Fw: Beauty within

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2015 7:35 AM
Subject: Beauty within

As I strolled the forest trail this morning and simply enjoyed the spring beauty all around it occurred to me that the same beauty I was surrounded with also filled us within.  The maker of all nature...also made you and me.  The lens of appreciation I was using to enjoy my surroundings should also be turned within to realize that we are wonderfully fashioned as well.  Despite our sins and shortcomings, we are filled with, and designed for, beauty!

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Psalm 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Fw: the code of life

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 7:15 AM
Subject: the code of life

I am attaching a picture of a peony bush that my wife planted beside our house.  It didn't look like much to me when she put it in the ground but yesterday I saw these stunning blooms!  I can't get over how amazing color like this can come up out of the ground.  The Lord has a "code of life" that can unlock the ingredients of the soil and air, mix with sun and apply the right temperature to produce beauty.  It occurs to me that we are something like these plants.  We also are formed from the soil and the Lord has a code that He unlocks to infuse us with natural life and then spiritual life so that we can bloom and reflect His glory.

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Color from the ground...that's really what we are! (the spiritual part blooms forever, too!)

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Song of Solomon 2:1 I am the spring crocus blooming on the Sharon Plain, the lily of the valley.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

the downstream path

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2015 7:16 AM
Subject: the downstream path

 

 

I took a picture on my walk this morning that said something to me about life.  You might call it "the downstream path".  There was a pool of water beside the path I was on and beyond it that pool split, with some of the pool water flowing to the left and the rest to the right.  I thought about the "unknown" aspect of our personal futures.  As we leave the pool of our familiar homes each day we really don't know which way the path may split.  How is it that some part of the water is guided to each side of the divide?  Ultimately, our trust is in the Lord.  He fashioned the pool, created the divide ahead and guides the streams.  Our contentment must be that He will be with us just as He was in the design and it will not be chance that chooses our way!

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Psalm 23:3 He renews my strength.  He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Fw: first morning

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 7:23 AM
Subject: first morning

I went for a walk through a wooded path this morning (attached photo) with a desire to just spend time with Jesus.  I came to a familiar sight, that I'd not visited for some time.  It was a marshy area....not quite enough water for a pond but more than a swamp.  The beauty was breathtaking and I realized that the Lord had fashioned this setting just for our time together.  I was reminded that this was how man started with the Lord...in a simple but profoundly beautiful garden.  And I was reminded that the beauty of His companionship is just as real and just as beautiful.  I hope that you will enjoy the company of the Savior  this day as well!

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Song of Solomon 4:12 You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

four bird morning

  There's something about large birds that is breathtaking.  They transition from awkward to graceful as they move from their perches into flight.  This morning I was treated to a four large bird symphony at the pond.  I saw herons, osprey, vultures and geese.  The herons and vultures were disturbed by my presence and shifted locations.  I was startled by the vultures, amazed by the herons and stunned with the grace of the osprey soaring overhead.  The geese just bobbed on the surface and squawked some kind of commentary.  It was humbling to realize that I, too, was a creature who could simply enjoy a beautiful spring morning.  There is something about a quiet morning in nature that restores us to our identity as members of God's garden.  We celebrate the wonder of life and we wonder at the awesome Maker of life, who gives us these tastes of beauty in preparation for a forever with Him.

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Job 26:13-14 His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent.  These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

green

  Green is everywhere right now in our neck of the woods.  Green pollen seems to be showering daily and blanketing our cars.  Trees are wearing new seasonal uniforms of baby green leaves and they all seem to have adopted the same shade of color.  New life is springing up from even the very old trees.  Our crape myrtles are budding and show promise of colorful blooms later this summer.  It is wonderful to have a season of the year that is all about new beginnings.  Somehow we pick up on the theme and rejoice in the new beginnings that we can experience as well.  Just as the trees have pulled on a new coat of fresh green, so we can wear a fresh attitude of hope and new life in the one who orders the seasons of our days.

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Exodus 13:4 On this day in early spring, in the month of Abib, you have been set free.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

zoo visit

  We went to the National Zoo yesterday.  We saw amazing animals: tigers, lions, pandas, orangutans, motionless alligators and hyperactive lemurs.  It was also a great place to have a reunion with two of our daughters and their children.  In fact, the zoo seemed to be a place where families dominated.  Multiple generations within families were strolling the park, taking in the sights, and enjoying spring outdoors.  It is great to have a forum for families to just be together.  The animals are almost minor actors in the scene of the bigger picture.  Just as we saw young lion cubs and bear cubs and monkeys being raised by their parents, so we saw many children surrounded by parents, siblings, grandparents and friends.  The whole process of growing up calls for the dedicated love of a special circle we know as family.

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Psalm 122:8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, "May you have peace."

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Not another life!

 

I am starting something today that I hope will spread, with your help, across our nation.  It is something like what firefighters do.  Their first priority is to rescue people from a burning home and then they put out the fire.

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I believe the greatest evil that has swept our country in my adult life is legalized abortion.  It destroys one life and lastingly damages at least one other.  This is the fire that continues to rage.  Our country has decided that "choice" is the standard of right vs. wrong.  Using that standard we can save many lives by offering much healthier "choices" to those who are faced with the dilemma of a crisis pregnancy.

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If we covenant to be available, in love, to our network of acquaintances and if we purpose to provide whatever is needed: food, clothing, shelter, friendship, medical care, legal assistance...whatever........

Then those who are faced with the overwhelming prospect of a crisis pregnancy will be more likely to make good choices.

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This is a grass roots campaign that I would like to call "Family".  It starts with each of us, both as individuals as communities of faith.  Our standards are not the shifting ones of culture but the eternal ones of the giver of life.  And it starts with developing relationships across our community.  We need to be in touch with those around us.  And when the fire breaks out, we need to rescue the living!  Our commitment must be absolute and our resolve unshaken and our purpose joined with one another.

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This mission came to me last night as I felt the Lord speak to my heart: "Not another life!"

When, one day I face Him, I don't want to be ashamed that we had not done our best to save these precious lives.

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John 10:12

You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love.  My life was preserved by your care.

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blessings!

Rob Smith

muddled

  The surface of the pond was a bit muddled this morning.  It wasn't quite the perfect mirror.  It is interesting how the air and the winds play with the face of the water.  When there is no wind the pond is an almost perfect reflector of light.  But this morning, with wafting currents under gentle breezes, the images of trees and sky were somewhat shifted and distorted, like a fund-house mirror.

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The winds of this life can distort the reflection of Heaven's hope also.  The sure promise of Heaven and the certain claim we have on the Lord's presence can seem to shift and dance under the moving currents of problems, trials and the unknown of our days.

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But if we take our eyes off the pond and look to the sky we see the true and not the reflected and if we fix our hearts and minds on the Word, both recorded and revealed in His Flesh...then the image becomes sharp and the promise certain.

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Psalm 56:10 I praise God for what he has promised; yes, I praise the lord for what he has promised.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

someone beautiful

 

  The Lord has put someone beautiful in my life.  My wife, Shirley, is that beautiful person.  Marriage is such a great design.  It takes rough, clumsy, scratchy men like me and pairs them up with soft, sweet and beautiful creatures like my wife.  She is beautiful to see and she is beautiful in her love for me.  As we have travelled life's journey she has always found ways to beautify our home.  I have no feel for colors or for interior design and Shirley has filled our home with seasonal plants and decorated with pictures and furnishings that make our dwelling also our personalized home.  As we have moved through the years of youthful couple with young children and now to the empty nest she has always supported me.  Her wisdom and practical "uncommon" common sense keeps me grounded.  And today we celebrate 38 years of marriage.  She is the beautiful creature in my life and I am so grateful that the Lord opened my eyes to her beauty so long ago and gave me the longing of my life to travel through the days with beauty at my side.

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Proverbs 5:18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.  Rejoice in the wife of your youth...may you always be captivated by her love.

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with love for Shirley,

Rob Smith

Big Jesus

 

Reading the letter of Colossians you can't help but be struck by how big Jesus is.  In the first chapter we learn that He "existed before anything else" (verses 15 and 17).  Through Jesus all Creation was made and this includes the visible universe as well as the invisible.  And the invisible includes thrones, kingdoms and authorities that are in the unseen dimension (verse 16).  Not only did Jesus fashion Creation, He now holds it all together.  All the atoms, with their powerful and opposing forces, all the molecules, with their chemical properties, and all the cells, with their life sustaining properties.  He holds the planets in balance with the Sun and the seasons unfold at the right time to permit life to continue (verse17).  He is the one who paid the price to reconcile us with the Father and then He came after us to rescue us, who would believe in Him (verses 21 and 22).  And now we live directly in His presence, and will do so forever.  The One who put it all together to start with and holds it all together now is the only One who could save us...somehow that makes a lot of sense...

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blessings,

Rob Smith 

April rain

  I step outdoors to feel your kiss,

descending from the sky;

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Your touch, in form of Heaven's mist,

A bridge from you to I;

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Gentle drops of water fall,

Tender is your touch;

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I join with ducks and heron now,

to know we are loved much;

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Before the day swirls carry me,

Before the problems mount,

Before I head down my own ways,

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I stand beneath your fount!

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Victory

  High above the pond this morning twenty geese formed a perfect "V" as they flew to their summer home.  I don't think they had a preflight planning conference to discuss this formation and I don't think they carry GPS but I'm confident they will reach the right destination.  Certainly their perfect flight formation inspires confidence that they are following a well conceived design.  Our Heavenly Father also conceived a perfect design in sending His Son to rescue us.  The book of Colossians uses the phrase "through him" to tell us about this "perfect formation".  Here are some "through him's":

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Colossians 1:16 "for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can't see..."

"Everything was created through him and for him"

Colossians 1:19-20 "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.

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So this includes you!

Colossians 1:22 "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.  As a result he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault."

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I hope you have found this perfect "V" formation of victory in and "through" the Son of God.  He soars over your pond today and awaits you to join his flight pattern.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

still waters

  Last night a powerful, thrashing, storm moved through our area with drenching rains driven by tempestuous winds.  We were comfortably sheltered in a local restaurant as this demonstration of God's natural power moved over us.  It was humbling to watch the awesome weather.  It was impossible to see beyond the parking lot during the peak of the storm.  This  morning, by contrast, it is very peaceful.  I visited the local pond for inspiration and was struck by the "still water" of the pond's surface.  You would never know that the mighty power of wind and driven rain had troubled these waters just last night.  This morning you can see much farther with the clear sky and sunlight.  As I gazed again at the pond I was struck with the near-perfect reflection it provided of the trees and sky.  The untroubled waters had become a mirror.

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In the storm we saw the mighty power that is the Lord.  In the still waters we find His absolute peace and find the clear reflection of His nature.  It is the storm that gives us our great appreciation for the still waters following.  And it is the still waters of His peace that cause His image to be clearly seen.

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Psalm 23:2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

moving toward us

   Heading to the pond this morning I needed a touch from Him.  As I stepped from the truck I immediately felt the kiss of a gentle morning sprinkle...just enough rain to remind me of His touch without becoming wet.  As I gazed over the pond I saw the small wavelets moving in my direction and felt the breeze on my face that gave me more physical reminders that He is not only covering me with a kiss, He is moving toward me with a fresh breeze.  The overall message seemed to be that He is near; He is touching us; He is moving in our direction; He sees and knows us; He surrounds us with Himself.  There is peace and there is hope in the gentle spring morning.

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Job 36:27 He draws up the water vapor and then distills it into rain.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Good Friday

  It is wonderful to celebrate Good Friday.  I visited the local pond for the first time in a few months today and was rewarded with a view of a soaring eagle overhead and the largest bird I've ever seen in the wild (a turkey!) on my way home.  Eagles and turkeys...that says a lot about Good Friday.  The Lord went through the agony of Good Friday to set the stage for Resurrection a few days later.  He is the eagle we soar with through faith.  The turkey, waddling awkwardly across the road seemed to capture who we are.  We are turkeys in need of an eagle, so that we can lift off and soar!  May your Easter celebration lift you up to soar on Heaven's winds!

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Isaiah 40:31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

on the frontier

  It occurred to me that Christians are always living on the "frontier".  No one becomes a Christian automatically by birth.  That happens by choice in the course of life when he or she recognizes that Jesus was not myth or man but Messiah...God in the flesh...and when that person bows before Jesus and invites Him in to their heart. 

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Consequently, in every generation the church of believers is newly formed.  Christianity cannot be transmitted by tradition alone.  It is communicated by the testimony of changed lives and the proclamation of the good news.  We live in a day when the presence of Christians is perceived as an annoyance to modern culture, where man has decided he knows better than God how to order the matters of living.  So it falls to the true Christian, living in this new frontier, to continue to stand for truth even as darkness has become society's light. 

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When people gathered long ago to build their own temple to heaven and called it the Tower of Babel, God scattered the people.  Today the people don't have to live in the same place to build that tower.  Modern media allows the tower to be built electronically.  And so, living in this frontier, Christians are called to continue to share how the Lord lives, dwells within believers, and holds the key to eternal life.  These truths are unchanging, even if the nature of the frontier is.

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Psalm 29:8 The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.  The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare.  In his Temple everyone shouts, "Glory"!

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blessings,

Rob Smith