DAY 176 -Does God Want to Control You?

John 8:34-36 (NIV)  Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

From Galatians 5 (NIV)  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

In times of turbulence, promises of God’s control can be very appealing to some people. Others resent it, resist it, and flatly reject it, not wanting to have anything to do with this restrictive, repressive religion that tries to put a lid on fun, fulfillment, and pleasure. Paul was writing to a church that was confused about the issue of God’s control, to a people who once felt they were at the mercy of emperors and evil spirits. Now they have discovered that they are only at the mercy of a loving God.

Paul addresses two forces that work against our freedom. One is forced faith, a faith that relies on fear and manipulates the tender side of commitment to gain control over someone’s life. Paul opposed a forced faith, presenting the truth in a way that respected people’s freedom. He acknowledged and encouraged the freedom to think and decide. Paul also cautioned against false freedom. There is a difference between being free and being adrift. A ship without a rudder is not free. It is only loose from its moorings to flounder in the sea.

Forced faith and false freedom are two spirits of slavery that come to us with enticing invitations. Forced faith offers us the security of simply being told what to think and believe and how to behave. The spirit of slavery sneaks like a rust over our life when we give an uncritical hearing to any individual or group. The spirit of slavery can also grab hold of us when we become defiant, when we take on the attitude that no one is going to tell us what to think or believe or how we ought to behave. Sometimes in our quest for freedom or in defiance we build a suit of armor around our life that isolates us from the truth and makes movement toward the truth cumbersome and difficult.

God is not out to control us but to set us free. Jesus offers the freedom of belonging. It is a freedom that a slave can never have, whether rebelling or conforming to the desires of the Master, because the master is still master. Freedom happens when the relationship is changed. Freedom happens when our soul sees that God is not a master that is seeking to order us around, but a loving Father who is seeking our best. Freedom is found and preserved by exposing our soul to the life of Jesus. God does not want to control us. God does want to conquer the spirit of slavery that seeks to conquer us.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 25, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 175 - Kingdom of God

Luke 17:20-21 (NIV) ²⁰ Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, ²¹ nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

“The Kingdom of God” is still a strange phrase for most modern ears. But we know pretty much how the first century Jew understood the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God was the truth of God and the rule of God over all the world. The Kingdom of God is what Israel existed for. They saw a day coming when the LORD would become king over all the earth. The Zealots fought for that day. The Essenes organized for that day.  The Pharisees studied and prayed for that day. The Sadducees manipulated and compromised for that day.

To the Pharisees, Jesus preaching sounded like a politician’s promises and they came to Him asking “where is it?” and “when is it?” Have you ever wondered the same? If Jesus did bring some kind of Kingdom, where is the evidence? Has anything really changed? Jesus either lied, was deluded, or the Kingdom He announced is different than the Kingdom expected. The Kingdom of God is not a change of governments, a change of the Roman oppression. The real issue is oppression itself.

When Jesus announced the coming of a Kingdom, He spoke of a power that had come into the world that would be confronting evil and causing good. And, He acknowledged that this power would not be obvious to everyone. His power would not cause the fall of Rome or the rise of Israel to prominence. The miracles give evidence of this power and this rule, but only a small bit of the evidence. The miracles were not done on a large scale for the whole of Israel, and often they were done in secret because Jesus knew that miracles could attract the greedy and the gullible as well as the faithful, and we see that still.

The Kingdom could also be seen in the life He taught. Jesus was saying in His teaching that we can see the Kingdom in the way its citizens live. The Kingdom could also be felt in the authority of Jesus. Jesus had the power and the ability to convince people that He was right about God, right about people, and that He was right about the way they were to live. Jesus spoke His message about a God who cared and about a life of love and service, but He left the matter of acceptance of His authority to the mystery of the divine will and the working of the human conscience. Why did He do it that way? Why didn’t He do more to convince people that He was telling the truth? Because that is the way God works in people. God does not overwhelm our responsibility and our right to chose.

Where is the Kingdom of God? It is wherever lives are being changed to conform to the will of God. The best evidence we can give is the evidence of a changed life. The changes that God makes in us are still the most reliable base we have. Trust that God is at work to change you. Believe it.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 14, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 174 - The Good News of Jesus

Luke 7:36-50 (NIV)  When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.  A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.  As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”  “Tell me, teacher,” he said.  “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”  Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.   Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.  Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”  Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”  Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 

Jesus directed His message and ministry toward the poor and the sinners, speaking an announcement about God’s love, of the Good News of God. The word Biblical writers use most often to describe this attitude of love toward the poor and sinners is compassion. The word speaks of sympathy for people and also a commitment to them.

Compassion was at the heart of Jesus’ teaching about God.  Simon was a decent, respectable, educated man, but somewhere something got lost – a sense of indebtedness, or an awareness of being love. Something had been lost that closed his heart to the compassion of Jesus for the woman.  Jesus names the key that the woman had discovered and that Simon had lost, the key that opened the door to God’s compassion. Her faith was believing that God cared enough about her to make her life different. Life could be better, so that even the home of a Pharisee was no longer off limits for her. Forgiveness was not a mere overlooking of sins as if they were not important, but a release from the stranglehold that sin had on her life.  God cares enough about us to make our life different. Do you believe that? If you believe it, what are you doing about it?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 7, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 173 - Let’s Face It

Matthew 3:1-2, 4-8, 10 (NIV)  ¹ In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  ⁴ John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.  ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.  ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I Corinthians 11:27-29 (NIV)  So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

The prophets had been telling the same thing for centuries: the threat of destruction if the people of Israel did not turn away from the wrong they were doing.  The message was as startling as it was compelling. This new message of John’s to repent was a call by one who looked like and spoke like one of the prophets of old. John called on the people to focus on the wrong they had done rather than on the wrong done to them. Repent was a call to basic moral responsibility. It meant courageously accepting the burden of blame. John spoke of the fire of catastrophe that would come to them very soon if they did not change their attitude and change their ways. And, John’s prophecy was fulfilled in 63 A.D. when Rome ordered the total destruction of Jerusalem. They laid the ax to the root of the tree and leveled the Holy City.

How do we account for John’s popularity and appeal to the people of Israel? It was not the novelty of his looks or his message. The prophets had been telling them the same thing for centuries. Nor was it purely the threat of destruction. Rather, it was the basic promise of hope, which meant they could be different and life could be different if they accepted responsibility for the wrong they had done.

Today, we continue to answer John’s call. We do not have to wage war for it, we do not have to escape to the desert for it, we do not have to spend tedious hours learning the law for it or have education, or wealth, or power for it. We need only be morally responsible for our life. We hear Paul echo John’s words: Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.  Change your attitude, focus on the wrong you have done and change your ways and your life can be significantly better.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 28, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 172 - Have Faith: Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters

Luke 6:38 (NIV)  ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Deuteronomy 14:22-26 (NIV) ²² Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. ²³ Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. ²⁴ But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), ²⁵ then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.

To open our mind to God about money is far more difficult and more central than simply opening our pocketbook. So it was one afternoon on a hillside near Capernaum that Jesus began to deal with our attitude and assumptions about money. He was talking to a people who had rules and regulations about giving, and most of them obeyed the rules, from the richest to the poorest. Yet, underneath all that was the attitude and the assumption that you took what you could of money and wealth and then you tried to hold on to it for dear life. Give and it will be given to you. Does Jesus mean that if we give generously we will get back more money? It happens, but mostly we will receive an awareness of the goodness of God, a confidence in the sovereignty of God, the ability to appreciate all that we have, including the people in our life, as a gift, and a sense of security in our thoughts and dealings with money.

Are we shrewd about giving, or do we just pay our dues as we would for belonging to a club? It is God’s will that we receive real spiritual benefit to our soul that comes from giving. God wants us to enjoy our money, His money. We do that when we are willing to submit our money and our decisions about money to God. We seek God’s guidance for all that we do with our money, the way we give, the way we spend, the way we save.

Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.

From sermons preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 22, 2000 and November 12, 2000

Copyright Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 171 - Believing Is Seeing

John 5:20-24 (NASB) ²⁰"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.  ²¹"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. ²²"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, ²³so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. ²⁴"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Jesus says He has the knowledge and authority to tell us we are going to live, even after we die. And that knowledge, He says, invades the present.  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Those hearing Jesus’ words the first time did not think about judgment coming after they died. They felt the judgment right now. Judgment was already felt in the futile, oppressive life they were living under the yoke of Rome.

Judgment today is felt as a kind of on-going struggle against the tide of life, a kind of invisible wave that seems to roll against us, causing us to lose our balance, to lose sight of what is really important, to be overwhelmed by more problems and demands and responsibilities than we can handle. Some of us struggle with determination against the tide of judgment believing that somehow, someway we are going to beat it. We believe life is going to be better. We try our best. But something fails us. Our hopes and dreams for the future fall flat.

This tide of life is not a wave at all, but a wall. It is the wall of our own death, making itself felt, pushing us to frantic striving or to passive resignation, but pressuring us right now in one way or another. Once we simply become aware that life is a gift we can make a movement to life that becomes a perspective. We see people with compassion, we confront problems with promise, we feel rooted in the midst of change. We know that no failure is fatal and there is an awareness of a supporting presence that always proves stronger than the tide.

Believing without acceptance is null and void. Believing without action is mere wishful thinking. It is also true to say believing is seeing. We believe so we can see and receive this perspective of eternal life on all our life. There are rational arguments for acceptance of the Resurrection, but they convince only the mind. The heart is convinced by action, we can decide to care or to be callous. We can live with the risk of love or the protection of loneliness. We can act out of conviction or cave in to compromise. We are constantly deciding in favor of life or death with the kind of life we see in Jesus. We accept. We decide. We act. And we pass from judgment to life.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 11, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 170 - That’ll Be The Day

From Zephaniah 1 (NIV) ¹The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah:  ⁷ Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near. ⁹ On that day I will punish all who avoid stepping on the threshold, who fill the temple of their gods with violence and deceit.  ¹⁴ The great day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly.

From Zephaniah 3 (NIV) ⁸ Therefore wait for me,” declares the LORD, “for the day I will stand up to testify. ¹¹ On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from you your arrogant boasters. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill. ¹² But I will leave within you the meek and humble. The remnant of Israel will trust in the name of the LORD.

What does the future hold for you? Will it be a dream come true – to finish school, find the right person to marry, becomes a success, reach retirement? As you look to the days ahead, does the future look promising and bright? Or do you see a lot of doom and gloom? Whatever we believe about the future has a profound effect on the way we think and feel and behave here and now.

The prophets in general and Zephaniah in particular spoke of the future as that day. The early church literally lived for the next thing God would do to accomplish His will and purpose for them and for His lost world. The words they spoke, the deeds they did, the prayers they prayed were all charged by a sense of God expectancy.

How do we view the future, and how does that view shape our life here and now? The most obvious way this belief shapes our life is to give us a sense of deep and abiding gratitude. We have a reason to believe that God will intervene in the future, because the intervention has already come in Jesus Christ. If you want to know what the future looks like, look at Jesus. Every time He makes a twisted body whole, opens the eyes of the blind, restores a relationship with forgiveness, confronts bigotry, breathes life into a dying body, the future is present. A preview is given that says, stay tuned and trust.

And the evidence given then is given now. A heart is touched, a life is changed, our self-centeredness is frustrated, the veil that hides God from our experience is temporarily lifted and the truth dawns on us. We see the future in events. We feel the future within and we know that day is a sure thing. The moment of seeing and experiencing a small bit of that day keeps us going through the moments when everything in us and around us say that any hope we may have had for the future is now null and void. Those moments and evidence of that day await us now and in the days ahead.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 21, 1993

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles