Day 41 - Growing Toward Perfection in Love

I John 4:7-9, 11-12, 18-19 (NKJV) ⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.

It is like each of us has a bucket, empty and waiting to be filled with love. Many of us know someone who seems to have a hole in that bucket and no matter how much love they receive it is never enough. Others have filled their bucket with love substitutes, including romantic love, busyness, success, and that ever-popular substitute for love called food. John says that bucket was meant to be filled with God’s love for us. The question is, are we open to receive God’s love for us?

We all want to love and be loved. We all need to love and be loved. As John writes the early church to help them recover the truth of love, he writes in a cyclic form, repeating what he has already said but in a slightly different way. In this way, he invites us to step into this on-going process of recovering love for our life, where real love is perfected in us.

We enter the cycle of love by receiving God’s love. Do we take time to remember God’s love for us? Do we come with a receptive attitude to let the love of God sink into our soul? Or, do we deflect God’s love with busyness? Do we dismiss God’s love as not important? Do we deny God’s love to dodge the responsibility that goes with it?

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. The word “ought” in Greek is a strong word. It means “we owe it.” Love is not a demand but a debt. It is a debt that John lays on us to get us moving, to pull us out of that place of being stuck, to motivate us to do something loving however tough and difficult it may seem. And when we do, when we give even the smallest amount of love we faintly believe God has for us, His love has been perfected in us. The one who loves knows God.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 27, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 40 - Loving Truthfully

John 7:27-33 (NIV) ²⁷ "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

I John 3:16, 19, 23 (CEV) ¹⁶We know what love is because Jesus gave his life for us. That's why we must give our lives for each other. ¹⁹When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God. ²³God wants us to have faith in his Son Jesus Christ and to love each other. This is also what Jesus taught us to do.

In the living Jesus we have a living model of what real love is, and this model of real love confronts many of the false images that can get hold of us today. Look at the life of Jesus. He gave. And he gave. He was under constant pressure to give, and he gave. He listened. He cared. And sometimes, at the right time, He gave Himself to solitude. He left the demands of the crowd to give Himself to God alone. He went to the mountains to get some God-given perspective on His calling to love.

The type of love we see in Jesus has been defined as a love in which we surrender our right to get what we desire so that the person we love can get what they need. It is rooted in the way Jesus gave His life in love for us. This definition gives a good focus on the true meaning of love, but it does not capture the truth of love we see in Jesus.

There is a balance and vitality to His giving that cannot be captured in a definition, but it is seen in His life. In Jesus we see a love that is confrontational, a confrontation born out of deep caring. Jesus confronts the false images of love in our society and in our hearts. When someone is addicted, a family member will often ask what he or she can do. And the answer is, “Love them like the Father of the Prodigal loved his son.” It is not an answer that people like, but it is an answer that is true to Jesus, and is proven true in the hard practicality of life.

Do we really get our understanding of love from Jesus? John is saying we have to see it to believe. And once we see it, let us not love with word or tongue, but in deed and in truth (I John 3:18 NKJV).

Jesus followed that teaching to the Cross. He gave Himself up for us all with no more certainty of what would happen than you or I would have had. At one point He even despaired, “My God, my God why have You forsaken Me?” But, He acted on what He knew, and God raised Him up.

Do and you will know.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 20, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 39 - And Coming Into Capernaum

Mark 1:21-28 (NIV) ²¹They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²²The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ²⁴"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" ²⁵"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" ²⁶The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. ²⁷The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." ²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

We read that there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. He was a respected member of the Synagogue who loses it and seems beyond help. A person with an unclean spirit is someone who is messing up their life, and they do not know it, and/or they do not know what to do about it. And nothing seems to reach them or help them.

Do you know someone with an unclean spirit? Have you been someone with an unclean spirit? We do not talk about someone having an unclean spirit other than to say we just cannot reach someone like that. Then we distance ourselves from them with our pity or we try to smooth things over with our sympathy.

But Jesus wades into the defensiveness, the resistance, and the need. He reaches the person with the power of compassion and the authority of his teaching. He says, “let go of that woman” or “let go of that man.” And this is His teaching. For teaching is more than a miracle. Teaching equips us. Teaching lasts.

Maybe you have seen the power of Jesus at work but did not recognize it. Maybe you have been healed by a new teaching, having been trapped by your own unclean spirit. You have found yourself saying, “You have told me what I suspected and refused to hear. And I am grateful. You have brought to the surface something that I did not want to face, but now that I have, I have peace. Thank you.” Someone’s words and actions have come to us as a new teaching that has set us free. That, too, is of Christ.

And they went into Capernaum … and Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to out of the man. Have you been to Capernaum?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 2, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 38 - The Glory of God

Exodus 33:18-19a (NIV) ¹⁸ Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." ¹⁹ And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.

John 12:23-28 (RSV) ²³ And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him. ²⁷ "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? `Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify thy name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."

Jesus is talking about His death. He is talking about God’s glory being revealed in His death. We find proof in the Cross of Jesus. What had been the symbol of death became a symbol of life and of God’s forgiveness of sin. What seemed like the triumph of injustice became God’s judgment on injustice. What looked like the stark absence of God, and the powerlessness of God was the presence of God and the awesome power of God.

For whoever would save his life will lose it and who loses his life for my sake, he will save it. Unless the grain dies… Unless you and I die to what? Unless we die to self. Unless we die to thinking and feeling and believing and acting as if we are the center of what life is all about.

Death is seldom easy. On this side of dying all we see, all we seem to be able to focus on is what we are going to lose, on what we are going to have to give up. Jesus struggled with the choice and the possibility before him. But in the middle of that struggle, for Him and for us, comes the voice of God. In the turbulence comes a presence, a power not our own, that enables us to let go and to find life.

When we feel like a failure and feel sorry for ourselves life becomes darker, more draining physically and emotionally and spiritually. We may quit going to church. And then we hear the words from the Cross, “It is finished” and they pierce our soul with something so real and strong it feels like a sudden white light. And, we know it is finished – the hurts, the blame, resentment, regrets, guilt, self-pity. And there is peace, and life, and a call. A new sense of call to get on with life and use our gifts.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 16, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 37 - Are You Sure?

John 1:9-13 (NIV) ⁹The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

I John 3:1-3a (RSV) See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

John tells us what we can be sure of, and what we need to be uncertain about. And he invites us to try out this truth in our daily life. Beloved, we are God's children now. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. That is what we know. In Jesus, God calls us into a relationship where we know we have become children of God, and we know we are the beloved on whom God’s favor rests. We live with a sense of belonging to God and receive parental care and parental direction from God.

God comes among us in the Cross of Jesus Christ, watches the cruel crucifixion and allows it that we might see what love the Father has for us. There is a difference between the bland statement that we are all God’s children and the awesome awareness of, literally, see what love the Father has given us.

John wants us to have a deep certainty that we are God’s children now, because it helps us live with the uncertainty that it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We know who we are. What we do not know is the kind of person God is going to mold us into, except that it will be something like Jesus.

This confronts arrogant assumptions like “she will never change,” “there is a loser,” “he is not going to do well,” and even the self-inflicted “I will never change so leave me alone.”

Ever since we stood in front of the empty tomb we do not know how God will invade our tomorrows. We do not know what God’s interventions will be. Amid all the voices of assumed certainty comes the clear uncertainty of not knowing what we shall be, except we are moving toward becoming like Jesus.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 13, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 36 - Unless You Bless Me

Genesis 32:22-30 (NIV) ²² That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok^{. 23}After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." ²⁷ The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. ²⁸ Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." ²⁹ Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. ³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

And so it happens. A stranger appears out of nowhere, attacks Jacob for no apparent reason. The two begin a life and death struggle in the silence of the night until just before morning when it appears that Jacob is going to win. Suddenly, the stranger touches Jacob lightly on the hip, cripples Jacob for life and leaves him helpless. But Jacob still holds on. He holds on, not in force but in need. Jacob declares, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Unless you bless me. That is what he wants. That is what Jacob has needed all along no matter how hard he tried to strive and survive. And, ironically, that is what he had been promised form the beginning.

Is this story about Jacob a story about you and me? What is this blessing thing that was so crucial to Jacob? To be blessed is to know and feel and relish the sense of God’s care and commitment. It is to have God’s care and commitment so central to our life that it is what supports each day and shapes our life as the years go on.

The blessing is the Word of God repeated to Jesus at His baptism and at His transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It is something we need so that we can enjoy the really good gifts of life and we can endure and even grow from the hard parts of life. Could it be that in the struggle and striving of our life our opponent is no other than God? Hidden in the darkness of our striving is really our own stubborn self-will pitted against the love of God?

Is the story about Jacob a story about you and me? It is hard to know. Few of us even experience a need to be blessed by God. But maybe we are experiencing the struggle, the frustration, and are discouraged, beaten, and worn out. Would you consider that in the darkness of that struggle is God and God’s loving opposition? “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 25, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 35 - Into the Wilderness

Mark 1:9-13 (NASB) ⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; ¹¹and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased." ¹²Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. ¹³And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

I invite you to follow Jesus into a wilderness of place and of soul. This is not a place that Jesus particularly chose for Himself to be. Jesus was tempted. He was struggling with some basic issues about who He was and what He was called to do. Jesus is very much alone in the wilderness but not abandoned. Angels of support are there, but they are in the background.

Have you been in the wilderness of temptation? Whatever gets us there, in the wilderness we face some very important decisions about the kind of person we really are and what we are doing with the gift of life.

In the wilderness, we hear the howling of the wild beasts, the threats, ”If you don’t take that job, you are nothing. If you say something about the dissatisfaction in your marriage, you are going to lose it all. If you take God seriously, you will have to give up your favorite pleasure and become a religious fanatic.” You have heard the threats.

And, in the wilderness there are angels, special people, a thought, an awareness buried deep inside, or a deep sense of security, but there are no miracles, no sudden bursting of clarity and light. And in the wilderness is the Tempter saying, “God does not care. Your struggle is too small for God to worry with. God has deserted you.”

If we are driven into the wilderness, let us be there in the spirit of Jesus Christ, and there make some important decisions about who we are and where we are going, and to accept the struggle as God given. This is God’s gift to us, not one we would have chosen, but one we need. Mental, emotional, and spiritual health comes to us when we are simply willing to accept the struggle. How can the Tempter get through to us when we accept the struggle as a gift of God rather than as a sign we are abandoned by God? And then we defeat the Tempter.

God is the composer of our life, the creator, but He has given us the responsibility of being the conductor, to conduct ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings, and our behavior. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, came from the wilderness. And we come forth. We come forth with a new Spirit of conviction.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 16, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles