“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.” (ESV – Read the book)
This will be a longer comment, but it’s going to cover the whole book. Habakkuk is one of my favorite books in the Bible (and not just because it’s really fun to say!). It is definitely my favorite among the minor prophets. I am drawn to it because it asks a question that people still ask today, and offers an answer that while not immediately satisfying (in fact, initially, it is deeply unsatisfying), after some reflection leads us into a greater peace and faith than we had before. Read the rest…
“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This is one of the great promises of God in the Old Testament. Apart from Christ, people lack both the will and the ability to pursue a relationship with God. It’s not just that we want to, but can’t, or even that we are able, but don’t really want it. We couldn’t do it even if our heart desired it. Read the rest…
“Then he said to me, ‘The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, “The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.”‘” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Ezekiel was prophesying during a hard season in the life of the people of Israel. The good and faithful King Josiah had instituted incredible moral and spiritual reforms among the people. But after his death, the people went right back to the paganism they had pursued before him. This proved to be the final straw. God sent Babylon to enact His judgment against the people. Read the rest…
“And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, ‘Say, Thus says the Lord: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Ezekiel is announcing some pretty grim judgment here, but I just want to give a bit of attention to the end of this verse. “For I know the things that come into your mind.” You probably already knew or guessed this about God, but here it is explicitly stated. God knows what’s going on inside your mind. Read the rest…
In this second part of our series, Reason to Believe, we take some time to examine the primary source for our knowledge of the truth: The Scriptures. The Bible is a tough book made even tougher by the things it says. Yet, making a full and comprehensive case for its reliability and trustworthiness is well beyond the scope of a single sermon. In what follows we examine the problem together, talk about what we do believe as followers of Jesus, and build a small case for the reliability of the Gospels. If we can prove those are trustworthy, making the case for the rest of it becomes all the easier. Keep reading for more and stay tuned for next week as we wrestle with the challenge present by the doctrine of Hell.
How We Know It
How many of you spiritual souls would count the Bible as your favorite book? I have a lot of different favorite books depending on the genre. For example, my favorite kids’ book (and author) is The BFG by Roald Dhal. I once considered stealing the library’s copy because I read it so many times. When it comes to history, Larry Schweikart’s A Patriot’s History of the United States is top of my list. In the world of fantasy, I greatly enjoyed Robert Jordan’s immense series, The Wheel of Time. If you want to talk fiction more generally, I would probably rank C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce at least near the top of my list. I would count each of these books as my favorites because of the impact they had on me when reading them. I could read them over and over—okay, that’s not entirely true; Schweikart’s history was a pretty intense time commitment, but you know what I mean—and enjoy them every time. There was no part of them that I didn’t like. I suspect most folks who can identify one or two books as their favorite would use similar guidelines for their choices. Read the rest…
The Nexus 