DAY 337 - The Privilege of Prayer

John 14:12-14 (NIV) ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it

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Prayer is conversation with God. Through our thoughts and words we can make contact with God, the Being who exists beyond our world outside of time and space as we know it. Prayer is one of the most daring and important activities of our life. But it is not the words we say or the way we pray that guarantees God will hear and answer our prayer. Jesus tells us to pray in His name, to acknowledge that we live in Christ. To pray in Jesus’ name is to acknowledge that it is only through Christ and because of Christ that we have a right relationship to God. God has promised to hear and answer the prayers of those who live in a right relationship to Him, and we enter that relationship only through Jesus Christ. When we live in this new relationship to God, established for us by Jesus, we pray to our Father, a Father who is good and generous beyond all our deserving. We do not have to beg or bargain.

God not only answers our prayers, but wants to say yes to our requests. God cannot always say yes, but that is what God wants to do. This means we should never accept silence as an answer to prayer, certainly not as God’s way of saying no. If we ask and receive no answer, it means just that God has not answered our prayer … yet. This also means that we should never accept “no” as God’s final answer to prayer. God may sometimes say “no” to our request but always wants to say more. Sometimes our prayers are limited by our own mind and knowledge, but the larger prayer of the heart will be granted. God hears and answers the prayers of those who live in a right relationship to Him, those who dwell in Christ. 

But what if we have accepted Christ and live in Him and He lives in us as far as we know, and yet sometimes we feel that our prayers get no higher than the ceiling? And if we feel that our prayers are not getting any higher than the ceiling it is probably true. Something has happened to disturb our relationship to God, to block our prayers. Something stands as a barrier between ourselves and God, frustrating our conversation with Him. It may be some guilt over some wrong, hostility, or resentment toward another person. In any case the barrier has to be dealt with if we are to truly communicate with God in prayer. Jesus said that when we pray and ask for something, we must believe that we have received it and everything will be given us. And when we stand praying, forgive whatever we have against anyone so that our Father in heaven will forgive our sins. Sometimes we will not be aware of what is blocking our prayer and that is when we need to ask where we have gone wrong, what is keeping us from close conversation with God that is promised us. And that prayer will be answered.

From as sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope August 4, 1975

Copyright Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 336 - Living in the Light of God’s Guidance

I Corinthians 2:6-16 (NIV) ⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

There are times when we need to seek and ask for God’s specific guidance, but the goal of the Christian life is to be guided continually by God in all the decisions we make. This kind of guidance is for those who sincerely want God’s guidance, who have been instructed in the Christian faith, and who are aware that our will and God’s will are often in conflict with one another. To live continually in the light of God’s guidance is summed up in Paul’s declaration that we have the mind of Christ, and where he uses a strong word for mind – a word that goes beyond meaning intellectual abilities to include thoughts, feelings, desires, and will. Paul wants us to recognize and claim the security we have with God.

Several things prevent us from living continually in the light of God’s guidance. One is the failure to appreciate the magnificent thing Jesus accomplished for us on the Cross, the way we have been brought near God by the death of Christ. The Cross has closed the gap between ourselves and God so we have the very mind of Christ. We are also prevented from living continually in the light of God’s guidance because of a false image of God that lingers in our mind and heart, the idea that God wants us to do something a tyrant might demand of us. Yet all the while God is at work bringing our wills into harmony with His until we naturally want to do the same thing He wants us to do. God is not in the business of forcing us to do the unpleasant against our wills.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 25, 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 335 - Soulful Life

Matthew 16:24-26 (NIV) ²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

What is the soul that Jesus speaks of here? Certainly it is not an organ of the body. It is not physical or material at all. The soul is an invisible, intangible part of us that is present in our life and is a very real part of us. When we die everything material and physical about us dies and decays, but the soul survives. The word soul translated in both the Old and New Testaments can be translated as life.

The soul is a vital force, but when the soul is spoken of in the Bible it means a vital force that produces a certain quality of life in a person. The soul produces a broad and all encompassing quality of life that is difficult to describe but that is instinctively recognized. It allows for living life seeing the majesty and beauty in nature, of seeing children as the very crown of creation rather than as a continual nuisance. The state of the soul is the difference in finding life an endless treadmill of boredom or finding life an unfolding adventure of excitement. The soul is the source of valuing honesty and truthfulness. The soul produces quality of life that is so easily recognized as the real life, a good life, a desirable life.

How can our soul be lost? Is Jesus talking about the way we can lose our opportunity for eternal life? Is He asking what good is it for us to get rich then to lose it all when we die and then to spend eternity in hell? He may be talking about the loss of our soul at death and to eternity, but I also hear Him talking about the way we can lose our souls here and now, by devoting too much time, attention, and effort to gain the tangible, touchable, temporary things of this world while neglecting the life of our soul. Without the continual reminder from the church and Christian family of the importance of nurturing our souls any of us could sell out and pay a top price for the temporary things of this world.

If Jesus is talking about the way we can become so caught up in the drive and desire for the things of this world that we lose the unique quality of life that only the soul can produce, then He is speaking to a very real temptation in my life. How about you? What price are we willing to pay for success? For security? For material comfort? Are we willing to pay more than these things are worth? That is the kind of question I hear Jesus asking. He is not opposed to our having these things. On the contrary, He wants us to be successful, to be secure and comfortable in His world. But He does not want us to pay the price of our own soul, to lose in seeking these things the unique quality of life that only the well nurtured soul can bring into being.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 334 - God’s Magnificent Good News

Ephesians 1:8b-14, 18-20 (NIV) With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. ¹¹ In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³ And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

In this passage Paul heaps phrase upon phrase that defy any logical understanding, but I am not sure we always need to logically understand. In this case I am certain that Paul simply wants us to get caught up in the greatness of the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, to catch the spirit of awesome praise that runs through the verses. That the God who brought the entire universe into being reaches out to us to offer us His life. In the man Jesus Christ, God came to be with us to sit at our tables, to eat what we eat, to know life as we know it, to share in our tragedies and our triumphs. That is the truth we celebrate in Christ. But that is not all. Christ came not only to share life with us; He invites us to come and share in His life – to share His strength, His wisdom, His ability to overcome evil, and to do the Father’s will.

Right now we only partially share in the life of God. The completion of God’s plan and purpose for our life lies beyond this world. As we share in the life of God, though, something begins to happen to us. In almost imperceptible ways God begins to make changes in our life. He changes our attitudes toward people. He changes our values, our feelings, our behaviors, our understanding of what life is for. The Goodness of the Gospels is that slowly but very surely the thought begins to take hold that the purpose of life is to share in the life of God. We begin the process of being conformed to the image of the risen Christ. We begin to express the very life and character of God Himself. Strange as it may seem, people begin to see God is us. They begin to understand God’s attitude toward them by our attitude toward them. As people get to know us, they get to know something of what God is like. Does that make you want to say no, no … not me? No one could possibly know what God is like by knowing me, especially if they really knew me. But they do, and the better they know you the more they see the life and character of God in you, for God has put His stamp of ownership upon you for the whole world to see.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope April 27, 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 333 - Does God Still Guide

I Samuel 10:1-7 (NIV) Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance? ² When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel’s tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, “What shall I do about my son?”’ ³ “Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to worship God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine. ⁴ They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. ⁵ “After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. ⁶ The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. ⁷ Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

Faced with so many decisions in life how many of us have come to recognize the limits of our wisdom and then found ourselves wondering if God will offer us any help. And, if God is willing to guide us how can we know what He is saying to us? How do we hear and recognize God’s guidance? I want to share with you three channels through which God guides us.

The first channel is through God’s word in the Scriptures. God can speak a specific word to us through a specific verse, but all of Scripture provides a general framework for guidance. It lays out certain principles that God’s guidance does not violate, such as to deal honestly and lovingly with other people. Guidance from Scripture comes from continually involving our life in it. The second channel of guidance through which we receive a more specific word is the inner working of the Holy Spirit in our life. That guidance is available to you and me through the inner nudgings, convictions, and feelings that come from the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us that we need to test the Spirit to see if the feelings are of God, for it is easy to mistake our own feelings for God’s. The best way to test these feelings is to weigh them against Scripture. Is the thing we feel guided to do in keeping the message and the spirit of the Scriptures? The third channel of guidance is the confirming and correcting experience of outer circumstances, or signs as they are called in Scriptures. God has a way of saying well done good and faithful servant to us through the things that happen to us when we have faithfully followed His lead. We also need to be careful of seeing adversity as God’s way of saying no to us. The Scriptures call Satan “our Adversary,” not God. We need to be asking if something or someone is trying to keep us from following God’s guidance by making it difficult for us.

God’s guidance comes to us in a general way as we regularly immerse our lives in the Scriptures. His guidance comes in some very specific ways through the inner nudging of the Holy Spirit, and is confirmed or corrected by the results of our following God’s guidance.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 18, 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 332 - Transformed Hypocrites

Mark 7:1-2, 5-6 (NIV) The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus ² and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ⁵ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”⁶ He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Matthew 23:25-28 (NIV) ²⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. ²⁷ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

James 5:16 (NIV) ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Originally the word hypocrite had no negative connotation and was used to refer to an actor who pushed aside his own personality to play the part of another. But, it is not a long jump from play acting to pretense, pretending to be someone we are not and to be someone who conceals real motives, real feelings, the real self. The hypocrite is someone who by pretense seeks to deceive another person.

Are we the people we appear to be to others or are we role playing hypocrites? Are we phony in our relationships? Are we afraid to be the person we really are, to let what is in our hearts be expressed in our daily behavior? God is not shocked by any wrong thing we ever have done or will do, but is put off by our hypocrisy when we conceal our hearts. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of our hypocrisy is that it not only cuts us off from God and from other people, but ultimately also from ourselves. We play the role until we believe our own pretense. It is no wonder that no sin is more strongly condemned than hypocrisy. 

But there is hope for the hypocrite when confronted by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. God has a special place and purpose in His Kingdom for transformed hypocrites. They are the most powerful, influential representatives God has in this world. When we receive God’s grace and confess our true sins to Him in the presence of another person who has discovered God’s grace and acceptance, forgiveness becomes real. We need someone present with us to incarnate the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ and help us discontinue our self-deceiving ways. It’s Biblical and it works, bringing inward unity, peace and reconciliation.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 23, 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)

DAY 331 - The Christian Response to Anger

Isaiah 48:9 (NRSV) ⁹ For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, so that I may not cut you off.

Ephesians 4:25-27, 29, 31-32 (NRSV) 25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and do not make room for the devil. ²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. ³¹Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³²and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Mark 3:5 (NRSV) He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Let’s look at what Paul says about anger and how to handle it. There may be some surprises. First, he says be angry which stands in direct contradiction to what many of us think is the Christian belief about anger. God Himself gets angry. Jesus got angry as seen in the passage from Mark. We feel what we feel.

The second part of Paul’s statement is crucial, for that is where is tells us what we should do with our angry feelings - Be angry but do not sin. It is ok to feel angry, but it is wrong to express angry feelings in such a way that we hurt or harm other people. It is a sin to unload our anger on another human being, whether we unload with an outburst of temper or fighting or whether we unload it in subtle and sophisticated ways like sly and cutting remarks, snide criticism, jokes that drip with the poison of anger, or cool and polite rudeness.

Paul also says do not let the sun go down on our anger and do not harbor angry feelings where they are nursed and grow sour. That’s when the devil has the chance to work on us. As we continue to store hot angry feelings it is hard to show loving feelings.

We seem caught. If we express our angry feelings we hurt others; if we repress them, we hurt ourselves.  It is ok to feel angry, but what do we do with our feelings of anger? The answer lies in looking to Jesus as our example, for He is the way God resolved His anger toward you and me. Jesus is the expression of God’s judgment and love at the same time. As we live in Him and continue to look to Him we can discover ways of expressing anger that are not destructive to ourselves or to other people and that will, in fact, be constructive. Jesus has promised we shall receive power, and that includes the power to deal with and to constructively express our angry feelings. When we join our lives to Christ we begin a pilgrimage. Part of that pilgrimage is discovering healthy, constructive ways of expressing our angry feelings.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 16, 1975

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)