DAY 242 - Should We Enlist in the Culture War?

I Thessalonians 2:4 (NIV) ⁴ On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.

I Thessalonians 15, 19-22 (NIV)  ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.  ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not treat prophecies with contempt ²¹ but test them all; hold on to what is good, ²² reject every kind of evil.

I John 4:1-3a (NIV) ¹ Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

Paul’s word to the church in Thessalonika is basic: TEST EVERYTHING. The mind of the Christian is not meant to be soft. Faith is not gullibility, but neither is it to see if everything agrees with our opinions, our views, or our faith. Our culture has a strong Religious Right and a Religious Left. The two groups differ in their views about everything from abortion to euthanasia, from what is taught in public schools to what rights people have in their private homes. Who or what really causes us to say yes or no to what we hear?

The traditional source of authority for Christians is the written word of Scripture and the living word given by the Holy Spirit. When we turn to the written word, we hear John tell by what standard we should test everything: test the spirits to see if they are of God; and, this is how we will know if the spirit is of God: confession that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is of God.

The history of the church is replete with voices confessing that Jesus is a reliable standard to help us decide what is truth and what is not, what is right and what is wrong. We test what we know of Jesus Christ against what is being said, and what we believe. Do we find this too narrow? Can we trust One person who lived 2000 years ago to give us the answers to complex issues today? Is the test too subjective? Is it too easy to confuse our own prejudices with the words of Jesus Christ? Test everything to see if they make public the mind and spirit of Jesus Christ.

There is one more part of this test we need to know, and here is our hope. While we are testing to see if beliefs and statements are of God, God is testing us. It may be that we say, “I had always been taught, but when I actually read the Bible I found out … “ Or, “I was raised to believe and then one day I discovered that God…” The church fathers called this “a holy disturbance.”  Convictions tested by God in Jesus Christ come through to us clear and strong. We are to test what we hear and what we believe against Jesus Christ. And equally important is to know that God is testing us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 17, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 241 - The Peril and Promise of Self-Denial

Luke 9:23-25 (NIV)  ²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

James 4:1-3, 5-10 (NIV)  ¹ What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The value of self-denial has always been difficult, but it has been made more difficult by the increasing value our culture has put on self-fulfillment. The notion is that we should affirm ourselves. We should express ourselves, actualize ourselves and assert ourselves. The values of duty, obligation and self-sacrifice are seen as being repressive and a severe limit to our need to be free and expressive and full of satisfaction in life. So, for example, love as sacrifice or as subordination to another is seen as offensive, as unhealthy, and as an affront to common sense.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God,” James said, and that is what Jesus meant when He said we should deny ourselves and take up our Cross. And, here are some of the things we will need to do: resist the devil who tries to make us think that denying ourselves is groveling and derogatory; cleanse our minds of the clutter of wanting so many different things that we are left feeling strained and stressed; purify our hearts and focus our minds and hearts on what God wants for us.

And then James says God gives grace. God gives both the responsibilities that are ours and the wisdom to say “no” to those that are not. God gives us the pleasures we need. God gives the relationships and success that we need, and God gives the gift of orchestrating our inner desires and our whole lives so that everything finds its place and it just fits rights. When our lives have been touched by the love of God in Jesus, when we have discovered a small portion of God’s fierce commitment to us in Jesus, then submission to God becomes our most pressing need and our highest value.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 24, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 240 - Exam Time

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Psalm 139:1-8, 11-12, 17-18, 23-24 (Good News Translation) Lord, you have examined me and you know me.  ² You know everything I do; from far away you understand all my thoughts. ³ You see me, whether I am working or resting; you know all my actions. ⁴ Even before I speak, you already know what I will say. ⁵ You are all around me on every side; you protect me with your power. ⁶ Your knowledge of me is too deep; it is beyond my understanding. ⁷ Where could I go to escape from you? Where could I get away from your presence. ⁸ If I went up to heaven, you would be there; if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there. ¹¹ I could ask the darkness to hide me or the light around me to turn into night, ¹² but even darkness is not dark for you, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to you. ¹⁷ O God, how difficult I find your thoughts; how many of them there are! ¹⁸ If I counted them, they would be more than the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. ²³ Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. ²⁴ Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way.

 

I Corinthians 11:23-28 (NIV)  ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. ²⁷ So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

Whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not, the Lord knows us inside and out, knows every thought that flits through our minds, knows every step we take, every plan we make, every word we speak. Sometimes that is comforting, sometimes it is frightening, but it is always beyond our comprehension.

There is no way to escape God’s examination of our life. As the Psalmist ponders this fact, his resistance begins to melt away and a sense of wonder and of awe begins to flood into his soul. Desire replaces his hesitancy. And, that is faith and repentance all rolled up into one great commitment – a complete, carefree casting of our life into the hands of God.  That is the spirit we are invited to bring to the Communion Table. It is one thing to believe God knows us inside and out, and quite another to desire it, and to seek God’s verdict on our life. When we desire His examination, we are able to accept our sins without self-abasement and our strengths without pride, and we will judge others with the same magnanimous spirit with which God has judged us.

Examine me O God … test me … find out if there is any deceit in me and guide me in the eternal way.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 4, 1985

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell