DAY 89 - What’s the Use of Talking?

From Psalm 73 (NIV) ¹² This is what the wicked are like - always carefree, they increase in wealth. ¹³ Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me ¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. ¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. ¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! ²¹ When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, ²² I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. ²³ Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. ²⁴you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. ²⁶my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Luke 18:7 (NIV) ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

Words are the building blocks of every good relationship. “I love you” can turn a friendship into romance. “I do” can seal the romance with the commitment of marriage. And “I am sorry” can turn hurt into healing. Conversations with God are called prayers, building blocks in our relationship to God.

Why talk with God? Because relationships require the sharing of mutual concerns, even if the problem is already known. God may know everything that goes on in our mind and heart but we still need to say it for the insight it brings, for building a surer and stronger relationship to God. The Psalmist shared his concern for the seeming injustices of the world, and God gave him new insight. Riches will pass but his relationship to God will go on forever.

Why should we ask for anything when God already knows our need? We ask because God wants us to. God does not depend on our asking, but desires it. God does not need our asking, but prefers it. God may not respond according to our time table or according to the dictates of our demands, but if we ask, He will answer in a way that lets us know He is not cold and callous to our needs and desires. Good relationships require that we respond to each other’s needs and requests. God is willing to do that. Are you willing to ask?

Usually we have to ask before we are open to receive, and then we receive in a way that makes us want to give as we have been given unto. That is the beauty and the joy of asking and receiving. It turns on the flow of love and gratitude and service to others. We ask of God that He might be responsive to us, and so that we might be responsive to Him. We begin a chain reaction of being responsive to one another and growing in our relationship to one another.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 21, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 88 - Why Tithe?

Genesis 28:20-22 (NIV) ²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹ so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God ²² and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."

Tithing is giving 10% of our income to the church for God’s work. Arguments about whether to give 10% before or after taxes miss the point and spirit of tithing. It is God we are dealing with and not the IRS, but it is probably good to remember that while we may have to pay our taxes and buy groceries we do not have to give to the church. If we feel we have to give we probably are not giving at all, but rather are paying the church.

The thought of giving a tenth does not spring into Jacob’s mind out of the blue. The first person in the Bible to tithe was his grandfather Abraham who gave 10% of everything he had as a thank offering to God. By giving a tenth Jacob knew he would receive God’s blessings, the most basic blessings being freedom from the firm grip of money and possessions, and freedom from selfishness. When we give we are letting go of some of our false securities.

But why does it take 10%? Doesn’t any amount of giving help accomplish the same thing? It does. But there is something about giving away 10% that meets the power of money with the greater power of giving. We simply cannot give away that much of our income without dealing a deadly blow to our selfishness and without searching for and finding our most basic security in life in our trust in God. We may say we trust, but when we give God a tenth, it feels like we are out on a limb with only God to keep us from falling and failing financially.

It was only in his later years that Jacob tithed not because of example or for blessing, but out of gratitude for God’s grace toward him. The experience of God’s grace and the expression of gratitude have a strange kind of reciprocal relationship. One leads to the other. Giving has a way of opening the gates that hide God’s grace so we see beneath the shabbiness of the world and the glitter of the world to where there is the truth and the peace of God. Giving does not buy us grace. It is simply a key that helps unlock the gate and keep it open. Giving a tenth seems to have the power to clear out the clutter in our heart and in our world so that we can see Him.

Jacob was no spiritual giant. For most of his life he was shrewd, conniving, and a bit greedy, but he was a man with a growing faith in God. If you are waiting until you are a spiritual giant to tithe, or waiting until you are a little bit better person, wait no longer. For you are as spiritually mature and as good as you need to be to tithe right now.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 87 - Name Your Price

Luke 9:23-24 (NIV) ²³Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.

Philippians 3:8-9,13-14 (NASB) ⁸More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, ⁹and may be found in Him, ¹³Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Have you seen a life that you judged as excellent and which influenced and shaped your own? Excellence inspires conformity to what is seen and experienced. Then we discover that excellence has a price tag, and the cost is the possible loss of everything we thought we had to have to be happy. The word Paul uses for loss was often used to describe the throwing of valuable cargo off a ship to save the lives of the people on board. What is it we need to throw overboard? What are we holding on to, thinking we must it have to be happy, when in fact it is sinking our life?

For some of us that something may be money, a symbol of security. Or, it may be that we need to let go of that underlying spirit that drives us to add more and more responsibilities and activities to our life. For others, the cost may be letting go of a broken or lost relationship, or it may simply be letting go of the importance we place on this relationship. People are important to us, but sometimes we make our relationship to them so important that they take the place of God. We must let go.

Certainly, there are many other things we must let go of – regrets, guilt, grudges, fears, expectations. But perhaps the most basic is dogged determination. We need to let go of the dogged determination that sets our sights so totally on our will and our desires that we are blind to God’s will and God’s desire for us.

The cost of excellence is the loss of everything that stands in the way of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. Faced with the need to let go, usually all we can see and feel is deprivation, impoverishment, and misery. But awaiting us is the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. “Knowing Christ” is a summary phrase for all that we receive when we establish a relationship to Jesus Christ. When we become friends, or when we get married, the relationship itself is a gift of surpassing value. But the relationship brings with it other gifts, as well. Vitality and pleasure come into our life. With Christ, we also receive the gift of “the upward call of God...” This call is not an added duty to our life. It is the one demand that determines the way we fulfill all our other responsibilities to others, and even to ourselves. The cost of excellence is letting go.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 86 - We Aim To Please!

John 8:29 (NKJV) ²⁹ And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”

Ephesians 5:1-4, 6-8 (NIV) ¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; ²and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. ³But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; ⁴and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. ⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ⁷Therefore do not be partakers with them; ⁸for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light

Paul is not being a prude about crudeness – immorality and impurity and greed – but rather is saying that this crudeness acts as a kind of anesthesia of the soul and darkens our sensitivities to a life that is pleasing to God and pleasurable to ourselves. Is crudeness seeping into our lives as a false belief about God that hinders us from copying Him as God’s children?

There is help, and it comes from being a part of those who walk as children of the Light. We are products of our environment. We receive our language, our values, and our coping skills from those around us. The company we keep does make a difference, and we need a community where goodness, righteousness, and truth are practiced. We are helped toward Christian excellence by the surrounding support of people who are genuinely seeking to walk as children of the light, and where there is a commitment to trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

When we replace people-pleasing with God-pleasing we put our emotional well-being into the hands of One proven absolutely trustworthy. God keeps balance in our taking care of others and ourselves, allowing love to grow. When we try to learn what is pleasing to God we learn how to walk into a situation awake and aware of what God may require us to say and do, or what God may require that we not say or do. When we are trying to learn what is pleasing to God, we sense signals that allow us to respond in ways that are appropriate and fitting. We know when to confront, and when to comfort. That is what gave Jesus His first-class style, “for I always do those things that please Him.”

We are helped toward Christian excellence by our commitment of trying to learn what is pleasing to God. It is not striving to be people without faults and flaws. We are talking about being pleasing to a God whose love is so bright, whose plan is so right, and who has a hold on us so tight that He shines through our flaws and our faults with a Gracious Light.

Preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 22, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 85 - Excellent Service

Mark 10:42-45 (NIV) ⁴²Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

II Peter 1:3, 5-7 (NIV) ³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

Everyone is excellent at something. Our decisions about what we want to be excellent at doing are very important. We follow those decisions with time, dedication, and energy and they have a profound influence in shaping our lives.

Jesus says be excellent at serving. We have often heard this command to be a servant, and with it Jesus sets up a cycle of excellence. Serving others breaks the bond of blatant self-centeredness, which brings a death to the spirit long before it affects the body. Service pushes us out of that tiny world of self. Serving also breaks the bond of benign self-centeredness which is harder to recognize but can be equally as destructive. It is a kind of self-centeredness that develops when we focus our attention and energies on the self that we are seeking to improve.

But, as we focus our attention on serving others for Christ’s sake, something else begins to happen. We begin to receive those gifts that we need to be Christ’s servant, granted these gifts for God’s glory and for our excellence. We are given the gifts of Christ’s life that we might use those gifts in the service of others: the gift of faith, or more accurately, faithfulness; “moral excellence,” which is hard to describe but easy to identify as the art of knowing how to treat others with a touch of class; knowledge, those moments of awakenings that reveal to us the truth about ourselves, another person, about God, or what life is really all about. Self-control is probably one of the more misunderstood gifts of the spirit of Christ. We tend to think of it as stifling when it is really freeing. It is continuing to serve Christ despite personal upheaval in life. Perseverance and godliness are gifts of waiting it out with style. Godliness here means simply being sensitive to the work of God in a given situation.

These are not gifts that we strive for, try for, or seek to achieve for our life. These gifts are given as we serve, so that we may serve others with the life of Christ. Whatever our service may or may not accomplish for others, it moves us one step closer to Christian excellence, to that conforming of life to the life of God seen in Jesus Christ.

Preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 15, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 84 - Christian Excellence

Psalm 36:5-7 (NIV) ⁵ Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. ⁶ Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. ⁷ How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

I Peter 1:15-16 (NASB) ¹⁵but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; ¹⁶because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

The foundation for our understanding of “excellence” is to know that the Biblical word for excellence is “holy,” and refers first of all to God. Holy is the comprehensive word that sums up all that is excellent about God. In Scripture the words “holy” and “excellent” are virtually interchangeable.

For us, excellence is conforming our life to the excellence of God, especially as seen in Jesus Christ. That may seem like a tall order to fill, but consider for the moment that this command is preferable to what many may be trying to do today to attain excellence, trying to conform to the ideals of the culture. As Christians, we do not want to be dancing to the expectations of the culture around us. We want to keep our sight steady on the excellence we see in Jesus and our ear attuned to the specific call to conformity that He speaks.

One of the chief characteristics of the excellence of God is “hesed,” a Hebrew word meaning merciful, steadfast in love, or loving kindness. God’s loving kindness is seen in the fact that though we harden our hearts against God, God does not harden His heart against us. Though we fail God repeatedly, God does not give up on us.

People who have “hesed” make life good for others. You can depend on them to keep life human in the truest sense of that word. They are there when you need them and even when you reject them. They can give help when needed even if that help is nothing more than to respect the other person’s desire for privacy. When you talk to them you know they have spoken the truth to you in love, so it is easy to accept criticism or affirmation from their lips.

How many of us can say that we are “hesed” in all our behavior? Can you think of some moment in your life when you did something for someone, did it with no hope of a payoff, did it at some cost to yourself, but did it because you saw the need? Our ability to practice loving-kindness is a gift that comes from our own experience of God’s “hesed.”

Preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 83 - Winning the War

Luke 19:41-42 (NIV) ⁴¹As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴²and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

II Corinthians 10:1-6 (NASB) ¹Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ--I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! ²I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. ³For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, ⁴for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. ⁵We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, ⁶and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

One of the most important issues facing Christians today is learning how to fight in a Christian way, whether in our homes among family members, or in our world between nations. Paul is writing to a church in conflict, but what he says about winning the fight applies to every area of life where there is strife.

My first inclination was to denounce missiles, bombs, and guns, but those are not the weapons Paul refers to here. He is addressing the cause of conflict before we resort to weapons. Conflict and war literally begin in the heart and mind, and with weapons of the flesh: speculation, the rationalization used to convince people that something is worth fighting for; pride, which is every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God; and, thought, the fantasy that we can annihilate conflict. Paul says he is winning in the conflict because he does not rely on weapons of the flesh or world, but takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. This is an action and an attitude. The action is to present our solutions to conflict to Christ, hear His verdict, receive His correction, and on confirmation, further instruction.

It is a difficult discipline. Perhaps that is why Paul uses the stringent metaphor of the military. Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ is also an inner attitude of confidence that Christ has the power to capture for Himself the very center of our lives. Armed with the discipline of taking our solutions to Christ we resist rationalization. Armed with this weapon we also meet pride with humility, and can confront fantasy with the reality of our limited understanding and judgment. Ironically, as we accept those limitations, we are set free to live courageously and to love fearlessly. Armed only with every thought captive, we may appear weak, but don’t let appearances fool you.

Preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 1, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 82 - Testing, 1-2-3

From Genesis 22 (NIV) ¹ Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. ² Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" ⁸ Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." ^9b He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" ¹² "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." ¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.

Why did God demand that Abraham take his son and offer him as a sacrifice? Though this testing of Abraham may not fit our image of a loving God, the reasons for the testing are clearly stated when the angel of God suddenly appeared and countermanded the command, "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." To fear God is an ancient idiom meaning to put God first. A relationship requires the expression of what we already know to be true. So Abraham gives expression of his devotion to God, something that God wanted from Abraham and wants from you and me, as well.

The test of Abraham also speaks to the human tendency to let other people and things sneak to the head of the line in what is important in our life. It can be anything that we believe we have worked for, earned for ourselves, and that no one, not even God, has the right to take it from us. The only way we ever know that someone or something has not taken first priority in our life is when we are tested by God to let go.

“God will provide” was what Abraham told Isaac on their trip toward Moriah. This is the faith spoken of in Hebrews, confidence in the things we hope for, certainty about things we cannot see. No provision from God was in sight, but faith is a way of seeing beneath the surface appearance of things to know that there is always the hidden agenda of God’s work. This is not mere optimism or wishful thinking, but a confidence based on the things we have seen and heard of the death and resurrection of Jesus, of the working of God in our own lives and the lives of others in surprising ways.

Preached by Henry Dobbs Pope, June 11, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 81 - God Forbid

Genesis 2:15-17 (NIV) 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV) 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Did God want to keep Adam and Eve ignorant and innocent? Whatever God’s reason for this command to Adam and Eve, certainly the punishment does not seem to fit the crime. God appears to have given a foolish command and then to have taken drastic action over what seems to be a minor infraction of His rule.

Why did God forbid Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Certainly the reason was not to cheat them or deprive them of something they needed, for God had provided for their every need. Food to eat, work to do, intimacy between a man and a woman, companionship with God, life forever, and a tree that gave them freedom to choose, to bestow freedom and the ability to decide. Probably the most significant reason for the command is contained in the promise of the serpent to Eve, you will know good and evil without having to rely on God to teach you. You yourself can decide and declare what is good and what is evil independent of whatever God might say. And that is precisely what human beings have been trying to do ever since.

You will be like God is the promise and the deception, knowing good and evil without any need for knowing the will of God. God wants us to learn what is good and what is evil from Him, not independent of Him. This is the repeated theme of the Scriptures, whether God is calling Abrahm to leave the common culture of his day and to journey where God will teach him right from wrong, or the declaration of Moses and Jesus that we do not live by bread alone, but survive by listening to every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Our determination to decide and to declare what is good and evil apart from God explains the human propensity to make a mess of things. The good news is that our eyes and hearts can be opened and God will reveal to us what to do to repair the damage we have done and restore to us the life we have lost. When we begin to learn from God what is right and what is wrong we find our true freedom. We are set free from conformity to the prevailing fads, from pressure from our peers, from the confusion that engulfs our society. When we begin to learn from God what is right and what is wrong, the whole focus and goal of our life changes. We are no longer worried whether we are succeeding or failing, being liked or being disliked. Our one concern is whether or not we are fulfilling God’s purpose.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 4, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 80 - Uncommon Courtesy

Galatians 6:1, 9 (NIV) ¹Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. ⁹Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Titus 3:1-6 (RSV) ¹Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for any honest work, ² to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men. ³ For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; ⁴ but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, ⁶ which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior

Some people respond to our society’s vulgarities with righteous indignation, while 0thers respond with resignation. I believe we can change this growing callousness, but first we must not become a part of it by either indignation or resignation. In Titus, Paul writes to tell how to live as healthy people in a sick society. Don’t speak evil, covering everything from “bad mouthing people” and putting them down, to cursing them and spreading unnecessary news about them. Do not quarrel. Don’t join rank and file in this behavior. Instead, join your behavior to Christ, dealing with difficult people and tough situations with the soft touch. Be “gentle,” which many commentaries translate as “perfect courtesy.” Courtesy implies sensitivity to feelings of all people.

Paul says not to join yourself to the sick behavior you see around you, but join yourself to the healthy behavior you see in Jesus Christ. He reminds us of our own pasts and failures so that we might practice our Christian life with a sense of sympathy to those who are still bogged down in their present crudeness and vulgarities. He implies that as we practice Christian courtesy we conquer a little bit of our self-centeredness and ingratitude, and practice good confession. The mainspring of our courtesy is God’s behavior toward us. We have experienced the love of God who cared for us when we cared nothing for Him, who did not harden Himself against our hardened hearts but reached down and touched us with His mercy.

We hear a lot today about the need to work through our feelings. But I have found that it is probably more accurate to say that we need to let the Holy Spirit work in us to allow us to experience God’s renewing power. How do we live as healthy people in a society ever hardened, brutal, and less sensitive? We resist the rudeness around us. We give in to the rule within us.

Preached May 28, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 79 - Make A Run For It

Mark 1:14-15 (NIV) ¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Romans 7:21-25 (NIV) ²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

The meaning of the word repent implies that there is something we need to run from and something we need to run toward, and there is urgency in the word that the phrase “make a run for it” catches. We are to run from the wretchedness hidden in the heart of the most respectable person and run to the goodness of God. Repentance brings us into an awareness of God’s grace. Our life may be all wrong around the edges, but at the center, where only God knows us, we are loved, held, led, cared for and destined for the future He has for every child He claims as His. Repentance brings us into the presence of God, where we not only sample the goodness of God, we also discover something of the good work He is going to do in us, changing our life, enlightening our minds, molding our wills, and shaping our future.

How then do we repent? Obviously repentance is more than saying “I am sorry.” It is being genuinely sorry for our faults and failures toward God and toward one another. Part of repentance is a mystery. There are no buttons we can push to make it happen. There is no one plan to follow that guarantees repentance. Some are brought to repentance by the events of their life, both good and bad. Some are brought to repentance through a relationship to a special person or persons. Some are brought to repentance because one day the Gospel simply hits home.

We can cultivate a lifestyle that makes us ready for repentance. We can share with God our known failures, receive His forgiveness, and His friendship. We can give the day to Him in the morning and give thanks to Him at night. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to spend some time each day to turn our attention away from ourselves, away from all the cares and concerns that normally fill our mind and hearts, and focus our attention purely on God, allowing God to give Himself to us, and believing He is doing that, regardless of what we feel at the moment. We can be ready so that when the moment comes we can pour out life in repentance even as He has poured out His life in us.

Preached 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 78 - What If?

Isaiah 53:5 (NIV) 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Matthew 16:16-17, 21-23 (NIV) 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 21From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" 23Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

What might have happened if Peter had tried to be more persuasive with Jesus to change His plans? What if Peter had simply reminded Jesus of the good that Jesus had already done, not only for the sick and mentally ill, but also for the faith of the people of Israel, restoring their hope in God, inspiring them to love one another and treat one another fairly, both Jew and Gentile, male and female, the powerless and the powerful? What if Peter had pointed out to Jesus that there was so much more good to be done, so much yet to be taught and learned, so much more understanding needed for this new life in the kingdom of God? Why should Jesus risk losing it all by going to Jerusalem?

What if Peter and the disciples had proposed a plan to Pontius Pilate to soften the threat Jesus brought to the Roman government which would have allowed Jesus to continue to teach and be a peacemaker and a leader for social change? There might have been utopia – care for children, new synagogues built, a flourishing of education. Many of the things that make life better for people would have become realities, all because Jesus chose not to go to Jerusalem to suffer and to die. Jesus would have grown old, and the time would have come for Him to die of natural causes. After His death, the world probably would have returned to "normal", though many would remember with fondness those wonderful days while Jesus had lived.

Sometimes I think we assume that it was impossible for Jesus to make a wrong choice, that He was “wired” to always be right. Yet the Scriptures say He was tempted in every way we are. If that is so, then Jesus had no advantage over you and me. He had the same freedom of choice. He faced the same risks, the same limitations. He had to make His decision in the hope and conviction He was right but without any absolute guarantee.

Preached February 19, 1989

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 77 - What Makes Daniel, Daniel?

Daniel 9:1-4, 17-19 (NIV) ¹ In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom- ² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. ³ So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. ⁴I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, ¹⁷ "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. ¹⁸ Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. ¹⁹ O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name."

Is there some central behavior that makes Daniel, Daniel? A central behavior is consistent. It is the normal, natural way we act and react all the time. Daniel’s central behavior was his faithfulness to God, and is the way he remained true to God and God’s will despite the problems and pressures that faced him.

I assume that most of us want to do the same. We want to be faithful to God in all we do, despite the problems and pressures we face. We want to, but do we do it? Do we even understand what “being faithful” means as we face different problems and pressures? And when we do understand, do we find ourselves failing? Daniel’s behavior of always being true to God is the something that enabled him to be faithful.

In Daniel’s prayer we can see that belief was behind his behavior. Daniel believed God was faithful, and that God kept His promises. Do you believe God keeps His promises? Does it feel like God has been keeping His promise to you in all the ups and downs of your life? Daniel’s belief that God would keep His promise is an acquired confidence that came to him through Scripture reading, prayer, and fasting. We call these activities “spiritual disciplines,” the things we do to turn our attention toward God, and to orient our life around God.

I know we can go through the motions of Bible reading or worship without turning to God in our hearts, but we cannot turn to God in our heart without going through the motions of Bible reading and worship and the doing of some kind of spiritual activity. Spiritual discipline is what we do to regain our belief that God keeps His promise, to reorient our life around God, to get the information and the inspiration we need to be faithful to God despite all the problems and pressure we face.

Preached August 24, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 76 - I Had a Dream

Genesis 45:1b, 3-8, 50:20 (NIV) ^1b So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. ³ Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. ⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! ⁵ And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. ⁶ For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. ⁷ But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. ⁸ "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. (NKJV) ²⁰ But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

Genesis 44:33 (CEV) ³³Sir, I am your slave. Please let me stay here in place of Benjamin and let him return home with his brothers.

Have you ever been wronged? Betrayed? Treated cruelly and unfairly? And today when you think about the betrayal, the unjust abuse that you received, how do you feel? Are you free from the pain and resentment, or does it still eat away at you? If we sense that there is a plan and that God’s plan has been worked out in the ups and downs of life, it helps open the door to forgive those who have wronged us. Knowing that there is a plan opens the door to be a little more forgiving.

But, what if we don’t step through that door? What if we cannot find it in ourselves to forgive? Could it be that when we refuse to forgive, we lose a sense of God’s plan? Is the refusal to forgive is a denial that there is a plan? I state this in a question form because I am really not sure. And, yet, I know that when I hold on to anger, hurt, and disappointment, and try to be aware that God has a plan for my life it is like trying to concentrate when I have a headache. When we refuse to forgive, it can dull the awareness in our soul that God does have a plan.

Sensing that God has a plan for our life opens the door to forgiveness, and the thing that gets us through the door is God’s willing sacrifice for us. That sacrifice is sensed in Judah’s words to Joseph, and now sir, I will stay here as your slave in the place of the boy, that he might go free. A sense of plan and forgiveness work together, but both sit on a foundation of recognizing Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and accepting God’s forgiveness.

From a sermon by Henry Dobbs Pope June 1, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles