DAY 117 - What Now?

Acts 1:6-11 (NIV) 6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."


How many of us wish Jesus were still here on earth in His resurrected body? The resurrection, in the eyes of the disciples, had been a really great thing, an eye opener. They believed, but still wondered when Jesus would take over Israel and settle this thing once and for all. But Jesus answers “it is not for you to know the times or the dates,” another way of saying “that’s none of your business.”

For some of us, those may be among the most important words Jesus speaks. For busy, responsible people these are words of freedom and release. Do we see God simply as One who gives us responsibility? Can we imagine God saying to us, “That’s none of your business? That is not for you to do. Stop!” Can we hear that word to our life? Can we hear that it is none of our business? That is not our responsibility? To hear those words in our heart is a break through.

“That is none of your business” is prelude to what we hear next, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses. A witness says something about God by what they do and by what they say. When we have received the power to witness to Jesus Christ it becomes as natural as telling others about a trip or vacation. Power is given that enables us to witness, that fills our words and our actions with the truth and the life of God.

Having invested His life in the disciples and having promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus leaves them. Jesus leaves the disciples in much the same way many of us take our children to college, for the sake of their growth and development. God invested His life and love in us. Then God leaves us, expecting us to decide what is our responsibility and what is God’s. The decisions are not easy. We walk by faith rather than by infallible answers. God leaves us with the promise that we shall receive power, but does not promise when or how that power will come. Sometimes the gift may be as surprising to us as the answer is helpful to others. But we can count on the power knowing that God is counting on us and has appointed us as God’s representatives in the world. What now?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 16, 1999

copyright Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 116 - Public Enemy #1

From Matthew 26 (NIV) ³³Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will." ³⁴"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." ^35a But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." ⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. "You also were with Jesus of Galilee," she said. ⁷⁰But he denied it before them all. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said. ⁷¹Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, "This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth." ⁷²He denied it again, with an oath: "I don't know the man!" ⁷³After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away." ⁷⁴Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, "I don't know the man!" Immediately a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.

I Peter 5:6-10 (NASB) ⁶Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, ⁷casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. ⁸Be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. ¹⁰After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion … whether we are facing a national crisis or personal problem, dealing with the temptations of prosperity or the trials of poverty, the Enemy is the same. And, no matter what the difference in our difficulties might be, the Enemy’s goal is the same – to destroy the firmness of our faith. The Enemy wants to fill us with worry and discouragement, to send us scurrying in all different directions to isolate us from God and from one another, to steal from us the confidence that we can count on God, and to deafen us to God’s call and command.

We are not likely to be alert on our own and by ourselves. We need a group of like-minded people to help keep us aware and alert, to help us see beyond our present problems and struggles to the work of the Enemy. We also need a group of people to help us see and trust the work of God. One person may not well resist the power of the enemy. Peter proved that in his denial of Christ. But together we can form a bond of resistance that the enemy cannot break. That has been the hope and the faith of the church for 2,000 years, and it is as important and crucial now as it has ever been. The Enemy may change tactics over the years but has not yet retreated in full defeat. Be sober in spirit and be on the alert.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 6, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 115 - Are You Positive?

John 16:17, 20-22 (NIV) ¹⁷Some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father' ²⁰I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²²So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

I Peter 1:3-7 (NIV) ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.⁶In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, ⁷so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ

Truly positive people whose faith has been tested by fire bring real hope and joy, not a bright optimism that is little more than wishful thinking. This realness is seen in broken hearts and shattered pride that allows for the discovery of deeper levels of God’s love and grace. Jesus’ promise of joy is made to those who now have sorrow, and that is where Jesus parts company with positive people who stubbornly want joy without sorrow.

If we are prone to the positive outlook are we also willing to face the fire? The normal hardships, suffering, and losses that come our way? A dark night of the soul often looks and feels like depression and despair in which we feel forsaken and completely abandoned. These dark nights can be a kind of persecution or an awakening to our real weaknesses. There is a sense of being stripped down to the bare essentials, having nothing that we can count on or rely on any more, including the people we love.

Jesus says we will have problems and pain. We will suffer, but these things cannot take away our joy. The promise of joy that Jesus offers does not come by our trying to keep our chin up no matter how dark and difficult life becomes. His joy comes as we are willing to face the unpleasant, painful, foreboding parts of life. His joy comes as we face those things in life we do not want to face and yet do so with a confidence in Jesus and a willingness to walk through that darkness and difficulty with Him.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 29, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 114 - Going Public or Staying Private?

Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV) ²⁴"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

I Corinthians 2:9-10a, 11-12, 15-16 (NIV) ⁹ However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"— ^10a but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. ¹¹For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹⁵The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: ¹⁶"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

We live in a society that gives strong support to the pride that tells us we have got to go it alone. We like our privacy and may build a kind of invisible wall around our life and prize our independence. And yet, God surrounds us with different people with a variety of gifts who help us in many different ways.

Jesus is sympathetic to the need to be alone, and understands and affirms the importance of getting away from people to regroup in strength and to regain a right perspective on life. Jesus valued privacy. But, He knew not to make privacy a permanent retreat from the world, from people, from the difficulties that faced Him, and from the work He had been called to accomplish. He warned those who wanted simply to study His teaching privately and analyze it.

If we only hear the Word, if we simply study the Word and never attempt to do what we are clearly told, Jesus says we are mixing a mortar of sand to hold our life together. It will not stand when the pressure comes. The house that stands is the one that has been made rock solid by years of acting on what we have heard, however faltering and failing we or our actions may have been, sinking the anchors of our life into the very life of God. We are called by Christ out of the privacy of our inner world into the world of action. We are to risk doing with others and for others as Christ directs us. We all have the mind of Christ to inform and inspire us in the attitude we are to have and the actions we are to take.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 22, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 113 - Lose to Win

Genesis 32:22-31 (NIV) ²² That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak^{. 25} When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." ²⁷ The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. ²⁸ Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." ²⁹ Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. ³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." ³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

Galatians 6:2-3 (NASB) ²Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Jacob is one of the great achievers in the Scriptures. Born the disadvantaged younger brother of Esau, Jacob connives to take the blessing from his older brother, and he succeeds. Later, to escape Esau’s revenge, Jacob finds refuge with his Uncle Laban. Jacob prospers and even out swindles his uncle for just about everything Laban has. But then a restlessness sets in. Jacob was not entirely satisfied. He wants to return home.

What happens when an achiever like Jacob meets Jesus who seeks success as ardently as any high achiever? Jesus gave Himself tirelessly to the task of accomplishing God’s will for His life, a mission some people deemed impossible. He even built up an organization to carry on His work after He was gone. Jesus had a different understanding of success than most achievers. For Jesus, success meant in every circumstance to choose the will of God and to choose it regardless of the results. For Jesus, success was sought with a yielding spirit, a commitment to be sensitive to the voice of God, a willingness to decide in the face of doubt with an obedience of heart, mind, and will.

One night, by the Brook of Jabbok, Jacob met the spirit of Christ in a confrontation with a mysterious Stranger. The wrestling match between himself and the Stranger brought to a head Jacob’s life long struggle to get the blessing. "I will not let you go unless you bless me." When Jacob was broken of his striving, the gift of the Blessing was given, a sense of wholeness, health, and well being that nothing in life can take away or ultimately destroy. In his striving to achieve, Jacob was resisting the gift he could not earn and did not deserve. The Blessing is a gift, and the Blessed are a gift to others.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 15, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 112 - Living to Please or Pleased to Be?

Luke 10:38-42 (NIV) ³⁸As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" ⁴¹"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

We might easily imagine what must have been going on in Martha and Mary’s home the day of Jesus’ visit. Martha began the day by getting the house ready. Mary got herself ready. Martha began preparing the meal for Jesus. Mary began preparing herself for the visit. Martha was excited over the opportunity to be a gracious host. Mary was excited about the opportunity to visit with Jesus. Martha worried if things would get done. Mary wondered at the things Jesus said.

As the mealtime grew closer Martha’s efforts to please put her in a place of anger because Mary had not done anything to help her. She was caught between the guilt of saying no to all she was trying to do, and the anger for having said yes. That is not a happy place to be. What happens when Martha comes to Jesus with these feelings? She found someone sympathetic to her plight who offered words of warmth, not a cold rebuke or fiery rebuttal. But, what He does say to Martha is that what He needs most from her right then was her time and attention. In a gentle, caring way, Jesus asks Martha to give up her need to please for the one need of listening to Him, learning of Him, and being willing only to do what He asks of her, nothing less, and nothing more.

Jesus still asks those of us who are frayed and frantic to come to Him, to give up our need to Him, to receive from Him a daily list of people we can help and a daily menu of people who can help us. In the presence of Jesus we lose the need to please and are pleased to be and to do whatever Jesus asks. This is what Jesus was doing with Mary and what He wanted to do with Martha. He wanted to invest Himself in them, that they might invest themselves in others.

When we think back on the people we feel most indebted to and grateful for, are they not the ones who somehow were able to share themselves with us, whether by the hospitality of their home, or work done together, by time spent together? We need people whose own needs have been met well enough that they naturally invest themselves in the lives of others. Do we help others out of a need to please, or because we are pleased to help? Do we often have so many things going that we are really not doing justice to any of them? Let us bring our need to Christ, give up the need to please, and receive from Him the orders for our life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 8, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 111 - Perfectly Right or Rightly Perfect?

Psalm 119:129-130,133-134 (NIV) ¹²⁹ Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them. ¹³⁰ The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. ¹³³ Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. ¹³⁴ Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts.

Matthew 5:17, 19-20, 48 (NIV) ¹⁷"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁹Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Perfectionists are hard working people always ready to put in great effort to do things well, especially in giving attention to detail. Perfectionists may be demanding of other people, but usually they are equally, and sometimes more, demanding of themselves. They carry with them an inner critic who constantly tells them what they must do and how they can do it even better if they just try hard enough. And that is where the problems begin. Perfectionists are continually frustrated by their own failure, and the failure of others as well.

What happens when a perfectionist comes to Jesus? Jesus said outright “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” and demanded conformity to the Scriptures. Now we begin to see some light. We must be as right as our Father in Heaven, we must be as perfect as our Father in Heaven who makes it rain on the just and the unjust, the good and the not so good people of this world.

The Rightness and Perfection of our Father in Heaven refers to the wholeness of God’s compassion for people, compassion that can be expressed as being against what is evil and destructive, and for what is good and healthy and whole. Jesus brings us face to face with a whole new meaning of the word perfect. It means whole-souled commitment to do what we are told in Scripture. It means a complete keeping of the promise that with God helping us we will never betray others, will not do anything to hurt or harm others, we will not lash out in anger, nor faithlessly slip away, nor speak deceitful words. Of that kind of rightness and that perfection we can always use more. Jesus spoke of a perfection that makes the will of God the pinpoint focus of what we are to move toward. Nothing less will do, but that is enough.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope September 1, 1991

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles