Holy of Holies – goodchristianfiction

Be Reconciled: Learn to Listen

Posted on October 9, 2016October 9, 2016 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now, all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. –2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (NASB)

As you probably already know, the traditional tabernacle where the Jewish people worshipped God had an area known as the “Holy of Holies.” Before the sacrifice made by Christ, this room was as close as any person could get to God. Only the highest priests were allowed to enter, and before they could walk through the curtain that separated this place from the rest of the temple, they had to purify themselves. This curtain is the same that tore in two at the moment that Christ died on the cross.

The torn curtain is a symbol of what Christ’s death and resurrection did for us. It reconciled us to God, giving us direct access to the Holy of Holies through our acceptance of Christ Himself as the sacrificed Lamb who died for our sins once and for all. Being thus reconciled to God, Paul explains in his second letter to the Corinthians that we are now a new creation, people who, being filled with the Holy Spirit, now long for that which is right and good rather than the desires and temptations of the flesh.

This new way of being is a daily choice, for the world in which we live is full of distractions. Instead of allowing the Spirit in us to guide us, our brains are literally hard-wired to feel first and think later.

Feelings are inherently immature. God warns us not to lean on the guiding of the heart, “the great deceiver.” Acting on feelings is what leads David to sin against God with Bathsheba. Feelings make the Israelites call to Aaron for a golden God when Moses disappears up the mountain.

If you will let Him, the Holy Spirit will save you from those emotional responses that need to be tempered by a logical, God-fearing mind. The Holy Spirit fills you with empathy instead of rage when that car pulls right in front of you on the freeway or when you become the victim of somebody else’s bad day. It guides you to choose the right path even when the wrong path looks ever-more inviting.

The Holy Spirit, the marking of a soul reconciled to its God, is what makes it possible for a feeling-driven human to become a true ambassador of Christ, a person who, through his or her actions, makes others understand that God really does love each and every one of us, wanting all to be saved.

Discerning the guiding of the Holy Spirit as opposed to our feelings is not easy. There is a reason that Jesus tells us the way is narrow instead of wide. If you need to know if what you are thinking is in line with God’s teaching, you have to know something about what those lessons are. You will discover this best by studying the Word, discussing His Word with others and staying in communication with God by speaking to Him often and also learning to be still and listen for His answers.

If you have never been reconciled to God, know that reconciliation is a gift, bought for you at the ultimate price, paid for by the blood of the totally innocent Christ. All you have to do to claim this gift is have faith, to believe that Christ died for you and accept Him as your Savior.

Do not live your life as if the curtain separating you from the mighty God still hangs between you and that love. Live the truth of the torn curtain by welcoming the Holy Spirit into your daily walk with Christ. Know His word, and you will recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit as surely as you hear your mother’s voice telling you those life lessons you know but are letting your feelings override. The Holy Spirit is the voice telling you:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Dwell on the glorious truth that you are reconciled to God and discover how much easier it is to be forgiving towards others and yourself.

Christian Living, Faith

Why Don’t I Learn?

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

As I’ve mentioned recently, my Bible reading currently finds me in the cycle of stories of the Old Testament, where God’s people love Him, forget Him, mock Him, and turn back to Him again in waves of joy and grief that often leave me wanting to scream at my Bible as I might yell at the television set–“What do you think you’re doing? How can you be so stupid that you would worship a man-made idol or other people’s gods when you have a history of covenant with the one and only God?”

But, I usually remind myself how easy it is to armchair quarterback history. A perspective from thousands of years in the future, after all, can easily see where others stumble, especially since my perspective includes knowledge of the New Covenant, which was completed when Christ came and sacrificed Himself for us.

Before Christ, the closest any individual came to God was through the High Priest, who was allowed to cleanse himself and enter the Holy of Holies, the most sacred place in the Temple, the place where God dwelled, only once each year in order to offer sacrifices that would give the people a way to forgiveness from God. When Christ died on the Cross, that curtain that separated the rest of the people from that Holy of Holies literally split in two! From that moment on, those who ask Jesus to be their Savior have entrance into the Holy of Holies through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which means that we can call on God anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

But, since human nature really never changes, how often do we also cycle through loving God, forgetting Him, and even mocking Him before we remember just how special the gift of Grace and Salvation are and return to Him again?

Modern culture likes to concentrate on a kind of non-religion where everyone can feel good about him/herself so long as we give everybody enough room to believe whatever they want, and we don’t get in anybody else’s way.

Even though Christ loves all of us so much that He died so that we all would have the chance to choose everlasting life with Him, He did not negate following God’s commands:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (Matthew 23:23)

There is no way to God the Father except through our belief in Christ the Son. Christ commanded that we love God first, with everything that is in us, and to love others as we want ourselves to be loved. Between these two commands, He covered every other rule laid out for human behavior in the Holy Word.

Yet, despite the simplicity of God’s plan for our salvation, don’t we manage to make everything so very complicated? We judge when we should be silent. We offer disapproval when we should be extending a helping hand. We let ourselves off the hook when we should be listening to the voice of conscience that tells us we just messed up. We hold onto our pride when we should submit to God’s ultimate power over us.

Despite the many downs in the history of the Jews, theirs is the ultimate victory in human history because it is through them that God chose to make Himself known to the rest of us. I feel sorry for those who stubbornly refuse to believe that God is because, in the end, they miss out on the pinnacle-moments of knowing a loving Creator.

Through his many psalms, David, the man after God’s own heart, expresses as well as anyone the joy of knowing, truly knowing, God’s love for us:

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. (2 Samuel 22:2-4)

Like intersecting circles in a graph, we humans may have different perspectives about the world, but the one thing that should center us is coming back to our true center, which is Christ.

So, even though I want to chastise the people in the stories I read in the Old Testament, I know that I, too, am constantly on a path of winding toward and away from God, even though I have Jesus in my heart. The main lesson I have to learn is to keep going on my knees and asking God to keep guiding me and bringing me back to center.