DAY 96 - When There Is Work To Be Done

John 4:36-38 (NASB) ³⁶"Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷"For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.' ³⁸"I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

We have opportunities to know God through Scripture, through prayer, through the person of Jesus, and through sacrifices and suffering. We also have the opportunity to know God through the work that we do. I am referring primarily to the job we do for a living, but the same truth applies to any work that involves the investment of our time, energies, and efforts.

Sometimes we can catch a clear glimpse of God at work. We can see His will triumph. We can see peace brought to conflict. We can see a life touched by love, power, and conviction. Yet sometimes God’s work is not obvious at all. How can we know God when we are more involved with computers than with people, when we work more with our minds and pencils than with a hands-on project, when we see no connection between the work we do and the work Jesus did?

All God asks us to do is surrender our little contributions to His will and then watch what He will do. We surrender our seeds of contributions by making God the reference point for the decisions we make and the actions we take. We develop sensitivity to the voice of God in our thoughts. We learn to discern God’s hand engineering the circumstances about us. We seek an obedient heart that knows when to take charge and when to let go and trust. We act in obedience in the face of doubt and often without any infallible word from the Lord.

All of this and more is involved in making the God we see in Jesus the reference point for the decisions we make and actions we take on the job to make our contribution. Who knows when someone might see the spirit of God in the way we carry out our work. Opportunity is everywhere for us to know God in our work and to share our seed of contribution. May God work in us that our eyes might be opened for us to see God’s work all about us and to see what small but significant contribution you and I can make.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 25, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 95 - What Is Important?

Luke 13:22-29 (NIV) ²²Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, ²⁴"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' ²⁶"Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' ²⁷"But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' ²⁸"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God."

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB) ¹Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

What makes us believe that one thing is more important than another? What shapes and influences our sense of what is important? According to Jesus, there is only one thing that should stamp “important” on the decisions we make and the actions we take, and that one thing is the will of God. The will of God is the one thing that can guide us through the labyrinth of deciding more important and less important. Jesus consistently called men and women to focus their life on doing the will of God. But Jesus also consistently said that in every life there would be something that would hinder us from entering the narrow door. For the rich young ruler, it was his wealth. For the sinful woman at the well it was her denial of guilt. We can become so buried in the load we carry that the will of God simply is not important to us any more.

When is the Lord of the house going to rise and close the door? Any day? Every day? There is a sense of urgency and importance to making the daily decision to lay aside our encumbrances and to focus on God’s will.

It is the grace of God that slams the narrow door in our face and awakens us to the way we are weighing down our life. How does this slam of grace actually happen in our daily life? It happens in many ways, but primarily by urgent things replacing important things. When we focus on God’s will we begin experiencing the door being opened to banquet bliss – God’s clarifying guidance, forgiveness, love, freedom, power, and courage.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 3, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 94 - A Lifestyle of Light

Ezekiel 22:22 (NIV) As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath upon you.' "

Ephesians 5:3-5, 7-14 (NIV) ³But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. ⁴Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 7Therefore do not be partners with them. ⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

The wrath of God comes not merely to condemn, but to call us to that life seen and given in Jesus Christ. Paul gives only a sketch of this life inherited from Christ, but each generalized word has a very specific meaning here. Goodness refers to a kind, gentle, sensitive lifestyle, as opposed to one that is coarse and callous. Righteousness means looking out for the rights of others and has the connotation of having the freedom and power to do that as opposed to those enslaved to seeking and demanding their own rights. Truth means transparency, no cover-ups, no pretense, no hypocrisy, no phoniness, just real, open, honest people who are neither ashamed of their flaws nor proud of their beauty.

Learning the life-style of light is a matter of some trial and error, but God is with us in the trials and does not hold the errors against us, because of knowing the desires of our hearts. Live as children of light and find out what pleases the Lord. I wish Paul had stopped there, but he says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them (KJV). I like the word reprove because it means “prove again.” Prove again and again that this life seen in Jesus Christ is the way God meant for us to live.

If we have tasted the goodness of life in Jesus Christ, we have both the responsibility and the power to pull up those being dragged down by the darkness. Believe that no matter how far short we may be of God’s goal for our lives we are children of light, we have tasted some of our inheritance and we have learned a little of what is pleasing to God. Believe it and Christ will shine on you.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 13, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 93 - Suffering Successfully

Hebrews 9:25-26 (NIV) ²⁵Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Suffering is an illusion buster that strips us of our confident belief that we can conquer and control anything that comes our way. It shakes our hard won sense of security and insults the often held notion that somehow we are invulnerable to life’s hurts and pains. Suffering forces us to take a look at our limits and our lack of strength, cutting away layer after soft layer until only the core stuff of our life remains. Stripped of all lesser gods that tempt us into self-satisfied complacency, we are more open to God. With this openness to God we are now more ready and able to receive God’s grace.

Jesus spent His life eliminating suffering, whether from disease, from conflict, or from death. He gave His life to deal a deadly blow to these realities that oppose God’s original good intention. Part of the grace we receive is the experience of knowing what Jesus came to conquer, and part of the grace we receive is knowing that Jesus is with us in our suffering. We are not abandoned to endure agony and pain without the promised Comforter.

Before His story is over Jesus Himself appears to be like any other sufferer overwhelmed by pain. God seems woefully absent, and Jesus seems terribly abandoned, even by His most loyal friends and followers. His life ends on the most negative note possible – betrayed by one friend, abandoned by others, struck down by a gross miscarriage of justice, and humiliated before the whole population by both ruling and religious authorities. Gods appears absent. Suffering can so fill our mind, body, and spirit that we do not see or feel God’s presence, but our feelings do not change the facts. The God presently hidden from us will emerge victorious for us. We may be like a foot soldier in a war. All we can see is the battle we are fighting, but above us and beyond us another battle has been fought and won. And, as promised by the High Command, we will share that victory of the certainty that Jesus is making our suffering purposeful instead of pointless, redemptive instead of destructive, life giving rather than death dealing.

Grace is knowing that in whatever suffering we endure Jesus is in it with us. And it is in the sharing of suffering that our relationship grows. Is not this the strange paradox of suffering? Shared suffering is the fountain that has fed our best relationships. In our shared suffering with Jesus the bond is built. The relationship richens.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 18, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 92 - What Have You Got To Lose?

Luke 9:23-27 (NIV) ²³Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. ²⁵What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV) ¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Sacrifice usually refers to giving up something we want. In relationships it means giving up what we want so the other person can have what they need. Sacrificing what I want so you can have what you need speaks as purely and as eloquently of our love for another person as human beings are capable of speaking.

Sacrifice is giving up for the sake of another. It is to deny ourselves. But, sacrifice is never a losing deal. There is always something good gained for the one who makes the sacrifice. Now, we do not make sacrifices with the calculated eye for what we will gain. That is called manipulation, and it nullifies the meaning of sacrifice. But, the gain is always there and is simply part of the package. When we sacrifice for another, we gain love, we gain gratitude, or sometimes we simply gain the inner gladness of being a person who is willing to sacrifice for someone else. When we deny ourselves and sacrifice for another, we do not lose a blessed thing, for blessed is what we receive. We are blessed by the bond of love growing strong and deep.

Jesus invites us to know God through sacrifice. He is saying that what is true in our relationship to people is also true in our relationship to God. As we deny ourselves and make the sacrifices God requires, our relationship to God becomes more real, more alive, more strong, even more rewarding.

But what are the sacrifices God requires? Whatever is costing you your soul, Jesus says. The sacrifices God calls us to make are tailor made for each of us. If overeating or a problem with alcohol is costing us, that is where the sacrifice is to be made. If worry, ambition, or pride is dominating our life, that is where the sacrifice is to be made. Or, it may be an unhealthy relationship that is costing us. We may need to sacrifice the relationship all together, or the sacrifice may be in changing the relationship.

To take up our Cross means we accept the suffering that often comes with sacrifice. To take up our Cross also means accepting the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. I believe that it is people who have been sacrificed for who are most able to make sacrifices themselves. So if we are to make the sacrifices God requires of us, we must accept the sacrifice Christ made for us. And then, we begin to understand the barrier breaking, bond building power of the Cross of Christ.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 11, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 91 - See for Yourself

John 1:43, 45-50 (NIV) ⁴³The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." ⁴⁶"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." ⁴⁸"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." ⁴⁹Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." ⁵⁰Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."

Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) ³The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven

We claim that God lived in a person named Jesus two thousand years ago in a small obscure country known for its radical belief in God. This same country put Him to death as a heretic. Jesus’ followers claimed that He rose from the dead, but they never produced His living body to an unbelieving people.

To believe that God was present in Jesus two thousand years ago is challenging enough, but our claim goes further than that. We also say that this same Jesus is present today. He is invisible, yet can be seen. Intangible, but can touch our lives. He does not speak in an audible voice, yet can be heard. He did not come into the world flashing the presence of God like a neon light. Rather, men and women glimpsed God in Jesus the way lightening can make visible briefly the world about us before darkness returns.

God is both hidden and revealed in the life of Jesus. So, what hope do we have? How do we see God in Jesus? This is our hope: The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." Our hope is that the God hidden in Jesus is seeking us out. When God finds us in His Son, does He say, “Now let me tell you the truth about God”? No, that time may come, but in the beginning He says, “Let me tell you the truth about you.” We can be made pliant by the voice of God heard in the command “follow me.” Our hopes can be met and our faith brought to life by the power of this meeting with Jesus who is as real in the spirit as He was in flesh and blood. Jesus found Philip, in His own way and in His own time, and He finds you and He finds me, and that is part of our hope.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 4, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 90 - Family Ties

Matthew 12:46-50 (NIV) ⁴⁶While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁷Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you." ⁴⁸He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" ⁴⁹Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

I John 1:1-3 (NIV) ¹That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ²The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

I John 4:19-21 (NIV) ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

If we really want to get to know someone we need to meet his or her family. There, we are most likely to see the person as they really are. There, we will certainly see the people who have been most influential in shaping and forming their life. If we want to get to know God, we need to meet His family, and His family is called the church. When Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother,” He was not disowning His blood kin but was claiming a much larger group as His family.

If we are to know God, we need to read the Bible, pray, and serve Him in the world. But, flesh and blood carry the life and personality of Jesus sometimes more than the best stated ideas about Him or the most noble deeds done in His name. It appears to be God’s strategy that we are to meet Him and know Him through the impact and influence of other people. John is saying join the family. Participate in the fellowship of the family, and you will come to know God and the life He gives just as we did.

Notice he does not say come and worship with us, come and study with us, or even come and serve with us. John is saying, come and get to know us, and when you do, and as you do you will also know God and His Son Jesus. If we worship together, study together, serve together, but never get to know one another, we are like a family where the members do not have time for one another. And we will not get to know that part of God’s personality that is in you, or me, or anyone else. If we truly love God we will love His family.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 28, 1990

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles