DAY 251 - Jitters In An Uncertain World

Exodus 20:18-20 (NIV)  ¹⁸ When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance ¹⁹ and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” ²⁰ Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Hebrews 12:25-29 (NIV) ²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷ The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our “God is a consuming fire.”

The high tech world is fast and it is unpredictable. Every new development seems to carry with it some unexpected surprise, or “secondary consequence.” The discovery of nuclear energy introduced us to a new problem in waste disposal. DDT introduced us to a new problem in environmental pollution. The computer has introduced us to new forms of crime. It could be said that our greater knowledge calls us to a higher sense of responsibility.

The book of Hebrews was written during a time of turmoil for the church, not turmoil caused by the results of technology, but by a world literally shaken by the voice of God. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. The Bible calls this refusal to hear “pride,” which is deafness to God caused by overconfidence in our own knowledge and power and believing we know more than we really do.

The uncertainty of our days is calling us, and all people, to live with a new sense of accountability to God. We must develop sensitivity to the voice of God in our thoughts and to the engineering hand of God in the events that surround us. As Christians, with reverence and awe we must live in deep respect of the moral order God has created and in the design He has for each of our lives. We do not take lightly that order. We must seek a heart that is quick to yield to God’s guidance and a mind that is open to seek creative understanding rather than to follow conventional wisdom.

When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” He was not simply giving us a moral command. He was speaking a prophetic truth. The meek are those who have been broken of their pride. The meek are those who lay their strength at God’s feet and listen. Our human discoveries divorced from a sense of supernatural accountability will cause a fall again and again. We are very much in need of a new understanding of ourselves as called by God to a new sense of responsibility and of hope.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 2, 1986

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 250 - Entitled or Entrusted?

Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17-18 (NIV) ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Luke 12:15-21 (NIV) ¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”  ¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ ¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  ²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” 

Why did this hardworking farmer receive the name Fool? The word fool literally means to be unmindful, and that was this rich man’s sin. The farmer was unmindful that he had received his bountiful crop from the hand of God and was responsible to God to use and to enjoy that crop according to God’s will. The farmer violated Israel’s most basic belief about wealth. He believed himself to be a possessor rather than a manager of his money. 

Wealth, money, and material goods are meant to be received from God and then passed through our hands according to the will of God. Wealth passes through our hands and is invested in the material security God wants for our life. It is invested in the lives of our family. It passes through our hands and is invested in the lives of those beyond our family. It passes through our hands to express love, thanksgiving, and joy, and yes, even to support government and community needs.

Life does not come from the abundance of our possessions. Life comes from God. It is His gift to us, and abundance comes not from having but from the way we use what we have. It is in seeing ourselves as managers that we become rich toward God. We are rich because we recognize that we have received, and we have received from an owner generous beyond our deserving who has resources beyond our wildest imagining. Managing our gifts produces an air of expectation as we wonder and ask what God wants us to do. 

We are rich toward God because as managers we become aware of how God is intimately involved in all the ways we use our money - not only what we give, but as the parable emphasizes, on what we spend and save. Our wealth is either a mirror in which we see ourselves, or a window through which we see God.  

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 16, 1986

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 249 - …And A Blessed New Year

Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV) ¹ The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. ² “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Matthew 5:1-3 (NIV) ¹ Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them. He said: ³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Biblical word for having it all is the word blessed. This is the word repeated in God’s covenant promise to Abraham. The blessings of the covenant included deliverance from enemies, land, prosperity, many descendents, security, success in all of life’s endeavors, and peace. The blessings of the covenant were the outward and visible signs of someone who was favored by God.

We are called to remember that being blessed, at its heart, is being chosen by God, loved, favored, graced, accepted and assured of His ongoing presence with us rather than what we presently possess or do not possess. The blessing offered in the covenant was more than material possession or the truth of being loved; what was offered was the very life of God Himself. To be blessed was to receive the life of God offered to men and women, to boys and girls in the person of Jesus Christ.

If God abides in us and we in Him, indeed we have it all. We may not have realized all the gifts He offers us in life, but the promise, the possibility is there. Granted, you and I may not always feel blessed, nor act very blessed. But, if the gift has been received the promise is there to be aware, to live in the confidence that the gift of His life gives.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” To be poor in spirit is to be aware of our need, it is to know we lack something we need, to know we are broken. Blessed are those whose self-determined wills have been broken, then they shall have it all. They shall receive the gift, and they shall be blessed. This is the life of God offered to those who are bankrupt of the blessing. This life is offered to those ready to receive it in faith and in confidence. We can be a people who have it all.

And this is how we shall know we have it all: “you shall be a blessing.” In us and through us, others shall be blessed because we are blessed with the life of God, and so share with others.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 5, 1986

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 248 - Are You a Product of Your Environment?

Matthew 4:12-17 (NIV) ¹² When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.¹³ Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— ¹⁴ to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: ¹⁵ “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—¹⁶ the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” ¹⁷ From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 

Colossians 1:9-13 (NIV) ⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Our environment influences us, this much we know. From our environment we learn a language, even an accent. We gain both our sense of being an individual and a part of a group. We learn many of our skills in relating to people from our environment.

Christians also believe that Jesus seeks to influence and shape our life, and that the faculty to receive that influence is called faith. Faith is a kind of communication between ourselves and Christ. It is a personal link that makes His influence possible by surrounding us with a whole new environment where He is King and where the continuing work of His spirit makes His rule real and effective in our life. Granted, there are destructive elements in our environment that need to be resisted, but the flip side is also true. Our lives are constantly being bombarded by the infinite energies of a world unseen where Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings.

Our lives are often a sham and shabby, and we do not appear to be products of a “good home.” Thank goodness, or more appropriately, thank God, that our failure does not change the truth of the new environment in Christ, one where we are delivered from the environment of darkness and placed in a new home where God is host, parent, and king. Faith is a willingness to see ourselves and our world with the mind of Christ, and let heaven fill our thoughts, though it certainly is a distortion of the gospel to preach about mansions in heaven and to ignore those who live in poverty on earth. But, think about it for a moment. When are our perceptions most accurate and constructive – when we are wallowing in worry, down in the dumps, harried with hassles, aggravated, frustrated and mad, or when we are able to rise above it to get a more objective view of our life and our world? This is the spirit of Paul’s words, that we should keep seeking the things that are above, seeking to gain the perspective that comes from life with God in Christ. That is the faith we are called to believe.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 13, 1986

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 247 - Faith, Farce, or Fantasy

John 14:1-7 (NIV) ¹ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

II Timothy 2:8-13 (NIV)  ⁸ Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, ⁹ for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. ¹⁰ Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. ¹¹ Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; ¹² if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; ¹³ if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. 

Is our faith in life after death a farce perpetrated by religion? Is it a fantasy to help people deal with the fear of death? Or is it an accurate and true understanding of what is real? Human beings have sought virtually every approach to prove or disprove the existence of life after death. 

The evidence that has convinced Christians is that of a two-sided coin. On one side of the coin is the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This statement was an early creed of affirmation of what Christians held to be true. Their belief in life after death was based on a real event that happened to a real person in a real time and a real place. It was not based on philosophical speculation or popular opinion. Remember, Jesus Christ is risen, Paul reminds young Timothy. Remember, our faith in life and our faith in life after death is founded on fact, a fact that must be spoken, proclaimed, and held up against any and all challenges.

The other side of the coin is the belief that Jesus was utterly trustworthy. “I go to prepare a place for you,” he told his disciples. “If it were not so, would I have not told you?” The disciples did not always understand what Jesus said. They did not always agree with what he said, but three years in his presence had convinced them that he could be trusted. He would not deceive. 

Our belief in life after death is based on a twofold fact. Christ is risen, and the risen Christ is totally and completely trustworthy. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was given to us as a pledge that Jesus Christ could be trusted. Christ gave his life through these elements as a promise and a pledge, and even though events that follow might make it appear that we have been deceived and deluded, we will in time discover that we have been told the truth.” “I go to prepare a place for you.”

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 6, 1986

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 246 - The Power House

Micah 6:6-8  (NIV) ⁶ With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 

Amos 5:14-15, 24 (NIV)  ¹⁴ Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,  just as you say he is. ¹⁵ Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. ²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! 

Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. The “good” was well understood among the Hebrew people. “Good” was the will of God given in the law. Today “good” is up for grabs, and the church has not been helpful in establishing what the “good” is in our society. We are split and divided over what the good is that we are to seek. 

Amos affirms that the good can be known, and practiced, especially as the good entails God’s justice and righteousness. Justice is arranging things in a society so that each person’s rights are respected. It is being fair. The root word for righteousness means “making an accurate copy.” Righteousness happens when the laws, rules, values and priorities copy God’s intension.

There is a good, a way of life ordained by God, and we are to seek it, find it, and order our life accordingly. We may sometimes misunderstand what the good is and we may fail to practice the good that we know. Nevertheless, there is always something redemptive and constructive that happens when we seek the good of God. 

Seek the good and live, or ignore the good. But, Amos joined with the voices of prophet past, present, and future to affirm that we cannot live in ignorance and in defiance of God’s will for our world without paying a price.  And he is called the prophet of doom because he says that when the judgment comes, all will be punished. If that sounds cold and cruel, it may be because we have never had a physician give us a talking to because of life-style habits that are undermining our health. It is a word of care, of compassion, and of truth. And, the implication is that we must seek it together as a people and not as isolated individuals. What is discovered in the community of a nation, of a church, or of a family can be shared with the community and greater world.  

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 14, 1985

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell