today's meditation (Hab.1) Being a Light

(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me and give me insight as I read and study Your word, and let it be the meditation of my heart...)

(Habakkuk 1:1-17) The pronouncement which Habakkuk the prophet saw:

2   How long, Lord, have I called for help,
     And You do not hear?
     I cry out to You, “Violence!”
     Yet You do not save.
3   Why do You make me see disaster,
     And make me look at destitution?
     Yes, devastation and violence are before me;
     Strife exists and contention arises.
4   Therefore the Law is ignored,
     And justice is never upheld.
     For the wicked surround the righteous;
     Therefore justice comes out confused.

5   “Look among the nations! Watch!
     Be horrified! Be frightened speechless!
     For I am accomplishing a work in your days—
     You would not believe it even if you were told!
6   For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
     That grim and impetuous people
     Who march throughout the earth,
     To take possession of dwelling places that are not theirs.
7   They are terrifying and feared;
     Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
8   Their horses are faster than leopards,
     And quicker than wolves in the evening.
     Their horsemen charge along,
     Their horsemen come from afar;
     They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
9   All of them come for violence.
     Their horde of faces moves forward.
     They gather captives like sand.
10 They make fun of kings,
     And dignitaries are an object of laughter to them.
     They laugh at every fortress,
     Then heap up dirt and capture it.
11 Then they fly along like the wind and pass on.
     But they will be held guilty,
     They whose strength is their god.”

12 Are You not from time everlasting,
     Lord, my God, my Holy One?
     We will not die.
     You, Lord, have appointed them to deliver judgment;
     And You, O Rock, have destined them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look at evil,
     And You cannot look at harm favorably.
     Why do You look favorably 
     At those who deal treacherously?
     Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up
     Those more righteous than they?
14 Why have You made people like the fish of the sea,
     Like crawling things that have no ruler over them?
15 The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook,
     Drag them away with their net,
     And gather them together in their fishing net.
     Therefore they rejoice and are joyful.
16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net
     And burn incense to their fishing net,
     Because through these things their catch is large,
     And their food is plentiful.
17 Will they therefore empty their net,
     And continually slay nations without sparing?

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

Seeing the horrors in life, one might wonder why God allows this.  He is loving and righteous, so He will not force people to believe in Him or live in His will.  Yet He is also sovereign, so the spiritual realm and people can only do as much as God will allow.  And because God is fair and just, one day all unbelievers will be held accountable.  Yet, it is in the darkness that people will realize their need for salvation and desire to seek, find and live in the light, putting their faith and trust in the Lord.  

Part of trusting in the Lord is to wait on Him to accomplish whatever it is He has in store for each time period.  Another aspect of trusting and waiting on the Lord is to rely on Him to get us through each day in His strength, wisdom and grace.  For believers, seeing the darkness is a good reminder to continue praying and sharing the good news!  But there isn't any need to seek out the darkness, it is all around us wherever we are, and that should not be our focus anyway.  Our purpose isn't to stamp out darkness, but to pursue God's light as well ask Him to help us be that light to the rest of the world.  

today's meditation (Jer.13) Clinging to the Lord

(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me and give me insight as I read and study Your word, and let it be the meditation of my heart...)

(Jeremiah 13:1-27) This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought the undergarment in accordance with the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. 3 Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, 4 “Take the undergarment that you bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me. 6 After many days the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the undergarment which I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the undergarment was ruined, it was completely useless.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 “This is what the Lord says: ‘To the same extent I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have followed other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this undergarment which is completely useless. 11 For as the undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I made the entire household of Israel and the entire household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so that they might be My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.’

12 “Therefore you are to speak this word to them. ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “Every jug is to be filled with wine.”’ And when they say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’ 13 then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am going to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness! 14 Then I will smash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,” declares the Lord. “I will not have compassion nor be troubled nor take pity so as to keep from destroying them.”’”

15 Listen and pay attention, do not be haughty;
     For the Lord has spoken.
16 Give glory to the Lord your God 
     Before He brings darkness 
     And before your feet stumble 
     On the mountains in the dark,
     And while you are hoping for light 
     He makes it into gloom,
     And turns it into thick darkness.
17 But if you do not listen to it,
     My soul will weep in secret for such pride;
     And my eyes will shed 
     And stream down tears,
     Because the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and the queen mother,
     “Take a lowly seat,
     For your beautiful crown 
     Has come down from your head.”
19 The cities of the Negev have been locked up,
     And there is no one to open them;
     All Judah has been taken into exile,
     Wholly taken into exile.

20 “Raise your eyes and see 
     Those coming from the north.
     Where is the flock that was given you,
     Your beautiful sheep?
21 What will you say when He appoints over you—
     And you yourself had taught them—
     Former companions to be head over you?
     Will sharp pains not take hold of you 
     Like a woman in childbirth?
22 If you say in your heart,
     ‘Why have these things happened to me?’
     Because of the magnitude of your wrongdoing 
     Your skirts have been removed 
     And your heels have suffered violence.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
     Or the leopard his spots?
     Then you as well can do good 
     Who are accustomed to doing evil.
24 Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw 
     To the desert wind.
25 This is your lot, the portion measured to you 
     From Me,” declares the Lord,
     “Because you have forgotten Me 
     And trusted in falsehood.
26 So I Myself have stripped your skirts off over your face,
     So that your shame will be seen.
27 As for your adulteries and your lustful neighings,
     The outrageous sin of your prostitution 
     On the hills in the field,
     I have seen your abominations.
     Woe to you, Jerusalem!
     How long will you remain unclean?”

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

If we put our faith and trust in other people and in falsehood, then we are allowing those to be the controllers of our lives.  Should we then be surprised when things don't go well.  But if we put our faith and trust in the almighty, all-knowing Lord, as we allow Him to have control in our lives, we are included in His purpose.  He is also faithful, good and generous to work things out for us.  

The closer we draw to Him, the more we will become like Him.  And the more we allow Him to work in our lives, the more fruitful we will be, in His strength and guidance.  His purpose for Israel, as well as for any believer, is to cling to Him, for renown, for praise, and for glory.