impinged

Habakkuk responds to God with a song of faith. It is a beautiful picture of how to see God’s hand in the midst of our suffering - look at all he has done in the past. Here Habakkuk remembers how the Lord delivered Israel from her enemies so many times before. Habakkuk also reminds himself who God is: how mighty, merciful, and just the Creator is. These reminders are enough to renew his spirit, refresh his hope, and strengthen his faith.

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“But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
Habukkuk 2:20

False idols, the worship of money, the pursuit of personal gain at anothers expense - all these things God was warning the people of Judah against through the vision given to Habakkuk. It seems he is still warning us against these things today. We look for God in all the wrong places. We make things to be our God. But they hold no power but the power to destroy. If we just listen, God tells us where he is. In the days of Habakkuk the temple was a physical place. Today, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are His temple. We need only to open the door to let him into our hearts and he will dwell in us. Be still and know that he is God.

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The Lord answers Habakkuk’s complaint. He tells him to write it down and to send it out among the people. The answer: Justice will be done, evil will not go unpunished, God is in control. He also answers the question of when - “Later”. The Lord says these things will happen and they need only to have patience. This is the lesson I’ve had to learn in my own life. I can’t always see what God is doing because I can only see what is happening right in front of me right now. I need to have patience not because God moves so slow or because God likes to torture me, but because God is doing a great work and I’m the one who learns so slowly.

It took me many years and many heartaches to get to where I am today. I believe this is where he wanted me to be all along. But I have been a slow learner. I had to continually repeat the same pain, learning a little more each time, until I finally learned the lesson. And what was that lesson? Trust God with everything and in everything.

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I read these verses a few days ago, the day after we learned of Trisha (Bosman) Zylstra’s death and the death of her son who was born that day. She leaves behind a husband and twins not even two years old. And we don’t understand. How does a good and loving God allow this to happen? If he is God, then all things are in his hands, right? Then it is Him who took her and is allowing these babies to grow up without a mother. There are a lot of people with a lot of questions and really questioning God right now.

The prophet Habakkuk saw the terrible things happening to God’s people; he saw evil people prosper while the righteous were persecuted. And he asked God why? Many times in the bible we see God questioned as to why he is allowing bad things to happen to good people. From this we know it is ok to humbly question God. Habukkuk shows us how how. He humbly and respectfully lays his case before God. Then he does the most important thing - he takes the step we most often forget: he waits for God’s answer.

I will climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the Lord will say to me and how he will answer my complaint.
Habukkuk 2:1

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God is doing a great work though no one can see it. Our view is so myopic. God was raising up an evil people, the Babylonians, to punish the Jews for turning their back on God. This was true and obvious so why does God say in verse 5, “… I am doing something in your day, something you wouldn’t believe”? Because the uncompromising faith of a few believers (Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Obednego) who are currently living a few hundred miles away, is about to turn these people, who’s strength is their god, into believers of the God of Israel. So what is the point? Simple, God is in control even when we can’t see what he is doing.

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I’m back…

I’ve been doing my devotions in the book of Habakkuk lately. I’m trying something different in that I’ve read through the book several times and now I’m going through it piece by piece and writing my thoughts about each section. It is an interesting process. When I start I have no idea where I’m going but it seems the Holy Spirit begins to reveal to me deeper meanings as I write. Here I’ll be sharing my thoughts.

What really stood out to me in the first 4 verses of this book is the line, “Therefore the law has become powerless.” These were Jews living under the law and being punished for turning from God - turning from following his law. Because they strayed from the law God punished them by raising up the Babylonians (or Chaldeans depending upon your translation) to conquer them. This plunged their society into a lawlessness. The social structure they were used to was gone. Rape, violence, plundering, theft, and injustices of every kind ran rampant; no one felt safe. Their sons were stolen and marched back to Babylon to serve the king. It was a society without any of the protection that laws afford. And then the parallel becomes clear. This was a result of them leaving the protection afforded by following God’s law. So often we seen Christianity as confining, a list of rules and regulations instead of a life of freedom. A lawless society is a society enslaved. Living without God is a life enslaved. We only find true freedom in Christ.

Click here to read these verses for yourself

I admit, postings have been rather sparse lately. I only write when I’m inspired to do so. And right now I am inspired. I actually have a series of posts I plan to write over the next little while. In the same tradition as before, the topics will be things that have either changed me, inspired me, or been revealed to me.

To start off with I want to tell you about three books that have profoundly changed my life. The first is Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. A fantastic book about the heart and soul of a man. In amazing clarity he drives deep at what a man really needs to feel alive, and then he gives permission to be a man. Outstanding! The second book is none other than one of the best selling books of all time, not including the Bible, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. In the midst of a dark valley where I almost believed my life had no purpose, this book was the hand that pulled me out of the quicksand. And the final book is the Barbarian Way by Erwin Raphael McManus. This book was the final crack in the dam of passion that was ready to break. If you are one of those people who still thinks Christianity is about hypocritical people espousing rules no man could possibly follow, then you need to read this book. Just to give you a taste, McManus says “the greatest enemy to the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity.” Yeah, that ought to raise a few eyebrows.

And so it is through the journey these books set me on that I’ve come to discover what my life’s priorities are. This may sound elementary but I’ve never been able to articulate them so clearly. And then just recently I’ve had an interesting revelation regarding service. These will be the topics of my next couple of posts… when I get around to it.

You know we all get scared sometimes
and we run
But the funny thing about problems is…
They follow you
So no matter where you go, and I know you’ve all heard this before,
But there you are

It may occur, as you stare into the night’s ethereal firmament
The weight of burdens, the vastness of the universe
All calling for your resignation
Its then you realize you don’t have to fight anymore
But fighting is all you’ve ever known

Capitulation is a foriegn avocation
An option never considered
For we are the strong survivors carrying the onus of the world
The sane crazy among the sagacious
Forever calling for more
Until the mountain rises too high

We find ourselves on that cliff, that precipice of change
Do you jump?
To stay is everything you’ve ever known
Jumping is everything new
Everything

Are you sick enough, sick enough to swallow the pill of fear?
I’m not talking about running
I’m talking about honest change
Looking deep into the heart of your being, the mirror of truth
What makes you tick?
What causes your torment?

Have you cried at that abyssmal bottom?
Wondering how you arrived
Bewildered by life’s ardent tribulation
Incessently searching for that ellusive allayment
With only tears and fears as your guide

You no longer believe your own congregation of prevarications
Guileless before the world
Naked in the misery surrounding existence
There is nothing left but to reach out
To bow your head in humble accord
…To look up

Are you willing to face those demons?
Everything you’ve ever run from?
The guilt, pain, destruction you’ve caused and caused you
To cry those flowing opalescent tears
For your lustration

How tall is the ladder of your dreams?
The magical steps to the heaven of imagination
Is it enough to die at the bottom?
Staring at it like the Mona Lisa
Never to exalt in the first step jubilation

Would you believe in your own endemic miracle?
That there is one set aside for you?
Solicit the faith
Take that first step
Stand up from the ashes of misery
You, can definately change

God take this life
This shattered man
The broken pieces
Held in Your hand

Show me to live
Your will and way
Make them plain
For me each day

Please make me strong
A warrior for You
Willing to fight
To bring the truth

Then I prayed
For love anew
God make her be
A barbarian too

Whose heart is Yours
And hears Your voice
Willing to make
The difficult choice

Then I’ll know
Her love is true
Since before there was me
She first loved You

by SHAWN McDONALD