Tag Archives: Faith

Serve the KINGdom

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today has been deemed a day of service, the third Monday in January celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This U.S. holiday is to honor the man who gave his life speaking truth to humanity to break the bonds of wickedness wherever he found them. It was his speaking out—from the pulpit or a podium or the pages of a letter, that challenged established ways and spurred us on for the betterment of us all. His speeches, leadership and organizing more than four decades ago still resonate to this day. Let’s move from reflection upon this great life to action to honor this great life. Serve someone today. Contribute to equity for all, whether you give money to a Haitian relief effort, serve food at a soup kitchen, speak against government injustice or change your mind to love. Serve someone today. But don’t just serve today.

As Christians, serving should be a regular part of our lives. We serve the greatest man to have ever walked this earth, and He is the King we honor above all: Jesus Christ. Our King told us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. These commandments should be the driving force of our lives and make it our obligation to serve others just as Dr. King and our King gave their lives to do. Give yourself and make life better for us all. Serve always for Christ and His Kingdom.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Blessed and Highly Favored

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Blessed and Highly Favored!

We toss this phrase around like stove-top popcorn cooking without a lid. You can expect just about anybody who is saved and has wonderful things happening in their lives to say or be tempted to say this phrase. But what does the phrase mean? And even if we know what the phrase means, can we say that it applies to us?

This phrase is taken from Luke 1 that describes Mary, the mother of Jesus and a model of submission, and hints to why God chose her to be the vessel to give birth to God in bodily form. What a high calling! Let’s take a look at the biblical account, check it against our own behavior and determine for ourselves if we think it’s appropriate to say we are blessed and highly favored.

Typically, we casually use this saying, but this seemed to be a rare proclamation in Mary’s day (Luke 1:29). We describe ourselves as blessed and highly favored, but others said this about Mary (1:28, 30, 42, 45). We tend to magnify ourselves when we say this, but Mary magnified God (1:47). And because of whatever blessings we have we rejoice in what God does for us, but Mary rejoiced in who God is (1:47).

So think about this:

1) Mary’s humility showed immediately after Gabriel complimented her. Instead of saying, “Oh thank you,” like many of us would have done, she was troubled by and wondered what the compliment meant (1:29). Do we pause to consider the motives of others who compliment us or are we just quick to agree with them?
2) Only after others complimented Mary did she acknowledge her position with God (1:48).
3) When Mary acknowledged that she was highly favored, she submitted to God. When she acknowledged that she was blessed, she magnified God (1:38, 46-47).
4) When she magnified God, she didn’t just say “I magnify God” but demonstrated so by rejoicing in who God is and what He did because of who He is (1:46-55).

With Mary as the model of being blessed and highly favored, let’s check to see if we are cautious about receiving accolades; let others initiate accolades about us before we acknowledge them; and magnify God by rejoicing in who He is and proclaiming what He does because of who He is.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Help With Submission

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I messed up on Monday. The same day I wrote about my struggle with being gracious that has challenged my submission was the same day I failed with that struggle. Submission is not easy. And sometimes, like Monday, I think it sucks in the traditional way. I have a hard time remembering that submission sucks out the bad to make way for the good. To help me focus, I know I have to:

? Want to do right. I have to seek God to give me the desires of my heart. He knows the ones that should be there and submission is at the top of the list (Psalm 139:23-24).
? Think about doing right. Philippians 4:8 should be at the forefront of every Christian’s mind no matter what the issue is. Thinking about the good submission brings will help me to carry it out.
? Remember the example of right. Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of submission. He left heaven, veiled His glory and came to earth, following the will of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-8). I must remember that if God himself came down from heaven and gave up His right to rule, then surely I, who don’t have a right to rule, can submit to those God gave to lead me. Also, seek guidance from women you know who submit.
? Know that I can do right. God has placed in me the ability not only to want to do right but the ability to do right (Philippians 2:13).
? Focus on helping to set other things right. I will envision how my submission will influence generations to come, and let a better world be my incentive for submission.

As I am on my journey, I will keep these books close at hand:

• Liberated Through Submission, by P.B. Wilson
• Authority and Submission, by Watchman Nee
• Touching Godliness Through Submission, by K.P. Yohannan

I hope you journey on to submission. With all this help, I intend to and expect to succeed with grace which will lead me to submission.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Proper Faith

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Happy New Year!

This is the start of a new decade and, for many, the start of a new day for a new life. Some of us have been knocked down. Others of us have been knocked out. Some have been mishandled and misplaced, but we find ourselves here on this day, and I thank the Lord! Times may have been tough, but God got us through.

On this, the seventh and final day of Kwanzaa, focusing on Imani (faith), let us place faith in God and not in our black selves to be better and to live better lives. As we prepare blackeye peas and promises to do better, let us remember that God has laid the foundation for us to do well. It’s not the luck of a pea or the faith in self that has kept or will ever keep us. God has kept us, and He is the one who tells us who we are and what we should think about ourselves:

We are beautiful because God says we’re beautiful (Psalm 139:14).
Our blackness is relevant because God says it’s relevant (Acts 17:26).
We can be used to do anything because God uses us too (Acts 2:10, 8:27).

As we encounter trials this year, including white racism, let us have faith in God because He has given us the proper perspective to deal with racists and any other haters. We can be proud of who we are and have faith in where we can go because of the faithful one, our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives meaning and purpose to our lives. We can make 2010 a good one because of Him.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Reputed Saint

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When teaching me about preserving a good reputation, my mother used to tell me, “Whatever you do, be able to look at yourself in the mirror in the morning.” This was her way of saying that I shouldn’t be ashamed to face myself, that I should accept whatever my life reflects to me and others. I used my mom’s mirror barometer for most of my life until a bad decision resulted in an unforeseen consequence for me, and I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror, and I wondered what others would think of me. I was ashamed of who I was and didn’t want to see myself. This didn’t change until I looked into a different mirror, the mirror of God’s word:

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” Romans 1:23-25.

I wanted the reflection of my life to show that I saw my flaws and worked to fix them and that I avoided self-imposed standards because the barometer for my reputation was the mirror of God’s word. Doing so would garner me a good reputation, one that could tell other Christians, as the Apostle Paul did, “follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). I wanted people to know that I was obeying God rather than man (Acts 5:29) so even non-believers in Jesus Christ would glorify God in the end (1 Peter 2:12).

God calls us to seek a good reputation, not for money and material items or popularity but so we will be a great example for other Christians and those outside the faith. This seeking is about God’s kingdom. We have to stop being concerned about whether we like what our personal mirrors reflect and allow the Bible to be the mirror that we use.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith