DAY 75 - Up On The Mountain

Luke 9:28-32, 34-36 (NIV) ²⁸About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰Two men, Moses and Elijah, ³¹appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³²Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³⁴While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." ³⁶When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.

A mountaintop experience is a moment when we have an awareness of God that we do not normally have in our daily lives, when the God we serve becomes real and alive to us in our experience. Two points of this mountaintop experience are: Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets, the way God had spoken to the people of Israel in the past; and, the voice of God saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him."

Do we listen? To listen to God is a daily, persistent choice to pay attention to what His Word might be saying to us. It is the discipline of taking time to do nothing but listen to God, in a time of silence, prayer, and reading from devotional material and the Bible. How important is listening to God to you? What are you doing that demonstrates how important listening to God is?

Luke is making the point that in Jesus God has chosen to speak and act in the world. Moses and Elijah fade into the background and Jesus emerges as the real and reliable Word of God. When we listen to God, to whom are we listening? Is our listening focused on the person of Jesus, or do we listen to the bit of faith and the bit of belief that we have picked up here and there? If we focus our listening on the God we see in Jesus we run the risk of falling into the sin of being narrow minded and intolerant. Listening to Jesus is not a risk free investment of time and energy. It is an act of faith.

I wonder. In this disoriented age, when so many are trying to work things out by themselves with the latest scientific discovery, the words of the latest guru selling the most books, or a hodge-podge of religious beliefs, what if there was a certain ancient Compass that had not outlived its usefulness after all and could lead us to a future that is life indeed? What if, after all the other instruments tried by humanity prove unreliable in the tempests of these times, we discover that there is a Compass whose needle always points in the direction of God’s gracious, loving will for human life? Peter and James and John were heavy with sleep, but kept awake. They kept awake and saw His glory. If you know the struggle you can also know the glory.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 22, 1998

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 74 - For Poorer or Richer

Luke 6:20-26 (NIV) ²⁰Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ²²Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. ²³"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. ²⁴"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. ²⁵Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. ²⁶Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

What do you want from Jesus? What does Jesus want for you? We may believe that when life goes well we are being blessed, favored by God. When we are miraculously healed of disease, when we suddenly are offered a great job, when that other person finally changes, then we are blessed, really, really blessed.

Or are we? Is there another way to be blessed that is more permanent, lasting and helpful? Blessed are you for yours is the kingdom of God, where there is satisfaction and laughter and joy, even while stuck in misery. Your blessedness does not depend on getting healed, finding a new job, finally seeing that other person change. Your blessedness depends on God and on discovering the kingdom and rule of God.

Many of us have had a dream about the way life is supposed to turn out. And if life does not turn out that way we are disappointed, sometimes crushed, frustrated, stuck with what life has handed us. What if we could be freed of that dream? What if we could know down to our toes that God is in charge, and that God has a plan and dream that is being worked out in all that is happening?

Most of us know that wealth can make people callous, can encase them in a hard shell of self-sufficiency, can cut them off from a sense of needing God and from any spirit of being grateful to God. We know that wealth can do that to them. It is more difficult to see what wealth does to our own soul. God seeks to destroy that hard shell of self-sufficiency and deliver us from the cozy comfort of a deadened soul. The process may be painful, but that pain may be the one thing that keeps us in touch with our need and our desire for God. For the Christ who broke the bonds of death is seeking to break the encasement of our soul.

What do you want from Jesus? Were you able to answer that question? Then you are probably among the poor. You are blessed, favored by God. The kingdom is coming to you, an awareness of God’s rule and the release from whatever you are stuck with. If you could not answer that question, would you consider why not? Is there a hard shell of self-sufficiency? Or is there simply no need? What do you want from Jesus? What does Jesus want for you?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 15, 1998

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 73 - Do You Have A Fish Story?

Luke 5:1-6, 8-11 (NIV) ¹One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, ²he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." ⁵Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." ⁶When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break ⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" ⁹For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." ¹¹So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

The disciples found in Jesus someone worth losing everything for. Simon Peter, who was a fisherman, was caught by a catch of fish, an experience of God’s grace. Jesus spoke in the language Peter could understand through fish, lots and lots of fish. Peter responded with heart-felt awe and Jesus told him that from then on Peter would be catching people. The word catch literally means “taken alive.” Jesus is saying that Peter will be drawing people to the life giving goodness and grace of God that he has experienced in Him. Jesus gives Peter a mission in life, a purpose in life, and it fits in with who Peter, the fisherman, really is.

Do you have a fish story? Do you have that experience of God’s grace and God’s goodness, that opens your eyes, speaks to your heart, and enlivens your soul? Certainly part of our purpose in life is to draw people to know the God we have known in our particular way, whether fisherman, engineer, businessperson, the manager of a home.

Some of us may like to say that we let our lives be our witness, that we let the way we live speak of God. But, do any of us really believe that our fallen life can speak that clearly of God, especially of the goodness and grace of God we have known in Jesus Christ? Part of our mission is to point people to the source of our life, to the grace and goodness we have known in Jesus Christ, not just in the way we live but also in what we say.

Notice that the fish story began with a small command to put out into the deep and let down the nets for a catch. A carpenter is telling a seasoned fisherman how to fish. Foolish, absurd. But, when the command was followed many fish were caught. So little faith, so great a catch. Peter’s fish story begins with Peter having just enough faith to give it a try, as ridiculous as it sounded. Faith begins and faith continues by giving obedience a try. We take what little we know of God’s will for our life, and we do it.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 8, 1998

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

DAY 72 - Rejection in Nazareth

Luke 4:21-30 (NIV) ²¹Then Jesus said to them, "What you have just heard me read has come true today." ²²All the people started talking about Jesus and were amazed at the wonderful things he said. They kept on asking, "Isn't he Joseph's son? ²³Jesus answered: You will certainly want to tell me this saying, "Doctor, first make yourself well." You will tell me to do the same things here in my own hometown that you heard I did in Capernaum. ²⁴But you can be sure that no prophets are liked by the people of their own hometown. ²⁵Once during the time of Elijah there was no rain for three and a half years, and people everywhere were starving. There were many widows in Israel, ²⁶but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon. ²⁷During the time of the prophet Elisha, many men in Israel had leprosy. But no one was healed, except Naaman who lived in Syria. ²⁸When the people in the meeting place heard Jesus say this, they became so angry ²⁹that they got up and threw him out of town. They dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, because they wanted to throw him down from there. ³⁰But Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.

The first response to Jesus’ words were positive, but before it was all over the people became so angry that they got up and threw Him out of town. What happened? How did we go from glad reception to angry rejection? The people of Nazareth admired the beauty and power of what Jesus said, but they discounted the words of a hometown boy. To discount means we say yes with our lips but we do not take the words seriously. We may totally agree, but we disregard the words.

Jesus was saying to them that they expected signs and miracles to prove to them that the reign of God is here. But, God’s help is not available to us on demand. God feels no obligation to prove Himself to us. Jesus confronts an underlying attitude of demand and the temperature of anger in the people was turned up a few notches and the fuse was lit. Jesus spoke of God doing miracles for the Gentiles, of God not simply loving the Gentiles, but showing favor toward them.

With these words the anger erupted in a wrath that ran Jesus out of the synagogue. How do we react? Lying under the surface of demand is a sense of deserving, and Jesus brings it to the surface. We walk out on God with our “I deserve” attitude. But, Jesus walked out on the people of Nazareth. He disappeared like a ghost in their midst. Jesus went away. Do we believe Jesus could do such a thing to you and me? Do we believe that if God really loves us He would never turn His back on us? After all, deep down we are very nice people who are doing the best we can, and God understands. Could it be that there is a despair of separation from God that we need in order to recover from this attitude? Remember, it all began with the people of Nazareth discounting the words of Jesus. Yes, I agree with what you say. But it is not real. It is not important. I don’t accept it. Do we discount the Word of God to us?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 1, 1998

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 71 - What’s Happening?

Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV) ¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, ² to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

Luke 4:16-21 (CEV) ¹⁶Jesus went back to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as usual he went to the meeting place on the Sabbath. When he stood up to read from the Scriptures, ¹⁷he was given the book of Isaiah the prophet. He opened it and read, ¹⁸"The Lord's Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers, ¹⁹and to say, `This is the year the Lord has chosen.' " ²⁰Jesus closed the book, then handed it back to the man in charge and sat down. Everyone in the meeting place looked straight at Jesus. ²¹Then Jesus said to them, "What you have just heard me read has come true today."

Jesus claims that the scripture has come true, but what’s happening?

Blessed are the poor, Jesus said, and the poor heard the good news of their worth to God. They heard the good news that they were not condemned to a life of poverty. The captives were released, released from sin. And Jesus gave sight to the blind, the physically blind and the spiritually blind. People received sight and they received insight into who Jesus was and how He was calling them to live.

And in Jesus people experienced the favorable year of the Lord, which can also be translated as the year of God’s grace. They experienced the unmerited gift of God’s care and God’s favor. The words of Isaiah came true for the people in the days that Jesus lived in the flesh. But Jesus said, "The Lord's Spirit has come to me,” and the spirit of the Lord did not cease to work when Jesus returned to God.

Can we see the words of Isaiah coming true in our time? Could it be that the way these words are coming true may differ sharply from what we have understood and from the way we have hoped and looked for? Sometimes God does not do what we had hoped. Central to the words in Isaiah is the promise of sight, that you and I can and will see God at work in our world, in the lives of people, and in our own lives. Do we fail to see what God is doing because of our expectations of what God ought to be doing? What’s happening? The spirit of the Lord in upon me. God is happening. God’s rule and God’s reign is happening. It happened in Jesus and it’s happening still. Do you see it?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

DAY 70 - Moving Up With Mammon or Living Under Christ

Matthew 6:22-24 (NKJV) ²² “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! ²⁴ “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) ²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

When we try to live with one eye focused on our treasures and responsibilities and the other eye focused on serving God, we get a little cockeyed. Our vision is blurred. Indeed, such divided attention keeps out the light of God and our whole body is full of darkness.

Mammon is sometimes paraphrased as money. But mammon is more than that. Mammon is the mystic power of money. Indeed, it could be called a spiritual force, one of the principalities and powers that Paul talks about, that we must battle against.

No one calls himself or herself a minister of mammon, but most of us regularly hear the message of mammon. You have got to make something of yourself. You have to amount to something. You have to be somebody. And underlying that pressure is the message that money will help you make something of yourself. Money will help you amount to something. Money will make you somebody.

Mammon never denies God. It simply teaches us to ignore God. How many people who are so bound to the economic wheel with children to support, debts to pay, and living costs to meet that they have no real prospect of freedom?

When we take the yoke of discipline of learning from Jesus on how to manage money, how do we know Jesus will really teach us? How do we know we will not suffer and be denied all kinds of good things we need? If we accept the discipline of giving, how do we know that some disaster is not going to befall us? There are difficulties and there are struggles. But the yoke of discipline is kind and fitting.

Do it. Take the yoke of daily listening to Christ. Take the yoke of spending as He leads you. Take the yoke of giving to Him, and He will give you rest. He will give you the rest of trust. He will give you the rest of experiencing His generosity. He will give you the rest of learning good money management. He will give you rest from the worries, and stress and concerns that mammon has laid on you.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 9, 1997

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles

Day 69 - Can You Read The Signs?

Isaiah 62:5 (NIV) As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

From John 2 (NIV) ¹On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. ³When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." ⁶Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. ⁸Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, ⁹and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." ¹¹This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

In a society where we are taught to be self-sufficient, in a time when we are gaining or trying to gain more and more control over life, the notion of Jesus doing for us is hard for many to understand in mind and spirit. It is hard for many of us to see our need for the Cross. And it is futile to try and convince us of that need. Rather, the question might be, “Has the wine of our life run out?”

We do a lot of striving to make our life good and secure and happy. Has it worked? Do we find ourselves to be busy and bored? Our lives filled with much activity but not much meaning, direction, and purpose? Could it be that all this striving of our life is the “old wine” that has run out on us, has failed us? It does not give us the life we had hoped for?

The Greek word used here for wedding is gamos, which actually refers to the wedding feast, not the actual ceremony. The wedding feast was a time when the people enjoyed the sheer goodness of life, and at the heart of that enjoyment was wine and a marriage, the coming together of a man and a woman in a life long commitment of faithfulness and love. That marriage reminded the people of their special relationship to God. But then the wine ran out. There was no wine left to help the people celebrate this marriage relationship.

Wine was a religious symbol of a Hebrew ritual and law that was no longer working for the people of Israel. When Jesus turned the water into wine, He gave back to the people a way to this special relationship to God that they had lost. He restored the goodness of life in this marriage relationship to God. Specifically, this miraculous sign points to the time when the wine of His blood will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins and to call us back into this marriage relationship to God. Jesus gives us back this relationship that is at the heart of what the good life is really all about, gives us back this relationship that is a constant source of celebration and joy, and which will never run dry.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 18, 1998

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles