DAY 171 - Believing Is Seeing

John 5:20-24 (NASB) ²⁰"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.  ²¹"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. ²²"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, ²³so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. ²⁴"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Jesus says He has the knowledge and authority to tell us we are going to live, even after we die. And that knowledge, He says, invades the present.  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Those hearing Jesus’ words the first time did not think about judgment coming after they died. They felt the judgment right now. Judgment was already felt in the futile, oppressive life they were living under the yoke of Rome.

Judgment today is felt as a kind of on-going struggle against the tide of life, a kind of invisible wave that seems to roll against us, causing us to lose our balance, to lose sight of what is really important, to be overwhelmed by more problems and demands and responsibilities than we can handle. Some of us struggle with determination against the tide of judgment believing that somehow, someway we are going to beat it. We believe life is going to be better. We try our best. But something fails us. Our hopes and dreams for the future fall flat.

This tide of life is not a wave at all, but a wall. It is the wall of our own death, making itself felt, pushing us to frantic striving or to passive resignation, but pressuring us right now in one way or another. Once we simply become aware that life is a gift we can make a movement to life that becomes a perspective. We see people with compassion, we confront problems with promise, we feel rooted in the midst of change. We know that no failure is fatal and there is an awareness of a supporting presence that always proves stronger than the tide.

Believing without acceptance is null and void. Believing without action is mere wishful thinking. It is also true to say believing is seeing. We believe so we can see and receive this perspective of eternal life on all our life. There are rational arguments for acceptance of the Resurrection, but they convince only the mind. The heart is convinced by action, we can decide to care or to be callous. We can live with the risk of love or the protection of loneliness. We can act out of conviction or cave in to compromise. We are constantly deciding in favor of life or death with the kind of life we see in Jesus. We accept. We decide. We act. And we pass from judgment to life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 11, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 170 - That’ll Be The Day

From Zephaniah 1 (NIV) ¹The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah:  ⁷ Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near. ⁹ On that day I will punish all who avoid stepping on the threshold, who fill the temple of their gods with violence and deceit.  ¹⁴ The great day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly.

From Zephaniah 3 (NIV) ⁸ Therefore wait for me,” declares the LORD, “for the day I will stand up to testify. ¹¹ On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from you your arrogant boasters. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill. ¹² But I will leave within you the meek and humble. The remnant of Israel will trust in the name of the LORD.

What does the future hold for you? Will it be a dream come true – to finish school, find the right person to marry, becomes a success, reach retirement? As you look to the days ahead, does the future look promising and bright? Or do you see a lot of doom and gloom? Whatever we believe about the future has a profound effect on the way we think and feel and behave here and now.

The prophets in general and Zephaniah in particular spoke of the future as that day. The early church literally lived for the next thing God would do to accomplish His will and purpose for them and for His lost world. The words they spoke, the deeds they did, the prayers they prayed were all charged by a sense of God expectancy.

How do we view the future, and how does that view shape our life here and now? The most obvious way this belief shapes our life is to give us a sense of deep and abiding gratitude. We have a reason to believe that God will intervene in the future, because the intervention has already come in Jesus Christ. If you want to know what the future looks like, look at Jesus. Every time He makes a twisted body whole, opens the eyes of the blind, restores a relationship with forgiveness, confronts bigotry, breathes life into a dying body, the future is present. A preview is given that says, stay tuned and trust.

And the evidence given then is given now. A heart is touched, a life is changed, our self-centeredness is frustrated, the veil that hides God from our experience is temporarily lifted and the truth dawns on us. We see the future in events. We feel the future within and we know that day is a sure thing. The moment of seeing and experiencing a small bit of that day keeps us going through the moments when everything in us and around us say that any hope we may have had for the future is now null and void. Those moments and evidence of that day await us now and in the days ahead.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 21, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 169 - Get A Move On!

John 1:14 (NASB) ¹⁴And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

II Peter 3:14-18 (NASB)  ¹⁴Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, ¹⁵and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, ¹⁶as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. ¹⁷You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, ¹⁸but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

We are a people who seem to be obsessed with growth and development, assuming that that road to happiness is a march ever onward and upward to a better life. So when we talk about Christian growth it is easy to picture growth as our becoming a better and better person, or as climbing a ladder of goodness that reaches closer and closer to heaven. Unfortunately, most of us know that is not necessarily so. A Christian is someone who has committed their life to Jesus Christ and whose goal in life is to be like Jesus. Theologically, Christian growth is called sanctification, a good word, but its meaning is obscured by language changes in recent years.

In Scripture, growth is often pictured as a journey. The first words that Jesus said to the disciples were follow me. Peter did that. It is hard to say that he became a better person, but he was different. He had changed because he had accepted the invitation to follow Jesus. Growth is every step we take in that direction, noting the importance of having a direction to our life.

I’m not sure we can always know when we’re on the right track. Obviously, no halo is going to grow over our head. But there are some inward signs and outward markers along the way that help us to know that we are still moving in the right direction. Grace is an inner awareness that we are living in harmony with the life of Jesus. Grow in grace, Peter says, and in the knowledge of our Lord  and Savior Jesus Christ. Knowledge can mean an intimate sharing of our life with another person, but here it seems to mean learning about someone. Before there can be a sharing of life there has to be a time of learning about Jesus. Growth takes perseverance. We receive experiences of God’s grace that encourage us but sometimes those experiences are in short supply. So Peter warns us beware…lest you be carried away and lose your steadfastness.  Steadfast means we stay with it and we continue daily and regularly. I know of nothing that makes it easy, yet I know of nothing that pays so rich a dividend for our life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 31, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 168 - A Wait And See Attitude

Habakkuk 1:2 (NIV) How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

Habakkuk 2:1-4 (NIV)  ¹ I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. ² Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. ³ For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. ⁴ “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—

It is easy to sympathize with Habakkuk’s rage. How long, O LORD? Wait, God says, for it is not yet time to intervene. And if we are honest, many of us would reply that we don’t want to wait. Waiting in the grocery line is an irritation, waiting for a slow driver is infuriating. Wait, God says. It may not be in our nature, but it is in God’s, and God knows when the time is right.

Sometimes God’s timing seems to ignore our concerns. But this is only temporary and God has reasons. Will we trust in the meantime? We are called to wait in a spirit of trust, but not blind trust. Wait and watch, God says. Sometimes we have to ignore the visible data before our eyes that we might see the evidence God gives. Watch, and we will see that sin sows the seeds of its own destruction. Tyranny is suicidal. Watch and we will see truth holding true even if it is presently hidden from sight. Watch and we will also see God sowing seeds of life. Sometimes in our rush and anguish to help, we may dig up the seeds of life that God is planting and nurturing in His own way.

Wait and watch is the command. And the promise is the righteous will live by faith, with an ongoing trust and confidence in God. Trust prepares us for God’s work. Waiting and watching in a spirit of trust delivers us from complaints and deadening demands. Waiting in a spirit of trust reminds us that we need God.

As we wait, God fashions in our souls a gift. As we exercise the muscles of postponed answers and delayed knowledge, as we grow accustomed to seeing the evidence God gives, we develop the gift of discernment. Discernment is the ability to see the truth of God beneath the appearance of things. It is hearing the difference between what is real and what is just talk, between what needs action now and what can wait until a more opportune time, between the words best said and the words best left unsaid. Discernment can catch the details that others might miss and can ignore loud blaring of evidence that everyone else is screaming about. Discernment can distinguish between when it is time to comfort and time to confront. Discernment can do all of this and allow us to let in and live with the pain that everyone else is trying to shut out. As it was with Jesus, so it sometimes must be for us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 7, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 167 - Only Believe

Mark 5:38-42 (NRSV)  ³⁸They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. ³⁹And entering in, He said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." ⁴⁰They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child's father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. ⁴¹Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, "Talitha kum!" (which translated means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). ⁴²Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old.

Romans 10:8b-11 (NRSV) 8bTHE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, ⁹that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  ¹¹For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED

Sometimes we give the impression that being a Christian means we agree that certain statements are true. This impression is not all wrong, but it is only half true. When Christianity is reduced to agreement on certain ideas, a distortion has taken place. Before Christianity is an agreement, it is a commitment. Mostly Christianity is accepting the open invitation of Jesus to only believe.

It is a straightforward kind of invitation, and whenever and however Jesus issues the invitation He is asking us to place our confidence in Him. Only believe. Try out some trust. Experiment with some obedience and see for yourself what will happen. Only believe…confess with your lips. We are called to a confidence in Jesus Christ inwardly and outwardly. It is a confidence that must constantly confront the appearance of things. It is a confidence that must move steadily through the storm of emotion and the tempest of changing circumstance when Jesus does not appear to be LORD at all.

Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died but is asleep. Things are not as they appear, and at no time have things appeared to be so wrong, so lost, so devastated, so destroyed as when Jesus died on the Cross. We maintain our confidence against the appearance of things because we have a reason to. We have evidence that contradicts the present appearance of things. Our confidence is not wishful thinking. We do not have to muster up confidence in ourselves because we are by nature optimistic people. Our confidence is based on evidence that we believe is truer and stronger than the present appearance of things.

Jesus is LORD…God raised Him for the dead.  True or false? The question cannot be answered with our minds alone. It can be answered only by a decision of the will and the wager of our lives to live only believing.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 166 - The Proof of Love

Malachi 1:1-7  (NRSV) 1 An oracle. The word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.^* 2 I have loved you, says the Lord.

Malachi 3:10-11, 16-17 (NRSV) ¹⁰Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. ¹¹I will rebuke the locust^* for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. ¹⁶ The Lord took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the Lord and thought on his name. ¹⁷They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them.

I have loved you, says the Lord. And how do we answer? Has the blight of indifference crept up and over us? We hear the words over and over again, “God loves you, God loves you, God loves…” The words sound so good, so promising, and so empty. Do we, like the people of Israel, long for some proof of God’s love?

The gift of life is a basic bit of evidence that we all have of God’s love for us. And most of us have more. We also have the gift of people who have cared for us and made life immeasurably richer for their having been a part of our life, nourishing our gift of life with praise and patience, with compassion and correction, with guidance and grace. And we have the gift of God’s Son, His declaration of love for us on the Cross and from the Empty Tomb. He has saved us and is saving us still from the lostness and the darkness and the folly of our ways, and will still be present to save us when the final darkness falls.

This is some of the evidence we share in common. And I believe most all of us could tell of some special evidence God has given us of His love. But sometimes that evidence, no matter how grand, seems to get a little tattered and torn. God has given evidence and promises to continue to give evidence. Past evidence is good, but we cannot nourish today’s love on yesterday’s diet. But, do we wonder about God’s love because we have wandered away from God’s will?

Whatever else we may have learned about love, we have learned it is not all sunshine and roses. There is rain and manure that has to be endured so that love can be nourished and live. Romance may lead the way, but love calls us to accountability. And that is why we may prefer to shy away from any notion of God loving us. It is not because we lack evidence of God’s love, but rather we lack the willingness to be held accountable to that love which lifts us to the question of if we are being faithful to Jesus. For those who want to know grandeur of love marriage is needed, for in marriage we make ourselves accountable to the one who gives us the gift of love. And accountability is what God wants from us, that He might continue to give to us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 14, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 165 - Right or Wrong?

Judges 21:25 (NIV)  ²⁵ In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

John 17:13-21 (KJV) ¹³And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. ¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ¹⁸As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. ²⁰Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ²¹That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Moral absolutes are objective laws for right living that apply to all people, all times, and all places under all circumstances. They are necessary for the survival of a society. To say there are no moral absolutes is to believe there are no real rules.

We have often failed to live up to the moral rules. We have often disagreed about what the rules should be. Rules are objectively real. Values are subjective. But, there is a Creator God who has a plan and design for human life. God allows plenty of room for values, but has set down some laws that are right. The rules are right because they are from God. They may appear wise or foolish. They may appear hurtful or helpful. They may appear restrictive or permissive. But appearances are deceiving.

Thy word is truth, Jesus affirms, whether known or unknown, obeyed or ignored. All of that may sound like the old legalism and perhaps would be except that the words were spoken by Jesus. Thy word is truth, and thy word is Jesus. Can you feel the difference when the words are said, thy word is truth, and “thy word is Jesus?” Before the rules are laws, they are a person. We understand what is right by looking and listening to Jesus. We understand what is loving by looking and listening to Jesus. We understand what is just by looking and listening to Jesus, to the Jesus present in Scripture and presented to us through the Church.

I have given them thy word, and the “them” is us, fumbling, bumbling people like you and me who fit right in with the people Jesus called to His side and then who are sent to represent Him and His truth.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 26, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 164 - I Find That Hard To Accept

Acts 2:22-24, 38 (NIV) ²² “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. ²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. ³⁶ “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” ³⁷ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” ³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Cross was not merely the work of the people around it, nor the power of evil behind it. The Cross was also the work of God. How can the Cross be the result of the plotting of sinful people and the plan of God? It is hard to understand.

But, understanding is not what Peter is calling for as he speaks to us through his words to the people of Jerusalem. Acceptance is what Peter is calling for, acceptance of the truth about God and about ourselves. Is it not true that we want a God who will make things right when life goes wrong? When our plans for the future fall through?

God is not indifferent to our prayer, but God does not bend His will to fulfill our wishful thinking. As we come up against that God who does not bend we realize in the depths that we have come up against One who is real and good and true. The good news about God is that we find God not only in the joyous experiences of life and the blessings of health and prosperity. The good news is that in addition to these obvious tokens of God’s goodness, life’s crucifixions are as much a part of God’s good will as the sunshine. The day of Jesus’ death is called “Good Friday.” The good is only that Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined plan of God.

In whatever is happening, God is at work in it, behind it, and through it to do and accomplish His purpose for us as well. That is the truth about God that we are called to accept and to trust, for trust is not merely a matter of a grim endurance in life’s hardships. Trust is actively believing that beneath the surface of what we see there is more. There is God. Trust is believing against all evidence to the contrary and against the present appearance of things that God is love.

If we find that hard to believe it may be because we are harder than the events that happen to us. The Cross declares that God is not only present and at work in the bad events of life, He is also at work in the bad in you and me, and that is our greatest hope.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 12,1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 163 - Broken or Blessed?

Psalm 34:5-7, 17-18 (NRSV) ⁵They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. ⁶This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles. ⁷The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. ¹⁷Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. ¹⁸Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.  

Matthew 5:1-3 (NRSV) ¹When Jesus^* saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: ³ ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Our commitment to self-reliance often leaves the door open and allows pride, arrogance, and haughtiness to slip in, dressed in a garb of respectability. With the politeness of a gentleman outlaw, pride robs us and deprives us of being blessed.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus said. His message was not new. The Psalmist had said the poor call on God and God saves them from all their troubles, the prophets proclaimed it. Blessed is your knowing you have to have help to survive, to recognize your dependence on someone else and to know this as a gift. 

Poverty of spirit is recognizing our need for help and acknowledging our dependence on God. It is willingness to accept help as God offers it and not as we demand it. Poverty of spirit is the gift of acceptance, accepting the good and the bad that happen to us all as useful in God’s plans. It is accepting the limits of our power and control and accepting the responsibilities God gives. Poverty of spirit is remembering that we earn nothing but we receive much as we use the gifts and opportunities God gives us. Or maybe the simplest way to put it is that poverty of spirit means that we have been robbed of our pride and deprived of our arrogance so we are more supple and pliable people.

“Theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said. The poor in spirit know the sovereign rule of God in all that happens. We do not understand the mystery as it unfolds, but we know that the God who can be at work in the bleakness of the Cross can be at work in anything that happens, and in the end does rule. Jesus is the example of what He teaches. Without worry or haste He accomplished the work God gave Him to do and left the rest to someone else.

Poverty of spirit frees us from the pride that robs us of life’s deepest satisfaction, and allows us to experience the wonder and the bounty of God’s sovereign rule. Daily annoyances and irritations can make us bristle or they can break our egotistical ways. Every time the ego breaks a little of God’s laughter, relief, and joy are let in. Thanking God is the easiest way we have to remember who is in charge. Pride finds it hard to live in an atmosphere of thanksgiving. I do not believe pride can rob a grateful person. When we give thanks we always undermine pride’s power.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 3, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 162 - Peacemakers or Troublemakers?

Matthew 5:9 (NIV) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

From James 4 (NRSV) What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?  You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

We want to be peacemakers. Why then do we act so often like troublemakers? James tells us what keeps us from being peacemakers:  You lust and do not have.  A lust is a driving desire, a passion that seems to know no boundary. It literally means to overreach. It describes people who are inwardly disturbed by their desire and who blindly bump into others in the futile search to satisfy their wants. But, we do not always call these driving desires “lusts” or “passions.” We call them our “rights.” It is the way we legitimize our lust, and the winds of conflict begin to blow.

Of course, we do not need other people to have conflict. There is a force within us that seems to keep us stirred up and at odds even with ourselves. James says it is like we have been invaded by a foreign army that is waging war within us. The world tells us we can have peace if we will just exercise some control over others or over ourselves. If we can just make people do what they are supposed to do and what we want them to do, then peace will come is the promise the world whispers to our soul. No, James says, control will not give us peace. The only thing that will give us peace is surrender. Submit therefore to God. Give in to His work and His rule. Do this despite what you may be thinking or feeling, and you will receive God’s peace and become an ambassador of His peace.

One way we submit to God is by trusting Him. Trust replaces control with confidence and with wisdom. Another way we submit to God is to humble ourselves in the presence of God. Humility may be the most important contribution that Christians can make to peace at every level. Humility, rooted in trust, has the courage to acknowledge that the enemy may be as much in us as it is in others.  There is that sinking feeling that sometimes comes with trust, though, and that wondering if we’re doing the right things. Will God come through?

Peacemakers have a sense of belonging that rejection cannot take from them, a sense of worth that cannot be learned in a class on self-esteem. Their belonging and worth come from a sense of doing the work of God, for it was the work of the Prince of Peace to absorb the hostility of the world into His body on the cross, and bring peace.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 14, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 161 - How’s Your Appetite?

Isaiah 55:1-2 (NIV)  “Come, all you who are thirsty,  come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Matthew 5:6 (NIV)   Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. The point is: Jesus blessed a need, not those who are righteous, but those who know their need and hunger for it. The blessing does not come to the self-satisfied achiever who is happy and content in all that they have accomplished.

Jesus confronts a prevailing heresy of our day. The heresy says that happiness depends on having. It is the belief that we will be happy when our wishes and desires have been met. Even finding our wishes and desires met, and then finding they do not make us happy does not seem to deter this persistent belief. I hear Jesus saying blessed are you when you have the right kind of hunger. Blessed are you when you recognize your inner emptiness. Blessed are you when you feel that hole in the soul that nothing has been able to satisfy. Blessed are you when you are successful and still feel your hunger. Blessed are you when you have failed and your failure has brought your real need to the surface, the kind of need God can work with. Jesus claims He can meet that need.

Perhaps the Good News for many of us today is not simply that Jesus satisfies our need, but that He makes us aware of our need to begin with. He awakens us from that slumber of soul that is slowly and most assuredly robbing us of life. The early church said that pride is the most deadly sin and sloth the most dangerous. This stupor of spirit is a necessary pre-condition for all other evils and undoings to creep into our life.

If Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst, it must be because this is His work in our life as well, to stir up the right kind of desire in us, to awaken us from the slumber that kills, to kindle in us a hunger that He alone can and will satisfy.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 31, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 160 - 100% Pure

Psalm 51:1-4, 10-12 (NIV) ¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. ² Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. ³ For I know my transgressions,  and my sin is always before me. ⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.  ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Matthew 15:18-19, 5:8  (NIV) ¹⁸ But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The heart is the control center of our life. It regulates our thinking, feeling, and acting. Spiritual purity and moral purity are so intertwined that if we try to pull them apart we do serious damage to our life. King David gives us hope. David had lost something of that big-hearted goodness that had brought him such great benefit, but he knew and believed his purity could be restored and he cried out to God to have compassionate mercy on him. God answered David’s prayers. David would pay for what he did, but he would not be cast off from and abandoned by God. He would still be an object of God’s care and love.

The good news is that purity, morally and spiritually, is first, foremost, and forever a gift of God, and what our failure has taken from us God will give back. Rules alone about sex, honesty, truthfulness, fair treatment of people, even the well-known “golden rule” will not make us pure. At best they can only cover us with the perfume of goodness. These rules cannot reach the Heart of the matter.

Purity is a gift from God and it is found by those willing to expose their life to the gift. We do that in the same way David did, by confessing our sin as best we understand. The Greek word for pure is “catharsis.” Most of us are familiar with the word, a kind of shake down of the soul that removes the junk and leaves us renewed and refreshed. If the gift of purity is to come to us, there is no escaping the truth that some of the things we hold dear will have to go. They have to be removed and we need to let go.

Purity cuts out the dross that looks like gold, and the time comes when we recognize that our loss is gain. Where others see only random events happening, the pure see the plan of God unfolding. Where others see pain, the pure see a Presence. Where others see fate, the pure see God’s future. Where others see a pitiful excuse for a human being, the pure see a child of God. You know the kind of person I am talking about. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 7, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 159 - Happy Sorrow

Matthew 5:1-2, 4 (NASB)   ¹When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. ²He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, ⁴"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

II Corinthians 7:9-11a (NIV) ⁹ yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. ¹⁰ Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. ¹¹ See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.

When Jesus said blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, He was not congratulating us on our misery but rather performing a kind of surgery for our soul. Surgery is seldom desired or attractive until we consider the options. One option to mourning is to avoid sadness and pain as much as possible, at which many people think they are very successful. But, one problem with avoidance is that it does not work.  The other problem with avoidance is that is does work. We successfully shut out the pain, but then experience the resulting condition of depression. Another option to mourning is “moaning.” If life doesn’t treat us right, we fuss and complain. Paul calls this “worldly sorrow.” He says it is deadly to mind, body, and spirit.

Paul says there is another kind of sorrow, the kind of which Jesus spoke – Godly sorrow that produces repentance. Blessed are those who mourn.  Mourning is feeling the pain of loss. Jesus is called a man of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief. He mourned His losses. He mourned the loss of Lazarus. He also grieved over the loss that sin causes, and will grieve until we wake up, see and feel the pain, and turn again to God. Do we mourn our sin? We may confess it, but it is hard, sometimes seemingly impossible for us to feel sorrowful for our sin.

They shall be comforted. They shall receive the gift of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Comfort is more than the easing of pain, though that is a real and important part of the comfort God gives. Comfort also means to strengthen, and that is the kind of comfort Jesus promises. It is a strengthening of the heart and a deepening of our roots in the love and mercy of God. When loss happens, whether the loss of someone we love or of our own failing, we remember that we are frail and fragile. Mourning gives a comfort that makes us more awake, aware, and appreciative. We are less likely to take the smallest gift for granted, to live in complacency or in uncaring ways.

Mourning also reminds us of the limits of life. It keeps us from inflated ideas of our control over life. Blessed are those who mourn, for they are the ones who will know the beauty and strength of the comfort offered in Jesus Christ.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 10, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 158 - Heaven Help Us

John 1:9, 11-14, 17 (NRSV)  ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.^{* 11}He came to what was his own,^* and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^* full of grace and truth. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 5:24 (NIV) ²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Jesus does not answer all our questions about life after death. Much of the mystery remains, but we can believe Jesus has told us and shown us what we need to know. Eternal life is found by truthful living. Truthful living means betting our life that Jesus is right. It means pursuing our way through this world in accordance with His directions, living out of a sense of trust and obedience. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ, the true Light … that enlightens everyone.

Have you had the experience of being grasped by the truth, of finding direction for your life in some unexpected way, of having a higher wisdom overrule what you would normally do, of having an answer given to you when you had all but given up? It can happen in a moment of beauty or of pain, in the midst of a busy day or in absolute solitude, and we know our life has been touched with the truth. The truth of Jesus often comes to us as an unexpected guest, but it never comes as a complete stranger. Truthful living is offered to everyone as a gift, but not everyone accepts or desires that gift. Why the refusal when acceptance could bring only good? It is because our commitment to self-will runs deep. I suspect that we can look upon the love of God and still turn our backs, still live in the shadow of self-deceit, and still bring harm to ourselves and even to those we love. We have a choice. We can and we do refuse the truth that gives us life.

In regularly obeying the truth we find in Jesus we find what John calls the true life. We can be pouting, fussing, complaining, rightfully angry, shading the truth in our relationships, or simply ignoring the truth in order to save something when all the while we know that the truth is what is needed most for our own spiritual health. It is scary to consider how many chances we have each day to refuse the true light, but it is hopeful to realize how many opportunities are ours to accept the true light and to make decisions according to the light Christ gives, generously and abundantly.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 26, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 157 - If God Is Against Us, Who Is For Us?

Luke 18:31-34 (NASB) ³¹Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. ³²"For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, ³³and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again." 

Philippians 3:18-20 (NIV) ¹⁸ For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ

Are we willing to consider the death of Jesus from the perspective of His enemies? The Sanhedrin, the ruling body in Jerusalem, and officials of the Roman government cooperated to bring about the death of Jesus, and they did so for the same reason. They viewed Jesus as a threat, not a threat to their life, but a threat to what they wanted in life.

As for Pontius Pilate, he was not about to sacrifice his career to save a teacher from the sticks. Do we know how he felt? Do we know feelings in the pit of our stomachs, sleepless nights and troubling thoughts racing through our head and heart? If we have never been threatened in this way we may not be able to stand in his shoes. But if we have known that kind of threat we can understand the actions and reactions. To us, the actions of the Sanhedrin and Pilate may seem senseless and unjust. But in a way the enemies of Jesus may have seen and understood Him more clearly and correctly than those of us who call ourselves Christians. If we see Jesus as a threat we may kill Him in a more sophisticated way as we try to tame His claim.

Do we experience Jesus as a threat to our life? Does He confront us, disturb us, and annoy us so that we would rather avoid Him? The Apostle Paul has warned those who find Christ accommodating, those who wallow in self-indulgence and twist the Gospel to suit themselves. We need to know Jesus as an Enemy, an Enemy who is for us. He is the Enemy of everything that is wrong and destructive in our life. It is as if God has said to us in Jesus, “Life is a wrestling match, and I am your opponent. I am the One who haunts you until you face up to your weakness, your failure, your rebellion, and your limitations.” All of this hounding is born of a love that will not let go and will not settle for less than God’s perfect desire for you. Is it true to say that if we have not known Jesus as a personal threat we have never known Him at all? Have you had this kind of encounter with the crucified, living Christ?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 22, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 156 - Rest

Genesis 2:3  (NRSV) Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB) ²⁸"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  ²⁹"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. ³⁰ "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

“Rest” literally means to cease or to put a stop to, to be at ease. But the literal definition only hints at the meaning. It is in seeing the way the word is used throughout Scripture that we see what “rest” means and what is promised. Rest is what the people of Israel were promised in the Promised Land, but the history of Israel is anything but a life of ease. Rest is also what Jesus promised those who turned to Him. Again, something more than ease is meant.

Sabbath rest is not about merely stopping work, but stopping to remember. To remember God’s sovereignty over our lives, to remember God’s calling us away from the destructive bent in human life, to remember God’s promise to us, and to remember that this is God’s will for all people. Work is good. The world, as God created it, is good. But if that is all we are surviving on it is like cotton candy to the digestive system. It gives a momentary lift, but does not nourish, does not last, does not satisfy, and simply leaves us thirsting for something else.

That is what Genesis claims. We will never find the good life if we seek it only in wealth, health, religion, relationship, or anything else the world may offer. Those who find the good life seem to have one thing in common. They do not find the good life in the circumstances of their life. All of that may have a place, but not a priority. The priority has something to do with God. Their faith is the foundational fact of their life.

Sabbath rest means that we are to remember that our life is not about what we are about for six days of the week, but rather what we are about on the seventh day, the Sabbath, when we recall what God has done for us and what we do in gratitude and commitment to God. The Good Life is this truth that we need regularly to remember and to receive, for the Good Life is ultimately not something we can work to achieve. It can be received only in gratitude and lived out in faithfulness. As one Rabbi has said it, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.”

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 26, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 155 - A Genuine Imitation

Genesis 1:25-27  (NRSV) ²⁵God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind^* in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,^* and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ ²⁷ So God created humankind^* in his image, in the image of God he created them;^* male and female he created them.

In the culture surrounding Israel was the belief that people were little better than animals. But during the same times, there were kings and rulers who claimed, and often were considered, to be gods. God says we are more than an animal that needs to be trained, more than a beast at the mercy of our desires. We need pleasure. We need possessions, but we need more. We can raise our prayer higher than the desire to be a healthy animal. Pray instead, “Restore my soul.” Though God also says we are not gods either, do we indulge in god-like behavior in our homes and the places where we work, announcing our absolute judgment with absolute certainty on every issue and person around?

To be human is to be created in the image of God. The image of God does not mean that we physically look like God, though the body is said to glorify God. The image of God means that as God is Spirit, we are Spirit, We were created to have a relationship with God, to have dominion over the earth. God rules the Universe but has committed the earth to our care, to rule over it as stewards of God’s will. The image of God means we have been given the gift of God’s wisdom, power, and authority to fulfill our responsibility. And above all, the image of God means that we are here to represent the thoughts, the feelings, the attitudes, and action of God in our daily lives.

People found themselves immensely helped and supported in this responsibility when they met a man named Jesus. The image of God means we are to represent God’s will as that will has been made known in the person of Jesus Christ. We are human, created to represent the life and will of God. That is the purpose of our life. It is a life-time task, to discover how we can represent God and what specifically we are being called to do, but it is also the one task that is worth our life. For some of us that task may seem too big and too vague. For others it may seem too small and unappealing. But those who have accepted it know it is the only purpose that seems to fit. It is the one purpose that brings any measure of fulfillment to life.

Are you an authentic human being? Do you have a sense of living with a deeply felt purpose or do you feel you are simply pretending at life. If we are living in God’s image it will make our lives full rather than flat, rich rather than shallow, alive rather than simply going through the motions.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 12, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 154 - Let’s Make a Deal!

From Genesis 2 (NRSV) ⁹Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.15 ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat...’

Matthew 26: 26-28  (NRSV)  ²⁶While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ ²⁷Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸for this is my blood of the^* covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Here’s the deal, the covenant of the God of Eden: eat freely of the tree of life. Eat. That’s what it’s here for. Eat. That is what God wants us to do. In the Old Testament the tree of life is the promise of the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. A place where all needs will be met. In the New Testament, the tree of life is the promise of the Kingdom of God, the life Jesus came to give. In the book of Revelation, John tells of this life: and on each side of the river was a tree of life … and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.  The tree of life is a summary and a symbol of all God provides so that we might have the life He wants for us. The tree of life is that abundance of God’s provision to us.

If God so provides, it also means that we are dependent on His provision. From the first breath we take to the last, we are made and meant to depend on God and to trust Him to give us what we need. God may provide for us through the work of our minds and hands, through money we receive, through other people. But the word is always, through and not from. We receive from God through these channels of His gifts of work, money and people. God wants us to live with awareness of His generosity toward us and of our dependence on Him.

For some of us, our daily dependence on God is so much a part of the way we think, feel, and act that all we need is a an occasional reminder to acknowledge that dependence. For others, that sense of dependence somehow gets lost from our mind and heart in the daily activities of our lives and needs to be recovered. Recovery comes to us as a moment of recognition and revelation when we realize our vulnerabilities to storms within and storms without, and realize our need for the help that only God can offer.

We recover an awareness of God’s provision and our dependence by obedience. The Lord God commanded that we eat freely of the Tree of Life. And taking bread and breaking it Jesus said, “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.” Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and said “Drink from it. All of you. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” In Him we find the Tree of Life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 5, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 153 - Jesus On The Road To Emmaus

Luke 24:13-21, 28-31 (NIV) ¹³ Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶ but they were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”  They stood still, their faces downcast. ¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”   ¹⁹ “What things?” he asked.   “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰ The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹ but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.  ²⁸ As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. ²⁹ But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.  ³⁰ When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

Sometimes it looked like Jesus almost had a habit of disappointing people. The people of Israel had hoped He would heal them of all their diseases, and Jesus did heal many of the diseases. But He would withdraw from healing their disease that He might preach the gospel. And in the distance we can hear someone saying “But I had hoped He would heal me.” On another occasion Jesus fed a crowd of 5,000. Here was one who would relieve them of one of life’s most basic worries. But, Jesus withdrew and went across the Sea of Galilee.

Have you even been disappointed in Jesus? Have you ever prayed and prayed and nothing seemed to happen? Have you asked God for help with a problem and received no solutions? Have you hoped that Jesus would lead you into a rich and fulfilling life and all you have gotten is one struggle after the other?

Of all the disappointments in life, disappointment in God is the most shattering. To be disappointed in God is to feel that God is not really in charge. God really does not care. God really cannot be trusted. For a while on the travels to Emmaus, Jesus is present but unseen. Sometimes faith is simply a matter of staying on the road when Jesus seems absent. We believe God is in control and God cares even when it does not appear that way. This is a raw faith, a bare knuckles faith, but a faith that helps us.

Jesus does not abandon us on the road to Emmaus. Jesus does not leave us to live by this unproven faith. He moves in along beside us. For this is the work of faith, to stab our dull spirits awake to see and to sense the presence of Christ with us. So the two people and Jesus come to Emmaus. They invite Jesus in. They prepare to have supper. Jesus took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

 

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 4, 2000

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 152 - In the Cross of Christ I Glory

From John 12 (NRSV) ²³Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.  ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ ²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ ³⁰Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people27^* to myself.’ ³³He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Glory is that moment of awareness when we see and sense the reality of God. It is that moment when the veil that seems to hide God parts and we experience a moment of glory. Jesus is saying that in His death people will see and sense the presence of God in a way they have not seen or sensed it in His teaching or His miracles or in anything else. In His death people will experience the presence of God, will experience glory. How can this be? Why would His death reveal God?

We can give the explanations of love poured out for us, God’s judgment on our sin, God’s forgiveness of our sin, the beginning of eternal life. But with explanations all we have are explanations. The explanations do not give the experience of glory. They do not provide us with the experience of God’s presence.  That comes in a moment of being touched by the awesome love of God. We do not explain glory. We experience it.

Unless a grain of wheat dies… We see the glory of God in the death of Jesus. And the key to seeing the glory of God in the death of Jesus is this: Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus is talking about self-denial. Self-denial is not simply the effort at self-control, not some kind of rigid restraint we put on our life. Self-denial is holding on to God’s yes to us in Jesus and saying “no” to self. Self-denial is the laying down of the burden of needing to get our own way. Self-denial is letting go of the need for things to go our way, and is a submitted willingness to God.

Self-denial is not easy. Even Jesus wrestled with it as He faced the need to deny Himself and accept the Cross. Self-denial is difficult. Self-denial can be difficult and can be a struggle, but just beyond the struggle is the glory, the glory of eternal life in the presence of God.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 9, 2000

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles