Category Archives: MUSINGS

Special Obligation: Living in Newness

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

We all want something new. We like shiny, fresh, pressed and crisp. We were born, actually reborn, for newness, not just new stuff but a new way of life. Living a new way of life should always be our desire, not because it’s a new year but because God has declared us new:

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!–2 Corinthians 5:17

We don’t need to claim we want to be new; we just have to walk out the newness that God has already claimed us to be and walk in the new life He has given us. No change of the calendar, an address, job, car or wardrobe should dictate our newness, though these may come as a result. Our position in Christ dictates that we use our power in Christ to see the newness in our lives. This is the Christian obligation.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.—Ephesians 1:19-20 (NLT)

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.—Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV)

We are called to consistently walk in newness. We may use the calendar to help us organize how the newness will look but let the activity be based on our position in and the principles and power of Christ. We can do this. We were made to do this.

Check out these New Year blog posts from around the web and let me know what you think:

Consider
The Praise at Your Daily Cup of Inspiration
The Press at Kim Cash Tate: Color Your Perspective
The Revelation at Kingdom Mommy
The Time at Confessions of an Ex-Superwoman

Show Love

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Happy New Year! I hope you resolve to show more love this year.
Christmas was electrifying. The sparkling lights, the glistening snow (in most cases) and the holiday cheer that buzzes always has me in a glow. I love that time of the year when people seem friendlier, smile brighter, and folks are lending helping hands. I don’t know about you, but when December 26 hit, all that seemed to change. The buzz was silent. The sparkles fizzled. There was no Christmas music playing, no gracious sayings and fewer smiles. It was like someone had turned off the Christmas cheer switch and everyone had gone back to their self-focused lives. Well, for 2012 I declare that not so. I declare that we have Christmas cheer throughout the year. Let this be the beginning of a lifetime of years where throughout the year we graciously give of our time, talent and treasure to others, particularly those outside of the Christian faith. This is our mandate, always has been our mandate, but we seem to fall in line with the world’s way of helping someone only during the holidays. Let us teach our children to give charity, or love, throughout the year, right along with our regular routines. Read more at EEW Magazine.

My One Thousand Gifts List

#381-390
Getting a shower early
Cooking dinner before picking up Joshua
Getting a good progress report from Joshua’s teacher and hearing her say how his extracurricular exposure helps him with class discussions and his writings
Being able to sit here uninterrupted to write eight gifts
My husband telling me to take some alone time away from the house Saturday afternoon because I’ve been a great support to him in ministry the past two weeks
Listening to Ashmont Hill on TBN and being impressed to get their CD as a birthday gift for a friend
Getting a full night’s sleep
Feeling energized to start the day
Beginning the day with quiet time with the Lord
Preparing Joshua’s breakfast and his and Flynn’s lunch without feeling stressed

Friday Feature: Roundup Ten for the New Year

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This year has been amazing, full of growth and revelation for me. I see clearly how the paths God has had me on were leading to the ultimate path for my life, my ministry. And a lot of that clarity came just from writing my Friday Feature posts. I have a greater appreciation for the praises that have come through the perils of my health. Countless people have told me how one post or another was an answer to an unresolved health issue they were facing. So in this last Friday Feature post of 2011 I want to share with you my top five health posts and five sites that have helped me gain greater insight into my health this year (Please note that some of the sites listed are secular so take caution in what they advocate beyond direct physical health tips):

Yeast Infections
Soy No More
Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide
Cooking on the Brand New Mommy
The Benefits of Juicing

Other notable posts include those on MSG, natural oils, cold and flu prevention and relief, help for skin problems and alternative grains to wheat. For these and more, search this blog for Friday Feature and every post ever written here will come up.

My favorite five health sites for 2011:

Simple Organic
Living Maxwell
Natural News
The Garden Diet
Keeper of the Home

As you make and seek to keep your 2012 resolutions, undoubtedly some concerning your health, I hope you refer to these links to help you accomplish your goals. God bless you in 2012!

Special Obligation: Speak Out

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

The Christian has the obligation to speak out (Psalm 82:3-5). This came to me yesterday when I was overcome by the pain of four missing black women being found dead in car trunks. The brutality of their abuse and all abuses toward black women over the years brought me to pain and tears and I was moved to speak on their behalf.

This poem is my speaking out, my sharing what Christ can do to redeem what’s been lost:

What do you think are the ways Christians should speak out against injustices?

Traditions Aside

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Some of us didn’t go to church yesterday. It was Christmas and service interfered with our tradition of getting up early and allowing the children to open and play with their gifts to their hearts content. We didn’t want to mess with tradition, the one we’ve held for years. I understand tradition. Years ago I bought a book full of ideas for making family memories. This has always been my desire. I want my sons to have etched in their minds that the Smiths did this on that holiday, went there those summers, made that for the birthdays and did this just because. I haven’t read the book, only glanced through it and haven’t tried any of its suggestions, but I have worked to create on my own memories throughout the year with visits to the park and libraries, baking a treat at least every couple of months and me chasing the boys around the house about once a week.

And, of course, we have our Christmas traditions: making cookies, opening up stocking stuffer gifts and watching Christmas DVDs on Christmas Eve, and having Christmas Eve brunch with my mom, siblings and their families. We managed to keep up some of the traditions this year though they looked a little different with my mom being in the hospital, today marking six weeks her being there.

Instead of leisurely, we hurriedly made cookies during commercials of one Christmas movie we found on TV, tiredly opened up our stocking gifts, and had a rushed brunch after church at my brother’s so we could all go to spend some time with my mom in her hospital room. The weeks since prior to Thanksgiving have been full of care and concern for my mom, has had me pulling double household duties and has left my whole family with little time and energy to do what we normally do. I have been laser focused on honoring my mother while still caring for my children and loving my husband. If I weren’t in strong black woman recovery I would need to be in somebody’s recovery program because the stress of my life would have me stressed out. But I welcomed unsettled movie watching, quick cookie making, blurry-eyed gift exchanging, and brief brunching knowing that my change in traditions would be for my mom’s betterment. And to see her eyes brighten and cry upon seeing all her grandkids sealed my feelings all the more. God’s leading must lead our traditions out of our way.

One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.
They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to–such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles. ) So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.” Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.—Mark 7:1-9 (NLT)

When we decide to focus on what we have always done we miss what God is doing now. When we focus on our tradition, we miss what God is teaching. When we honor ourselves, we dishonor God and sometimes this dishonor comes when we decide to stay home from church to have our Christmas, effectively taking Christ, the object of Christmas and the one who commanded us to gather together, out of the holiday. We decided that we would follow our tradition and forget God’s tradition of assembling with the saints to worship Him together (Hebrews 10:25). And this following ourselves and not God concerns me. God has our best intentions in mind, but when we follow our ways and not His, surely we will not receive the best for ourselves. So I wonder, what type of heartbreak are we setting ourselves up for when we focus on man’s tradition above God’s tradition? What happens when the tradition breaks beyond our control? When a loved one dies, when we get sick and don’t have the strength that we usually do? What happens when our esteemed traditions change or don’t happen at all?

Traditions will change because people and circumstances do. The only way we can prepare for the change and not fall and STAY apart is when we do our part and follow God’s traditions. I am so grateful for God’s plans, those that inherently unreliable man can never change.

My One Thousand Gifts List

#371-380
Justus gurgling
Joshua telling me I’m the best mama in the “entire United States”
Cancelling lunch with a friend without being overwhelmed because I couldn’t go
For children who have the ability to cry, fuss, holler and complain
Parkman Branch library
A blog message
A reimbursement check from my insurance company
Extra monthly income
God sustaining me through a long day
God inhabiting my praises when I REALLY needed Him to today