Happy birthday

Today our youngest son turns 26 years old. My prayer for him is that he will always keep the joy of the Lord in his life.
So often when we pray for people we pray that their circumstances will change but we need to remember that more important is that they will have the joy of the Lord.
Yesterday I spent time with a man who had just recently been separated from his wife. Now I know that God wants to bring healing to that marriage but before that he wants healing for the parties involved. We need to pray that in spite of the circumstances that they would have the joy of the Lord.
That is why more than anything else I pray that each of my children will experience the joy of the Lord in their lives.

Did we miss it?

"LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy." Habakkuk 3:2

Back in 2001 just after the attacks on the US there was a renewed interest in spiritual matters. It was a time when people were looking for answers. How did we pray as a church? Did we pray as Habakkuk prayed when the Babylonians were attacking Jerusalem, "Keep your work going"? I think we were more interested in our own comfort and safety so we prayed for protection. Now there is nothing wrong in praying for protection and safety but did we miss out on praying for a spiritual awakening?

Just wondering!

Riches

Someone said that the truly rich are those who are satisfied with what money cannot buy and death cannot take away. Habakkuk understood what it meant to live by faith when he said that he would rest in the Lord, trust the Lord regardless of what the circumstances would be. To me this prayer of Habakkuk's is one of the greatest statements of faith in all Scripture. Read again Habakkuk 3:16 - 19.

When is a verb not a verb?

In Habakkuk 3 we see the prophet worshipping God. I find it interesting and sometimes disturbing that we have changed the word worship from a verb to an adjective or a noun. We have worship services, worship songs, a time of worship, etc. but worship is really a verb. Worship is an action. Jesus said that we are to worship God in spirit and in truth.

It becomes He

In Habakkuk 2:3 we read, "For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." It seems clear to me that this refers to the revelation that was given to Habakkuk by the Lord Himself. However, the writer of Hebrews quotes this verse in Hebrews 10:37 and he changes the pronoun to "he". "For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay." The writer of Hebrews sees this as a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. I know that some interpret the meaning of Habakkuk differently but to me the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear.

Exploitation

The following is from New Jersey News:

Three pastors of a nondenominational church in Randolph used members' donations and proceeds from selling the $5 million church building to buy a $1.6 million mansion in Mendham Township, a $450,000 schooner in Jersey City and life-coaching classes, state officials said yesterday.

In chapter two of Habakkuk the prophet pronounces five woes.
Woe against selfish ambition
Woe against covetousness
Woe against exploitation of others
Woe against drunkenness
Woe against idolatry
We exploit someone when we take more than we give, when we treat people like things.

Three Assurances

God gives Habakkuk three great assurances:
1. The assurance of God's grace
2. The assurance of God's glory
3. The assurance of God's government.
God tells Habakkuk that the righteous shall live by his faith. He then tells him that the world will be filled with the knowledge of His glory. His glory is over all the earth but not everyone sees the glory but there is coming a day when the whole world will know of His glory. Finally He tells Habakkuk that He is in His holy temple, He is in control, He is sovereign.
When we think about God's glory we are reminded that His glory is visible in creation, in the church, and in the cross. Often we do not see His glory but someday the whole world will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

I hope God punishes them

How often we have looked at the wicked and said that God was going to punish them but God looks at the righteous and says, "repent or I will punish you." We like to talk about the wickedness of others but forget that God is concerned about our heart.

Stop, look and listen and look again

When we learn to live by faith we have to stop and look and then look again. Elisha's servant did not see the army of the Lord until he looked again. Usually what happens is that we stop, look and act or react. We miss what God is doing because we don't stop and look and then look again. Habakkuk said that he would wait on his watch to see what God was doing. He was not disappointed. Many times we don't see what God is doing because we are looking for what we think He should be doing. Self can be the enemy of the eyes of faith

Unexpected Lesson

Last night we received an email that fit so perfectly in with the lesson today on Habakkuk 1. I will quote part of the email here:

I just got off the phone with my friend A and I wanted to give you an update. She got home from the hospital yesterday evening and she is doing much, much better. The first couple days after she was admitted, she felt so miserable and overcome with panic about having to be there. She said it was really weird being in a psych ward because there were so many people with major problems, most of which were manifested through violence! She said she felt like she was in prison. But then on Wednesday night, after having so much time alone, God broke something inside her and she was finally able to pray and worship, which she hadn't felt able to do in months! She spent the last 2 days confessing to God and singing in her room. She got to share the gospel with 11 people including her psychiatrist..... When she went in, she didn't even know if God existed and she came out realizing that whatever her circumstances, even in a place like that, she could be content in Him! She knows that she still has a lot of work ahead of her, but she has a new perspective. I was struck by how for the last couple weeks she's felt so hopeless and said that: God isn't there, there's no purpose to her suffering, there's no way out of the depression, etc, yet He broke every one of those lies!! Keep praying for her though because she is still struggling against it.

God told Habakkuk that what He was going to so was so amazing and even if He explained it to him he would not understand. Who would have guessed that going to a psych ward was the answer to pray. God does not fit into our formulas, He cannot be contained.

Judgment

The message of Habakkuk is that judgment is coming and there is nothing that they could do to prevent it. Unlike some of the other prophets there is no call for repentance and the only way that they can prepare for the coming judgment is to live by faith. However, how does one do that?
Jesus said that judgment was coming and the way that we are to prepare for that judgment is to live by faith. However, in the New Testament we do know how that is possible. We live by faith because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Doubt

There are many cause of doubt. One of the main causes of doubt is a wrong view of God. A. W. Tozer said that the most important thing about you is what comes to mind when you think about God. Though Habakkuk questioned God he did not have a wrong view of God. He believed in the holiness and sovereignty of the Almighty. His problem was not with God but with what he say in the world.


Frederick Buechner said, "Without somehow destroying me in the process how could God reveal Himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me."

How should I have faith in...?

There were two brothers in Toronto who bought lottery tickets that ended up being misprinted. One of the brothers was quoted as saying, "How should I have faith in them when they're making these kings of errors?"
I find it amazing that people think that they should have faith in the lottery commission but will question what God is doing in the world.
The brother went on to say, "You kind of lose faith in the system."
There are many people who have put their faith in the wrong thing, or even in the right thing for the wrong reason, find themselves losing faith. If we believe God for the wrong reason we too can find ourselves losing our faith.
When we look at the world and see what is going on we may ask the question, "What in the world are you doing God?" God says, "If I told you you wouldn't believe it so learn to live by faith."
We cry out for another awaking and God raises up a Russel or a Joseph Smith. What are you doing God? But He remains silent because we wouldn't believe it if He told us.

P.S. Happy birthday son. May the God of peace be your peace. Have a wonderful day. Love dad.

Whose on trial here?

Habakkuk reads like a trial. However, it reads at first as if Habakkuk has put God on trial and he is demanding an explanation. The interesting thing about Habakkuk is that he may question God but he still believes and is willing to let God speak even if he has to wait and wait and wait for an answer.
Sometimes we feel that we are more righteous than God. I read an article which quoted Bart Campolo who claimed that he did not want to believe in a God that did not meet his expectations. Read the article here:

http://battle4truth.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/bart-campolo-disturbing-article/

Heavy Man

I grew up in the fifties and went to university in the sixties. I was never a hippy, those of you who know me can only imagine what I would have looked like with long hair. The hippies had their own culture and their own language. One of their words was "heavy". What was often meant by "heavy" was that it was a deep intellectual concept and required heavy thinking.
Habakkuk refers to his writing as an oracle or a burden. It was as if he was saying, "This is heavy man!" Much of what he writes is heavy and it is owrth our time to wrestle with these questions.

Mr. Huggie

We have a lady at the place where my wife and I volunteer who loves to hug people. Now some people love to be hugged while others (myself included) prefer to just have a pleasant but no contact greeting.
The name Habakkuk can be translated as "embrace" or "hug". We know very little about him other than he was a contemporary of Jeremiah and prophesied during the time of the Babylonian invasion.
The name may also mean "wrestle" and that would be very fitting as he was willing to wrestle through some of the hard questions. Though he questioned God he never lost his faith in God. In fact, he was the one that gave us that wonderful truth which was the cry of the reformation, "the just shall live by faith."
As we get to know Mr. Huggie we will find that he is a very up to date person. His questions and his answers fit the twenty first century mindset.

P.S. Happy birthday Mandie. I am glad you are my daughter (in-law). Keep sweet in the Lord. We love you.