Tag: habakkuk

  • In God We Trusted – 5

    In God We Trusted – 5

    The political ‘spin’ has been spun.

    The gradual fall is begun.

    How? lament the People…

    Why? In God we trusted.

    “Lamentations” was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) translation of the Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX), and conveys the idea of “loud cries.” The Hebrew exclamation ekah (“How,”which expresses “dismay”), used in 1:1; 2:1, and 4:1, gives the book its Hebrew title. However, the rabbis began early to call the book “loud cries” or “lamentations” (cf. Jer. 7:29).

    Lamentations 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

    5 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
    2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
    3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are like widows.

    Minor-Prophets-Timeline

     Before their cry of How? …while they were yet falling…

    Hosea 14: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
    for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
    2 Take with you words
    and return to the Lord…

    solomons jerusalem

     Micah 6:12 Your rich men are full of violence;
    your inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
    13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    making you desolate because of your sins.

    Isaiah 58: “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
    lift up your voice like a trumpet;
    declare to my people their transgression,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
    2 Yet they seek me daily
    and delight to know my ways,
    as if they were a nation that did righteousness
    and did not forsake the judgment of their God

    Zephaniah 3CapLightningNight_sm

    Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
    the oppressing city!
    2 She listens to no voice;
    she accepts no correction.
    She does not trust in the Lord;
    she does not draw near to her God.

    margaret-bourke-white-sculpted-frieze-reads-justice-the-guardian-of-liberty-at-entrance-of-the-supreme-court-building

    3 Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
    her judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing till the morning.

    iou

    Habakkuk 2: “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
    for how long?—
    and loads himself with pledges!”
    7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
    and those awake who will make you tremble?
    Then you will be spoil for them.

    Obadiah

    The Day of the Lord Is Near

    15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
    As you have done, it shall be done to you;
    your deeds shall return on your own head.

    seige of jerusalem

    Lamentations 5:15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.
    16 The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!

    19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
    20 Why do you forget us forever,
    why do you forsake us for so many days?
    21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old—
    22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

    Remember Israel? Remember Judah? Remember the Nations? Remember Rome?

    Remember Great Britain? Remember America?

    Do the Nations and Empires and Peoples remember God?

    Are we not a falling people in the hands of an angry God (as Jonathan Edwards once warned)?

    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

    Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

    Enfield, Connecticut
    July 8, 1741

    Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

    In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. — The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

    [READ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]

    Will it be blessing? Or will we reap curse?

    For once, in God we Trusted.

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 12

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 12

    A moment of silence…

    We were asked to stand as the music began once more in our surroundings of the darkened church. It seemed sadder than before.

    I looked toward a glimmer of sun breaking through a window and reflecting off the brass cross on the altar.

    I looked down at a hymnal … to a somber lyric, crying out to me:

    Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

    And with fear and trembling stand;

    Ponder nothing earthly minded, 

    For with blessing in His hand,

    Christ our God to earth descendeth
    Our full homage to demand…

    Lord of lords, in human vesture,
    In the body and the blood;
    He will give to all the faithful
    His own self for heavenly food…

    As the Light of light descendeth
    From the realms of endless day…

    ‘Is Heaven really endless day?’ I thought, as my mind wandered upward.

    That the powers of hell may vanish
    As the darkness clears away…

    At sometime during the hymn I had sunk into the pew and hung my head in shame.

    My eyes flooded with tears.

    I recalled from somewhere in my past, my hearing of Reverend Birney’s booming voice from the back of the church to begin our worship service. (I think it was from one of the Prophets.)

    THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE.

    LET ALL THE EARTH KEEP SILENCE BEFORE HIM! [Habakkuk 2:20]

    At His feet …with ceaseless voice they cry:
    Al-le-lu-u-ia–,

    Al-le-e-e-lu-ia—
    Alleluia, Lord- Most- High!

    I saw it suddenly – in a little girl’s Picture of Heaven.

    All of the hidden glory of the cross, glorified in Heaven!

    Then I realized that I was the only one brought to my knees – the only one not standing.

    I sheepishly stood once more, as eight men dressed in black began to roll the casket down the aisle beside me toward the doors at the rear of the church.

  • GOD Allows Violence

    GOD Allows Violence

     O Lord, how long shall I cry,

    And You will not hear?
    Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
    And You will not save. Habakkuk 1:2

    If God did NOT allow violence, the blood of Christ’s Cross could not have been sacrificed for our sins.

    This is a time that Muslims spend in study and prayer. Some will spend the whole night in prayer or in reciting the Qur’an.

    Lailat al Qadr is a good time to ask for forgiveness.

    Whoever establishes the prayers on the night of Qadr out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah’s rewards (not to show off) then all his past sins will be forgiven.  Hadith, Bukhari Vol 1, Book 2:34

    IF this is a time for prayer and fasting in Islam, why must God use Mosques as morgues?

    God allows violence.  Every nation is a nation of sinners.  My nation, the United States is also a nation of sinners. Every man is a sinner.  Every woman is a sinner.

    Sin against God Almighty will be judged.  Sin of false prophets will be judged.  Sin of godless religious and national leaders will be judged. Sin of godless men will be judged.

    No night or month or years of prayer can attain the forgiveness of sin.

    Only the blood of Christ shed on the Cross is sufficient before God our Father to grant the mercy we do NOT deserve – the wonderful grace of our Father God’s love.

    Does that mean we should not pray?  Of course not.  Prayer to God our Father is answered in His time.  Do not pray to idols or angels or men who are dead.  We pray by the grace of the Blood of Christ Jesus.  Our Father loves us and listens to our prayers.

    “Therefore pray for the people of Egypt.  We pray for you in the Name of Christ Jesus, who shed His Blood on the Cross also for you.