DAY 330 - Too Tired To Push

Hebrews 6:1-3, 9, 11-12 (NIV) Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ² instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And God permitting, we will do so. ⁹ Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. ¹¹ We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. ¹² We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Laziness covers a much broader area of life than we may realize. There is personal laziness, which is represented by doing as little as possible or by idleness. This is a kind of laziness that most of us were warned against as we were growing up, that we would not want something for nothing or would shy away from the responsibility of earning our daily bread. Another kind of laziness that has been given less attention over the years is one we might call social laziness, not caring about the rest of the world as long as our little world is safe. It is neglecting our responsibility to the community, the society, the world of which we are a part. This is the kind of laziness Jesus spoke to in the parable of the Good Samaritan. A certain man came to Jesus wanting Jesus to draw some line of limitation as to whom he was responsible. The man did not get the answer he was looking for as Jesus threw the door wide open and in effect said our neighbor is anyone who is in trouble.

Still another kind of laziness is one that is the key for understanding and dealing with laziness in every area of our life. It could be called spiritual laziness. This is the kind of laziness to which the writer of Hebrews refers when he says we do not want you to become lazy. Literally, the word lazy here means “not to push.” We are not to stop pushing in our efforts to grow and develop in the Christian faith. Have we stopped pushing?

Spiritual laziness is not new. The early church called laziness a deadly sin. Life has a way of kicking dirt on us, dust naturally builds up in the home with no effort at all. Work piles up on us. And life has a way of kicking dirt on our spiritual lives as well. I am convinced that once we become spiritually lazy it is not too long before we become socially and personally lazy if we do not “push back” the dirt.

We push back by looking for examples of Christians who are growing, discovering anew God’s love and will for their life, who are still excited about sharing in the adventure of the Christian faith. We are to be imitators of those who believe and are patient. The implication of this passage is that God always provides us with examples to raise us up, to re-kindle hope in our life and to challenge us to grow spiritually.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 9, 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 329 - How to Accept Our Suffering

II Corinthians 12:7b-10 (NIV) ^7 b Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Few of us are able to accept suffering when it first hits us, and most of us will go through an initial depression or embitteredness before we can accept suffering and offer it to God.  The good news for us is that acceptance of our suffering does not depend on us. It depends on God and God’s willingness to work in our lives.

How can we get to the point of accepting our suffering and offering it to God in the same way Paul did? Paul drew from the resources of his faith to deal with his thorn, resources that had been placed in his life by his knowledge of the Scriptures, his confidence in prayer, and by his complete love and devotion to Jesus Christ. The important thing for us is similar, that we keep coming to God with our suffering. We keep directing our thoughts toward Him as Job did and as Paul did - Three times I pleaded with the Lord. And when we run out of steam and strength to offer our suffering to God, hopefully we will have friends around us who will do it for us.

We can offer our suffering to God in many ways. We can ask to be delivered from it or request the grace to accept it. We can complain to God about our suffering. We can offer up our suffering simply by sharing with God what we are honestly feeling. We can offer up our suffering by committing our lives anew to Him and by surrendering to Him the pain and agony of our suffering. We can also offer up our suffering to God by thanksgiving, particularly by offering what is sometimes called a believing prayer, thanking God for what He can do even if He has not yet fulfilled that promise to us. We can thank Him for His healing, comforting power. We can thank Him for the good He brings out of suffering as He did with His own Son on the Cross. We can thank Him that ultimately we know we cannot be defeated by suffering.

Ultimately, acceptance of suffering comes not because of anything we do but because of what God does. Acceptance came to Paul when he heard God say My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And though Paul gained a new sense of humility and tenderness because of what he had suffered, the thorn still harassed him.  Acceptance of suffering does not necessarily ease the pain, but acceptance does redeem our suffering.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 24, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 328 - The Awesome Power of the Listening Ear

Luke 5:12-16 (NIV) ¹⁶ But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

With the crowds pressing around him, Jesus withdrew. He did not wait until they left when He would have a few moments of peace and quietness. He withdrew from the crowd to pray. How many of us have ever needed some guidance for our life and we could find no one who had the time to help us? Or perhaps we were sick and needed a doctor and could not find one. Didn’t He care that people needed the guidance of His word and the healing of His touch? Obviously Jesus cared. His whole life says that He cares about every little thing that happens to us. That was one reason why people were attracted to Him and why His message was called Good News.

We can know that Jesus withdrew from the people only because He knew He could ultimately accomplish more by praying than by staying. If we are going to have effective lives, if was are going to aim our lives according to God’s will and accomplish everything in life that God wants us to do, we too, will have to withdraw from the crowds and our crowded schedules to pray. Jesus’ power came from God because of who He was, the Son of God. His power came also because of what He did. He prayed daily, regularly. He checked in with His Father to hear what God was saying and to receive power.

Jesus knows that you and I have many demands and responsibilities pressing on our lives. He is sympathetic with these pressures and the difficulties that often go with them. And He reminds us that the way out, the way to lessen these pressures is to do one thing – listen to what He has to say about our life.

Yet despite this example of Jesus’ life and the obvious benefits of prayer, there seems to be in most people an almost built in resistance to setting aside time for prayer. I have felt this resistance within myself. Why this resistance? Why this resistance to doing something that has proven for centuries to be of such tremendous benefit and value to our life? 

The flow of life drives us away from discovering God’s daily plan and purpose for our life, leaving us with only sporadic, superficial time of listening to God. But, we do not find time to spend listening to God. We take the time, and that means leaving undone some things that we feel like we need to do. Jesus withdrew to pray. Will you do it?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 27, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 327 - One Thing Is Needful

Luke 10:38-42 (RSV) ³⁸ Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." ⁴¹ But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; ⁴² one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her."

We are the kind of people who believe in giving it our best with every responsibility we have. And we believe in God. We want to do God’s will in our daily lives. But when we become distracted by all of the activity of our lives we push God to the outer edge. We are just too busy to see what God’s will may be for our daily round of duties and responsibilities. Listen then as Jesus speaks His word to the busied, hurried Martha who still lives in you and me: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful.”

Jesus does not deny the importance or the value of our daily responsibilities that fill our life. The family has to be fed. The children cared for. The work done. But Jesus says, only one thing is needed, that we sit for a minute and listen to His word, that we come and seek His guidance for our life. How may of us are able to recognize that our most basic and most pressing need is to hear and to do God’s will for our life as it is daily revealed to us through the present power of the Holy Spirit?

Martha, Martha, you are troubled and anxious about things. Does that pretty well describe you and me? Inwardly uptight, easily upset when things do not go our way? And yet, with all our hurrying about from one responsibility to another there lurks that gnawing feeling that somehow, for some reason, we are really wasting our time and our lives?

Mary chose to listen to what Jesus had to say, and was prepared to fix the most elaborate of meals if Jesus said the word, but first she waited for the word. “One thing is needful,” that we listen, that we tune in, that we seek God’s will for our life. No one ever used time more wisely or accomplished more than Jesus Himself. And one thing that stands out about His life is the way it was carefully aimed by His desire and commitment to doing what God was telling Him to do.

What He lived, He also asks you and me to do, to seek first the kingdom of God, followed by the promise that all things will be added to you. “One thing is needful.” That is not only a command but a promise. When we have listened, truly tuned our lives in to what He has to say and are willing to obey whatever directions we receive, then we have done all we need to do. We can work in peace, play in peace, rest in peace, and we do not have to be anxious and troubled over many things.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 20, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 326 - Choose!

1 Kings 18:17-21 (NIV) ¹⁷ When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” ¹⁸ “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. ¹⁹ Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” ²⁰ So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. ²¹ Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.

The temptation to include other gods was a constant temptation for the people of Israel. Most of their neighbors had more than one god, and often it appeared to the people of Israel that the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not enough. Into this arena of indecision came the voice of the prophet Elijah. How long will you waver between two opinions?

Do you feel the temptation to seek the popular gods of this world? Is Jesus Christ the central, most important source of influence in your life or are you caught in the middle, knowing that the false gods do you no lasting good yet reluctant to let Christ be Lord of it all? Do you fear He is not enough - that somehow you will suffer? It is as if we pray “Lord, I want to follow you, but first…” So it happens that we all sometimes choose “Jesus … and.”

How long will we go on limping between two opinions? That is the price we pay for our indecision, we simply limp through life, crippled, robbed of living life to the fullest. We pay a price for our indecision. We rob ourselves, and we cheat ourselves.  

Jesus is a beautiful picture of the jealousy of God. He will not allow us to try to follow Him and someone else. Jesus has the right to tell us to go our own way until we can decide what we really want, because He faced that difficult decision Himself of choosing what He would do for us. He wrestled with that question in the Garden of Gethsemane, but He didn’t wrestle with it indefinitely. He made up His mind to do what He had been sent to do and gave Himself up for us on the Cross, totally and completely. He made His decision and now He asks us to make ours. This is the one great decision that determines all other decisions we will ever be called on to make.

How long will we go on limping between two opinions? Is Jesus Christ enough for us? If the Lord be God then follow Him. 

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 30, 1985

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 325 - You Are God’s Gift To The World

From Isaiah 42 (NIV) Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. ² He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. ³ A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; ⁴ he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,

Matthew 5:14 (NIV) You are the light of the world.

We live in a society where our sense of self-worth is derived largely from what we have achieved and possess, and that makes us very vulnerable to loss. The people of Israel had lost everything – their homes, possessions, members of their families, their country, and their freedom. And they had lost their confidence in themselves as God’s chosen people. They were broken people, physically, materially, and spiritually. To those people languishing in despair, Isaiah makes this surprising announcement, Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. Three times Isaiah repeats that the servant will bring forth justice, and He is to remove the illusion that people cling to about the way life is and reveal to them the way life really is. For the people of Israel this meant casting off the illusion that they were rejected by God and would always be a slave nation.

Could it be that you and I still cling to some illusions about the way life really is? The illusions are assumptions we have made about God, about ourselves and others, about what it takes to live happily. My experience with God and people has convinced me that we all live with a certain amount of illusions about the way life really is, illusions that are so much a part of the way we view life that we are hardly aware of them and never dare to question them. And I am convinced that these illusions always take their toll on our life in one way or the other.

The work of the Servant is to confront these illusions and to conquer them with God’s truth.  But, notice how this is done: He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. ³ A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. He will be gentle. We see the gentleness of God’s judgment often in the way Jesus dealt with people. Jesus conquered sin with love and forgiveness.

Jesus continues to confront those sinful and false illusions we hold on to about the way life really is. As we go through the process of losing these illusions, we become the light of God to help others see what the true way of life really is. Jesus said we are the light of the world not because of what we have achieved or what we possess. We are the light of the world because of what He is making of us. By virtue of the fact that Jesus is working in us we become His great, wonderful gift to the world.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 26, 1981

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 324 - When the Spirit Grows Sluggish

Isaiah 6:1-9 (NIV) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, 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.” ⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 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 seraphim 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!” ⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

I wonder how many of us today would count ourselves among those who hear but do not understand, who see but do not perceive. Instead, we build up a lot of petty resentment, small guilts, failures, wrongs, hurts, and doubts that make life heavy, tiring, dull. We fall into a kind of spiritual stupor. We attend church, are loyal to the church, recognize that the church is a good and important institution, but have never really been touched in the center of our life by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Outwardly we still go through the motions of faith. But, inwardly, we think, “who cares? I’m too tired, too burdened, too weary.”

Then God drops that tiny spark of redeeming love into our lives and it acts like a giant incinerator, burning up all that useless clutter that has made our hearts dull toward God. Our lives are lightened by losing all that junk we have carried around for so many years, our eyes are opened and our hearts are made sensitive to the presence of the living God.

The prophet Isaiah gives us a unique, personal, inside view of what it is like to have God open our eyes and ears and make our hearts open and responsive to God’s living Presence. As God breaks down the barriers around our lives we may be shaken. But it is only for the moment, because God does not reveal Himself nor enter our life simply to rattle us. We receive God’s shalom, His life, His power, His love, His grace. In the process we may have been shaken and may have felt remorseful, but now we experience what it’s all about, and this beautiful things happens. We become obedient to God’s will though God does not take advantage. He leaves us totally free. But, we say, “I’m here. Send me.”

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 13, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)