Tag Archives: Christianity

Follow the Leader-The 34th Day of Christmas

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On the 34th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a leader with the ultimate guarantee (Joshua 3).

When I was growing up I remember one spiritual leader was always sharp. Her hair was salon groomed, she usually had a French manicure or a splash of red, and she wore St. John suits. And she could bring the word. Some of the women who served under her began to follow her ways. If it weren’t for height, gait and skin tone, you may have mistaken them for her. I think it’s good to have someone as a style barometer if you are having trouble in that area but better than style is spiritual substance. Sometimes we follow style over substance and the substance gets buried.

And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.

I have always nodded my head in shame of Joshua and his generation for not passing down their spiritual heritage to the next generation. I assumed that because the next generation didn’t know the Lord that Joshua and his contemporaries failed to teach them. But a further reading in Judges 2 makes it clear that Joshua’s descendents “turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so” (17). The descendents decided not to follow who Joshua followed. As long as they could see Joshua, they followed him. They never saw beyond Joshua to see the Lord leading him. When Joshua and his contemporaries died, following the Lord died with them.

Like Moses, Joshua was a type of Christ, a historical person illustrating the spiritual truth of Jesus Christ. Joshua came after Moses and went beyond him by leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land. This illustrated how Jesus would come after the Mosaic Law and lead his followers the way to the ultimate promised land—heaven), something the Law couldn’t do. Joshua led the Israelites to defeat many nations and was clear that God enabled him. Somehow the people missed “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Maybe they got caught up in the fanfare of victories or they focused more on the plunder. Whatever the reason they missed the spiritual substance, that God is who they should follow, not a man and what God allows to happen through that man.

God gives us leaders to follow, but when they leave our lives we should still be able to see and follow Jesus. It’s up to us, not our leaders. Let’s choose spiritual substance over style and make spiritual substance our very own.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Your Lead-The 35th Day of Christmas

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On the 35th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a prophet sent to guide me (Deuteronomy 18:15).

“If it was a snake it would have bitten you,” the saying goes for people who overlook something that is right in their midst. I’m sure most of us who have children have said this or something like it when a child can’t find his shoes in the middle of a clean room or homework left on the table without any other papers. This is the great refrain of my Joshua’s life. After I find the elusive item I say, with my fingers spread on outstretched arms shaking in syllabic rhythm, “It’s right here!” These phrases aren’t just child refrains but a part of the adult song of life that could be titled “Seeking But You Already Have.”

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him (Deuteronomy 18:15).

This is what Moses told the children of Israel regarding their coming Messiah. And God the Father did just that. He sent Jesus, who, like Moses, was 1) in peril as a baby; 2) whose life was preserved among Egyptians; 3) was an Israelite (Jew); 4) a leader of his people; and 5) a prophet among other similarities, but these are the ones that the Israelites in Jesus’ day witnessed. Also, like Moses, his own people rejected him.

We know that God spake unto Moses: [as for] this [fellow], we know not from whence he is.—John 9:29

At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”—John 6:41-42

The Jews saw Jesus speak like no other prophet and they witnessed him healing, but when he told them that he was the one Moses spoke of, that he was that bread of life that would give them eternal life if they believed in him, they didn’t believe. We, Christians, do believe that God the Father sent Jesus as the bread of life, but when we don’t believe that our leader, our lord, is right in our midst, when we overlook him surrounding us, we are like disbelieving Jews. We are told that greater is God in us than the devil in the world, but we (strong black women) try to use our own strength. We are told that Jesus will never leave us or forget about us, but we leave and forget about him and seek to do things our own way. Like the Jews looked to Moses, we look to old methods that once helped and overlook our present help, our Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want God shouting “I’m right here!” when he sees me looking for a self-conceived fail-proof way. I’m aiming to quickly remember my leader, my lord, in my midst and follow him. Won’t you join me? And send me a comment about how if Jesus was a snake, he would have bitten you.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Faithful God-The 36th Day of Christmas

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On the 36th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a promise that he’d always be with me—Numbers 14:14.

For a couple of years I had a real problem with Christianity: When I was wrestling with my faith, I hated the lack of clarity leaders had when I asked them to explain to me who Jesus is and the pat answers that followed, like “you just have to have faith.” I praise God that He saw my doubt and he sent people to help me out, and now the more I read Scriptures, the more assured I become in this faith that I once rejected.

I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground. As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea. And all of them ate the same miraculous food, and all of them drank the same miraculous water. For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4 NLT).

This is Paul in the New Testament talking about Jesus in the Old Testament leading the children of Israel from their Egyptian bondage into their promised land, and this blew me away. In these four verses Paul tells believers in Jesus that their God was the same God leading, protecting and providing for their ancestors in the wilderness. Jesus was symbolized by the cloud, by the manna and the water that sprang from the rock. He was that rock, and everything that they needed came from the rock. Everything they needed came from Jesus.

Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed them in the wilderness. These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did. . .

We, like they, get our needs and wants mixed up. We want shoes to match every purse we own, carry out food instead of what’s in the freezer or lust after a rock star-like man instead of the finance husband we have. Jesus knew what the Israelites needed, but they sought what they wanted and ended up in the wilderness for 40 years. Jesus knows what we need, yet we, too, end up in wildernesses of our own. What type of wilderness have you been in, or are you now in a wilderness from following your own ways, dissatisfied with the shelter, food, drink—the life—Jesus gave you? Yeah, it happens to the best of us, that’s why Paul says the consequences that happened to the Israelites are a warning for us so we won’t crave the evil things they did. But even when we do, Paul says:

But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it (v 10 NLT).

Yes, God is faithful, always there to guide us, protect us, provide for us, and even to help us escape evil things. Commit yourself to believing His word and you will see and be able to do great things.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Total Sacrifice: The 37th Day of Christmas

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On the 37th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a burnt offering for all of my sins (Leviticus 1:1-17).

    “Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart does the Spirit control? You can only be blest, and have peace and sweet rest, as you yield Him your body and soul.”

This is the refrain from the classic hymn Is Your All on the Altar? The title is a good question to ask when things are going haywire in our lives. I typically check to see if I have an unresolved issue with someone because when I don’t have peace and sweet rest and it seems like God’s blessings are skipping over me, I usually have to get something straight with somebody. This ought, as the Scriptures call it, often keeps me from being able to answer yes to the hymn’s questions. Sometimes I have not laid that issue on the altar; I think I have a right to have an issue so I don’t try to resolve, it. I want and go my way.

But Jesus Christ, the Him that the hymn refers to, yielded His body and soul to God the Father, even to the death of the cross. Jesus is the only way that we, Christians, can yield our bodies and souls to God, to walk in God’s will, and be accepted by Him. We see a symbol of Jesus’ total sacrifice in Leviticus with the burnt offering.

If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. [B]ut its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD (vv. 3-4 & 9).

Hebrews 10 tells us that Jesus came to be a burnt offering, once and for all, for those who accept Him.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (vv. 1-10).

Just think about this: When you want to do like I do and hold on to something, remember that Jesus Christ died for that something. His death symbolized the total consumption of our flesh so that we wouldn’t have to be consumed by it. Through the power of Jesus, we can lay our all on the altar and have peace and sweet rest. Is it a sacrifice? Yes, but Jesus made a greater one so we wouldn’t have to.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Deliverer to Come: The 38th Day of Christmas

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On the 38th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a deliverer to set me truly free (Exodus 3).

Watching the classic movie The Ten Commandments gives me chills. I marvel at the elaborate production to recreate the Israelites’ exile in and exodus from Egypt with Moses as the great deliverer. The bejeweled costumes, the lush and plush sets and, of course, the parting of the Red Sea simply amaze me. We see earth’s riches and heavenly riches, giving us a visual glimpse of the grandeur of God. This is the account in Exodus, the second book of the Bible. And though there are no messianic prophecies here, Jesus Christ appears as a type with the great leader Moses.

Moses led Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, gave his people commandments to stay out of bondage and led them to Canaan, the Promised Land, a place with rich spacious land and luscious fruit where God intended for his people to prosper.* We see the same with Jesus Christ. Jesus leads those of us who believe in him from our bondage of sin, gives us biblical commands for how to live bondage-free, and shows us what our promised land, our place of living, looks like when we obey him. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:7-9). When we seek God’s word for our lives and obey it, our lives, just like Canaan, will bear much fruit.

In Genesis we get the prophecy of what Jesus will do for those who believe in him. In Exodus we get a picture of how he will do that. If you have made a decision to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, he took you from what would be the ultimate bondage, that of eternal life in hell. But freedom from bondage starts on earth. With Jesus, you can live free from whatever has you bound, be it a substance, an attitude or a person. So abide in Jesus—get into him so he gets into you and then you’ll be able to have a prosperous life, one where an abundance of good—thoughts, words and actions—springs forth from you. Get rid of your broken crutches. Walk straight in your promised land, with Jesus, the great deliverer.

*The Israelites could not keep the more than 600 commandments God gave them nor did God suspect that they could. God wanted them to see just how much they needed a savior, preparing them to receive Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the one who fulfilled all the commandments.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith