DAY 20 - What to Do For A Failing Faith

I Corinthians 1:4-9 (NIV) ⁴I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— ⁶because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. ⁷Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

It never fails, about the time we decide to strike out on the adventuresome road with Christ, we trip and fall over our own shoelaces. We make a commitment to God, we see before us hope for a new life, a life free of old faults and old frictions, a new life lifted out of the old ruts that were stifling us and suffocating us. Then comes the crunch. Old faults and weaknesses we thought were dead are subtly but surely raised up against us. The old feuds, quarrels, and fusses return. We begin to lose our hope for a new life and we begin to feel that we have lost touch with God.

Paul says we have our memory of God’s grace to bolster a failing faith. Have you ever had a moment when you experienced God’s grace? In that moment, the veil that seems to hide God from our eyes was pushed aside, and we realized that behind this quarrelsome, rough and tumble world in which we live, there is a God of love and mercy. In grace, we have God’s present power within to deal with any barrier or obstacle that stands in the way of the life God wants us to have.

Then the veil is closed - back to life as usual, with all of its pressures, problems, and pitfalls. And we wonder, “was that experience real or was it just a passing emotional mood?” Be true to that experience in the way you live. Don’t let doubt persuade you that the experience was a delusion or just a passing mood. The first thing you’ve got going for you is your memory of the time you experienced God’s grace for yourself. A Christian never has to be victimized by pressure, problems, failures, faults or anything that happens.

If I had to choose the one greatest stumbling block to the serious Christian it would be that we try too hard to become better people. We spend too much time looking inward at our imperfections. Paul is going to correct the mistakes and misunderstandings of the church in Corinth, but before he does, he wants the people to know that God is not walking out on them because of their failure, and that God will complete the work He began in them. For when we come into relationship to God through Jesus Christ, we are gifted with the power and the ability to live the life God wants for us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope  November 26, 1978

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 19 - Back To Where We Belong

Ephesians 2:13-22 (NASB) ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. ¹⁷AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; ¹⁸for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, ²⁰having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, ²¹in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, ²²in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

You belong to Someone. And you belong not because of what you have achieved or failed to achieve, not because of how good you are or how bad. You belong because this is the gift of God to you in Jesus Christ. You belong because of what Christ did and accomplished for you through his death and resurrection.

You belong because Jesus has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall. What builds barriers between us? Fears? Misunderstandings? Resentments? Pride? Before barriers are built up between us they are usually built up within us. And the wall usually begins with a list of demands that others are supposed to live up to. The lists have little to do with God’s will and desire. Invariably it is my, me, and mine.

Jesus has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that has been continued through the law of commandments contained in the ordinances. These ordinances are not God’s law, not His rules for living together in peace and harmony. The ordinances are the rules and expectations of our making that we lay on other people.

Jesus has broken down the dividing wall, and reduced us to the level of need. He has declared that we are first of all sinners, in need of God’s forgiveness, and whatever someone has done or not done to us, they too are a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness.

And because the work of sin is to isolate us and deceive us, Jesus has declared that we need that other person to draw us out of our isolation and to declare to us the truth. And then Jesus calls us into a community where the only requirement for belonging is belonging to Him. If that is the desire of our hearts, we are in. Jesus declares that membership in His community is a gift, and the members of the Christian community are a gift to one another. We need one another because we need Jesus Christ. When we have that at home feeling, we know God is close.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 9, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 18 - Claim Your Inheritance

Romans 8:9-17 (NIV) ⁹You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. ¹²Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. ¹³For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, ¹⁴because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

You and I have an inheritance coming to us. The inheritance is ours not because of anything we have done, but because of who we are, adopted in Christ. As sons and daughters of the true and living God we are rightful heirs to all the benefits of his grace, both the inheritance of life after death and the gifts of God’s grace that can be received here and now.

Jesus promises He will make us free, but we would rather remain enslaved to old fears, old habits, and old tensions than claim the freedom that is rightly ours. Jesus promises that we will be one with Him just as He and the Father are one, but we would rather settle for superficial, phony, distant relationships than claim and enjoy the oneness of fellowship that is rightfully ours. It is almost as if God has said to us, “Look, I love you so much I want to give you a shiny new Mercedes-Benz with eight beautiful power cylinders so you can tear through this world.” and we respond by saying, “Well, thank you, Father, but we would prefer to bump along on just two of those cylinders if you don’t mind.”

Our inheritance has been offered to us through the death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Perhaps we are afraid to receive the inheritance because instinctively we know that we, too, can claim our inheritance only through the process of death and resurrection.

Claim your inheritance. For some of us that may mean claiming our adoption in Christ and becoming His son or daughter. For others, it may mean claiming some portion of our inheritance that we need and desire right now - life, joy, power, peace, love. Nothing delights God more than to give to His children the inheritance that is rightfully theirs.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 12, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 17 - Sown in Faith, Grown in Service

Matthew 13:31-32 (KJV) ³¹Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: ³²Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

The people of Israel were looking for someone big called the Messiah who would do something big that they called “the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God would be that day when God would swoop down from heaven and drive out Israel’s enemies and establish Jerusalem as the new center of the world. And there would be a time of unsurpassed peace and prosperity.

Then came Jesus, a carpenter turned preacher claiming that the kingdom of God had come. And the people wondered, “where? I do not see the Romans fleeing. I do not see any significant changes going on, just a scattered miracle here and there.” Jesus came saying the kingdom of heaven is “here,” and the people did not see anything big happening.

Do we still want God to do something big? Heal my disease; save my parent from dying; get me a job at a better company, bring a little justice to the poor. Big is a tough trend to buck.

But Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed.” And that is what we see in Jesus. He was born in the small town of Bethlehem, where no one noticed. They were too obsessed with the big stuff like the movement of Roman legions and how to rid their country of them. The Carpenter grew up to be a teacher, surrounded by a small group of followers and an occasional crowd. But the size of the crowd steadily dwindled, until Jesus was condemned as a criminal, and executed on a Cross, surrounded by only a few of the small group that once listened to him.

Then came a surprise. The small group of people who followed Him were convinced that Jesus was alive. They talked about it. They lived it. Their words and actions seemed puny compared to the imperial might of Rome, but that has always been God’s way. God changes the world through the conspiracy of the insignificant. Small acts of kindness, small projects of hope, small struggles for peace and justice in the name of Jesus. These are the mustard seeds that God uses and they grow. Through a series of small seeds being planted in our life, we are where we are today.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 14, 1999

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 16 - A Real Gift

II Corinthians 1:17-22 (NIV) ¹⁷When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say, "Yes, yes" and "No, no"? ¹⁸But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." ¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." ²⁰For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. ²¹Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, ²²set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

How many years have we lived and served a tyrant? It may have been the tyrant of our ambition. It may have been the tyrant of our worries. It may have been the tyrant of our fears and insecurities. It may have been the tyrant of our own desires wanting, demanding and trying to control things so life went our way. And it may be the tyrant of responsibility, and by responsibility I mean having a sense of responsibility that is cut off from any sense of accountability to God.

The Christian life could be described as the continual process of leaving one of the tyrants that dominate our life and surrendering to God, giving ourselves to the Lord. This is the decision to quit trying so hard to get by on our own and to let God lead and empower us. It is to put our life, all that we are and all that we have at God’s disposal.

In Jesus we meet a God who has a love and commitment to us that we never dreamed possible. We experience a God who wants better things for our life than we do. In Jesus Christ God gives a fresh start with all the rips from the past repaired.

In Jesus we discover a God who cares. And Paul says it was out of their affliction that some discovered the riches of God. Sometimes it may be the pain of persecution. Sometimes the pain may come from serving a tyrant. It simply becomes too much and instead of driving us into despair or luring us into a spirit of indifference, we walk into the secure love of God.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 7, 1999

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 15 - What Do You Have That You Did Not Receive?

^{I Corinthians 4:1-7 (NIV) 1}So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. ²Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. ³I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. ⁴My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. ⁵Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. ⁶Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. ⁷For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Writing to the church in Corinth, Paul asks “What do you have that you did not receive?” It is all a gift. That seems rather self-evident. But the Christians in Corinth had forgotten it. They had received hope for life abundant and for life eternal, and they were taking credit for it.

“And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” The word Paul uses for “boast” is diakrinei, which literally means “half judgment” or “to put a difference between.” Half judgments divide us, draw us into isolation, and burden us with the belief that “it all depends on me.”

What do you have that you did not receive? Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten in your soul?

Jesus came to give us back this awareness of the giftedness of life. He spoke of it. He told stories about laborers receiving a wage they did not earn and about a prodigal son receiving generously from his father. His talk of God being so generous and so kind actually angered people. They believed that if God were that generous it would wreak havoc.

And Jesus not only talked about God being generous, He lived it. He blessed the food He ate, the wine He drank, the world He saw because they were gifts from God. He lived openly, freely, without fear. He did not grasp at life but allowed life to come to Him in its own measure for He knew a God who cared for Him.

Believing that all we are and all we have is a gift, or perhaps more importantly, remembering that all we are and all we have is a gift from God affects the way we live. If it all is a gift, we do not have to be anxious, we do not have to struggle to make the world meet our needs and our desires. We will not have the need to compare the gifts given to us with the gifts given to someone else, and we can be at peace.

When we believe all is a gift and God is the giver, we thank God daily for the gifts we are aware of. When we believe all is a gift and God is the giver we daily entrust our life to God and go about the business of the day, accepting with gratitude what is given and offering our time and talents in service to God. Jesus revealed to us the great generosity of God. It is all a gift.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 28, 1999

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 14 - It's Tempting

Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV) ¹Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’; and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” ⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” ¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

How many of us are running the risk of wasting the only years we have by doing things that seem important at the time, but we may realize later did not fulfill God’s plan and purpose for our being here? The Greek word for devil is diabolos, which means to split away. The temptation of the devil is to split us away from God’s will. It is to distract us. It is to lure us away from God’s call.

Jesus was tempted by the devil. If you are the son of God command these stones to turn to bread. When our thoughts are dominated by our need for the basic stuff of life God appears irrelevant, indifferent, and even as the One who wants to deprive us.

Having tempted Jesus at the point of physical need, the devil next seeks to split Jesus away from the call of God by tempting him at the point of strength – the faith Jesus has in God, and the knowledge Jesus has of the Scriptures. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written that God will give his angels charge of you lest you strike your foot against a stone. As long as life is going smoothly we may not be bothered by this temptation. But watch what happens when trouble strikes. Notice how many people either look to God to do some miracle for them or simply check out on God all together. They abandon trust.

The devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and said all these I give to you if you will fall down and worship me. You can have it all. Set your sights on success. Forget God. Go for it.

But then the devil left Jesus. Each time the devil tried to split Jesus away from his call, Jesus countered with Scripture: it is written, not by bread alone, do not put God to the test, worship God only. The point is we need outside help from the scriptures. We need God’s Word.

In the hands of Jesus, the Word confronts the deception of diabolos. When we are worried and anxious about money, Jesus does not say we shall not live by bread alone, but rather we need more than money. We need the security, the care, and the guidance that comes from God’s Word. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Seek first the kingdom of God and God will give you what you really need.

And the angels came and took care of him. Jesus received bread enough. Jesus was protected by God, not from pain but from defeat, not from death but from annihilation by death. Being faithful is discerning in our heart what we have been called to do and saying no to what we have not been called to do.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 21, 1999

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY - 13 What Kind of Person Do You Think I Am?

Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV) 13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

What we think of ourselves shows, even if we have never given it a thought. Buried in our soul is a belief about our self and it comes out in the way we live. As Jesus goes up to the mountain and begins to teach, he first teaches about God and what God will do when we are poor in spirit, when we mourn, when we are meek, when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, when we are persecuted. As Jesus continues his message, he begins to tell us who we are. He tells us who we are as a statement of fact. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

When we say to someone “you are the salt of the earth,” we are talking about someone with a special goodness. We are talking about someone who is a gift to our life, valuable and worthwhile. You have tremendous worth to God. Do you believe that?

To be light is to be people who reveal the light, love and truth of God. To be light means that others see something in us that they think is special, that they feel is attractive, and most importantly, God gets the glory. People can see that God has done something with us.

You are the salt of the world, but what if that salt has lost its taste. You are the light of the world, but what if you seek to hide that light? You can forget what kind of person you really are. You can lose touch with the sense of what God is doing with you. You can lose your focus and your commitment to God in the pull and pressures of life.

When we lose our sense of being the salt of the earth, we replace the price tag of what Christ paid for us with the price tags others place upon us. We can begin getting our sense of value from what others think of us, from what we own, from what we have achieved, and from a dozen other sources that tell us false value. We can lose our salt of the “earthness” when we lose touch with the truth God has given us in Jesus. We can lose our sense of being important to God. We can hide the light of God’s good work in us.

Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to God. Jesus is saying do it - you are the salt of the earth, live that way; you are the light of the world, live that way. We can hear the words over and over again and forget them. We ignore them. We resist the power of this truth for our soul. But when we do the words, the truth begins to sink in. The truth becomes operating truth in our life. We become salt by living out of a sense of value that we receive from God. We become light by living in the light of God’s word. Jesus calls us to the wager of action, to live as if God is making us the salt of the world, to live as if God is making us a light to the world. When we do it, we open the door for God to keep his promise to us. You are salt. You are light. Because of God. Do you believe it?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 12 - What Has God Got Against You?

Isaiah 45:5-7 (NKJV) 5I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, 6that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; 7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.’

Early in life we begin to learn what will cause good things to happen to us, and what will cause bad things to happen to us. This will be a life long learning process, and hopefully somewhere in the process God enters the picture. When that happens, we draw one of several conclusions about God’s role in causing good and bad to happen to us.

The oldest conclusion is the belief that God causes the bad things that happen to us. Many of us were raised under the constant threat of the bad things God was going to do to us unless we walked the straight and narrow. The book of Job, however, was written to refute the superstition that all misfortune is punishment for sins. Likewise, Jesus said it rains and shines on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)

Another conclusion is that God does not cause bad things to happen to us because there is no God, or because such a belief is superstition. We might think that this emancipation proclamation of our freedom from God’s judgment might bring a great cry of relief. But, instead it brings more a cry of grief, a sense that we have been cut loose from our moorings, and are adrift in a sea where we are at the mercy of mass social forces, circumstances beyond our control, or even the power of our own desires.

The belief that God causes only good holds a measure of truth, but that has nurtured a propriety theology in which God is reduced to little more than a means to help us through the minefields of an upwardly mobile life.

There is still another conclusion, and that is that God causes both good and bad things to happen to us. Isaiah says, “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.”

Whatever God may mete out to us, He was caring enough to accept the same from us in the Cross of Christ and wrath and punishment became expressed in a new way. We are always disciplined by a wounded hand. The Apostle Paul says God sent Christ Jesus to take all the punishment for our sins and to end all God’s anger against us (Colossians 2:9-15). In the Cross of Christ, in the body of God’s own Son, we see all the judgment and punishment that God plans to mete out to us. It is in the judgment of the Cross that God calls us to repentance and not any personal misfortune that might happen to us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

photo by RHM, Colosseum - Rome, Italy

DAY 11 - Where Is Your Treasure?

Luke 12:32-34 (NIV) 32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where is your treasure? Jesus said it needs to be in heaven. Treasure in heaven may sound rather ethereal and nebulous, but Jesus assures us that having treasure in heaven has very specific results on our life here and now.

Jesus talks about having treasure in heaven so we will not be anxious about what we shall eat, or what we shall put on, for God knows we need these things. He asks us to put our treasure in heaven so we will be released from worry over money and the things we own.

Can you imagine not worrying over money, not being anxious or bothered? It does sound heavenly, does it not? This is what Jesus wants for our life. When we have our treasure in heaven, our money does not let us down. Our money accomplishes for us what it is meant to accomplish for us. Our money gives life and vitality.

Jesus talks about treasure in heaven as part of life in the kingdom of God. “Fear not, little flock for it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom...” Treasure in heaven is treasure in the kingdom of God. And the Kingdom of God is the rule of God that came in Jesus. To have treasure in heaven means that we accept God’s rule over our money and our possessions.

We give our money and possessions to God in two steps. The first step is one of faith, to believe that God is the owner of all that we have. The second step is one of action, to say God is the ruler of all that we have. Our heart follows our money. And when Jesus says, sell your possessions and give to the poor, He wants us to give a response to and a sign of God’s rule in our life. He wants our giving to come from God’s rule and not simply from our sense of responsibility.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 15, 1998

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 10 - What Must I Do?

Mark 10:17-27 17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" 20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." 21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" 24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" 27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

A gentle Mediterranean breeze blew across the landscape. Jesus was holding class. He had just picked up a helpless, powerless child and said unless you become like a child you cannot enter the kingdom of God. He started to leave and a man ran up and knelt before him. He was a young man, a well to do man, and a leader among the people. He comes straight to the point. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Do you hear the quirk in his question? What must I “do” to inherit eternal life? He might be asking, “How can I be sure about eternal life so I can be happy now?” Among the Hebrews, keeping the commandments was the recipe for happiness. It was a fairly simple recipe. There was debate as to whether you should keep just the ten basic rules or the full six hundred thirteen that had developed over the centuries, but everyone assumed that if you kept the rules, you would be happy. It is as if Jesus is saying to the young man “Well you know the recipe for happiness.” And the young man replies, “I know the rules. I have carefully followed the recipe for happiness.”

And Jesus answers, “You lack one thing. There is one thing you need to do. Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and come and follow me.” You are imprisoned by the security of stuff. You are captured by your comforts. And at that the young man’s countenance fell, the sparkle left his eye, and he went away sorrowful. The disciples were rocked back by His word. They asked in angry frustration, “Who then can be saved?” Who has any chance at joy and happiness if you have to take the vow of poverty to find it?

Do you blame them? Just how good would a teacher have to be to convince you to do that? The sad part of the story is that the young man and most people who hear the story do not hear the end of it. And Jesus answered, by human effort alone it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. What must I do misses the point. Eternal life, joy, happiness, fulfillment - it is all a gift. Life is a gift.

Go, sell, come, follow.


From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
copyright Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 9 - Where Do You Belong?

I Peter 2:4-10 (NIV) 4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," 8and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Picture it. That is what Peter does as he writes the church and uses pictures of belonging rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures and in his experiences of Jesus. Come to the Living Stone, you are chosen stones, precious stones, living stones being built into a magnificent temple, becoming a special group of priests to serve God.

We are stones, of little value by ourselves, but together we make an indestructible temple with Jesus as the Cornerstone, the one Person on whom we can absolutely depend. That is the picture. No explanation, just pictures. A picture of belonging.

In the midst of increased trivia, people long to feel that they are part of others who are part of something important. We want close connections with other people, connections that go deeper than superficial friendships. We want relationships that have grown strong through the fires of difficulties.

But, here is the catch. Here is the bind. We long to belong and we resist it. It is as if we want to be on good terms with God while reserving the right to live the way we want to. We want to belong, as long as it does not limit our freedom.

I had resisted a sense of belonging to the North Alabama Presbytery. When serving as a minister in Cullman, Alabama, I used the excuse that the Presbytery was some distance away in Huntsville. When I came to Huntsville to serve as minister I had to think up some other excuses. Then I had to face the real problem. I was not sure I wanted to belong. I wondered if the Presbytery even did anything that was worth the time I was duty bound to give it. Then, when I went to drug rehabilitation in 1991 I realized I belonged because I needed the Presbytery. If Presbytery did nothing else, it helped God rule over some of my self-willed ways. And at even another level, I belonged because I was chosen to belong.

Come, come to Him, that Living Stone rejected by men, come to that Living Stone and build your life on the foundation of faith and obedience to the Stone of Jesus. Come to that Living Stone that reaches out to us, not with a mighty arm but with a pierced hand. Come all who are heavy laden by the burden of an independent, do it my way kind of life.

Come to that Living Stone because Jesus died to call you into this special relationship of being a son or daughter of God. Jesus reaches out from the cross to call us into a sense of belonging. Please, accept it with all the limitations that belonging to God and to His people brings. Come, come to the Living Stone.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles