DAY 226 - Purpose of Praise

Psalm 116:1-5, 7-9, 12-14, (NIV) ¹ I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. ² Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. ³ The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow. ⁴ Then I called on the name of the LORD:  “LORD, save me!” ⁵ The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.  ⁷ Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. ⁸ For you, LORD, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, ⁹ that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.  ¹² What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me? ¹³ I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. ¹⁴ I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. ¹⁷ I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD. ¹⁸ I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, ¹⁹ in the courts of the house of the LORD— in your midst, Jerusalem.  Praise the LORD.

Ephesians 1:3 (NIV)  ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 

What makes the difference between a faith that stays and one that fades, between a commitment that daily influences our life and one that is soon lost amid many other commitments? Trouble made the Psalmist turn to God, and whatever the trouble, he wanted God to pull him out of it, beseeched God to save his life, and God responded with a deliverance that made a permanent impression on and lasting change in the life of the Psalmist.

Troubles come and troubles go, and it is true that we have had our experiences of deliverance. At some time, in some way, we have experienced an unexpected change in events that rescued us, a problem that was solved, an unexpected blessing was given to us, a regret from the past was lifted, a moment of true forgiveness was made known. Do we fail to allow these moments of deliverance to make any permanent change in our life?

The Psalmist did not go back to life as usual. What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. Praise made the experience permanent. Experiences of God’s deliverance demand expressions of praise or they fade into forgetfulness or they shade into naïve superstition. Praise raises the experience out of obscurity, doubt, and wondering and holds it to the light of reality. Praise affirms that beyond the worst that the world can do to us lies the best of God. Praise is recognizing that though we live in a fallen world, God is still in charge and will work out His good and perfect will. When these moments are offered back to God in praise, they become events that make permanent change in our lives. Praise the Lord.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 14, 1984

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 225 - The Shiloh

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Genesis 49:1, 10-11 (NASB) ¹ Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come. ¹⁰ “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. ¹¹ “He ties his foal to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine, And his robes in the blood of grapes.

I Timothy 3:14-16 (NASB) ¹⁴ I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; ¹⁵ but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. ¹⁶ By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.

One of the most unusual predictions of the Messiah in the Old Testament comes from Jacob on his deathbed. He looks down the corridor of history and sees what is in store for his descendents. Among those things that he sees is the coming of Shiloh, a mystery title given to the Messiah.

Jesus fulfilled the mysterious title, yet remains a mystery Himself. How do we explain that God could come in the flesh of a human being? How is it possible? Why was it necessary? How do we explain that this same One was crucified, and that God not only allowed it, but thought it necessary? How do we explain the Resurrection after two days of death? What happened to the physical body? How do we explain the Ascension? Was it the physical body that returned to God? Where did Jesus return to? How do we explain that millions of people from every age and culture have passionately believed that this Jesus was the Son of God – and that somehow His death and His resurrection makes a difference to them?

We try to explain, we try to understand and we should try. But, to approach our faith looking only for explanations, definitions, and understanding is to approach our faith as if shattering the stained glass windows of St. Paul’s Cathedral to let the light shine in so we can see better. In the final analysis, the birth of Christ is a mystery that we can approach only with a sense of awe and wonder, pondering these things in our hearts. We cannot explain, but we can celebrate the mystery.

To recover a sense of mystery is not the passive resignation of just taking it on faith. It does not shrink the capacity to understand. Rather, it is to be grabbed by a truth larger than our understanding, to be drawn into a world where shepherds hear angel music and tyrants tremble on their thrones, and to know not just with the mind but with heart and soul that something extraordinary is happening.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope December 23, 1984

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 224 - Unity Power

John 17:20-23 (NIV) ²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

What causes you to doubt the truth of the Christian faith? Certainly we are not lacking for reason to doubt. The presence of suffering and pain in our world can cause us to ask that if God is loving and powerful why He doesn’t do something about it. Even the Scriptures can sometimes cause us to doubt. The stories of Jonah and the whale, the Virgin Birth, the miracles, all these things can cause us to question if the Scriptures are really true.

I have found that the thing that caused me most to doubt the truth of the Christian faith is the church, and by the church I mean all those who profess to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Baptists, the Roman Catholics, the Pentecostals, Church of Latter Day Saints, Seventh Day Adventist, Presbyterians, conservatives, liberals, fundamentalists. When I stand back and listen to the message of the whole and not just the segments that appeal to me, I hear so many conflicting things said about God and about the way He wants us to live that I am left in a state of total confusion.

Do we know the truth about God in Jesus Christ? Has that truth been clearly and convincingly revealed? Or, are we left in the dark to guess what God is like and how He wants us to live?

Jesus apparently foresaw the problem that would develop when Christians, all very sincere in what they say, made conflicting claims about the truth. While unity among Christians does not necessarily mean we all have to be in one denomination, we cannot dismiss the differences that exist between churches today. Jesus said, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Imagine a body whose hands and feet and arms and legs, in trying to function by themselves, hurt other parts of the body. Imagine a body bleeding, wounded with open sores and broken bones.  Divided Christians live in such a body. A body split and divided lacks that power to say a convincing word to the world today about God and about His will for our world.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 6, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 223 - Christian Response to Suffering

II Corinthians 12:7b-10 (NIV) Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We do not know what Paul’s thorn was, but we do know how it affected his life. It hurt, and added to the hurt, it cripples Paul’s enjoyment of life. It limited him and kept him from doing and accomplishing all that this energetic man wanted to do. I believe the thorn represents all suffering which comes to us from the world, over which we have no control and from which we have little or no deliverance.

Paul’s ultimate response to his suffering was that for the sake of Christ he was content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. For when he was weak, then he was strong. Paul’s ultimate response to his suffering was to accept it.

To understand what it means to accept our suffering, we need also to understand what acceptance does not mean. Rebellion is the refusal to accept it. Rebellion is seen in the person who shakes his fist in the face of God and cries out, ”Why me? What did I do to deserve this? What kind of God are you to allow such suffering anyway?” Rebellion is also seen in a false optimism that says, “I can lick this thing. It won’t get me down,” when we know in reality that we cannot lick this thing and there are times when it does get us down. Rebellion against healing seldom leads to any kind of healing and usually leads to a tremendous sense of defeat or bitterness.

Acceptance of suffering is different from resigning ourselves to it. Resigning ourselves to suffering is giving up, quitting, retreating in the face of overwhelming odds. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find this attitude toward suffering. Jesus stood squarely against suffering. He saw suffering as evil and opposed to God.

To accept our suffering, to have God’s shalom in the midst of the pain, and despite the limitations placed on us by our suffering is the Christian response to suffering. We may go through rebellion and resignation to get there, but acceptance is the ultimate Christian response to suffering. This acceptance is sometimes a turning point that leads to healing, and always leads to a transformation of our life. Paul was not healed of his thorn, but he received a new sense of humility and tenderness in his life. Those who accept suffering are alive despite the pain they have known in their lives, and to be around them is a blessing.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 17, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 222 - The Problem of Pride

Romans 12:3-8  (NIV)  ³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Pride has both a positive and a negative meaning. Positively, it means having a healthy sense of self-respect and self-confidence.  But, there is the pride that is not healthy, pride after sin gets hold of it. Here pride is an exaggerated sense of self-importance. It is undue concern about self where pride becomes vanity, haughtiness, arrogance, egotism and selfishness.  The essence of this pride is the refusal to be who God created, but to desire to be more than that.

Pride is responsible for harm, hurt, and destruction and is at the heart of prejudice.  As we may well guess, pride is deeply rooted in our lives, so much so that often we do not recognize the presence of pride in our life or what it is doing to us. Pride is like a virus that cannot be seen by the naked eye, but is detected by what it does to our life.

Pride says that we always have to be right. Pride is very fond of taking a very trivial issue and blowing it out of proportion. Pride places in us a strong drive to perfectionism, often inflicting condemnation on others who do not measure up to our standards of perfection. Pride causes us to believe that we can be somebody else’s savior if they are just smart enough to listen to the wisdom of our advice.

All of the ways that pride manifests itself in our life can be healed and overcome. But, the real tragedy of pride is that it often refuses help that is available. Pride makes us defensive, keeps us from receiving the healing and help that is so readily and abundantly available in Jesus Christ.

Yet God is not easily put off. God sent Jesus Christ to live among us, a man completely free of rebellious pride who demonstrated in the flesh what life looks like without pride. Can we look at the cross and say it really was not necessary for Christ to go through all the pain and suffering for us? The very fact that He did it destroys our pride while telling us we are worth it. The fact that we are worth it begins to build up self-esteem in a way that makes us modest in our thinking about ourselves. 

Most of us can admit that pride is present in our life. How many of us are willing to take our pride to the Cross of Jesus Christ?

from a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 23, 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 221 - I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body, the Life Everlasting

I Corinthians 15:12-17, 53 -58 ¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Resurrection living is living as if Christ is right. He is right when He identifies with the weak, the poor, the moral failures. He is right in His forgiveness. He is right in the way He serves. He is right when He removes barriers between people. He is right in the paradox of destroying human rules about the way we are supposed to live even as He gives us a high and holy responsibility in the way we live. He is right both in what He gives and in what He demands of us. He is right when He says that God is in control and yet suffers a shameful death on the Cross. And He is right when He says, “because I live, you will live also.

When we live as if Jesus is right, we discover that Jesus is right about life and death. If we lack trust or if we fail to live as if Jesus is right, the result is the same. God gives us life after death in Jesus Christ, but we discover that truth only by faithful living. C.S. Lewis could remind us that no matter how a person may appear to us, we have never met a mere mortal. But, when his wife Joy died, he felt very much like a “mere mortal,” without much hope in the life to come. He continued to live faithfully as best he understood, but he felt ashamed of the way he felt. He wrote down his thoughts and feelings in A Grief Observed. Even thought C.S. Lewis could not see it or feel it at the moment, God was at work giving him victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Even thought C.S. Lewis felt he did not keep the faith, the faith kept him, and it has been an inspiration to thousands ever since.

Believing in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting is a statement of confidence that God will continue to give us life now and after death, and a pledge to focus on the work God is giving us to do.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 27, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell