Category Archives: MUSINGS

Restored-The 10th Day of Christmas

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On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a message of restoration (Amos 9:11-15).

Many of us come from a line of proud people. We pride ourselves on doing things ourselves and say things like “I ain’t got nobody else” or “If I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done.” I think deep down we know this isn’t true. When we look at the sun, we know this isn’t true. When we see the stars and feel the breeze, we should know this isn’t true. But strong black women who got to be strong black women—alone—believe we bring our own sunshine, twilight and refreshing winds to our lives and others. How else would we get them?

But the prophet Amos tells another story.

“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the LORD who does this. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God (vv. 9:11-15).

For the majority of Amos, the prophet tells of divine judgment on Israel for following their own way. Even though their pride and arrogance cost them, that last chapter of Amos tells how God will still empower them to bring brightness to their lives. Even though the verses say “they shall rebuild” and “they shall plant,” the beginning and end of the passage says what God will do. We only bring sunshine and twilight and refreshing winds because God first gives them to us and He continues to carry us. This passage in Amos is a perfect picture of Jesus Christ, who restored us “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8). And He restores situations for us through us, as one of my favorite scriptures tells us: “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

So be proud of God in you working through you to bring brightness and prosperity to your life and others. If it wasn’t for Him, it wouldn’t get done.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Believe Him-The 11th Day of Christmas

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On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a word about prophecy (Joel 2:28-29).

Sometimes we just don’t believe God’s word. Oh, I know this because we have too much doubt. At least I know I do and saw this last night when talking to Casey’s mom in the church nursery. Casey is a busy boy who was playing with two of my busy boys and he almost fell on my youngest busy boy quite a few times. She kept correcting and redirecting him, as well she should, but I was hardly fazed and said, “I have three of them just like him.” “Wow. Three boys. I’m done. I took care of that.” I lingered on her wow and wowed with her, wondering, “How do I deal with them from day to day?”

Slowly her other words seeped in and I realized that she was telling me that she wasn’t having anymore children because she exercised her choice to take birth control. And I remembered that I had no choice to exercise my choice but had followed God’s choice to use my womb to bear His blessings for the world. All of that came out like “When you have boys you need a lot of grace and God gives me a lot of grace.” And she gave me five and said children are a blessing and together we chuckled and blessed the Lord for them. Our exchange had me thinking about the prophetess Anna and how she believed God’s word, not seen in my every day grace, but in her spirit and she acted like it.

And she [was] a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served [God] with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Acts 2:37-38).

At 84 years old, Anna’s regular routine was to serve God “with fastings and prayers night and day.” She made this her job so when Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus to the temple she knew exactly who He was, thanked God the Father for Jesus, and told people about Jesus. Yes she had the word that salvation would come through Jesus, and surely she recognized Him through prophecy, but I wonder if another prophecy sustained her:

And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit (Joel 2:28-29).

Between Jesus’ first and second comings, He said He would send His Spirit (John 16:7-15; Acts 1:8). Joel tells us that Jesus’ Spirit would be spread among Jews and Gentiles, and all groups—young and old and male and female—would have people who would speak forth divine words from God. I don’t know if Anna saw this partial fulfillment, but she knew that Jesus’ initial arrival was the first step to usher in His Spirit being poured onto all flesh. His Spirit would cause there to be pervasive prophesying among women, so much so that there wouldn’t be room for them to only speak in certain parts of the temple. Anna had seen God’s grace—first in her spirit and then with her eyes. She didn’t seem to shy away from her calling because she was a woman. Instead, she prophesied to everyone who wanted that redemption.

And I tell you, who want redemption to help you with busy boys, brutal bosses, an unkind husband or backbiting friends: you have God’s Spirit, and He may not have you prophesy to others but He has given you a word of deliverance:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Trust this word and believe that God will show up and show you exactly what He would have you to do to walk out your deliverance.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Relate to Me-The 12th Day of Christmas

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On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a man who really got me (Hosea 3).

I once dated a guy who didn’t get me. He was beautiful but didn’t get me. He was suave but didn’t get me. And I so wanted him to get me because he was beautiful and suave and well dressed, but his middle class life came from his daddy’s blind pigs and other dealings to make ends meet. He said he couldn’t compete with my professor daddy; he just wasn’t that type of intellectual, responsible guy. He had a job but mostly lived off what his daddy left him, and I gathered that I was just something cute to do.

But before I came to this point I wanted him to know that it didn’t matter that my life was built on college education and his on street knowledge; that our love for jazz and films and care for family was enough, that he was enough for me. I don’t remember how I said this. I just remember that he heard my background loud in his foreground and that was too much for him. I went to church then but wasn’t saved then and when I did it was because I met a man who got me.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

This is Jesus Christ, the god-man, who understands perfectly how I feel. No degrees or pedigree or other side of the tracks keeps Him from relating to me. This is the picture we see in Hosea, when the prophet Hosea marries then redeems the prostitute Gomer from her whoredoms. God the Father had Hosea marry Gomer as a picture of Him being married to the Israelites who followed after idols.

And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.—Hosea 3

In Hosea, we not only see a picture of God redeeming His people Israel but also Jesus redeeming us through His work on the cross. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We didn’t have to clean ourselves up or play our backgrounds down for us to be with Him. He accepted us just as we were, and, because He understands us, lovingly equips and prompts us to be all that He created us to be (Ephesians 4:7-16, Philippians 2:13).

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Happy Thanksgiving

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“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

    Give Thanks!

I pray, that no matter your loss and emotion from it, you will give thanks today and bless the God of your salvation for giving you more than enough to lead the life He’s given you. May God bless you today, dear friends. I thank God for each of you.

Rhonda

Crushing the Nations-The 13th Day of Christmas

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On the 13th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a vision of destroyed kingdoms (Daniel 2:34-35).

“We’re on the brink of war,” a South Korean official said after North Korea fired shells at its bordering neighbor yesterday and the south retaliated. Many are shocked, appalled even, at North Korea’s “inhumane” and “barbaric” acts that killed two marines and two civilians on Yeonpyeong Island. I’m not shocked. North Korea is the nation that recently unveiled its new nuclear arms plant to an American scientist. Showing this plant to an American doesn’t seem incidental nor do I think the shelling within the same month on an American ally nation is coincidental. Perhaps both these actions go beyond baiting its 60-year-old rival and suggest a provocation toward World War III. The mini war and rumor of a bigger one is part of Scriptural prophecy toward the end of this world (Matthew 24:6-7). So whatever North Korea’s motive and whatever damage they do will not go unpunished.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, [but] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:44).

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, [one] like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion [is] an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom [that] which shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14).

Daniel prophesies that God the Father will “set up a kingdom” that will destroy the nations spoken of in Daniel, and this kingdom belongs to Jesus Christ (Luke 1:32-33). Though North Korea is not one of the nations in Daniel, I am thankful that “all…nations” will serve Jesus, and His kingdom will not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:9-11). All nations include North Korea and no nukes or shells can destroy Jesus’ kingdom.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith