DAY 27 - What On Earth Are You Doing Here?

Romans 8:28-31a ²⁸And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. ³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

What does life lived with a God-given purpose look like? It looks different from a life resigned to the routine. It looks connected, connected to something greater than ourselves, more permanent than our goals. It looks connected to God who causes all things to work together for good. We do not know what that good may be. Sometimes the good comes disguised as a failure, a disappointment. But the disguise is only temporary. As people who live with a sense of purpose we simply cannot foresee what God will use to touch our life, the roads along which He will lead us, or where the roads will lead. We do not know when God will intervene in our life, whether at the heights of happiness or in the pits of despair.

Life with a God-given purpose has a confident sense of not knowing. Life with a God-given purpose is learning to live our life one chapter at a time, knowing that the present moment is never the “be all” or the “end all” of our life.

That is a small part of what living with purpose looks like. The full picture is seen in Jesus Christ, that we might be conformed to the image of God’s Son. Whatever happens to us, we know that this is what God is working to accomplish in us.

God is at work to predestine us. We have a future because God has made sure of it. God is at work to call us. Have we heard the call that energizes and unifies our life? Have we received that call that roots our life in God and gives us a calmness to live by and the courage to live our convictions? God is at work to justify us. To justify a page means to have everything lined up right and in order. And that is what God is doing with us. Because of the sin within and the storms without we are sometimes blown off course, but God brings our life in line with His will. God is at work to glorify us. The final outcome is not seen in detail, but it is clear enough to let us know what we need to know here and now.

God is at work in all things. Are we aware? Do we know this? Do we believe this? Does this sense of purpose guide and direct our life? If we want to live with a sense of purpose, we are to love God. To love God is to put Him first. It is to seek first God’s will. To live with a sense of purpose is to accept the permanent task of changing the dominant question of our life from “What do I want?” to “What does God want?”

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 16, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 26 - The Rules of Respectability or a Response to Grace

Acts 15:1-2, 5-11 (NKJV) ¹ And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question. ⁵ But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” ⁶ Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. ⁷ And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. ⁸ So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, ⁹ and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? ¹¹ But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

How is it that the church is so often seen as a place of respectability rather than a community for the down and out? The church of Peter and Paul and Barnabas and James were facing this issue. Up until this time the church was made up of good respectable Jewish people. They knew the rules and had learned the laws of God, not only the Ten Commandments but also the six hundred thirty-three commands that governed their life. It was a good life. It was a stable life. They sensed that they belonged and they knew where they belonged. They knew their place in the scheme of things.

But now, as many Gentiles were joining the church, some objected. The predominant thought was that Gentiles could not be saved; they did not really belong and they should not belong to the community. A meeting was held in Jerusalem to discuss the issue, and Peter rose and said: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe…that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

The message and the ministry of Jesus had said that the love of God reaches out to all people regardless of how respectable or not they might be. The free gift of God’s love in Jesus was, and is, doing all this. We must not hinder that work with the rules of being respectable.

Do we come to church so clothed in respectability that we do not receive God’s love? Peter reminds us that we are saved by grace. We are saved by this moment of recognizing our real need and God’s generous offer. The problem with respectability is not what others say about us. The problem is that the rules of respectability bar us from a true sense of need, keeping us from truly sensing our need of God’s grace.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 2, 1999

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 25 - The High Price of Peace

John 14:25-27 (NASB) ²⁵“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. ²⁶But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

James 4:1-2a (NKJV) ¹Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? ²You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.

Peace is needed. Peace is promised. What is the peace that Jesus promised? The peace given to us in Jesus means “to bring to completion,” “to restore to the original,” “to become whole.” This peace depends on what we do about our desires, and comes when we give priority to God’s will. It brings inner harmony. It gives a certain measure of calm even when we are surrounded by turbulence and storm.

When we talk about “living in harmony” or having “a balanced life” we are coming close to the true meaning of peace. Peace is first of all an inner harmony of life brought about by the rule of God. It is as if God overrules the inner conflict of our life and the power of His peace prevails. This peace of soul is needed before there can be any other kind of peace in our life.

This peace may be lost to our awareness for a while, but not to our life. The peace of God remains as a kind of inner gyroscope that continually brings our life back to balance.

If peace comes to us as a gift from God, and if this peace results from the rule of God, what is our responsibility? Our responsibility is to serve Christ and to pursue the things that make for peace and the building up of one another.

Everyone who has found a certain measure of God’s peace is required to pay a price. The price is giving up our rights and giving in to God’s will. Many of us are so endowed with self-will that when the time comes to surrender, we fight to the bitter end, and the end is frequently a friendship, a marriage, a job, or sickness of body and soul. The strange thing about the price that has to be paid is that it only seems high before we pay. Afterward, we know we got a bargain, so little asked of us and so much given in return.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 2, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 24 - What Went Wrong?

I John 2:15-17 (NIV) ¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Genesis 3: 1-6 (NIV) ¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' " ⁴ "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

“What went wrong?” Most of us have found ourselves asking that question from time to time. The question puts us in touch with one of the basic issues of life, with a question that has haunted humanity since the beginning of time.

There are probably as many answers to that question as books that have been written, but none have proved more truthful and helpful than the answer given in Genesis. Man and woman wanted something they had been forbidden to have. They rejected God’s Word. They disobeyed His command. They sought knowledge of good and evil apart from God. That was the beginning of humanity’s problems and it repeats itself over and over again, unmercifully in the life of every generation and every individual.

This declaration of independence from God comes from claiming autonomy, which in Greek is “auto” – self, and “noumos” – law. With autonomy, we are a law unto ourselves and we are on our own in this world. There is no divine will, only human rules.

The serpent tried to plant suspicion in the mind of Eve. In a subtle way he cast a shadow of doubt over the goodness of God. The serpent was more crafty than any other beast, but no match for Adam and Eve and not more powerful, for God had already given Adam and Eve dominion over every beast of the field, including the serpent. The serpent simply aided Adam and Eve in doing what they made up their minds to do.

What went wrong? Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. They asserted their independence and refused God’s good will. There was simply nothing in the tree or in the command that gave Eve any reason to disobey God, except the desire and the choice to do so. And when and where men and women choose to do that again, they get the same results.

This is the tragedy of sin, not only the harm it brings to human life, but the fall into the hands of the Serpent who is delighted to have us in his grasp. And this is the truth of sin, whenever we begin to accept responsibility for the wrong we have done, the hurt and the harm we have brought, when we accept the responsibility God has given us, we have taken the first step back to God.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 19, 1992

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 23 - Steady As She Goes

Ephesians 5:15-17 (NASB) ¹⁵Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, ¹⁶making the most of your time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV) ¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Be careful then how you walk … be alert for opportunities God gives in the daily routine to do His will, and be aware of the power that is subtly but surely trying to undermine your wise walk. This power may not come to us looking sneaky and sinister, but as a subtle thought, asking for just a small compromise in our conscience. This power may not come as an overwhelming threat, but as a promise to give us what we deserve to make us more comfortable, to spare us trouble, and perhaps even to add some joy and excitement to our life. This power may not come to fill us with doubt about God, but to instill confidence in us of our ability to handle life by ourselves.

We cannot see the enemy, but we can see the results of the enemy’s work, invisible forces that suck the life out of our soul. Perhaps it helps to remember that we are rescuing the life of our soul every time we do what is right regardless of the cost, when we shed resentments and practice the good news of forgiveness, when we keep our confidence in God, and when we are aware of His commitment to us.

We become alert and aware by regularly acknowledging the goodness and grace of God, listening with the faculty of quiet faith rather than to the roar of driving need, hearing with our heart rather than tuning in to the noise of the passing crowd. Scripture acts as a sword to penetrate and cut away the dullness of our soul. Prayer is the power to bring Word and soul together.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 18, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 22 - The Foundation of Faith

Isaiah 28:15-19 (NIV) ¹⁵ You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place." ¹⁶ So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. ¹⁷ I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. ¹⁸ Your covenant with death will be annulled; our agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. ¹⁹ As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through." The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.

Certainly you and I need a sense of security and well being about our life. Without it, we could not get out of the bed in the morning to face the onslaught of responsibilities, conflicts, and challenges that each day brings. We might try to build up security in business, beauty, or friends. The biggest problem in trying to find security by building our own kingdom is in the foundation, for this whole plan rests on a foundation of our having to be in control.

Isaiah offers an alternative to building and controlling our own kingdom – the alternative of counting on and trusting in Jesus Christ. Isaiah promises that, in Jesus Christ, God offers us a more solid foundation on which to build our life than our own efforts. When we finally rest our life on Christ we can cease our frantic effort to build our own kingdom.

And yet we are not likely to change very easily. If we have built our own kingdom, we are not likely to give up without a fight, without a struggle. What does it take to knock the props from beneath our life so that we can count on God for the security we seek? Do we need to hear God’s judgment, wrath and anger against our folly and foolishness? Yes, but we need also to hear God's grace.

Jesus Christ is God’s perfect expression of His judgment and His grace at the same time. In the Cross, we see God’s fury and anger at our sin, and at the same time we see His grace in taking the punishment we deserved. In God’s judgment and in God’s grace we see the same truth that God is for us. This is the truth Jesus spoke, in even His harshest words. This is the truth He lived and this is the truth He accomplished for us by His death on the Cross and Resurrection from the dead.

God is for us, even to the point of dying for us. That is the simple, solid truth on which anyone can base their whole life and find real security. Have we been beating our brains out trying to build our own little kingdom, a kingdom that cannot possibly withstand the onslaught of life and death? If you have felt the foundations of your own little kingdom shake, I would challenge you to place your hope and confidence in Jesus Christ and to believe wholeheartedly that “God is for you.”

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 24, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 21 - Please Hear What I'm Not Saying

Luke 8:16-18 (NIV) ¹⁶"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. ¹⁷For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. ¹⁸Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

How well did you listen to people this week? How well do we listen to the small talk, the daily chatter that makes up most of our conversation? Do we realize how important it is to another person to listen attentively and to take seriously what they say?

How well did we listen to our children - to the small but significant happenings in their life, to their questions and wonderings. How well did we listen to our spouse, to the petty annoyances that filled their day, the little but significant concerns of their life? How well did we listen to our friends, our neighbors, someone at work?

Jesus said, “Be careful then how you hear.” He is speaking here about how we listen and respond to the Word of God, but his words also have implications about the way we listen to one another. There is a hunger in the human heart to be listened to, to have someone really hear and to take seriously what we say, our feelings, our ideas, and our plans.

There is a hunger in the human heart to be listened to, but there is, and probably always has been, a famine of real listeners. The failure to listen is a sign of the presence of sin in our life, and part of the Christian life-style is learning to listen. We are called to lay down for a moment the concerns of our life to listen to our friends and family. Listening is one way we can all express Christ like love.

Be careful then how you hear. The choice is always ours, to ignore, to overlook, to shuffle aside the people who would like for us to listen or to hear them, to listen and to take seriously their thoughts, and feelings, and ideas. We have the ability to listen; we have the supporting power of the Holy Spirit to help us listen creatively and attentively to other people.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 8, 1976

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles