Tag Archives: Christmas

Hope in Small Beginnings-The 7th Day of Christmas

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My girl Carla hooked me up on Sunday. She didn’t know that I’d missed church to nurse the two little ones who had colds. She didn’t know that I had tried to go to her church’s live webcast but the connection wasn’t working. She didn’t know that I had missed hearing a sermon and tried to hear her pastor’s sermon, but she knows and listens to the Holy Ghost. She called me on her way home from church so she could drop off Sunday morning’s message to me. She said she thought of got me as Bishop Ben Gibert of Detroit World Outreach in “The Necessity of Hope” told his congregation not to despise small beginnings because greatness usually starts out as a baby, just like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:7).

This is the major prophecy we see in Micah that announces to the world 700 years before Jesus comes to earth that He would come and where he would be born.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2).

Bishop Gibert reminded people that Jesus wasn’t born doing miracles and prophesying but lay in a manger; no place greater was available to Him. And this is the same with us and is what Carla wanted me to remember: That just because my ministry now occurs in my home through telephone and couch conversations and writing on my laptop on the dining room table, I must remember the prophecy given of greater things. Whatever God has given you may start in Bethlehem, the smallest town of the tribe of Judah, but, like Jesus, is destined for greater things, if that’s what God has told you. We must have hope.

“You got to have your hope in God and you got to have some hope,” Bishop Gibert said. “You got to have a picture of better, not just because it sustains you when things are bad, but when something good is coming you have an expectation that will allow you to notice even a small manifestation when it comes.” And I will remember this word, every time my opportunities don’t seem to happen when I think they should. And I want you to remember this word, every time opportunities don’t happen the way you think they should. We cannot despise small beginnings, especially when our destiny has always been wrapped up in something great (Ephesians 2:10).

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

The Stench of Salvation-The 8th Day of Christmas

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On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me an offer to repent after day three (Jonah 1:17 & 3).

Imagine the stench of acid-drenched, four-day old garbage. This is likely the scent Jonah wore after traveling a day’s journey to Nineveh to tell the people to repent of their sins. It seems like his smell would have repelled the people, caused them to reject Jonah’s message. But it was the miracle of his survival, his staying deep in the belly of the fish (with his scent as evidence of his being vomited out after a three-day, three-night stay) that probably caused their swift turn. Perhaps this mess, brought about through this type of death, this going down in the fish, this dying to himself so God could shine through him, is what made Nineveh change so quickly. And we, like Nineveh, had a chance at forgiveness, because of the death of Jesus Christ, who was buried deep in the earth and rose again on the third day so sinners could repent of their sin.

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.—Matthew 12:39-41.

Nineveh repented after Jonah’s survival of what would otherwise have been a sure death without God’s hand upon his life. We repented because Jesus conquered death, arising from the grave by the power of God’s Spirit (Romans 8:11). This three-day, three-night sign of the supernatural made us believers and challenges us to die so others might be believers too. Like Jonah and Jesus, we must die so others can live. We must die to our agendas and pride, die to self-serving principles and tell others of Jesus’ healing through salvation and our continuing sanctification yet with the stench of our deaths still upon us. These are the stories, with their smells, that cause others to stop and listen to the message that Jesus saves and changes even the most rebellious among us. And his saving and changing give Him great pleasure (Jonah 3:10 and 1 Corinthians 1:21).

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

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