DAY 66 - The Paradox of Perseverance

Psalm 46:1-3, 10-11 (NIV) 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah 10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Hebrews 10:39 (NIV) But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Hebrews 12:1-3 (NRSV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

It is common to begin the faith in joyous devotion and expectation. But then the vision seems to fade and the race is long. So we slow to a walk, then to a careless saunter. And then we quit all together. Perseverance is the continual, faithful doing of the spiritual disciplines, but it is not simply dogged determination. Perseverance is as much an attitude as it is an action. The Greek word for perseverance literally means “to remain under.” Perseverance is not so much trying hard for a long period of time as it is maintaining a regular attitude of submission to whatever Christ would give us or not give us. It is what I call the continual contact of attention, the regular, faithful turning of our attention to the person of Jesus Christ, whether we do that in prayer, through the Bible, in meditation, or in giving attention to a nudge that we have had in the back of our minds, finally to act on it, believing this just might be God’s direction for us.

This is the paradox of perseverance that it often does not appear to be a gift and it does not feel that way. But, our sense of connectedness to God, our awareness of a plan and purpose being worked out, our sense of call, our confidence of what God can do can be lost to our failure to persevere. And we begin to go through the motions of life. We get lost in the frantic pace of life. We succumb to the dullness of routine and try to scale down our expectations so that if we cannot be supremely happy at least we will not be bitterly disappointed. That is life for those who shrink back, who do not persevere. But we are not of that kind. There is not only the call to persevere; there is the gentle but firm pressure from the One who endured the cross. We are among those who are given patience, perspective, and perseverance as God leads us according to His will, not ours.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 20, 1996

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 65 - Esther: A Person of Plain Faith

Esther 4:11-16 (RSV) ¹¹ "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law; all alike are to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. And I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days." ¹² And they told Mor'decai what Esther had said. ¹³ Then Mor'decai told them to return answer to Esther, "Think not that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" ¹⁵ Then Esther told them to reply to Mor'decai, ¹⁶ "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

When facing difficulties or a difficult decision, all we may hear is the “maybe” that Esther heard: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

Who knows? We want some clear, convincing answer from God, but often all we receive is this murky maybe. In Esther, faith means we face the difficulty with all the dangers and risks inherent in doing that. “If I perish, I perish,” is not resignation or a passive giving in, but an honest willingness to face the situation with all the risk and with all the possibilities of doing what God wants. Her faith is the willingness to act, to do something, even when she is not sure she is right.

Her faith is what I call “plain faith,” which means we simply gather the best data we can get, pray, talk with others, make the best decision we know how at the time, and trust that God is sovereign. It is that underlying spirit of trust that distinguishes blind stumbling from walking in faith.

Esther’s plain faith is clothed in help that she receives from other people. Do we have any Mor’decais in our lives, someone who confronts, encourages, and even pressures us a little? Someone who will not allow us to become spiritual cowards, or turn our back on difficulties that need to be faced, who nudge us with love and understanding to take action, to do something, even if we may be wrong?

In addition to the Mor’deais, we need the “cloud of witnesses,” supportive people. We can become so focused that we overlook the many mere acquaintances who will welcome the opportunity to support us and help us in what we have to do. Esther calls on the many nameless people around her for help and support. Do you think God would give us any less? God is never more present and at work for us than in the midst of everything that seems to deny him.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 17, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 64 - Isaiah, The Man and His Message

Isaiah 6:1-3, 5-8 (NIV) ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." ⁵ "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." ⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!

How many of us have known a time of vision and hope that turned out to be an illusion? That turned into a time of disillusionment? Shattered dreams can be tough stuff to deal with, but sometimes it is just what we need. Shattered hopes are fertile ground to experience the power and presence of God.

Two men walking and talking with a stranger on the road to Emmaus had hoped that Jesus was the one to deliver Israel, but their hopes had been shattered. Then the two men invited the stranger in, broke, bread, and recognized the stranger as the risen Christ. We can experience a more exact awareness of God when there bursts forth in our minds a thought that imposes itself upon us with the weight of God’s authority. This moment does not solve all our problems, but the moment changes us and our attitude toward the disillusionment. It is like we are putting on a pair of badly needed glasses for the first time, and the discouragement of “there is nothing I can do” is replaced by the hope of “this much I can do, because this is what God has called me to do.”

The life of quiet trust grows from our experience of God’s power and presence. We discover a peace and a pace to our life. There is calmness about what seemed to be the emergencies and most pressing issues of life. We are aware of a trustworthy voice guiding us. Our hearing is not infallible, but we are corrected when we stray. This guidance helps us to do what is right and what is appropriate in a given situation. We cannot force that kind of life down into our soul. It is the nature of sin to nurture passiveness, to make hearts and minds dull to the presence of God and to the possibility of a life of quiet trust in God.

In worship one hot, lazy August Sunday I caught a small glimpse of the vision that Isaiah was dazzled by. And I thought, “Woe is me. I am so dull; so complacent. But, here I am Lord, physically present to You, with some measure of trust that You will be present with me. I resist. I am complacent. I am dull. But, here I am, Lord. Send me. Send me with the message of quiet trust that I myself have received. Send me not only for the good of the people around me, send me for the good of my own soul. Here I am Lord."

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 10, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 63 - It's A Small Word After All

I Kings 19:1-6, 11-16 (CEV) 1Ahab told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had killed the prophets. 2She sent a message to Elijah: "You killed my prophets. Now I'm going to kill you! I pray that the gods will punish me even more severely if I don't do it by this time tomorrow." 3Elijah was afraid when he got her message, and he ran to the town of Beersheba in Judah. He left his servant there, 4then walked another whole day into the desert. Finally, he came to a large bush and sat down in its shade. He begged the LORD, "I've had enough. Just let me die! I'm no better off than my ancestors." 5Then he lay down in the shade and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel woke him up and said, "Get up and eat." 6Elijah looked around, and by his head was a jar of water and some baked bread. He sat up, ate and drank, then lay down and went back to sleep. 11"Go out and stand on the mountain," the LORD replied. "I want you to see me when I pass by." All at once, a strong wind shook the mountain and shattered the rocks. But the LORD was not in the wind. Next, there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12Then there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. Finally, there was a gentle breeze, 13and when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat. He went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. The LORD asked, "Elijah, why are you here?" 14Elijah answered, "LORD God All-Powerful, I've always done my best to obey you. But your people have broken their solemn promise to you. They have torn down your altars and killed all your prophets, except me. And now they are even trying to kill me!" 15The LORD said: Elijah, you can go back to the desert near Damascus. And when you get there, appoint Hazael to be king of Syria. 16Then appoint Jehu son of Nimshi to be king of Israel, and Elisha son of Shaphat to take your place as my prophet.

Elijah, who called fire down on the prophets of Baal, was himself burned out. The man is worn out physically as well as spiritually, yet God treats Elijah with understanding and compassion. Even before revealing Himself to Elijah on Mount Sinai God was at work in the background, preparing Elijah’s body for the restoring of his soul. God treats this disillusionment and discouragement as normal and as an opportunity to call Elijah into the next thing he is to do.

Rested and ready, Elijah meets God at Sinai, not in the strong wind, the earthquake, the fire, but in the still, small voice of God, literally, the sound of gentle stillness, a stillness that spoke. The most reliable place for us to hear that still, small voice of God is in Scripture.

When we are feeling overwhelmed we may want an overwhelming experience to help us snap out of it, but for Elijah, it was the stillness, the steady stillness of some small word of God that began to bring him around. When we are feeling overwhelmed, disillusioned, and discouraged, we may hope for wind, earthquake, or fire, but we are called from Mount Sinai to listen in a consistent way to the still, small voice of God in our thoughts, from a friend, but especially in scripture. That’s what it took for Elijah. What does it take for us?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 3, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 62 - David, After God's Own Heart

1 Samuel 13:13-14 (NASB) ¹³Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴"But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you."

I Samuel 16:1, 7b, 10-13a (NIV) ¹ The LORD said to Samuel … Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king." ^7b The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." ¹⁰ Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." ¹¹ So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" 
"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." ¹² So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." ¹³ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers

David was a mixture of sinner and saint like many of us. So what was different about him? David seemed to have a God-given perspective that gave David a certain passion about his life and yet also a certain detachment, a certain turning of his will over to the care of God in such a way that he was accepting of the good and the bad. David was not immune to human frailty, faults, and fallenness. But he knew what to do when he fell. When he went against God’s good and gracious will, he fell, literally. He fell prostrate on the ground in recognition and in sincere sorrow for what he had done. David could see where he was wrong, and knew what to do about it. Do we?

The key to David’s heart seems to be the covenant God made with him. It was an awareness of and his understanding of this God-given commitment that made David a man after God’s own heart. In David, God is willing to trust one who is not all that trustworthy. And so it was that Jesus, the son of David, also entrusted His life, His love, and His work to twelve faulty people and continues to entrust His life, His love and His work to frail and faulty people like you and me.

David sinned grievously, but he had no arrogant pride. When possessed by pride we get beaten up in life but remain unbroken. We can feel God’s cooling breeze of commitment in the grand moments of life, but the wind of the Spirit, the great, grand and glorious good news of God’s commitment to us is primarily a gift to the broken and contrite heart.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 6, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 61 - Hannah's Hope

I Samuel 1:1-2, 9-18 (NIV) ¹ There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. ⁹ Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the LORD's temple. ¹⁰ In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD. ¹¹ And she made a vow, saying, "O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." ¹² As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. ¹³ Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk ¹⁴ and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." ¹⁵ "Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. ¹⁶ Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." ¹⁷ Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." ¹⁸ She said, "May your servant find favor in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

Have you ever been tempted to play “Let’s Make a Deal” with God? Hannah’s example almost seems to encourage this. The point for Hannah is that even before God gave her the gift of Samuel, God delivered Hannah from her hopelessness about not having a baby. What do we do about our afflictions, when we want to have a child and cannot, when life is not fair, when we are passed over for a promotion, when we cannot seem to do anything about a child we love? Afflictions are those problems in life where we do not have control and we do have pain.

What do we do with our afflictions? Do we rehearse them over and over again in our head, trying in vain to figure out what to do? When we do that, we simply inflict ourselves with our affliction, and it takes its toll on our emotions and on our body, and perhaps on our relationships. Or do we share our afflictions with other people, with family, and with friends. Sometimes that is a good and helpful thing to do. Sometimes it is futile.

It is never futile to take our afflictions to God. Hannah took her affliction to God, and before Samuel was born, hope was born in Hannah’s soul. Hope is the recovery of our basic confidence in God. Hope is trusting that God can and will act. Hope is not “trying hard to believe.” Indeed, sometimes we have to rid our soul of wishing. We have to put aside the “if only” prayer before our soul is ready for solid and genuine hope.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 29, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 60 - Royal Ruth

Ruth 4:13-17 (NIV) ¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! ¹⁵ He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth." ¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. ¹⁷ The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

What was God saying to the people of Israel through the story of Ruth and what might He be saying to us today? To begin with, the story of Ruth is a story of loyalty. Ruth speaks a word of commitment and loyalty most of us want to hear and receive from someone we love, and a word we want to offer those we love. The kind of loyalty referred to here is translated as kind, steadfast love, faithfulness and devotion, a kind of loyalty that overcomes barriers. Ruth does not see a marriage in her future. She does not see prosperity. She does not see the birth of David’s grandfather. All she sees is struggle and a life of difficulty and hardship, and yet she remains faithful and loyal to Naomi. Through Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, God overcomes the barriers of age, wealth, race, and other differences between Ruth and Boaz. Through her loyalty to Naomi, the hidden loyalty of God becomes visible and fulfilled.

So what does the story of Ruth say to us? It calls us to loyal living when the plan and purpose of God seems very hidden from our life. It may be hidden by life’s difficulties and struggles. Or it may be hidden by ordinariness of life. We get up in the morning and want to do God’s will. We have made our plans and may have some notion that God’s will is for us to fulfill those plans. But that is not the way the day goes. There are demands and problems we did not expect, frustrations, irritations we did not anticipate.

Loyalty means we stay focused on God’s will. We believe that the plan and purpose of God are stronger in the long run than all the problems and difficulties we encounter. Loyalty means we do not give up our faith commitment when everything goes wrong. We do not give up quickly on working things out when there is conflict. We do not give up on our children’s troubles or on our troubled self. For in the background is the loyalty of God holding our life together when everything seems to be coming apart. Loyalty keeps the faith that God is with us and God is for us, even when we do not see it or feel it.

From a sermon Preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 22, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles