Friday Faithfuls Two: Zephaniah

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Well, well, our little flying skim through the books of the Bible has brought us to the little book of Zephaniah, proclaiming imminent judgement against Judah and paralleling it with the distant 'day of the LORD' judgement of the whole earth.

This verse jumped out at me...

"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, 'The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.' "  - Zeph. 1:12

What struck me here is that the offense of the ones punished is...complacency. It's not raging evil.  It's just a 'ho-hum, life will go on as it has and God won't do anything' attitude.

That's not describing folks who deny God's existence, by the way.  This was God, talking about the attitude of his own people.  The ones who were to live according to his statutes and commandments.  Who had been delivered again and again in their history.  They were the ones who chose to behave as if it were all just bedtime stories for kids, go through the motions of devotion, but who didn't really believe God would do anything.  Notice...it's not those who SAID 'The LORD will do nothing...' , it's folks who THINK 'The LORD will do nothing.'

That gets down to the bone, there.

What do we really believe about God?  Do we believe that he acts, that he's involved? Or do we think he just watches?  Or forgets?  

Because if we truly believe God doesn't care,  won't act...then we give up, give in, go through the motions.

Not a good place to be.  Not at all.

Friday Faithfuls Two: Habakkuk

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Y'know, Habakkuk has to be one of my favorites.

Even if I STILL have to look at it every. single. time. to make sure I've spelled it right.

It's a short little book...only three chapters long, and begins with Habakkuk's (imagine hearing me spelling that out to myself as I type it) honest questioning of his faith...and ends with one of the most profound declarations of faith anywhere in the scripture, 3: 17-19, which I selected as the passage from this book the LAST time I did the fly-through-looking-for-the-verse-of-the-week  eleven years ago. So I can't pick that this time, lol.

But what hit me this week was a different verse anyway, God's immediate response to Habakkuk's question

"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." - Hab. 1:5, NIV84

As I read that verse, I thought about how much the whole world has changed since 2011...specifically, how it has changed since the fall of 2019, when we first heard rumors of a new illness breaking out in Wuhan.

Would we have believed, even if we were told, what events were headed our way? I'm not sure I would have...the massive quarantine I think I might have believed, but the continued supply chain issues and the crazy inflation (no political comments, please, that's not the point here) reminds me of the doom-and-gloom Y2K predictions I read back in 1999. How much of that is directly related to the epidemic vs. how much might have happened anyway is nearly impossible to tell.

But I don't know that I would have believed that we would have such confusion over gender, or such mean-spirited political and ideological division (and the mean spirit is on BOTH sides).

I could ask, like Habakkuk, "How long, O LORD...why do you tolerate wrong?  Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.  Therefore...justice is perverted..."  (from 1: 2- 4), but I think I would get the same answer.  Except...we have been told what God is going to do in the last days. 

IF this is the last days....and, with the threats before us, it certainly seems possible.  If what I have read is true, the only thing that really stands between life and death on the planet is the bee population...and they're threatened. That doesn't even take into account the threat of a pandemic more deadly than the current one, or nuclear attacks, or EMBs.

We are more fragile than we want to believe.

In Habakkuk's day, God was raising up a conquering army to execute judgment on people who had rejected him, even his own people.  He allowed the temple that housed his Name to be robbed and destroyed, which the folks of that time were certain would NEVER happen. 

But it did.

So, what is our take away?  It needs the whole book of Habakkuk...all the way through to the ringing declaration that God is faithful, even through his judgment, to those who trust him.

So hang on.

Friday Faithfuls Two: Nahum

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Nahum...the sequel to the book of Jonah, which foretells the downfall of Nineveh and, by extension, the Assyrian empire.  The respite earned by the response to Jonah's preaching has come to an end because the people have returned to their wickedness, and now there is no reprieve.

But as I read through, one verse jumped out at me as something that echoes through the centuries beyond Nineveh

Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!  Nah. 3:1

This smacks of political corruption, violence, injustice...and it really could describe any number of cities.  I mean, it's one thing to see the pronouncement of woe upon the ancient pagan city, but it's entirely another to realize that a description of Nineveh also applies to contemporary locations.  

Have we learned nothing?

For all that we have become so technologically advanced, and can peer deep into the heavens and see wonders unknown to previous generations...we still have cities that are full of lies, plunder, victims and blood.  Innocent people who suffer. 

People have not changed much over the centuries.

But...we are not without hope.

Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Nah. 1:15a

Pondering...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Tonight's sky

Here's a thought that bubbled up this evening and won't go away.  I am going to try to articulate it...

Humans are body, soul and spirit, intertwined.  It is not compartmentalized.  Any attempt to separate the spiritual from the secular will cause damage.  We wound ourselves when we spend any aspect of our lives living purely for the physical, material world and ignore the spiritual component of our everyday activity.  

Practicing one's faith only in a religious setting and setting it aside when in other environments denies its validity and starves the spiritual aspects of one's own existence.

Life is a continual spiritual practice.

I'm not sure that quite gets it but it's close.  The thought that slapped me is that we damage our soul when we deny our spirituality...whether it's our choice or it's forced upon us by others.  We are spiritual beings.  We cannot disconnect  that aspect of ourselves from any area of our lives without repercussions.  

I found myself thinking, as I often do with such things, about Genesis.  It was just such a disconnect that resulted in Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit;  Cain bringing an offering that was his idea of good enough, Lot's reluctance to leave the pagan society, even with the threat to his life and family...and his daughter's unthinkable actions to preserve the family line.

Or my own 'this one time won't matter' failures over the years in a number of areas.  

It does damage, and the damage is cumulative.

Fortunately God is a healer...if we're willing to let him restore the connections.

Friday Faithfuls Two: Micah

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi  

Micah.  A prophet in the last years of the northern kingdom of Israel, he has much to say about judgment.  But he also has much to say about restoration.  

There are a lot of nuggets to be found in Micah; and the response to almost all of them is, 'Oh, I didn't know that was in Micah!'

Have a go at it, if you've never read it all the way through.  It's only seven chapters long.

And there's a sermon in this simple verse:

He has shown you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.  -- Micah 6:8, NIV 84

So simple.  So complicated, because HE decides what is just, and we are to walk with HIM, not the other way 'round.  

Friday Faithfuls Two: Jonah

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Jonah.  If ever there was a real-world servant of God, it's Jonah.  He ran from his instructions, repented, but obeyed with a grudging, judgmental attitude, got mad at God when he felt like God made him look foolish, and then got even angrier when God took away a small blessing he had provided.

Jonah just didn't get the whole grace thing, really.  Even though God's grace was applied to HIM in the fish's belly and he was grateful for it.  I rather suspect that if Jonah hadn't repented, um, God would have allowed the natural progression to have its way and called someone up from the bench, so to speak, to take his word to Nineveh. 

But Jonah DID repent...and that's important.  There are those who take their rebellion to the grave, even at the end, angry at God who required them to do something repugnant.  Like...call him Lord and choose obedience.

But Jonah wasn't perfect even after that.  How typical is it of humans imperfectly following God...we rejoice when He delivers us, but pout when the next thing doesn't go our way.  

In my quick little skim through the short four chapters of Jonah, I picked a verse from his prayer of repentance and thanksgiving in chapter 2.  I just kept reading, though, to check off the box.

And hit another verse a bit down the page that hit me even harder.  

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.  -- Jon. 2:8

The first thing that occurred to me as I read that is...grace CAN be forfeited.  That's worth a ponder.  God's grace is available to everyone but...it can be forfeited.  Unclaimed.  

The second thing that struck me is the action that forfeits God's grace is...clinging to worthless idols.

Choosing to serve something...anything...instead of him.  Choosing to honor and worship something...anything...before him.

We have to be pretty determined in order to confront our personal idols. 

But which is better...holding on to that concept/ political stance/ status symbol/ social media followers/ etc etc etc....or letting go and receiving God's grace, which is already available and waiting?

It's your call.