DAY 295 - There Was a Marriage in Cana of Galilee

Isaiah 62:5 (NIV) ⁵ As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

John 2:1-11 (RSV) On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Isn’t this a strange way to start a work that will change the world? There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. And the wine failed. In first century Hebrew society, for the wine to run out at a wedding was a sign of a person’s failure, points to a failure brewing on the horizon. Jesus prevents the failure by turning the water into wine, but it is not just any kind of water.  Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification. The water for purification will not meet the need. But the new wine does. And what is wine a symbol of? The blood and life of Jesus.

The meaning of this miracle and sign is obvious. The miracle of turning water into wine announces that Jesus is the new covenant. The old way of entering into relationship with God by keeping the customs and laws has failed. The new way of Jesus produces the wine of abundance that satisfies. To this point, all the wise men of Israel were saying do what the law of Moses says. Do what the law of the prophets say. Do what the law as interpreted by the teachers of the law says. Mary says, do whatever He tells you. Rules fail us. Do whatever He tells you.

We know that this story is of a marriage of a man and woman, but that it also points to our relationship to God, a “covenant relationship,” one that requires wild promises be made to one another that create some pretty extravagant expectations of one another. But this is what is required if we want this kind of relationship with one another and therefore with God.

We can, of course, distort what He tells us. We can do that for a while, but notice what Jesus does in this story. When Mary wants Jesus to rescue the wedding host, Jesus says, O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. If Jesus would rebuke His own mother will He not also do the same with us when we try to force Him into doing things our way? Do whatever He tells you. There may be some rebukes along the way, but the promise is that Jesus will turn the water into wine.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 15, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 294 - And When Jesus Was Twelve Years Old

Luke 2:41-52 (NIV) ⁴¹ Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. ⁴² When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. ⁴³ After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. ⁴⁴ Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵ When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. ⁴⁶ After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” ⁴⁹ “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰ But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

This story in Luke tells us a lot about the early life of Jesus. He was twelve, too young to experience Bar Mitzvah, to become a son of the Law. The story also tells us that Jesus was intellectually sharp and spiritually perceptive. We learn from the story that Jesus was from a good Jewish home and was raised by some very typical, human parents, but, these are not the point of the story.

“Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” That is the point of the story, an early hint that Jesus knew something special about God. There were hints in the Hebrew Scriptures that God was a Father, but Jesus claimed that to know God as a Father is to know the heart and soul of what God is really like.

And yet, there was resistance to God as Father then and there is resistance now. There is the resistance of religious idealism, believing that to see God as Father is too small, too limited a way to understand God. There is a resistance to those within the Christian faith who reject the Fatherhood of God in favor of a more beneficent Grandfather God. And there is the resistance of some in the Feminist Movement who see the Fatherhood of God as part of a male dominated theology, a criticism that is difficult to deny. But, it is also difficult to deny that the Fatherhood of God was at the heart of Jesus’ faith and life. We are not likely to have the kind of life Jesus had unless we have the kind of relationship to God that Jesus had. And here is the second point of this story.

This story tells us that we do not learn about the Fatherhood of God simply by listening to the teaching of Jesus. The Rabbis were amazed at His teaching. Mary and Joseph were astonished at what He said, but no one understood simply by listening. If we only listen to the teaching of Jesus, we may agree or disagree. We may accept or reject. If we simply listen to the teaching of Jesus we will treat it simply as one brand of truth among many ideas and ideals. But we will not discover the vital sense of Fatherhood that Jesus came to give.

We learn by submitting our life to Him, not simply by listening to Him teach. For the one thing that keeps us from knowing God as a Father is not our ignorance, but our stubbornness, not our desire to be tolerant of truth but to be in control and in charge. The shocking news of this story is that we discover the Fatherhood of God by subjecting our life to the Son. 

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 1, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 293 - The Hinge Discipline

Luke 6:41-42 (NIV)  ⁴¹ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? … You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Revelation 3:19-20 (NASB) ¹⁹  Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Discipline is what we do to grow as people. The spiritual disciplines are what we do regularly to nourish and grow our soul. Spiritual disciplines include prayer, fasting, meditation, Bible study, frugality, solitude, worship, and confession, and we may ask which of these is the most important. The answer is that just as we need a balanced diet to nourish our body we need a balanced practice of the disciplines to nourish our soul.

But, there is one discipline that helps open the door to our hearts and minds that I call the “Hinge Discipline.” It could be compared to the enter key on a computer. Material stays on the surface on the screen until we push the enter key. So the material of the other disciplines tends to stay on the surface of our life until we push this key, the Hinge Discipline, that is repentance and confession. Repentance is the inward recognition of wrong that we have done. Confession is the outward acknowledgment. It is a response to the work of God in our life. It is allowing ourselves to hear God’s verdict and judgment on our life. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. This is the work of God. To reprove means to expose and bring to the light.

Confession serves our life in several ways. One of the most important is that confession reverses our natural tendency to deny and blame. We talk about the faults and problems of others, but never seem to face up to the truth about ourselves. Jesus calls us to focus on ourselves and our faults. Unless we hear this repeatedly, the compass needle of our soul seems to drift naturally toward seeing the faults of others rather than focusing upon ourselves. God reproves us and chastens us to deliver us from the deceits that numb us and undermine us and destroy us. He doesn’t break the door down, but neither does He quit knocking. When was the last time something in the Scriptures reproved you, proved you wrong, corrected you, judged you? Whenever you feel angry, or irritated, or disappointed or frustrated, open the door to your soul by asking “Where is my responsibility in this? How am I at fault?” If you allow that question to interrupt  the blame game we all play you will discover God living closer to you than you ever imagined.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope, November 6, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 292 - Resolution

From Daniel 1, 2, and 6  (NIV) The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.  But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way … In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.  So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed.  What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”  So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.  Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.  He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon … The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den.  Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.  So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den …  My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.  … and when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

How do we know when to compromise and when to say no? God gives us the freedom and responsibility to make the decision and gives help in showing us where to draw the line. What do you hear and see as Daniel deals with the pressure to compromise his convictions? Daniel resolved, made up his mind literally and took it to heart. When it came to food he drew the line, believing the food would defile his soul. He took seriously a truth that could have been easily dismissed in the pressure of the moment. He took seriously that the health of his soul was more important than anything that the king could offer him.

What do you do when unreasonable, impossible demands are made upon you? Look what Daniel did. Daniel turned to God and to his friends. He told his friends to pray to the God of heaven. He needed human help to hear and receive God’s help. Do we link those two sources of help together when the pressure is on?

And what about being thrown to the lions? The good news of Daniel is that he survived. The lions did not harm him. God sent his angels to shut the mouths of the lions. The message is simple. Daniel had not been hurt at all because he trusted God. Trust is openness toward God, a willingness to accept what He gives and basic confidence in God that He can shut the mouths of lions.

Daniel is an example of someone who worked heartily, serving the Lord. God was faithful, and Daniel was faithful, but faithfulness is no guarantee of what our world calls success. Faithfulness is never futile and gives a fulfillment to the soul that the world cannot give.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 18, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 291 - Saved From What?

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (NIV) ¹¹ Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹² It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Romans 10:2-4, 8-10 (NIV) ² For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³ Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.  ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: ⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

The Hebrew people had a very clear understanding of law-righteousness. They were living under the oppression of Rome, and it was God’s punishment upon them for disobedience. Therefore, if they would obey the law of Moses, God would deliver them from their oppressors. If they would do what was right, God would make life right for them again. After all, what could be more fair? We do our part and God does His.

This kind of thinking still gets into our mind and heart, and this is the sin that Jesus confronted again and again in the lives of the Pharisees. Outwardly, they were determined to obey every word of the law of Moses. Inwardly, they were determined to have their own way. This kind of life does not work. No matter how hard or how long we work, the promise is never fulfilled. Somehow we never get what we need. There is always something else. We stay in constant turmoil by the continual drive to make ourselves happy. We are held captive by the belief that we deserve, and by the feeling that we are deprived. We experience the “hole in the soul.” And, ultimately, we have not dealt with the secret agenda of our soul - the rebellious spirit of self-will.

Paul says we need to be saved from law righteousness to a righteousness that comes by faith and requires the defeat of our self-will. We will gladly accept God’s help to give us what we think we need to make us happy. But we struggle to accept what Jesus offers when He says to us that we can trust Him. It is a struggle for us to turn our will and our lives over to Him with no certainty of what He is going to ask of us or give us. But when we do, Jesus saves us from a life of trying that we might learn a life of trusting. We are saved, Paul says, when we believe in our heart and confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 27, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 290 - An Eye Opening Experience

Zephaniah 1:14-17a (NIV) ¹⁴ The great day of the Lord is near — near and coming quickly. The cry on the day of the Lord is bitter; the Mighty Warrior shouts his battle cry. ¹⁵ That day will be a day of wrath— a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness — ¹⁶ a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers.¹⁷ “I will bring such distress on all people that they will grope about like those who are blind, because they have sinned against the Lord.

John 9:39-41 (NIV) 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.

What do you see when we talk about the judgment of God? If you are like most people in our society today, you may see nothing, or you may see “sinners in the hands of an angry God.” It may be that even if we do wonder about the judgment of God it has little influence on our life. Do we have illusions of utopia that can be accomplished by human effort? Are we blind?

Hebrew Scripture speaks to a Day of Judgment when God will make everything right. The Day of Judgment is called “That Day,” and it represents a terrible day, a day of fury, of trouble and distress, or darkness and gloom. But when “That Day” has passed, God would leave the world good and fresh and clean.

But, something has changed about “That Day,” and what has changed is that Jesus is the judge. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” In Jesus we see that judgment never comes from a malicious God, but from His compassion and love, though not a soft, sentimental love that says our sin doesn’t matter. The love of Jesus is a judging love.

There is much that I do not understand about that judgment, but one thing seems obvious. If the judgment is from Jesus it is the judgment of suffering love. And the purpose of His judgment is that those who do not see may see. This, too, is a mystery. How is it that some people have their eyes opened by judgment and others do not? Some see where they have been wrong and acknowledge the wrong they have done. They make amends and they change. Others do not. Judgment opens our eyes to see what we are doing that is hurtful and destructive to ourselves and to others. That is the work of Christ for us. That is the will of Christ for us, that judgment will open our eyes to see.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 20, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 289 - The Value Of A Real Education

Matthew 7:28-29, 11:28-30 (NIV) ²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Our real education is more than our formal education. It is what we learn and the way we grow and develop because of the influence of other people. We are talking about what we commonly call our outlook or mind-set on life.

Who are we learning from? “Learn from me,” Jesus says. The invitation is specific and asks for a specific, deliberate decision to do that. We decide that we will seek to hear and heed the voice of Jesus in the many voices that are speaking to us.

“Learn from me.”  What kind of teacher was Jesus? His authority was not overbearing, but compelling. He did not try to convince people that they ought to follow His teaching. He left the matter of acceptance and rejection to the mystery of divine will and the working of human freedom.

Those who heard Jesus were astonished at His teaching for He taught as one who had authority. Yet, Jesus said, “learn from me … for I am gentle and humble.” Have you known a teacher like that? Some teachers have to push us to get the best out of us. Others inspire it. “Take my yoke,” Jesus said. The yoke was a symbol of the discipline required for learning – devotion time, coming to Sunday School or to church, or participation in some other group that helps us learn of Jesus – and, as the Living Bible paraphrases it, “my yoke fits perfectly.”  The yoke fits. When we learn from Jesus we are and we do what fits. It is what we want to do and it is the right thing to do rolled together in a life of fulfillment and satisfaction.

“Learn from me,” Jesus says, “and I will give you rest.” Note the promise that comes with the invitation. He does not say we had better learn from Him, or else. He does not say learn from Him and we will be happy and successful. “Learn from me and you will find rest for your soul.”  Jesus says that “rest” is not a matter of place, nor a stage in life, nor something we achieve by any dreams that drive our life. Rest is something that happens in our soul. If that rest does not come to our soul, it does not matter where we go or what we do. We will still feel deprived because we have not found “rest for our soul.”

Rest comes when we learn from Jesus. When we learn from Christ our life begins to fit, the good parts and the bad, the ups and the downs. We find ourselves doing what we are supposed to do and being who we are supposed to be, regardless of what is going on around us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 13, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 288 - Me First!

Matthew 20:20-21, 25-28 (NIV) ²⁰ Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. ²¹ “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” ²⁵ Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ²⁶ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV) ⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

How do you feel about being a servant? The servant image in our society seems to be both positive and negative. After all, we hear our leaders say that they want to be “public servants,” and they do. But most of them like the perks of power that go with such noble service.

The image of a servant is not entirely bad, but there is a nagging negative to it. A real servant, without the perks, seems weak and spineless, unable to get ahead, naïve, lacking in self-esteem. The key for understanding the kind of servant we are to be is Jesus Himself … just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

This is crucial. We are to be a servant in the way that Jesus was a servant. We do not understand the meaning of that word unless we understand it from Him. Jesus served people, but He was not a people pleaser. He took the needs of people seriously, but they did not set the agenda for His service. He fed the poor and hungry, but said they need more. They needed good news that would inspire them to a new life, and He gave that to them. He acted responsibly toward people but seemed to feel no obligation to them. He healed those who came to Him, but He did not try to heal everyone in the region. He never seemed to worry about people taking advantage of Him. He was known for serving the poor, but He served the rich and powerful as well.

Jesus wants to set us free from needing to be upwardly mobile in the ranks and calls us to be a servant that we might also be free … and to give his life as a ransom for many. The word ransom for us usually means ransom money given to a kidnapper. In Jesus’ day it was the money paid to free a slave. Jesus wants to ransom us from a mind-set that keeps us in bondage. He wants to give us a new way of seeing and doing life. You shall be a servant.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 6, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 287 - The Art of Care-Fronting

I Corinthians 4:14-21 (NASB) ¹⁴ I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. ¹⁶ Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. ¹⁷ For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. ²¹ What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

When we look at the life of the early church we see people who were often confused about what obedience meant. It is no accident that more than half of Paul’s letters were written to correct this confusion. Paul writes that he does not write to make them ashamed, but to admonish them as beloved children. The word Paul uses is noutheteo, to place in the mind, and translators hunt for the right English word. It can mean to warn, to train, to counsel, or to care-front. Care-front is the way we confront one another in a caring and loving way. Proverbs notes the confronting nature of love in 27:6, better are the wounds of a friend than the kisses of an enemy.

There is within many of us something that resists this kind of accountability to each other. But, some questions are just too close to our own brokenness for us to see the right answer. Am I a people pleaser? Do I use people rather than build them up? Am I nursing a “justified” resentment? Am I being true to Christ in the way I am treating my spouse, my children, in the way I am doing my work? In the way I am managing my money and my care or lack of care of my health?

Answers come from the people who know us the best and love us still. This is the responsibility the Christian community has to one another. Care-fronting is a way of helping one another recognize the deceit of self-centeredness and to move in the direction of being more faithful to Christ.

The church needs to be a community where people hold themselves accountable to God and to one another. Today, there is agreement in principle, but often there is almost no agreement in practice. Care-fronting gives us the wisdom and the power to be faithful in daily living and to experience Christ’s faithfulness to us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 13, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 286- If You Love Me Listen To Me

Luke 8:5-8, 18 (NIV) ⁵ “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”  ¹⁸ Therefore consider carefully how you listen.

Romans 10:14-17 (NIV)  ¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” ¹⁶ But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

Relationships require listening, and faith in Christ and relationship with Him come as we listen. Paul says faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. Over and over again the Scriptures emphasize the importance of listening to God.

If listening is the way relationships begin and grow, it is also true that we resist listening. So Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. Some do not hear because their hearts have been hardened. They have heard too many false advertisements; they have been jilted by too many fickle lovers. Some do not hear because their hearts are shallow. They want quick results to their hearing and when it does not come they shut down their listening. And some do not hear because their hearts are too cluttered by noise and the busy-ness of the world.

The good news of the parable is that the Sower continues to sow. The persistence of our resistance is met by the persistence of God’s continuous speaking. Hearing comes as a gift and it can come at any time, but Jesus says that we are most likely to hear when we persist in our effort to hear, even if our effort seems to bear no results. This persistence in hearing is called meditation. We do not have to be spiritual giants to meditate. We do not have to learn an advance skill to listen, to be quiet, to allow a little stillness into our soul.

Have you ever had something to say to someone that you knew would be good and helpful, but they refused to listen or hear you? That is the way Jesus pictures us. Hearing means an awareness of and confidence in Him. Faith in Christ and relationship with Him come as we listen.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 30, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 285 - Do Not Neglect The Gift That Is In You

I Timothy 4:14-15 (NIV) ¹⁴ Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. ¹⁵ Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.

II Timothy 1:6-7 (NIV) ⁶ For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷ For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

Do not neglect your gift … the word is charismata, a grace gift. As each has received a grace gift to carry out the ministry of Jesus Christ, use it. Carrying out the ministry of Jesus Christ helps us to be who God intended. We are made to share in the work of Jesus Christ in all that we do: in our responsibility to our family, in our responsibility at work, and in our responsibility to love and care for people.  The things that we do that give us deep and lasting pleasure usually involve the use of our gifts.

Do not let the pressures of the world push the awareness of your gifts out of your mind and heart. Do not neglect the gift that is in you. Neglect comes from giving in to the pressures of the society around us, what family expects, what our boss is asking of us, what our spouse wants from us, what our teacher is telling us to strive for, what our friends hope we will be and do, what the media is telling us that we need. These are pressures around us to neglect our gifts, but they have no power over us unless we give in to these demands and expectations. Do not let the pressures of the world push the awareness of your gifts out of your mind and heart. Lacking a sense of giftedness and call we become burdened and burned out. Without a sense of purpose we become driven and determined.

Then in his second letter to Timothy, Paul says the same thing in a more positive way when he says that we are to fan into flame the gift of God, to stir up the fire of life within us. It is not enough simply to resist the pressure. We must be pro-active against it. And the only way to do that is to stay close to the flame who is Jesus Christ. Jesus inspires the awareness of our gift. If it is the pressure of the world around us that causes us to neglect our gifts, we need another world, a community that does not try to mold and manipulate according to its design, but a Christian community that seeks to clarify, to correct, and to confirm our gifts.

Attend diligently to these things. The athlete and the artist both submit their gifts to discipline if they are to be developed. Begin with what you already feel gives God and you pleasure. It may or may not be easy but it will be worth the price. It may or may not help you earn money, but it will be worth your life. Stay close to the flame in a Christian community. Do not neglect the gift. Rekindle the gift.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 16, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 284 - A Gift for the Common Good

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NIV) ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

I Peter 4:11 (NIV) ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Christian community happens when there is a meeting and melting together of the gifts we have received from the life of Jesus Christ. Not until and unless we have that kind of sharing can we experience the reality called community. We have a challenge in our effort to be community, and the problem has to do with pressures that encourage isolation and conformity.

When we look at the thirty or so different gifts mentioned in the New Testament we can begin to sense and see the different ways different people contribute some measure of Christ’s gift to the community in general and the community called church. Christian community pulls us out of isolation and instead of pressuring us into conformity, demands that we contribute the diversity of our gift for the common good. In fact, this diversity is vital for the health of the Christian community. As we contribute the measure of our gift, we measure up to the life of Jesus Christ. Like pieces of a puzzle, we come together contributing our part and display a more complete picture of the life Jesus Christ.

It is not false humility to think that it is hard for us to be like Christ individually, and is probably a fairly accurate reading of our human frailties. But when we come together, and each contributes some portion of gifts, we become a community where the living Christ can be met, worshipped, and served. Not only do we display the life of Christ more completely as a community than as isolated individuals, but a strange reciprocity takes place. We give and we receive all aspects of His life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 23, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 283 - Concerning Spiritual Gifts

John 14:12-14 (NIV) ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

I Corinthians 12:1, 12-18, 25-26  (NASB) Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. ¹² For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴ For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵ If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. ²⁵ so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Fifty days after the Resurrection the disciples began learning that they could do the works that Jesus did. And, like Jesus, the disciples began to draw people into a new kind of community where they discovered a new relationship to God and to one another. Peter called this ability to do the work of Christ the “Grace Gifts.” Paul used various names, but tended to call this ability “Spiritual Gifts.”

Concerning spiritual gifts, I do not want you to be unaware. How aware are we about spiritual gifts? Do we know what they are and what they do and how they are meant to be used? There is much we do not know, but this much we do know: there are a variety of gifts, a variety of ways to use them, and a variety of times and occasions when these gifts are needed, but always it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God being served. These are some of the things we know about spiritual gifts, but possibly the most important is this: to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. If you are committed to Jesus Christ, He has committed some part of His present ministry and work to you, as He wills.

As we give from the gifts of the Spirit, we receive back. We receive that illusive gift called fulfillment. Fulfillment comes not because what we are doing is special or glamorous or highly profitable. We receive fulfillment because we are doing what we were created and designed to do. We are doing what fits us and it fills us full. We each have a gift, and we have a need to put that gift to use not only for the common good, but for our good.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 9, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell