'28' - Day 5

While growing up in central Florida, there was a prominent Christian radio station I was fond of listening to; WCIE – “Where Christ Is Everything.” One of the on-air personalities was a lady named Rita Christie. She was perhaps best known for her sign-off tag-line, “Have a Jesus-filled day!” Over the years, I’ve adopted that line myself when sending emails, birthday greetings, notes of encouragement, etc.

Last week, in my weekly email communication to my youth parents, I mistakenly said, “I hope this finds you and your family having a wonderful, Jesus-FELLED week!” instead of a “Jesus-FILLED week! Spell check didn’t catch it because FELLED is a word:

• felled \’feld\ transitive verb meaning to cut, knock or bring down


• filled \’fild\ transitive verb meaning to put into as much as can be held or conveniently contained

At least one of my parents caught my mistake. The question then became:

• Am I wishing that they have as much Jesus as they can contain this week? OR,


• Am I wishing that they have a week in which Jesus knocks them on their rear?!

Hmmm…fast forward to Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira misrepresented their earnings and offerings to God. They lied; not to men but to God. As a result, they both fell down and died. God harshly knocked them on their rear in order to reveal his hatred for all deceit and dishonesty in the Kingdom of God. One of the most offensive sins among believers is to misrepresent your relationship which Christ among His people. We sometimes call this “riding the fence.” The verses immediately following God’s judgment of Ananias and Sapphira reveal that “a great fear seized all who heard what had happened.” The Church’s respect for God grew after the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira. People had an increase in humility, awe and fear. People didn’t want to come under that judgment. They decided in that moment that they were either going to be Christ-followers or they weren’t. There was no more riding the fence. People were either in, or they were out.

What if we truly understood and lived life with that same sort of fear and conviction? Without a proper fear of God and His anger towards sin, we soon return to the ways of the world, stop experiencing the POWER of the Holy Spirit and God’s presence, and are cut off from the flow of God’s grace.

What kind of week are you having? One where you are experiencing as much Jesus as you can contain? Or, one where Jesus is needing to knock you on your rear?