

It will help us if we realize that the freedom from fear to which Jesus calls us is a lesson we master over time, by long practice–by reminding ourselves again and again of what the cross says about the unchanging faithfulness of our Father’s love and by prayerfully taking our burdened thoughts to Him (Phil 4.6).

By watching my inner thoughts, I now have an ever better saying than just “Stop!” to turn my negative thoughts toward the positive thoughts that bring us closer to God:

I will not be anxious!
I will have faith that grows!

When my mind is empty of the critical thoughts and anxiety, then I can hear God. I can fill my head with the Bible verses I am working to memorize. I can fill my head with images of the wonders of nature that are often as close to God as we can get. I can go from faith-challenged to faith-warrior.

Posted in Poetry

Shooting Stars, a poem

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Fireworks

Shooting Stars

 

Light spirals in a black sky,
the signatures we write,
holding our breaths as the tubes
of sparkling white fade
into the dark, all there is of us.

Nights from now, when we
must look past the mirror’s wrinkles,
to deep inside the cone-shaped fibers
that window what is left
of bottle rockets whizzing and ice cream
dribbling, unbidden, down
sticky, happy chins,

what once spun in bursts of fire
so far above us, will thrum again
in the saucered orbs of our children,

those who know the joy
of standing at the precipice edge,
arms flung wide, the belief in loving hands
outstretched to catch them,
all they need to fall.

 

Ramona Levacy
June 1, 2013

Posted in Faith, Poetry

National Poetry Writing Month #17

Posted on by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

For That Which Must Be Tried

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  (Hebrews 11:1)

Reaching for the invisible God,
I come with arms open wide, with eyes
searching for a heart like His,
my whole being in the now,
until every cell vibrates in waiting
for the whisper of the Spirit
or the gift of that chance moment
to be the face of love unending
for another searcher, to one who needs
God’s touch to believe.

Listening for God and hearing
only my voice, I pray for His echo,
commit His words to memory
as truth, as the hope
that keeps all faith alive.

The more I reach for God, the less
I bind myself to what glitters,
to what will make me put myself
above everything, speak harsh words,
view the world down the length of my nose.

Reaching for the invisible God
is what peace feels like, a calm
washing over my insides,
like a fuzzy blanket on a long winter’s night.

Ramona Levacy
April 17, 2013

(Thanks to Philip Yancey’s title, Reaching for the Invisible God, for giving me my opening line for this poem.)