A Prayer of Despair

In the Book of Habakkuk there is a prayer that seemingly could have been offered with today's headlines in mind. A prayer of despair.

"How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted." - Habukkuk 1:2-4

Doesn't that sound like a cry for the world we are living in today? The prophet goes on complaining in his prayer but then the Lord answers him with this little tease of something yet to come.

“Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." - Habakkuk 1:5

Although God was telling His prophet that He was going to be doing something back during that Old Testament time, I believe that God is also going to be doing something 'utterly amazing' in our day as well. And it's going to be happening soon. This is God speaking to Habakkuk:

"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." - Habakkuk 2:3

At the end of the book Habakkuk ultimately prays a prayer of thanksgiving. We should be praying this same prayer today as we watch the prophetic news unfold before us,  and as we wait for The Lord.

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

Charles Dickens once wrote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Today, I would like to modify those words in light of God's impending wrath on this fallen world.

"It was the worst of times, then it was the best of times."

Jesus has promised to return. He told us we would see 'signs' of His soon return. The signs are visible all around us now. Today. Can The Lord's return be far off?

The Open Door

You can't see it, but it's there. You can walk through it without moving your feet. Once passed through, you will emerge on the other side, changed. What is it?

"Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."John 10:7-10

I was talking with a young friend of mine this past week who was thinking about changing jobs. She described a series of events that led her to think that maybe this job change was something she should consider.

"Sounds like an open door to me," I replied.

"Open doors" can be scary things to step through but, if they are from God, those confident steps can also be the most rewarding.

Jesus promised us that we will have life more abundantly if we walk through HIS open door. This is NOT The Prosperity Gospel that is preached in many of our churches today - the name-it-and-claim-it gospel. No. This is an offer from the One True God - Jesus.

Notice in the text that Jesus said, "I am the door of the sheep." Jesus is not the door for all. While it is true that Jesus died once, for all (Hebrews 7:27), not everyone accepts His invitation to step through the door.

The real question is not whether we "choose" to step through open doors but rather, are we the sheep of His pasture?

Jesus then goes on to say this in John 7:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." - John 7:11

Step through the open door....and into the Shepherd's waiting arms. He gave His life to give you that opportunity.

Move your feet.

Absorb Me

There are times when I feel quite alone in this world. That's when I reach for you. You are always there by my side. You comfort me when I am afraid. You encourage me when I feel unworthy. You remind me that I am loved, seemingly saying, "Hold me, open me, absorb me."

There have been times when my eyes have become weary from examining you and I simply draw you to my chest, close my eyes and drift off to sleep. There is nothing I enjoy more than spending time with You - reading your Word.

Your Word comforts me. It truly does. I can be depressed or sad but picking up my Bible and reading certain verses always lifts me up.

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." - Psalm 119:105

"Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." - Isaiah 40:31

"May my cry come before you, LORD; give me understanding according to your word." - Psalm 119:169

Few people on earth can comfort us the way God can through His written word. Our biggest problem as a people group is that we don't spend enough time reading it. We don't make enough of an effort to apply it to our lives either.

Many times I have found myself watching the news or some movie on television and suddenly stop and ask myself, "What am I doing?"

"How is this honoring God right now?"

That's usually when I pick up the remote, turn off the world, and begin reading my Bible. It doesn't take long before I am in a better place - a different world - where God is all around me and I feel like I am home.

Maybe I'm weird. Maybe? Probably. But it just feels right when I am immersed in my reading. It's like I am becoming part of the book itself. I'm not reading myself into any of the characters in the Bible but it's like I am there with them - a witness through my reading.

So many of life's problems can be put in their place simply by knowing God's truths. They comfort us in times of trouble. They truly are a light unto our path.

Thy Word - A Mullett Family Video

Problems Sleeping?

Lately I have been having trouble sleeping through the night. Like for the last several years. Why is that? I suppose one could say that my body is changing as I get older. That's true. I AM getting older and my body seems to change almost daily. But is that it?

Something wakes me up at night. Sometimes I have to go to the bathroom, sometimes I hear the wind or the rain, sometimes it's a passing Harley coming home at 2:00AM. Some thing always seems to wake me up. And that's the problem.

Once I am awake my mind takes over and I begin to think about crazy stuff. Like last night I heard it begin to rain. I started thinking about whether it was actually rain or wind. If it was wind, did it blow the tarp off the things I have covered? Were they getting wet?

You see what I mean? So how does one get back to sleep?

Last night I opened up the Bible app on my phone so I could read in the dark. I read five chapters in the Book of John - at 1:00AM. Reading usually makes me sleepy but the chapters I was reading was mainly Jesus speaking. That proved very calming to me.

So, the next time you can't sleep try reading God's Word. Not that it's boring, it's calming. It reminds us that, even though the world seems to be falling apart around us, God is in control. He is still sitting on His throne and we are his beloved children. We shouldn't have a care in the world.

"Be still, and know that I am God." - Psalm 46:10

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." - Colossians 3:15

In His Presence - 3 Hours of Peaceful Music and Scripture

Perfection

Photo by David Thomaz

Marriage. Most of want a perfect one. And, if done right, marriage can become an amazingly beautiful and wonderful thing. If done wrong however, it can turn into an ugly, frustrating mess. To be honest, most marriages today are probably somewhere in between. That's not where they were designed to be. A marriage should really be perfection.

I am preparing to officiate at a wedding in a few weeks. At first I was going to speak on Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus from Ephesians 5 - Instructions for Christian Households. But then I heard something from the Book of Luke this past Sunday that altered my decision. It was during communion.

^"20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you." - Luke 20:22

Before we get started today, we need to define a word - covenant. This is from Merriam - Webster's Dictionary.

Covenant - a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement, a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action.

Marriage is a covenant.

Now let's go to Ephesians 5. 2000 years ago, in a culture much different from ours today,husbands and wives had different roles. Women were treated much like property, with benefits, if you will. I'd like you to read the text and then linger a bit at verse 32.

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church - ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." - Ephesians 5:21-33

Paul describes a marriage relationship the same as our relationship with Christ! As Christians, we are "the bride of Christ." Jesus is the bride groom. We are to be dressed in white, pure, radiant, without stain or blemish. Holy and blameless!

How can we possibly do that? We are all sinners. We are all stained. We ALL have blemishes. None of us are worthy.

Ah, but God . . .

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

We are made perfectly blameless through our faith in Christ - "whoever believes in Him."

The best marriages today are the once based in faith. Why? Because that's how they were designed to work. Marriage is like a triangle. The closer a married couple gets to God, the closer they automatically get to each other. Draw closer to God today and then watch what happens to your relationships. Listen to this song, and while you do, remember that "God IS love."

The Wedding Song - Paul Stookey

Oasis

We all have days that don't go the way we had hoped. Sometimes those days can string together into weeks of frustration and exhaustion. Why can't we just start over or take a break from it all? What we need is a vacation or some way to take a break from "walking through the desert." What we need is an oasis.

I've been reading through some of the more"arid" books of the Old Testament lately. Judges, First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles. Reading them is a lot like walking through a desert. That's why, when I came upon this verse in 2nd Chronicles, I paused and refreshed myself with its comforting words. I left that verse behind with a feeling of hope. See if you don't agree.

"14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14

God gives us some promises here. God's promises are good. He will hear us from heaven. That's good. He will forgive our sins. That's good too. And he will heal our land. That's amazing. Those are all good things BUT before God does those things WE have to do a few things of our own.

We have to humble ourselves, we have to pray, we have to seek God, and we have to turn from our wicked ways. That can be a tall order for most of us. Impossible for some. I think this verse is where we must ask ourselves, "Do we do all of these things that God asks of us?"

They are prerequisites for God answering our prayers.

Do we humble ourselves when we pray? Do we seek God's will when we pray or when we make our decisions? And when we sin, do we feel bad about it? Is there any repentance? Read this prayer from David and see if he exhibits a humble, repentant heart, seeking God in what he asks.

“Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. 11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 12 Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 15 We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. 16 Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you." - 1 Chronicles 29:10-16

Now, that is a prayer. David, the most powerful man of his time, is humble, as WE should be. To often my prayers are more like a laundry list of requests that I hope God would fulfill. When was the last time I asked God, "Who am I that you should send me?" or "How may I better serve you, Lord?

If God is going to heal our land (and our hearts) don't we need to do as He asks, first? If we are wandering through a desert in this life, don't we need to seek His face before He will deliver us to the oasis we so desperately need? The only prayer that God hears from a sinner is a prayer of humble repentance. THEN, and ONLY then, will He hear and heal and forgive.

What If His People Prayed - Casting Crowns

That Beautiful But

I came across a TV show the other night called "Brazilian Butt Lift." I've seen the title of the show before but I have never actually watched the show. I wonder . . . are people lifting Brazilian butts? Or are Brazilians lifting other people's butts. Hard to tell. Words can be so confusing. So can life.

Everyone has a butt, although my wife tells me I don't have one. Come to think of it, I have never actually SEEN my butt . . . BUT . . . I know I have one. I sit on it every day at work!

Logic would seem to indicate that, somewhere in the world, someone has the world's ugliest butt. I bet it's in Washington, D.C. Just a guess.

I know who has the BEST but in the entire universe. God does! It's written in the Bible! And it comes with both good news and bad news attached to it. First, the bad news.

"23 For the wages of sin is death, . . . ."

Yep, we're all sinners and the result of that sin is death. We are condemned to an eternity in hell when we stand before Jesus . . . UNLESS . . . . unless we remember the most beautiful "but" that has ever existed.

"but . . . "

There it is! The most beautiful but!!! And it's a gift from God!! Let's keep reading!

" . . .the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 6:23

If we place our faith in Jesus, we are saved from an eternal death. That's GREAT news! And we have eternal life. PLUS!!!! We all get new bodies!

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,   who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." - Philippians 3:20-21

So, who cares what your earthly butt looks like. We get a new, heavenly butt. Then, when we are walking down the Streets of Glory, we can hold our butts up high . . . if that's even possible. Then again, everyone up there will have a heavenly butt so . . . who really cares. :)

Look At My Butt - Saturday Night Live