Monday, August 13

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Zephaniah 1:1

The Word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah.

Like most of the known world that owns a television, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks more or less glued to the 24/7 coverage of the Olympic Games in London. I love the Olympics butI’m amazed and somewhat concerned about my capacity to suddenly pay great attention to sports that I not only do not watch regularly, but sports about which I don’t even know the rules. I’m talking about sports like fencing, badminton, table tennis (O.K., I know the basic rules of the sport but that is NOT the same game of ping-pong I played growing up!), and gymnastics. I mean, after watching four nights of tiny but spectacularly gifted human beings cavorting about on the balance beam, uneven bars and floor exercise, I found myself saying things like, “Oh, she didn’t point her toes – that’s a deduction!”

I pay attention to the Olympics; I pay attention to athletes I don’t know and will never meet because I perceive them to be important. 

As we have worked our way through the minor prophets this summer we have learned at least one thing with great certainty: God is paying attention! He pays attention because the world he created and the people he loves are important to him! Sometimes we think of God as being distant and aloof; that he created the universe then just kind of let it go to run on its own. That’s not the God we see in books like Zephaniah. Notice the detail in the opening verse:

The Word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah.

How many of us come up with the first name of our great-great-grandfathers without help from some extended family member or from ancestry.com? Here we see that God not only has spoken to Zephaniah, whose name, by the way, means “defended by God”, but he knows his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather. You get the sense that God has been preparing Zephaniah for this moment for four generations!

We also see that God is paying attention not just to Zephaniah’s life but also to the people of Judah. Josiah was only 8 years old when his father, King Amon, was assassinated. Young Josiah inherited a kingdom that had been in spiritual decline for decades under the idolatrous reigns of both his father and grandfather (Manasseh). At the time he ascended to the throne, Judah was surrounded by hostile enemies like Assyrian king Ashurbanipal and Babylonian king Nabopalassar, and was therefore extremely vulnerable and needed strong leadership. 

Into this specific historical and spiritual situation God sends a specific prophet named Zephaniah, a man who he has been preparing for this moment for at least three generations, with a specific message for his people who are on the brink of destruction.

And so we learn in the very first verse of the book of Zephaniah that God is paying attention. This fact may seem somewhat trivial at first glance, but the truth is, nothing could be more significant! For if God is paying attention to Zephaniah’s life as well as his family tree; if God is paying attention to the people of Judah and the surrounding nations; then God is also paying attention to your life and to my life. And if God is paying attention then two things are equally true. First, we are all accountable to him for our lives and behavior; and second, he is present and available to us if we seek him.

Do you live with an awareness of God’s attentiveness? Do you know you are important to him? Do you know your life matters in the eternal scheme of things? 

Ask God by his Spirit to help you be more and more aware of his presence in, and attentiveness to, your life.

Pastor Brian Coffey

Friday, August 10

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FRIDAY

In chapter 1, Habakkuk brought his honest questions before God.  In chapter 2, God responded to those questions and now, in Chapter 3, Habakkuk replies to God with a prayer saying:

3 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.

This verse is simple and yet profound and immediately applicable.

There are two major elements to this verse: a remembrance and a request.  Habakkuk begins by recognizing all that the Lord did for Israel.  He brought them out of Egypt, He parted the Red Sea, He revealed Himself in a cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night to lead Israel, He delivered manna in the desert, took down the walls of Jericho, overcame giants in the Promised Land and He delivered His people.  Habakkuk calls on the rich history of his people and the power of God revealed in creation.  Habakkuk is essentially saying, “I know who You are and I know what You have done.”  He is looking at all of the punishment that lies in front of the People of God and the pain that has resulted and will continue because of persistent national disobedience. And yet he responds by saying, “But I remember who you are and what you have done in our past.”

This call to remember is a critical one. The immediate application of this profound recognition is that in our own lives, we too need to remember who God is and what He has done in our lives, particularly in times of trial or suffering. Often times, I can lose sight of what God has done in the past in the moments when I feel as though God is distant.  Habakkuk reminds us to take account of those times when God has been most evident in our lives, the experiences when He has felt most near, and to hold on to them when the challenges of life overwhelm us.  Your remembrance can be journal that you keep, a symbol that reminds you of a significant moment in your faith journey or even a relationship that shared in your experience.  The key is to find ways to remember because the challenge of doubt, discouragement and disillusionment that Habakkuk faces is a challenge that is common to all of us. In the midst of it, we draw hope from the knowledge of who God is and what He has done in our past.

Habakkuk continues then with a request-- he simply and confidently asks God to do it again.  Darren Whitehead writes in his book Rumors of God regarding this powerful prayer saying, “Habakkuk passionately verbalized the anguish of his time.  He had heard the rumors of God’s fame, caught rumblings of God’s deeds, but would not stop until he experienced the reality of the transcendent power of God in his life, Habakkuk started to cry out for something he had never seen before.  The cry of his heart was to see an awakening of the fame and deeds of God-- in his day, in his time, in his generation.”

May Habakkuk’s prayer be our prayer as we continue to seek the fame of our God lived out in our lives and in our homes.


Pastor Sterling Moore

Thursday, August 9

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THURSDAY

Listen to the conclusion of Habakkuk (3:17-19):

17 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.

19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to go on the heights.

One of the great challenges of the life lived in faith is the struggle between allowing our circumstances to define our concept of God or allowing our concept of God (His nature and character) to define our circumstances?

To be honest, I fear that I often times fall into the former.  When things in life appear to be ordered and falling into my understanding of what seems right, then I am able to think of God in terms of His sovereignty and His goodness without hinderance.  My concept or view of God then becomes intrinsically tied to whether or not I believe that things in life are going well for me.  This ultimately creates a very shallow view of God and, for all practical purposes, places me and my understanding of what is happening in the world  around me as the determining factor on who God is.  If left to our own devices, I believe that this naturally where we tend to go....if life is good, then God is good.  If life stinks....then our understanding of God begins to deteriorate and our view of Him is diminished.

This brings us to Habakkuk’s conclusion.  For Habakkuk quite the opposite is true.  It is clear that the conditions that surround Him are not good (vs 17) and yet his response or his conclusion is one of rejoicing because as he writes in verse 18, “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”  For Habakkuk, God is God and he is attempting to view his circumstances and the world around him in light of who God is.

This passage has become very significant for my family.  Since the passing of my Dad 20 months ago, I have probably heard mom recite these verses to herself a couple of dozen times. I never stopped to really process why she returned to this passage so often during the battle that is brought on by grief.   However, now in the context of Habakkuk’s whole message, I see why Mom has focused here.  The loss of her husband of 40 years has brought on a lot of questions, it has for all of us, but in the midst of that she returns to Habakkuk chapter 3, not necessary for comfort (although that can be found in these words) but rather for a reminder, that despite the upheaval in the world around her, her God remains God.  For that reason, she can, we all can, say with confidence that:

17 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.

19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to go on the heights.


Pastor Sterling Moore

Wednesday, August 8

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WEDNESDAY

We have all been in situations where things have gone from bad to worse-- where we have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This is exactly the situation that Habakkuk finds himself in.

Throughout the writing of the minor prophets, Judah had continued in the process of spiritual decay.  Foolish and unwise kings had lead the people into idolatry and the people ignored (for the most part) the message of the prophets.  This all changed when Josiah became King.  Josiah led his people into a season of reform.  He repented on behalf of Judah and called on the people to do that same.  Once again the nation was living in right relationship with Yahweh and their covenant relationship was being restored.  Things were finally going well in Judah, or at least better than they had been.  Then things began to change. Josiah died in a battle against the Egyptian army and the King of Egypt placed Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz as King.  Jehoahaz brought Judah back to the worship of  idols and to make matters worse, Necho II (the King of Egypt) returned to Judah, removed Jehoahaz and replaced him with his brother, Jehoiakim, who was a real piece of work.  Jehoiakim would lead the people of Judah away from God and into their own destruction.

This is the context in which Habakkuk is speaking.  He has seen the decay in the people of Judah from the time that Josiah reigned as king.  The people were on the verge of revival and Habakkuk watched it all unravel. He saw the people of God return to the mistakes of their fathers and grandfathers.  This is how the book begins; Habakkuk is crying out to God and asking Him to intervene.

Listen to how God responds, (Habakkuk 1:5-11):

5 “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.

6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
    that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
    to seize dwelling places not their own.

7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
    they are a law to themselves
    and promote their own honor.

8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
    their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like a vulture swooping to devour;

9 they all come bent on violence.
Their hordes[b] advance like a desert wind
    and gather prisoners like sand.

10 They deride kings
    and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
    they build earthen ramps and capture them.

11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
    guilty men, whose own strength is their god.”

What? The Babylonians? That is the answer to Habakkuk’s call for intervention in Judah?  The Babylonians were ruthless and brutal people who heaped death and destruction on nearly everyone that crossed their paths.  Habakkuk essentially says, “Your going to deal with the disobedience of Israel by ushering in a nation that is even worse off than we are?”  Things have literally gone from bad to worse.

One of the central questions that Habakkuk asks is why? Why would God use a people as brutal and unjust as the Babylonians to accomplish his purposes in Judah?

The message of Habakkuk’s proclamation is that God’s primary purpose is to restore His people to right relationship with Himself, by any means necessary.  God makes it clear to Habakkuk that the Babylonians would eventually be held accountable for their brutality and cruelty, but in the meantime, they would be the very instrument that God would use to call His people to return to Himself.  I love how God describes this in verse 5 saying, “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.”

This is not to say that every pain, struggle, injustice and challenge that we experience is the result of some disobedience in our lives.  Scripture is clear that we encounter these things for a variety of reasons and often times we might not know in the midst of it.  However, what Habakkuk does make clear, is the degree to which God will go in order to pursue us.  It is a measure of His love... even if it requires using the most unlikely of means.


Pastor Sterling Moore

Tuesday, August 7

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TUESDAY

Do you remember the days of dial-up internet?  Your computer would make all sorts of strange noises and eventually, if you waited long enough, a bar would appear on the screen that would slowly fill-up as you came closer and closer to actually having access to the internet.  At the time, because it was all we knew, it seemed OK but now few of us  can imagine waiting that long to merely check our email.  We live in a society of the here and now, with instant access to nearly any information that we might want, overnight shipping and microwave meals.  Waiting is not something that we typically have a lot of patience for in our culture.

This can be challenging when we consider the fact that we serve an eternal God who does operate on our schedule.

Read Habakkuk 1:12- 2:1-

12 O Lord, are you not from everlasting?
    My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O Lord, you have appointed them to execute judgment;
    O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.

13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
    you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate(H) the treacherous?
    Why are you silent while the wicked
    swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

14 You have made men like fish in the sea,
    like sea creatures that have no ruler.

15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
    he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
    and so he rejoices and is glad.

16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
    and enjoys the choicest food.

17 Is he to keep on emptying his net,
    destroying nations without mercy?

2:1 I will stand at my watch
    and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
    and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

Habakkuk offers his argument before God (for the second time in the first chapter) and says, “I will stand at my watch, and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”  Simply put, Habakkuk waits.

That simple response of Habakkuk stood out to me.  As I processed this passage of Scripture, it occurred to me that waiting on God is a spiritual discipline that needs to be developed within my life and perhaps within the church today.  As I read, I began to wonder how many prayers I have offered before God and yet haven’t had the patience to wait on the Lord’s response.  I wonder how many answered prayers I have failed to even notice because at the point in time when the answer came, I had already forgotten that I had asked.  What I have come to notice is that I want my relationship with God to be on my terms.  I want it be something like an ATM transaction; I punch in the right numbers and then the machine spits out what I need.  However, there is nothing about that concept of God that fits with the true nature and character of God.  God is eternal and as such, sees things from an eternal perspective.  As a finite being, I cannot fully grasp the implications of worshipping an eternal God. However of this I am certain, there will be times for you and I that will require us to wait.

The waiting is not just a matter of aligning our schedule with God’s. Many times the work that God seeks to accomplish in us and through us takes place in the waiting.  Sometimes the waiting is the answer.  It is in the the waiting that we begin to develop a dependency on God that we would otherwise find ourselves lacking.  Consider how God responds to Habakkuk in the waiting (2:2):

“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.”

Now lets begin the process of hurrying up and waiting.

Pastor Sterling Moore

Monday, August 6

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MONDAY

Do you ever remember your father telling you, “don’t talk to your mother that way”?  I do.  Dad was careful to always maintain a certain degree of respect and gratitude in regards to how my brothers and I spoke to and treated mom.

I think that often times, in a similar fashion, we can learn to approach God in much the same way.  We feel as though there are certain things that we don’t say to God.  There is a proper way to pray, proper words to use, and even if that method and those words fall far short of the reality taking place in our hearts, we routinely use them anyway.  This is a part of what I love about the Prophet Habakkuk: he breaks the rules in an effort to be honest.

Consider Habakkuk 1: 2-4

Habakkuk's Complaint

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

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

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
    so that justice is perverted.

In short, Habakkuk does not like the way that God is running things.  He is saying to God, “What are you doing, God?  This makes no sense.”  There is a great deal about the history and context surrounding Habakkuk that shed a little light on this passage and helps us to understand why he is so disappointed with God. However, for our purposes here this morning, I want to merely consider the way Habakkuk talks with God-- uninhibited honesty in the face of pain, disappointment and disillusionment.

I love this about Habakkuk.  I love his honesty and his willingness to speak the words before God that his heart is already saying.  Habakkuk is hurt, confused and frustrated and he wants God to know the condition of his heart rather than maintaining proper decorum, going through the motions and pretending to be OK.  Habakkuk can no longer do that; he can no longer face the circumstances that surround him and remain silent before his God.

I think that Habakkuk understood something about God that I often times forget: simply that God is already aware of my fears, failures and frustrations, so I can feel a freedom to be honest about them with Him.  The thoughts and feelings Habakkuk was expressing were not surprising to God.  I am not sure where or how I learned “not to talk to God that way” but somehow that is engrained in us at an early age.  The problem is that our failure to be honest with God (and subsequently with each other) produces an artificial and paralyzed faith that hinders our connections within the community of the body of Christ and prohibits the development spiritual maturity in our lives.  Honesty and transparency with God is not for God’s benefit, it’s for ours. In the context of a loving relationship with our Savior, you have the freedom to speak your heart to the One that can truly handle it.

Conclude your time this morning with this Psalm (13) of David and his honest expression before our God:

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and every day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the Lord,
    for he has been good to me.

Pastor Sterling Moore

Friday, August 3

This week Pastor Ali Kalkandelen from Turkey will be guest-blogging on 10 Minutes with God. There will be no audio this week, but we please enjoy Pastor Kalkandelen's posts!

Friday

REPENTANCE MEANS SUBMITTING GOD FULLY
Repentance is also a journey of transformation that requires complete surrounding, submission to God. Submission is “act of referring to a third party for judgment or decision” says a dictionary. It is act or fact of obeying.”

The Satan’s biggest and the most important plan was to convince Adam and Eve that they can have their own Kingdom. They can become their own gods. They can know, and they do not need God. Therefore, they don’t need to submit to God. However, when they believed Satan and acted on what he told them they destroyed their lives.

Submission can be very sensitive act for many. People submit others and they get hurt. Authorities over us, like our parents and teachers can hurt us because they carry an EGO or a self in them that seeks for satisfaction by power, achievement, control. And It results becoming a rebel against higher authorities, even rebelling against God. However God does not have an EGO that seeks for power, or achievement or control. He doesn’t need those because He already has a power that greater than any other power, He achieved things that nothing can achieve; and He has control over everything no one can take over. His ultimate reason is not His EGO but His love, his care. And his love is pure and divine yet humble, His discipline is powerful yet delicate, His control is mighty yet sensitive; His orders are ultimate yet caring.

Submission is complete surrounding of the self to God; living under his rulers and standards. Submission to Him is not 10%, 50% or even not 90%, but 100%. It’s 7/24 thing. Paul talks about himself and says “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

Submitting God is not bad, not bad at all. He is not like our parents or other people that abused our trust, our weaknesses, and our vulnerability. Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust Him.”

Fully submitting to God is not easy. People will make fun of you. They will say you are narrow minded. They will reject you, won’t become a friend with you. Jesus says “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.” Mat 5:11

So, therefore brothers and sisters let us not look at the world and compromise but trust in Him. Let us be obedient to His word.

“Have you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint; and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but those who wait for God shall renew their strength; they shall month up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31).


Pastor Ali Kalkandelen