Friday slowdown

We can all testify to the working of God in our lives. Let each of us be a testimony, a witness for Him. Let's give Him the glory! 

Anybody here want to testify?

That's an old and familiar question in the country churches here in the southland. There's singing, and then there's time for testifying. 

It's nothing major. Nothing formal. Just a chance to speak and tell about how God has worked in one's life. To give Him the glory.  Others call it giving a testimony.

We'll see Habakkuk's testimony in the final verses of chapter three.

In verse sixteen he voices his acceptance of God's plan:

I heard and my heart pounded,
    my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
    and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
    to come on the nation invading us. (v. 16)

Habakkuk is being honest: he is dreading the coming of the Babylonians. But he also says, "I get it." The Babylonians are going to attack us. Then you will destroy them, God. Now, he probably did not live long enough to see the fall of the Babylonian nation. They won't fall for almost seventy years. But Habakkuk gets the message.

Then, in verses seventeen through eighteen, Habakkuk says he is committed to the plan.

Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior. (v. 17-18)

Rejoice? Give a testimony about God's handiwork?

How is this possible? 

Habakkuk has described what we might call a recession, or even a depression . . . a total economic meltdown. Ancient Israel had an agricultural economy. If you ran out of figs, olives, grapes, sheep, and cattle, you were in deep trouble. There was no factory to go get a job at. No manufacturing to lean on. And this was not a random list, either. This was a total list of assets!

What would we do if we were wiped out?

What would we do if the stock market tanked? Our savings were erased? Our retirement drained? What kind of a future would we be seeing?

What about the present? What if we lost our jobs, our ability to pay bills, our food pantries emptied? What if our kids were jailed? Our spouse was considered "terminal"? Our country began to throw Christians in jail?

Could we still say, "Yes, Lord" when all of that happened?

There are many believers today who serve a God of the good times. They sing praises and pray and hold up their hands and love Him when all is going well. But what do we do when hard times come? If all we have is a God of the good times, we don't really have the God of the Bible.

(Tapping on screen)

Hey! That was important!  Did you hear? If all we have is a God of the good times, we don't really have the God of the Bible.

Sometimes the fig tree doesn't bud, and there are absolutely no grapes on the vines. Sometimes the olive crop fails and there are no crops in the fields; sometimes there are no herds or flocks. Sometimes we have no job, or we have no food in the pantry, or we have lost our good health.

What do we do then?

Well, we can get angry with God. Or we can even give up on God altogether.

Or we can choose to believe in God anyway. You see, faith is not based on feelings. Faith isn't about our circumstances. Faith says "I still believe in God" when it would be much easier to stop believing.

Habakkuk says "I will wait patiently" and he also says "I will rejoice." Habakkuk found new strength in the midst of desolation.

The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. (v. 19)

Those words "my feet" talks about our journey - our pathway through life. Scholars say that the "hind" referred to here is a species of deer that is extremely sure-footed in the barren hills of what we now call the Holy Land. We could be walking along the path in those hills, and we would probably slide and slip and fall. The hind? Not so much. He can frolic about in the hills and still keep his footing! 

Application? If we know the Lord, He will give us stability in the slippery moments of life. We can have His gift of grace to stand, instead of falling down or falling apart. 

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. (I Peter 5:8-10)

I hope you have been blessed by the study we have done in Habakkuk. Personally, it has been so helpful for me. I've learned a lot and been reminded of much more! As we come to the end of the book, nothing has changed on the outside situation. The people of Judah are still galumphing along, forgetting God. Violence and wickedness still is rampant in Jerusalem. And the Babylonians are still going to come as God's instrument for judgment. There are hard times coming and there is nothing that anybody can do about it!

What's changed is Habakkuk. On the inside.

We are all different, right? Some of us are happy, and some are sad. Some of us are healthy, and others are sick. Some are looking at the future with excitement, and some are looking at it with dread.

But one thing is the same -- if we are believers, and God is our Savior, we can still tread on the heights in the worst moments of life. We can stand and be sure-footed while others are falling around us. 

We can take the message of Habakkuk and put it in our back pocket. If we are not treading the valley right now, we may need it tomorrow or the day after.

We may glibly say that Jesus is all we need. But we'll never KNOW that, until Jesus is all we have. And when He is all we have, we will truly understand that He is all we really need.

And we can testify!

Praise Him!  

Amen!

He did it before . . .

 

He can do it again!

After his prayer in the first few verses, Habakkuk has a vision of God.  God revealed Himself to the prophet in something like a dream or a vision.

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. 

 His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden. 

 Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps. 

 He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed— but he marches on forever. 

 I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. 

 Were you angry with the rivers, LORD? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory? 

 You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; 

 the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. 

 Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. 

 In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations. 

 You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. 

 With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. 

 You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters. (Habakkuk 3:3-15)

These are very poetic verses; they fill our minds with imagery. The point, though, is crystal clear: Habakkuk has asked God to "do something." And God gives this vision to say, "Have you forgotten Who I am? Have you forgotten what I have done before? You are talking as if I have no power, and as if I can't hear you. Let me remind you of who I am, because when I'm done, you will be able to sleep at night. You will have peace, child."

In these verses, the story is retold of how God repeatedly worked miracles preparing for the exodus from Egypt, protecting the people as they crossed the sea and conquered the Promised Land. By recounting all of these, God is reminding Habakkuk of what He has done for His people in the past. 
If He did it before, He can do it again.

Any time He wants to.

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. (Jeremiah 32:17)

I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

Do we wonder sometimes if God can do it again in our modern world? Yes! He is God! He can intervene any time He wants to.

Check out the action words in verses thirteen through fifteen - the ones that focus on the defeat of Pharaoh at the Red Sea . . . You came. You crushed. You stripped. You pierced. You trampled. God is mighty, and He gets all the credit! Those who oppose Him will be utterly defeated. And those who trust in Him will be delivered.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles. (Psalm 34:17)

I think these verses are here to remind us that we have a God that is big enough for all of our problems. Even our modern problems. If we have a God that's big enough, we won't worry as much. If we know we have a God that's big enough, we'll be less tempted to compromise our convictions. If we know our God is big enough, we will be stronger in moments of crisis.

After all, He did it before.

He can do it again!

Don't fight God's plan

Praying for the light at the end of the tunnel.

That's where Habakkuk finds himself in chapter three.

LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2)

Habakkuk knows that calamity is coming. He knows that soon Judah will come out of the tunnel of sin that they've been slogging along in, and God's power will be seen. A loose paraphrase of the start of this prayer would be that Habakkuk is saying, I've heard and read about your power and might, Lord. I know that bad times are coming -- and I accept that.

He isn't fighting God's plan.

But he is asking for mercy in the midst of judgment. "Don't let the Babylonians wipe us out!"

He asks the Lord to be merciful in the midst of His wrath.

And ya know what? 
That is a perfectly biblical prayer. He's being honest (and desperate).

Hannah was a desperate woman who prayed.

    those who oppose the Lord will be broken.
The Most High will thunder from heaven;
    the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

“He will give strength to his king
    and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (I Samuel 2:10)

Hannah also prayed about nations and judgment; an honest prayer that reminds all who read it of the might of the Lord.

In I Kings, chapter 8, Solomon prays an honest prayer about God's mercy in the midst of judgment:

Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. (I Kings 8:30)

In Isaiah 6, the prophet prays and asks the Lord "how long" His judgment will last. All of these are honest prayers. They are the kind of prayers that God will answer.

I hope that you have already read the third chapter of Habakkuk. Did you notice that he asks God to do in his day what He had done in the past? Twice he asks, "do it .....in our time."

This can be the prayer of every believer in this moment of our history. It seems that each day brings more stories of persecution of Christians, Isis' reign of terror as they behead believers, teachers, whoever will not bow the knee to them. No one seems to know how to stop these people who kill in the name of Islam. We truly live in dangerous times, and we read Habakkuk's prayer in the same sort of environment as the one in which he uttered it. 

Many Christians realize the danger; they ask what they can do. Some tell us that we are on the brink of a great revival. I hope so! When we read about the Great Awakenings, the 1904 revival that spread around the world, we realize that they came about in times of danger. Times when people were desperate for God to change things.

Some people may say revival like those is not possible today.

I can understand people thinking that way. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the world situation and give in to doubt. But revivals do usually come in desperate times. God moves in power and might when things are dire and His people pray.  Revival is like our faith -- it comes from God. He can send revival fire from His throne in heaven any time He wants. Believers like us can put the kindling in place!

We must be certain that we are ready, too. There is an old Chinese prayer that says: "O Lord, change the world. Begin, I pray, with me."

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, (Acts 3:19)

Our greatest challenge may be the person looking back at us in the mirror. Let's not fight God's plan. Let's pray and ready ourselves for revival. 

How to change from the inside

 

We've all known people who are certain they know when the end times are coming. Some even know the date the world as we know it will end. The stereotype of the man pacing up and down the sidewalk wearing a sign "the world will end" or "the end times are here" is familiar to all of us.

Some religious groups purport to know when Christ will return. They nail it to a date and say they are sure it will happen. They look around, as you and I do, and see evil, immorality, and unbelievable wickedness in our world.

I agree. I expect we can all agree. Evil is running rampant in our world. This earth is in trouble. Jesus must be glorified in our lives. There's a desperate need for all believers to pray for fresh infilling each day from the Spirit, so that we can reach out to others before it is too late.

Before it's too late. 

Sounds ominous, no? But it's very real. We must pray for God's mercy while we can. Judgment is coming, according to what we read in our Bible.  

We humans have phrases for this: when the chickens come home to roost, or maybe when the skeletons are out of the closet, even a much older one: when it's time to pay the piper. All of these phrases point to the fact that sooner or later, we all will have to face the consequences of the choices that we have made. 

And that's true for nations, too, just as it is for individuals. 

One can't mock God forever.

Cannot ignore Him.

Can't pretend He's not there.

Can't just do as you please without inviting judgment from God.

And as we look around us, most people seem to be doing just what they please. Most countries, too.

That sounds a lot like when Habakkuk looked around himself, too.  He saw wickedness and trouble everywhere.

God had told him, "Judgment is coming, Habakkuk!"

Now he understands what God means. That's why, when we come to chapter three, things change a bit. We started out with confusion and fear. But now Habakkuk has clarity; he understands and he is full of faith in God.

Now, nothing has changed on the outside yet.

The wickedness and trouble are still around!

It's the inside that's changed - the inside of Habakkuk. He has moved from worry and fear to a place of confidence, joy, and praise. How did this happen?  The people around him are still mocking God. There's still violence in the streets. The Babylonians still have a future date with Jerusalem. Just looking on the outside, everything seems to be just as messed up as it was in the beginning!

We'll find out this week how Habakkuk changed on the inside. Chapter three will tell us about his spiritual journey - and it can influence our journey, too. 

Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Friday

An encouraging hymn for those of us in the valley . . .

Praise the Lord!

See you next week!

He's gonna cut those Babylonians down . . .

Let's look at the remainder of chapter two in Habakkuk, and see what God says about the Babylonians. They would end up being the tool used to judge the nation of Judah for their sins . . . .

“Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’ Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey. (v. 6-7)

Wowser!

That describes the Babylonians "to a T." Piling up stolen goods . . . . when they took a city, they plundered its silver and gold. They took the crops, the flocks, the beasts of burden and the cattle, and they carried off anything else they could find that had value. 

Including people.

They grew rich from the misery of others. 

But look at that - God promised a day of judgment. He said the Babylonians would become the prey of others! And He said other people would plunder the Babylonians, just as they themselves had plundered cities and nations. 

Because you have plundered many nations,
    the peoples who are left will plunder you. (v 8a)

They had gotten away with their meanness for a long time; nobody dared to stand against them. But God saw it all, and He said in due time, they would pay.

Not just their greed and extortion would be judged, but God also promised to judge their arrogance. Remember in chapter one, God said that their own strength was their god? He also said this, in chapter two:

“Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
    setting his nest on high
    to escape the clutches of ruin!
10 11 The stones of the wall will cry out,
    and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. (v. 9, 11)

"Setting his nest on high" is a reference to the walls of Babylon, the scholars say. In some places, the walls were 100 feet high! They stretched about forty miles around the city, so the Babylonians thought they were impervious to attack. "No army can breach our fortifications!" they thought. But check out verse eleven up there. The walls will speak? Yup. Remember that many years later, the last king of Babylon, Belshazzar, was having a drunken feast? Remember that a finger wrote upon the wall, and Daniel translated it for him: Babylon had been weighed in the scales of justice. The king died that very night and the kingdom collapsed.

God also is angry over wanton bloodshed, and oh boy, were the Babylonians guilty of that! 

“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed    and establishes a town by injustice!
13 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea. (v. 12, 14)

God hates those who build an empire on bloodshed. Obviously, this applied to the Babylonians who used military might to conquer the weak and the defenseless. But doesn't it also apply to our nation? We allow the murder of our unborn . . . millions of babies killed through legal abortion since a fateful day in 1973. Surely this "woe" applies as much to us as to the Babylonians of ancient times.

But God then (verse 14) gives us a glimpse of the world as it will be. 
When Jesus comes back.

Yes, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

Not the knowledge of arrogance and greed.

Not the knowledge of bloodshed and injustice.

God is planning on filling the whole earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord - covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. 
The same earth that had no room for the Son of God. The same earth that rejected Him. 

One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

We're not there yet, but it's coming!

Back in chapter two, we read another "woe" against those who practice immorality and pursue pornography. 

“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors,
    pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
    so that he can gaze on their naked bodies! (v. 15)

This is pretty graphic. Indelicate. It's meant to be. Because God totally condemns those who use alcohol as a tool for seduction, for immoral purposes. It's a given that under the influence of alcohol, people say and do things they normally wouldn't think of. And God promises judgment to those who entice others to drink, so that they will lower their standards and throw their moral compass out the window. The very next verse says that "what goes around comes around:"

You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed! The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. (v. 16)

Babylon was known for using alcohol for illicit purposes, and that is one reason God cut them down.

The final "woe" was because of Babylon's idolatry.

Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it." (v. 19)

This is talking about the foolishness of idolatry. There's no life in stone. Or in carved wood. A person can pray to all the rocks they want to, even work themselves into a frenzy like the priests of Baal in competition with Elijah . . . . but it will do no good. The idol, whether stone or wood or any other material, can't hear. Can't answer. Can't help. Let's cut to the chase: it's a waste of time.

God has a long list against the Babylonians, doesn't He? He ends with this:

The Lord is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth be silent before him. (v. 20)

The commentaries that I read said that the verb there, "be silent," really means something similar to "hush!"  Seems like God said "hush" in two ways: first, to the nations clamoring and fighting and carrying on. He tells them to hush because He is just about ready to judge the earth. 

Second, it seems He says "hush" to Habakkuk . . . . Habakkuk, do you understand now? I am going to raise up Babylon to judge Judah. And then I will judge Babylon in my own timing and in my own way. So hush, stop complaining, and believe my answer. Have faith, my child.

I like to think that Habakkuk did quiet down and wait. 

Watch what came to pass: in 605 BC, Babylon looked invulnerable. But less than a century later, that empire had disappeared!

Babylon looked really good in all its glory. But then it was gone.

We hear the expression sometimes: "on the wrong side of history." As our culture changes and becomes more decadent, more immoral, it's hard to hold fast against the tide. No one wants to be seen as a bigot, or intolerant. No one wants to be thought of as narrow-minded, or be singled out for ridicule. No one wants to be on the wrong side of history. But (and this is important) the right side of history is ALWAYS God's side. If we line up with the cultural forces of today, we'll find ourselves out of step with God. 

Yes, choices have consequences.

We can side with Babylon, or we can side with God. Remember the old hymn, This is My Father's World?  It says "though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet."

God asks each one of us, "Will you wait for me? Have faith that I will answer?"

Have you made your choice?

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Read the instructions

Recently, as we were trying to repair something in our home, I was reminded that it's an awfully good idea to read the instructions. (Grin) Especially if those instructions were written (or videoed) by the maker of the device. 

As we continue to look at chapter two, Habakkuk is a man who has decided to wait for an answer. And God, the One providing the answer, has some instructions for Habakkuk. 

Let's look at some verses and then dig in!

Then the Lord replied:“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. (Habakkuk 2:2)

God gives Habakkuk three instructions: write something down, wait for a revelation, and remember the just live by faith . . . .

God wanted His message to be clear.

And plain. 

He didn't want it to be written down and squirreled away where no one could read it. He didn't want it to be consigned to the dusty tomes of history and legend. I guess today He might have expected Habakkuk to use social media -- because He wanted no secrets. This was not a coded message. It's a message for the whole nation and it needed to be large letters and clear language . . . . so that anyone could read it at a glance and rush to tell everyone they knew. Like a message from a king, that a herald was entrusted with - he would run and let nothing stop him, until he had delivered the message.

Next, God told Habakkuk to wait for the revelation. 
To wait for this prophecy to be fulfilled.

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.  (v. 3)

To us, impatient mortals that we are, it may seem sometimes that God is slow. But that's just our perspective. God is never late. He never, ever delays things in order to cause us pain. 

Sometimes when we are praying for something really big, it seems like we wait forever for an answer from the Lord. Like when we are preparing that pot of water for the spaghetti noodles, we wait and wait and wait to see the bubbles form and then the water to boil. (Grin)

Sometimes when we are super concerned about something, and perhaps praying for discernment and God's will, we finally give up. Days later, we are still half-heartedly mentioning it in our prayers, but if we are honest, we are pretty much in despair. 

Suddenly, the answer comes.

Why? I kinda think that maybe not every time, but sometimes God times His answer just so that we can't later say, "Yes, it was my faith that made the difference." He answers in His own time. He also answers in His own way.

So instead of feeling like we did something -- we say, "To God be the glory!"

God is telling his prophet that it won't happen today. Nor tomorrow. But the answer is on the way, so hold on tight. Wait for it.

God even says, "It will certainly come." The Babylonians, wicked as they are, will be judged and destroyed. God is going to balance the scales of justice, but He doesn't have to work on our timetable! He may even seem to linger, but He doesn't delay. That's something we must remember the next time we are praying and we feel like giving up.

The last thing that God instructed Habakkuk to do was to remember that He, God, would cut Babylon down. In verse four, we found the central verse that said the righteous shall live by faith - the whole rest of the chapter is God describing how the scales of justice will be balanced! 

Johnny Cash wrote a song near the end of his life, and I heard a rendition by Elvis Presley; the song was called "God's Gonna Cut You Down."

Here are some of the words:

         

                      "You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, sooner or later

                       God'll cut you down."

God one day will cut Babylon down, and He wants Habakkuk to remember that. The mighty empire will be brought down and destroyed. God will speak in the rest of the chapter - we'll study that tomorrow.

Prayer requests

Today is the day.

As you read this post my best friend, my hubby, will be undergoing his cancer surgery, and I will be waiting and praying. We both appreciate the prayers that have gone up in his behalf lately. Today we'll be asking specifically for the surgeon to be able to get all of the cancer this first time. It would be such a tremendous blessing if a second surgery was not necessary!

Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,

for you are the one I praise. (Jeremiah 17:14) 

We are hoping for healing, and for the arrest of the disease. If it's His will, then this first surgery will do what's needed, and no cancer cells will be seen in the pathology. If not, a second procedure will be needed to stop the cancer.

I know that our prayers for specific requests -- things that are in His will, things that bring Him glory -- are things the Lord loves to hear. I know that He answered our prayers when we asked specifically for the right surgeon to say certain things to us, so we'd know for sure. In faith we asked, and in joy we received. We are so grateful to have more peace about our choice, and about the surgery.

Just as Jeremiah said, if the Lord heals, we will be healed indeed! He has saved us from the disease of sin. He redeems even the bad things, the horrific things, the hard things, and uses them for His glory. We've asked specifically, too, for Him to show us what He would have us learn in this trial. And if it's part of His plan that we can help others who travel this road, what a joy!

Thank you all. 

If you have a prayer request today, won't you leave a comment so we can pray with you?

Choices have consequences

 

Choices really matter. 

Yeah, I'm not talking about whether to have vanilla ice cream or strawberry. We're getting closer if we are talking about whether to eat ice cream or a couple of apple slices. (Grin)  All of life is shaped by the choices we make. Our choices have consequences.

All through our Bible, we see that our choices matter, because again and again we are exhorted to choose carefully. Moses told the people:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, (Deuteronomy 30:19, NASB)

Moses mentored Joshua, and Joshua was a great leader of the people. He was quite old when he told them:

"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

Many years later, the prophet Elijah stood on a mountain top and said to the people:

Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word. (I Kings 18:21)

David and Solomon both told us the end result of poor choices:

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

Our Savior put it this way:

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)

Our choices are perhaps the most important when hard times come. Why? Because when trouble comes, you find out pretty quickly what you truly believe. Our buddy Habakkuk is there right now. Maybe some of us are there right now, too. We are dealing with trials and we are finding out what we really believe.

If you remember, our little "bird's eye view" summary of Habakkuk was that it's a recording of a conversation. Habakkuk and God are talking.  In chapter one, they speak to each other. In chapter two, it's mostly God answering Habakkuk. And in chapter three, Habakkuk talks to God again.

I'd like to ask that we all re-read chapter two. We'll be reminded of Habakkuk's decision to wait and to watch for God's answer. 

This week we will study God's response.

Friday slowdown

 

The just shall live by faith, conclusion

One of my favorite old hymns is one that is probably familiar to all of you, as well

Only trust Him, only trust Him
Only trust Him now
He will save you, He will save you 
He will save you now

It sums up what we have been studying this week very well. Jesus is the only One Whom we can trust to save us.

Anyone, anywhere, at any time, can trust Him and be saved. That is the good news of the gospel. Short and sweet. 

If anyone reading here today has not trusted Him for salvation, please don't close out this screen. Please read and ponder these verses . . . 

 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

This is a costly gift; it cost God His Son. He died on the cross for my sins and yours.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

As we have said this week, what we could not do for ourselves, God did for us through Jesus' death and resurrection. He provides the full payment for our sins. He gifts us with righteousness.

The only thing left to do is to accept that gift.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Please take these words to heart. Run to the cross and turn from your sin. Lay down your self-will and reach for the hand of the Son of God. He will not turn you away. 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, (John 1:12)

Please be sure to let me know if you want to know more about how to be saved. Or if you prefer, look on the right hand side of the blog and click on the tab with information on salvation.

It all goes back to these words: "The righteous will live by faith."
It was true over two thousand years ago, when God spoke to Habakkuk.

And it's still true today!