DAY 316 - Keep the Fires of the Spirit Burning

Romans 12:9-21 (J. B. Phillips New Testament) ⁹ Let us have no imitation Christian love. Let us have a genuine break with evil and a real devotion to good. ¹⁰ Let us have real warm affection for one another as between brothers, and a willingness to let the other man have the credit. ¹¹ Let us not allow slackness to spoil our work and let us keep the fires of the spirit burning, as we do our work for God. ¹² Base your happiness on your hope in Christ. When trials come endure them patiently, steadfastly maintain the habit of prayer. ¹³ Give freely to fellow-Christians in want, never grudging a meal or a bed to those who need them. ¹⁴ And as for those who try to make your life a misery, bless them. Don’t curse, bless. ¹⁵ Share the happiness of those who are happy, the sorrow of those who are sad. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with each other. Don’t become snobbish but take a real interest in ordinary people. Don’t become set in your own opinions. ¹⁷ Don’t pay back a bad turn by a bad turn, to anyone. Don’t say “it doesn’t matter what people think”, but see that your public behaviour is above criticism. ¹⁸ As far as your responsibility goes, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Never take vengeance into your own hands, my dear friends: stand back and let God punish if he will. For it is written: ‘Vengeance is mine. I will repay’. ^20-21 ... these are God’s words: ‘Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head’. Don’t allow yourself to be overpowered with evil. Take the offensive—overpower evil by good!

Paul spends the first eleven chapters of his letter to the Romans explaining that God’s forgiveness is a free gift, and the God has adopted us in Jesus Christ as an act of His sheer grace and mercy. Then he begins talking about ways that we can respond to God’s grace by loving one another, seeking to do good, avoiding those things we know are wrong, showing generosity, bearing patiently the faults of others. Then in the midst of it all, Paul says let us keep the fires of the spirit burning, as we do our work for God.   Most of us know immediately what he means. We have experienced enough of God’s grace to know that the activities of the day have a way of extinguishing the devotion of our hearts. Unbelief, uncertainty, a lack of confidence in our relationship to God begins to creep into our lives. Our hearts grow dull. We become disinterested in worship, prayer, the Scriptures, and even in God. We become quite literally “dis-spirited.”

Keep the fires of the spirit burning, Paul says. God has ignited some spark of devotion in our lives. Kindle the fire that is there. Fan the flame. Share in Christian fellowship. Regularly read books written by Christians concerning their discoveries about God and God’s will for our lives. Read the Scriptures. The Bible expands our consciousness of God and His will, and these words have proven to be helpful, life-giving words time and time again. Pray. Begin and end each day with prayer. Keep the fires of the spirit burning.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 28, 1973

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 315 - God First

Exodus 20:1-3 (NIV) And God spoke all these words: ² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

One God and one goal make a difference to the way we live. Our mind may tell us we believe in God, but what does our life tell us? Is there unity, focus, purpose, direction, and a measure of peace, or are we scattered and strained from serving  many unnamed, invisible gods? I am the Lord your God, You shall have no other gods before me. Notice that it is not just any one god that we are called to serve. The issue is not just one god, but what kind of one god that we serve. The Hebrew has a peculiar expression here. The phrase “before me” literally means “to my face” and was an expression used of a man who took a second wife when his first wife was still alive. It had to do with breaching a relationship. You shall have no other gods before me calls us into an exclusive relationship to this particular god “YAWEH,” to the God revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament and uniquely revealed in Jesus Christ. We are called to an exclusive relationship to a particular God. When we get married, we do not say we promise to treat our spouse equally as well as we treat other men and women in our life. Marriage is a call to an exclusive relationship as is our call to have no other God before YAWEH.

And that is where the rub to this command comes. There is risk in the demand for an exclusive relationship. When our faith is focused on this one God, we run the risk of being narrow minded.  How do we know when we are being narrow-minded and when we are being focused?  When we make an exclusive commitment to this One God, we set limits on what we will believe. We set boundaries on how we will live. What is the difference between setting boundaries and being intolerant? Do you ever have those kinds of questions? Those kinds of feelings?

How do we know if we are obeying this command? It is like a commitment to a marriage relationship. It is an inward decision and an outward action. Simply living together is not marriage. Marriage commitment changes the relationship. We need the decision. We need the inward giving of ourselves to God however we decide and do it. We don’t drift into marriage and we do not drift into an exclusive commitment to God. There needs to be this inner decision and commitment to an exclusive relationship to the God whose name is Lord.

Relationship demands that we do things to nurture it, and there are several things that we do to nurture this exclusive relationship to God. We worship. We pray. We study. We have our daily devotional time. If we are not doing these things regularly and faithfully the relationship is eroding. We can know we are obeying this command if we have made the inward decision and commitment to an exclusive relationship to the Lord and if we are faithfully doing something to nurture that relationship.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 2, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 314 - A Happy Life or a Holy Life?

I Peter 1:13-16, 18-19 (NRSV) 13 Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. ¹⁴Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. ¹⁵Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; ¹⁶for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ ¹⁸You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

A holy life is one separated from the pressures of life and responsive to God. It is life freed from the mold that the world pushes us in. It is a life filled with a sense of call and direction from God. Our church ancestors spoke of Otium Sanctum, what was known as Holy Life & Holy Leisure, and which refers to a sense of balance in life; to work when it is time to work and to play when it is time to play, both to sense God’s call and presence. The Holy Life is the ability to pace ourselves. It is the gift of being at peace within regardless of the chaos or pressures around us.

Holy Ones are people who truly live what they profess and who gain guidance and strength from their personal convictions. The Holy Ones, also now called saints, spend a significant amount of time helping people with physical and emotional needs. They are generous in their giving and forgiving in their relationships. The Holy Life is seen in those who turn a deaf ear to the way of noise and chatter, conflict and gossip, to the unexamined statements that someone believes are true simply because someone has said it. The Holy Life is a chosen life, a focused life. The Holy Life has chosen the way of listening and responding to God.

Are our hearts alive to the hope of a Holy Life, or captured by the promise of the Happy Life? Don’t let the culture get a hold on you with its contrived need and false expectations. To separate ourselves from these pressures means we have to do something. The call is to go to a place where we are free from the pressures; where we at least stand a better opportunity of hearing and receiving God’s word that we were ransomed. Ransom was the first century custom of paying money to buy a slave’s freedom. It is a statement about God’s commitment to us and about our worth to him. It is about our ransom worth, not our inherited worth. While we were sinners we were ransomed, not because we were nice underneath it all, but because we are important to God, faults and all.

And the question for us is” Does that commitment of God bounce off our souls, or does that commitment make it to the heart? The call to Holy Living says we must get away from the pressures of our culture. Receive the reality of God’s commitment to you in Jesus Christ. Recognize, realize, receive your ransomed worth.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 313 - The Awesome Power of Humility

I Peter 5:6-11 (NIV) ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. ⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, is said to those of us who have a tendency to meet trouble with shrewd ingenuity, fierce determination, and complete control. Determination, strong self-confidence is just no match for the power of the adversary. But, notice that “roar” is all the power the adversary has to take the normal troubles that come our way and make them large, looming, and threatening. We have a natural need to earn, but the roar of the adversary keeps the wheels of our mind whirling for fear that we are not going to have enough. The roar of the adversary takes the natural desire to set goals for our life and roars over them so they become the frantic determination to have our own way. The roar of the lion takes the normal responsibility to discipline our children and roars over it so that it becomes the uptight effort to control our children. The adversary roars over the toil and trouble of our life, always with the same goal: to destroy the firmness of our faith. The adversary roars to fill us with worry, to send us scurrying, and to steal from us our confidence in God.

Has the roar of the adversary ever gotten to you? Exaggerated a difficulty? Made a normal problem more important than it really was? Threatened you? Undid your calm confidence in God? Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Humility is such subjection to God that we can lay down the burden of having to get our own way. Humility is freedom from the obsession that things go the way we want them to go. Humility lays aside the unwritten script that says “I have to be treated in a certain way.” Humility is an attitude and a life-style. Humility is living from a confidence that God can be trusted no matter what happens. Humility keeps us firm in our faith.

When our will is bent to God’s will, the roar of the adversary is seen for the bluff it is. The roar of the adversary loses its power to threaten us, or worry us, or to send us scurrying everywhere for security. Humility is a gift that God is seeking to give us. Sometimes when we feel beaten by life, humility is the gift of being broken by God who breaks our pride but mends our egos. When God lays the cloth of humility on us, the clothes feel fresh and new and extremely comfortable. The normal response to being clothed with humility is to breathe a sigh of relief. The heavy burden of having our own way is lifted and the voice of the adversary is stilled. 

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 19, 1996

Copyright Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 312 - A Conflict of Conviction

I Peter 3:13-17 (NRSV) ¹³ Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? ¹⁴But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, ¹⁵but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; ¹⁶yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

Conflict is a part of life. Misunderstandings arise. Accusations fly. Feelings blaze out of control - or smolder just beneath the surface. Sometimes when conflict arises we need to be able to share in a quiet and confident way why we are living the way we live, how we are moved and motivated by the grace and love of Christ to do what we are doing. Simple goodness, and a firm but polite response can disarm a lot of misunderstanding and diffuse a lot of conflict.

If our conscience is clear, it does not make any real difference what others accuse us of or what they say we have done. A person with a clear conscience will gladly hear and will be open and receptive to change. But, for example, if we talk to an alcoholic about his or her drinking, they will probably get defensive, and even make us feel like we are the one who has the problem. They get defensive because their conscience is not clear. To have a clear conscience means that there is a willingness to see where we have been at fault, where we have been responsible, where we have made a mistake, and where to make amends - not just with words but also with actions. People with a clear conscience do not get defensive. They live with a readiness to acknowledge where they have been wrong and to do what they can to make things right. They deal with conflict and accusation in a clear, straightforward way.

Do not be afraid of those who accuse you and complain against you, but respond to them out of a respectful fear of Christ. Do not fear your accusers and complainers. They can make you suffer. They can cause you to make less money. They can cause you to lose your job. They can make life hard on you. But they cannot harm you. They cannot destroy the peace of your soul. They cannot stop God’s plan and purpose for your life. Fear Christ as Lord, and you will really have nothing to fear. It is a paradox, but one many of us have experienced.

Have you ever been in awe of someone, a parent a teacher, a coach? Have you ever had such respectful awe, such a high regard for someone that your greatest fear is to disappoint them, to fail them? It is that kind of fear that Peter is talking about, and it is that kind of fear that keeps us from worrying about or being fearful of anything or anyone else. The more we know of Christ’s love for us, and His commitment to us and His care for us, the more we are prepared to deal with conflict, complaints, and accusations.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 12, 1996

Copyright Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 311 - The Virtue of a Narrow Mind

I Peter 2:1-3 (NKJV) Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, ² as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

I Peter 2:1-9 (NIV) ⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” ⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”⁸ and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. ⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

It is important that what we believe about ourselves fit the reality of who we really are. Throughout the New Testament there is a repeated refrain of “remember who you are in Christ.” Peter has some pretty positive things to say to us about who we are. If you are into positive self-esteem it does not get much better than this, except that our worth, our value is a gift rooted in the truth of God and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Peter speaks of our worth in Christ because he found his own worth in Christ. He had gone from a phony sense of self worth based on the belief that he was strong and able and capable of handling anything, to the recognition of how fickle and weak he could be, to the firm foundation of value he found in Christ’s honest commitment to him.

Our self worth is a calling. And that means making some adjustments in our lives to bring our thinking, our feeling, and our behavior in line with the truth given to us in Christ. If that call is to get into our soul, then we will have to do some letting go -  laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking. Malice means scheming to get ahead. Guile is pretending to be good. Hypocrisy is pretending to be something we are not. Envy is the petty attitude toward those we think are better off than we are. Slander is putting people down with politeness. We have to let go of the self-deceit that we have about our own worth.

We do not simply put aside deceit, we also feed on the truth, rooted in the Word of God from. Jesus is the cornerstone and He is also a stumbling stone, Peter tells us. He is a stumbling block for those who do not believe and a building block for those who do. We find the truth about ourselves in Him or we stumble by believing the messages that our society gives. That may sound narrow minded to some of us, and it is. The virtue of narrow mindedness is when we focus on listening and hearing the truth about ourselves from Christ. It is not a narrow mindedness of superiority. It is a narrow mindedness of hope and confidence in Christ.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 5, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 310 - Lord, Have Mercy

Matthew 26:14-16, 47-50 (NIV) ¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶ From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. ⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸ Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” ⁴⁹ Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. ⁵⁰ Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.

Matthew 27:3-5 (NIV) ³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ⁴ “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” ⁵ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

Jesus is Divine mercy breaking in the reality of human misery, with the authority to heal and to free, but also with the willingness to suffer. From the time that Jesus rode into Jerusalem till he was mocked and was crucified Jesus was out to conquer us with the mercy of God. He means to break us of our prideful self-reliance, of our blind seeking for the illusions of happiness. He means to invade our life with the Spirit, to gain more influence on our thoughts, to shape the desires and passions of our heart, and to direct our behavior toward the fulfillment of God’s purpose for our life. Jesus means to conquer, but He conquers with mercy.

If mercy is the way God in Christ seeks to conquer us, then resistance to mercy is not merely disobedience or even rebellion. Resistance is betrayal, and is there anything more painful than betrayal? We can disobey a boss, but we betray a friend who cares about us. We can disobey the government, but we betray a husband or wife who believes in us. And so, Judas is not simply disobedient. He is a betrayer. He sees the mercy of Jesus toward a woman who is a known sinner, but then sought an opportunity to betray Jesus. And, rather than accept the mercy of God regarding his betrayal of Jesus, He hanged himself.

Betrayal violates a trust. Betrayal is hypocritical and deceptive. Betrayal harms the one who cares about us the most. Only one who is loved and trusted can become a betrayer. It is fairly easy for us to think of our sin as doing something wrong or as not being perfect or as disobeying God. We can live rather comfortably with that kind of failure. But if God is seeking us in mercy, then to refuse that mercy and to reject that mercy is not merely disobedience. It is betrayal of one who cares. The bottom line in our relationship to God is not “am I obeying God or am I disobeying God?” The bottom, line is, “Am I being faithful to God or am I betraying Him?”

From a sermon  preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 31, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 309 - For the Life of Lazarus

From John 11 (NIV) Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ³ So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” ⁴ When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” ¹⁷ On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. ²¹ “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶ and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” ³⁸ Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹ “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” ⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

The miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead raises many questions for us, but John does not answer most of them. This miracle is one of the seven signs that he gives. When we hug someone or give a gift to them, it is a sign that we care about them. It is a visible and tangible way of speaking the message. And when we are standing in the graveyard of reality, sentimental words about death or life after death can ring hollow. We want action. We want a sign. We want some visible evidence that tells us the truth, and this miracle is an action sign pointing us to the truth. The miracle of Lazarus is not a resurrection to life eternal. It is the resuscitation of a body to life here and now, but it also points to more. Resurrection and life are complimentary. It is as if the abundant life here and now is the focus of the picture. The resurrection to eternal life is the background. And both are necessary.

Belief is the way we read the sign and the way the message of the sign becomes real to us. The body has been in the tomb four days, Martha says. Decay has set in. There will be a terrible odor. Death is talked about in all its graphic and real details. Faith faces the obvious logic that death is the end of flowers, animals, and humans. And in the face of that reality, belief affirms confidence in Jesus Christ. So this confidence in Jesus Christ is a defiant faith. It holds on to the truth of Jesus Christ in the face of the reality of death. It is a defiant faith, but it is not a groundless faith. One of two things is always happening with us. Either there is slow erosion of our faith or an on-going nurturing of our faith. Faith is a confidence in Jesus Christ.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 24, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 308 - Take It To The Light

From John 9 (NIV) ¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ¹⁴ Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵ Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” ¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” ¹⁷ Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.” ¹⁸ They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. ¹⁹ “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” ²⁰ “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. ²¹ But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. ²⁴ A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” ²⁵ He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” ³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶ “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” ³⁷ Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” ³⁸ Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ³⁹ Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” ⁴¹ Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

The meaning of this miracle is that Jesus gives sight to the blind in soul as well as the blind in sight. Jesus is light to the blind man, and notice that He is at work with a person who does not recognize who He is. The man born blind gradually comes to see who Jesus is, but his sight is not simply in believing the right thing about Jesus but in seeing his rightful responsibility to Jesus. Jesus is light to the confused disciples, and to the idealistic Pharisees who were serious about their religion. In their commitment to keeping the ideals of the law of Moses they were blinded to the truth of Jesus. Commitment to ideologies can blind us to the truth of Jesus Christ, whether that ideology is loyalty to the state, a commitment to justice, or even a belief that tolerance is our most important virtue. Ideology is a difficult blindness to deal with.

Jesus is light to all but not all respond in the same way. The sight that Jesus seeks to give is not so much making us right as making us righteous in the true sense of that word. The righteous are aware and responsive to the work and will of God. The blind man says, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” In comparison, the Pharisees see the miracle, but they reject the authority, the power, the care, and compassion and the truth of Jesus Christ.

Are we so committed to the ideals of tolerance, of having an open mind, even of caring and serving that we no longer listen to and ask for and acknowledge the authority and power of Jesus? Living with Christ as the center is not a narrow-minded life but a focused life. It is not based on an infallible hearing but on a faithful listening. It does not try to avoid everything that is tainted, but seeks to be full of grace and truth. I am light for the world. This is not merely a claim but a commitment. Jesus wants to give light for your life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 17, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 307 - Just Listen to Him

Matthew 17:1-5 (NASB) Six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and *led them up on a high mountain by themselves. ² And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. ³ And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. ⁴ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁵ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

The Transfiguration is a moment with a message. It is a message about the truth and trustworthiness of Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual experience that assures us of the realness and reliability of God. The Transfiguration is an experience, a moment when something happens to us, when something speaks to us, when we suddenly become aware, when there bursts forth to our mind and hearts a moment when we know that God is real. It is a gift from God, not given to us because we go to church or because we are good or because we are really spiritual. It is simply a gift.

It is an experience that also gives us a command. This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him! And yet I suppose we all know it is hard to listen. It is difficult. It is no accident that the Transfiguration happened when the disciples were on the road to Jerusalem when it would soon appear that Jesus had failed, that He was powerless against the opposition and the forces of death. The Transfiguration is given to us to support us in those times when we are looking into a murky future and are not sure what is going to happen, and when we are wondering what is best for us, for our families, for the job that we do.

Listening to Jesus becomes a part of our life-style. We chose a different center for our life than the way of noise and clatter and idle gossip. We value the cost of paying attention so we can hear the voice of God over, beyond, and in all the noise around us. We listen for the inner persuasions that draw us to particular tasks that are ours and turn us away from those that are not. Listening is a part of our life-style and we do it more effectively some days than others. But the value, the importance, the commitment to listening has been impressed upon us by the Transfiguration experiences of our life.

Listening is also a discipline. It is taking a moment to do nothing but listen, to take even a short time of silence and prayer and the reading of devotional material to listen to Him. The listening is nurturing. It sensitizes our soul.

Some of us may have had an experience when God was real for us. Did we also hear the command Listen to Him? Have we been faithful in doing what we have been told to do?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 18, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 306 - The View From Mount Perspective

Micah 6:8b (NIV) And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Matthew 5:1-11  (NIV) 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. ⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. ⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. ⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. ⁸ Blessed are the pure in heartfor they will see God. ⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. ¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

A good teacher knows that a lesson plan has one main point, and the Sermon on the Mount is no exception. The main point of the Sermon on the Mount is this: Blessed are the humble. Humility is the thread that holds the whole message together. The Sermon on the Mount spells out what humility looks like:

Blessed are the poor in spirit. The poor are those who have not or cannot make it on their own, and the poor in the spirit are those who know they cannot make it on their own without God. It is the heart’s acknowledgement of need.

Blessed are those who mourn. Jesus is not saying, “Happy are the sad.” To mourn is the opposite of being hardened and closed and guarded toward the pains of life. It is to experience life’s sadness as well as its joy. Those who allow themselves to feel some of life’s pain are the ones who make a difference in the pains of life.

Blessed are the meek. Meek might be called “strong gentleness.” We see real meekness in the compassionate power of Jesus, and we see what it means to be humble. Jesus is poor in Spirit. The Son of God lived out of His sense of need for God. Jesus mourned for the people. He wept over the city of Jerusalem. And He was meek. Before His accusers He was meekly silent, and His silence was eloquent.

Some translations substitute “happy” for “blessed,” but happiness comes from our word “happens.” Happiness depends on the happenings of life. We are happy when life goes well for us. We are unhappy when life does not go well. Blessedness is a gift and a more permanent gift. Problems may arise, but they do not have the power to take blessedness from us. “Blessed are the humble” summarizes the Sermon on the Mount. But there is something missing from that sermon that most of us are very accustomed to. There is no command. The Sermon on the Mount does not prescribe. It only describes. It puts on display the kind of life God is working for us to have. It holds out the promise of deep joy that goes with it. So, what do we do, if anything, about the Sermon on the Mount?

At this point, all that Jesus is asking is that we give in to the work of God. Give in to the work God is doing with you.  

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 305 - Now You See Him

John 1:29-30, 35-39 (NRSV) ²⁹ The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ³⁵ Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”

Obviously, we do not ask for help with a problem we do not know we have. And sin is one of those problems. Being a sinner is, for many people, not a practical, daily way we think of ourselves. Being a sinner is often regarded as a religious way of feeling, or it has to do with some “sinful pleasure.” Sometimes we have a fuzzy awareness, like when we know we are spending money in a foolish way and then think we do not have enough, or nursing a resentment even though we know it only makes us miserable and not the other person, or worrying when we really want peace of mind. We may be able to fix one of these problems or even some of these problems. But that something that is wrong with us simply comes back on us in a new way, like a weed consuming our lawn and no poison seems powerful enough to stop it.

And now John has a more difficult thing for us to believe. Behold, the Lamb of God, this Jesus, this very common, unpretentious person that you see, He is the one who takes away the sin of the world. A lamb sacrificed for the sins of the people and slain to remove sin was familiar to the people of Israel, but is foreign to us, even a little bit “way out” to many of us. But most of us have some recognition of people who have sacrificed something for us – a parent, a wife, a husband, a friend, and sometimes our children.

People have sacrificed their time for us, sacrificed having something so we could have something. And this sacrifice is important, is influential on our life. There may be a crisis of how we respond: to let that sacrifice into our life, to let it shape our life … or do to refuse it and let it harden us instead of shaping us. In Jesus is someone who can do something about that “something that is wrong with us.”

What He will do and how He will do it is sometimes a blur for us. John simply points to Him again for us. Two disciples heard this and they followed. Jesus was still a fuzzy blur to them, but they did not go up and ask, “Are you the one to take away the sin of the world?” They only know to ask Rabbi, where are You staying?  And Jesus does not answer the question. Rather He says to the disciples then and to us now, come and see. However blurry He may seem to us, come and see.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 14, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 304 - Wealthy Rich

Ecclesiastes 5:10a (NIV) ¹⁰ Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

Luke 12:13-21 (NIV) ¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 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.”

One day a man came to Jesus with a pressing need. He thought he was seeking justice - tell my brother to divide the inheritance. But Jesus’ message was to tell the man to wake up and see the truth about his desires. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. Many of us have heard the words before. But have they drifted past our ears instead of sinking into our souls? Indeed if we were asked what makes us happy, we would probably list some intangibles like love, relationship, family. But money means survival, and in the day to day doings of our lives it is often seen as the most real thing, and the most pressing need of our life. So rather than examining our hearts, maybe we should examine our lives.

And so Jesus tells of a man who was so dependent on his wealth that he was no longer attune with the reality of life. And Jesus called this man a fool. The word means someone without sense, without awareness of danger they are in or of the harm they are causing. But we are not a fool by accident, or because of the way we were raised, or because of what we have been deprived of in life. We are fools because we resist the wisdom all around us that says life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves and are not rich toward God.

The wealthy rich are those who have a rich relationship to God, one of sharing, trust, a source of satisfaction, fun, interesting, and the fundamental value of their life. Jesus never opposed wealth. But He also knew that almost unconsciously we could grow to depend on riches in such a way that we deprive ourselves of a rich relationship to God. Money does not have to deprive us of that relationship. The appropriate use of money is grounded in our trust in God. There is a relief to our spirit, a glimmer of hope, and we begin to act on this hope in the way we are stewards, in the way we manage our money under God’s guidance.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 12, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 303 - The Gift of Neediness

Deuteronomy 4:9-14 (NIV) ⁹ Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” ¹¹ You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

Do you have the fear of God, or is this notion strange to you?  The fear of God is not something we can conjure up for ourselves. The fear of God comes as a response to the reality of God, coming to us in some sudden and subtle ways. It is our response to an encounter with God, to a personal meeting with God, to an event that happens. The fear of God is not just an idea we want to believe is true.

Have you ever been loved by someone and you felt so unworthy and so good? That is what the fear of God is like. Have you ever felt someone’s unreserved commitment to you, and felt so undeserving and so grateful? That is what the fear of God is like. But feelings don’t last, and the fear of God is kept active and alive by what we call discipline, habitual actions that nurture that event and help keep that event active in shaping our life.

And when the disciplines are done for the sake of our own spiritual survival and our of our own sense of need, those around us pick up on it and receive something of this value though we may not be aware of it at the time. Others, including our children, see the need we have. The need we have for God is our strength and is what undergirds all our other values. The need for God could be called humility, but that does not quite capture it. I believe the need for God is best described as the fear of God.

Among the Hebrew people, the fear of God was the definition of true religion. The fear of God was also proclaimed and practiced in the early church. The fear of the Lord describes a spirit of trembling adoration. It tells of a person who is very much conscious of God and sense a responsibility to God. And the fear of the God is the disposition of mind and heart that makes us teachable and opens the gate of our soul to receive the truth of God and the gifts of God.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 29, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)