Day 107 - Down and Out As The Way To Get Up

Matthew 5:1-3 (NIV) ¹Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ²and he began to teach them saying: ³"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus constantly encountered people on their futile search for happiness. He offered them hope for what they were looking for and a new way of finding it, but that way was met with skepticism, puzzlement, and rejection. The Sermon on the Mount is a summary of the happiness that Jesus offers which is so radically different from what we have been taught by our culture. Jesus says we are to hope for the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven speaks to that joy we find in living under God’s rule, like the experience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before sin came in. The Kingdom of Heaven is like those moments when we experience life just like it should be, as we hope it always will be. The moment may pass, but it leaves a residue of hope in our life.

The Kingdom of Heaven brings to us more than a fleeting moment of happiness. It builds into our life a kind of permanence that no hell on earth can destroy. The pains of failure and disappointment may be great but they cannot squash our confidence in God’s providential care. We may hurt with the emptiness of being single or the frustration of being married, but nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We may not have achieved our potential. We may be broken in body or cripple in spirit and yet still know that life Jesus called abundant.

Those who experience the Kingdom of Heaven are the poor in spirit, which is the opposite of what the Scriptures call pride. Pride is an inner attitude of overconfidence in ourselves. Pride is a kind of stance in life that says we can handle life by ourselves, fight the battles by ourselves, and that we want no handouts.

Poor, in this passage, literally refers to a beggar, who in Jesus’ time knew survival was utterly dependent on the generosity of others. Each day was lived in dependence on unearned gifts received from others. The poor in spirit are those who recognize that they are helpless without God’s help. They are dependent on God in whatever way God provides for them.

To be poor in spirit is to recognize our beggar status before God. To some of us that may sound like having low self-esteem, an inferiority complex, or a lack of confidence. But, that is not the way the poor in spirit look in real life. All around us are calls to recognize the truth about ourselves. There is the sheer drudgery of life. No matter what status the world gives to our work or life, the sheer wear and tear of the routine can begin to make us poor in spirit. When we realize how fragile the gift of life is, when we see our hopes and dreams go unfulfilled, when we have achieved all or most of what we hoped for and realize we have come up empty the experiences of life will constantly be giving us notice that we are poor in spirit. Will we heed the message? Will we give in to the truth?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 7, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 106 - Temperance

Hebrews 12:1-3 (NRSV) ) 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. ³For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Temperance is not a goal in life, but the way of reaching a goal. Temperance is what we do so we can run with endurance the race that is set before us, to accomplish the will of God in all of our life and to follow the example of Jesus. Finding and fulfilling the will of God seems to be the only goal large enough to encompass our whole life and challenging enough to bring our life into balance.

It would be great if the race alone brought such order and balance to our life that we never had to give a second thought to falling prey to excess that our human spirit is vulnerable to. But, most of us know from experience that this is not the case. Our commitment to do the will of God gives us the motive and the desire to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, but it’s like trying to run a race with a long flowing robe on. We are committed to the race but keep tripping over the flowing robe. We may even like the comfort of the robe despite the problem it gives us, and is a fair description of those habits that so engulf our life we cannot shake them off.

We need some power if we are going to run the race with joy. We can do it because we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, heroes of the faith meant to give us inspiration so that we might be faithful in doing God’s will and discover the joy. They are like the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day that went before the people of Israel on their journey to the Promised Land. We have a cloud of witnesses in the special people God provides for each of us who inspire us, encourage us, and empower us with a sense of God’s commitment to us.

But, to lay aside these encumbrances and sins we need the power of Jesus Himself, fixing our eyes on Him in devotionals and scripture reading, looking at Jesus intentionally and as intently as possible. Watch the economy of His language and the potency of His action. React to His reactions to people, to friend and foe alike. Get a feel for His emotions, the reason for them, and the way they are expressed. Experience the peace, the joy, and the heartache of His life. And most importantly remember that no matter how well we get to know this Person, there is always more to know, and that knowledge will open up new vistas and vision for our life. And, look to Jesus in public worship. Surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, we neither deny nor focus on our personal weaknesses. We simply ignore them and give our attention to God, pushing aside all the clutter in our life for a moment and making room for God at the center.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 3, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 105 - Truth or Tolerance

I Corinthians 8:1-4, 7-8 (NIV) ¹Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. ³But the man who loves God is known by God. ⁴So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. ⁷But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

II Timothy 2:15-17a (RSV) ¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ¹⁶ Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, ^17a and their talk will eat its way like gangrene.

Is it possible for truth and tolerance to meet? Can we give expression to our convictions in ways that also show respect for the rights and views of other people? That task requires the skills of a moral artist of the highest caliber. Paul is helping Timothy develop the skill of truth and tolerance when he says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.“ Truth refers to God’s master design for human life, and the moral artist begins here, with the conviction that truth about the way we are to live is found in Scripture as a whole, and in Jesus in particular.

I believe the key to rightly handling the word of truth is to stand under the Word of God. To stand under the word of truth is to discover that the Scriptures do not step politely into our life and sit down where we direct. Rather, we find that Scripture is often “the troubler of Israel,” and we are Israel. When we stand under the word of truth, it can wreak havoc with our comfortable faith, overturning our pet truths, and piecing our best-laid defenses.

If standing under the Word is the key to rightly handling it, how then do we do that? It requires vulnerable listening. We all come to the Word with pieces of armor on. Vulnerable listening is the willingness to let the Word strip that armor from us. The most common piece of armor we wear is sheer “busy-ness.” We become so wrapped up in all the things we have to do that we forget to give first and foremost attention to listening to the voice of God in the Word. Paul himself is an example of truth and tolerance meeting. He could denounce in some of the strongest language found in Scripture those who were vying for personal power and undermining the gospel of grace just as it was beginning to bear fruit in the lives of men and women for years lost to the love of God. At the same time he could call for tolerance of those who ate food offered to idols for the very same reason. Don’t damage the delicate flower with something that is not important.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 27, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 104 - Acquiring A Taste For Humble Pie

Philippians 2:1-9a (NIV) ¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name

Jesus did not grasp for the power, prestige, privileges or popularity that could have been His. He did not pull rank because He would not buy into the ranking system of this world. Rather, He emptied Himself that He might humble Himself and submit Himself to whatever God wanted.

To be humble is to submit our life to God. Humility does not grasp for rank, nor feed on the empty opinion of others. Humility has an attractiveness about it and a power to it. The main power is to make peace, because humble people are not vulnerable to many of the weaknesses that make for conflict. It is hard to drive wedges of blame into the hearts of humble people because they are ready to absorb the blows and to accept whatever fault is really theirs. This is the irony of humility. By submitting to God we rise above the pettiness of people.

Now, lest I paint too perfect a picture of the humble, it does not mean to be without struggles. Moses was said to be the most humble person upon the face of the earth, but he had his struggles with Pharaoh, he had struggles with the people of Israel, he had some struggles within himself, but the struggle that redeemed him again and again was the struggle to remain submissive and compliant to the will of God.

Don’t try to be humble. Just remember what you have received from God and that will make you humble enough. Look back and remember. Look ahead in obedience and praise, and the gift of humility will come gently and genuinely into your life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 13, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 103 - For Heaven’s Sake

Matthew 24:36-44 (NIV) ³⁶"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴²"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

There are times when God seems beautifully present to us but there are also times when God seems totally absent. We are responsible to and accountable to God even when God seems absent - especially when God seems absent. The only calling worth our whole life is to be responsible to and accountable to God. Every other goal will simply run out on us or fall short. The promise of Jesus’ unannounced coming is not meant to petrify us, but to electrify us with a sense of meaning and purpose in the ups and downs of life, as well as in those many days we spend in the plain routine of our everyday lives.

Unless our life is lived for the glory of God it becomes very difficult to sustain a sense of satisfaction and a commitment to the good of others. Even the hunger for money, as strong as that is, begins to go flat. Unless we are somehow doing God’s work and serving His will we conclude life is “just not worth it.” Something of God’s purpose for our life has to be seen calling us beyond the tasks of daily life.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Worship is one way we keep watch. Another way is our reaction to the daily experiences of life, which we can let lull us to sleep or beckon us to awaken. When we are batting our head against a wall of frustration it can also be a call to look up and see the higher vision. When we are bombarded by a barrage of responsibilities or are irritated at another person it can awaken us to our truthful inadequacy and turn us in trust to God.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope march 10, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 102 - In Your Honor

Matthew 23:1, 11-12 (NIV) ¹Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ¹¹The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Luke 6:27-31 (NIV) ²⁷"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I Corinthians 7:23a (NIV) You were bought at a price

Honor, as it has been understood and practiced over the centuries, presents us with a peculiar dilemma. Life without honor robs us of high standards and moral ideals. On the other hand, our defense of honor becomes itself a source of conflict, strife, and even of war.

Jesus warned us about the perils of seeking honor, and by His life and by His death gave a whole new meaning to the word honor. Honor is not a possession to be earned and defended. Honor is a gift from God to be given to others. Jesus taught honor. When He said, “if someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also,” this was more than a lesson on avoiding a fight. Jesus is saying return their insult with an act of respect and honor.

Jesus lived honor. Jesus healed bodies but also showed honor and respect as he healed shame. Jesus bestowed honor upon people, and it was primarily through His death on a Cross that Jesus bestowed honor on you and me. The Cross is the price, the value, and the worth that God has placed upon our life. We do not fully understand why the Cross was necessary or chosen by God to bestow worth and honor upon us. We do know that when the realization hits home with us that “Jesus died for me,” there is received a sense of being of infinite value, of immense worth, and humbly honored by God.

Whenever people find themselves honored by Jesus this way there comes that inner desire to show honor to all people. Honoring one another is one way we can all be servants. Honoring one another is one way we fulfill the command to love one another. We cannot honor one another unless and until we know in our heart the infinite value and immeasurable worth on our life. Have we received the gift? Is it our desire to share the gift?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 20, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 101 - How Can I Ever Pay You Back?

Romans 15:14, 20-22, 25-28 (NIV) ¹⁴I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. ²⁰It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. ²¹Rather, as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."²²This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. ²⁵Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. ²⁶For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. ²⁷They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. ²⁸So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.

Giving as an outward and visible sign of appreciation for the inward and invisible gifts of spiritual blessings seems to apply to giving as Paul describes it when he says, “For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.”

Paul brings two spiritual blessings into focus for the Christians in Rome. The first is goodness. Real goodness is the power to rise above the coldness, cruelty, and crassness of our world as well as the corruption of our own lives. The second spiritual blessing is knowledge. Knowledge is more than knowing facts or being able to reason things out, but is what enables us to see beyond present pressures to know that God is still sovereign.

I suspect that for some of us “spiritual blessings” has a vague, nebulous sound, a kind of misty meaning. Spiritual refers to the work of the spirit. Blessing refers to the good work of God in our life. Spiritual blessings are the good works of God’s Spirit brought about in our lives. For the Christians in Rome, those spiritual blessings were clear, concrete, and manifold. For them, spiritual blessings meant being delivered from the iron fist of fate, and discovering that they were gifted and called to fulfill God’s purpose for human life. These spiritual blessings included freedom from the useless rituals of cleansing from sin and receiving real forgiveness through Jesus the Christ. And they included seeing death in a new light, no longer as the great abyss, but as a movement into the fullness of eternal life made clear and believable through the resurrection of Jesus.

A heart aware of spiritual blessing is grateful and ready to respond with material gifts. Are we willing now to express our gratitude and our commitment to God through giving? They received spiritually, they gave materially. That is the heart and the soul of gospel giving. Are we prepared to give in that manner and with that spirit?

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

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles