1 I will climb up to my watchtower
and stand at my guardpost.
There I will wait to see what the Lord says
and how he will answer my complaint.
The Lord’s Second Reply
2 Then the Lord said to me,
“Write my answer plainly on tablets,
so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.
3 This vision is for a future time.
It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled.
If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently,
for it will surely take place.
It will not be delayed. (Habakkuk 2)

Too often we just whine to God about what’s going on that we think is unfair and then we go on about our lives. Many of us, we never stop to listen to what God might want to communicate to you.

Here are SOME beautiful things about God.
God REVEALS Himself to us. He’s not trying to hide from us. God wants you to KNOW Him FULLY.

1) He has REVEALED Himself
In His Son, Jesus
In Nature
In people
In His Word (teaching)
Through the Holy Spirit

The GOOD NEWS is that you CAN Know God.

2) God is a relational God.
He DESIRES a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with You.
He has made it possible
He pursues you
But He won’t force himself on you
He has been waiting patiently for you to:
*Come to terms with the ugly sin that is inside you
*Admit it
*Ask God to FORGIVE you and set you FREE
*Trust that what Jesus did on your behalf was more than enough
*Surrender your life to God
*Ask Him to live inside you and make you NEW

3) God Speaks

If you will stop to listen,
God will often speak to you.

How will He speak?

All sorts of different ways.
God can speak audibly. I’ve never heard His audible voice, but I know people who have,
and I believe that He can.
God can also speak through His Word (Bible). Every single day, He can speak to you through His Word (Bible).
God can speak to you through circumstances.
If you look around, God can speak to you through other people.

God will often speak to you, and sometimes, He won’t, because He is God.

NOW, Here’s the deal.
If you will take the time to listen to God, when He speaks, you may not like what He says. This was the case for Habakkuk. It was also the case for Paul. He had what was known as a thorn in his side, or in his flesh, and he prayed over and over again. “God, I know You can do something about it. Please do. Take it away. Remove it.”

Three times, he begged, “God, I’m pleading with You. Take it away. I’m pleading with You. Take it away. I’m pleading with You. Take it away,” and God said basically, “I could, but I’ve decided not to. My answer to you is no. Why? Because I am going to do something even better than take it away, and you may not understand, but I am going to teach you that My grace is all that you need. You see, I could do that, but I’m not going to, because I’m going to do something different inside of you.” (1 Corinthians 12:1-8)

What do you do, when you hit this crisis of belief? (The Dip)
“Where are You, Good? I don’t understand.”

you stop and you listen.
“God, what are You saying? Good, where are You?”

Ever been so mad at someone that (in your mind) you played it out like this. You’re in a crowd of people who know both you and the person who hurt you. You bump into that person and all of a sudden you are Mr or Mrs Public Speaker. You have the supernatural skills, White, confidence and charm and ability tell them off big time – while simultaneously coming across as the good guy/girl. You are able to articulate your pain in such a clear and compelling way that the person who hurt you not only feels your pain, but they break out into repentant tears and they sincerely apologize? Maybe I am the only one who fantasizes like this.

Awkward!

What if you could have a completely open and honest conversation (back and forth) with God? Would you do it? What would you say? ask?

What if God gave you complete freedom to speak openly with Him about anything and everything? Would you take Him up on this sort of invitation? Would you be able to articulate, To God, the questions, frustrations, pain, confusion you’ve had throughout your life?

If you were able to have such a conversation face to face, would it somehow strengthen your faith in God? Why? How?

What would you say and how would you say it? Just you…and God…speaking freely. How would you imagine that conversation taking place? What feelings would you experience? Do you imagine that it would clear things up for you?

My kids tend to be pretty compliant. (Thank you, Jesus).
A few days, Jenny and I got to get away for a couple days to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. (Thank you, Jesus).

While we were out of town, celebrating, Jenny’s mom (affectionately known as Grandma) came to stay with our kids. Our kids have both daily and weekly chores that they are responsible for completing. We do not pay them to do the chores. Occasionally, we will celebrate something extra special that they do (they had a great attitude, shared something, went above and beyond, etc.) with something they get to choose from the family Treasure Box.

On one occasion Grandma asked our youngest child to pause the Wii playing and do his chore. 99% of the time (after some “but dad?” complaining) he will obey. In this moment, Jake’s answer shocked Grandma with his response. “NO!” is what he said emphatically. In fact, all our other kids stopped dead in their tracks. The house became like a ghost town. I think a tumble weed blew across the living room separating Grandma from Jake. A western-movie-like face-off was now in action. This was a totally unexpected response from our 6 year old.

I have to say, Grandma handled it beautifully and Jake obeyed and eventually apologized to all of us.

Have you ever been totally blown away by an UNEXPECTED RESPONSE from someone you thought you knew pretty well?

It’s no secret that I am a fan of the prophet and the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. We are in a series, at church, called Permission To Speak Freely that is taking us through the whole (3 CHAPTERS) book.

My last post described the tone of messy questions the prophet Habakkuk was bold enough to ask God. For some of you, it might seem a little awkward or strange honestly crying out to God with such brutal questions. Is it even legal? Yes.

So Habakkuk cries out to God with His questions about how it doesn’t all line up. He looks around him at how corrupt the people of God have gotten. He wants to know why God is not doing anything about it.

God speaks to the Prophet. I find this very comforting. God responds.
But God’s what God says in his response to Habakkuk’s questions is shocking.
5 The Lord replied,
“Look around at the nations;
look and be amazed!
For I am doing something in your own day,
something you wouldn’t believe
even if someone told you about it.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
a cruel and violent people.
They will march across the world
and conquer other lands.
7 They are notorious for their cruelty
and do whatever they like.
8 Their horses are swifter than cheetahs
and fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their charioteers charge from far away.
Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9 “On they come, all bent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind,
sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10 They scoff at kings and princes
and scorn all their fortresses.
They simply pile ramps of earth
against their walls and capture them!
11 They sweep past like the wind
and are gone.
But they are deeply guilty,
for their own strength is their god.”

God says to Habakkuk that He is going to punish the Judean people for their disobedience to Him. the method He chooses to punish them is the shocking part. He is going to raise up a far more evil people (the Babylonian people) to come and destroy the Judean’s (when compared to the Babylonians were not so bad).

This obviously did not seem fair to Habakkuk.

And Habakkuk goes “Huh? That doesn’t make sense.”

Habakkuk’s name means ‘to embrace’ or to ‘wrestle’ and that is what Habakkuk decides to do with God when he felt like God was not being fair.

Habakkuk struggled with God’s answer. It didn’t seem to be fair and he understood God to be fair.

Is that your understanding of God? That he is fair? What if I told you that according to the Bible, God is not fair. How would that change your image of God? I will explain in the next post and I think you will agree with me on this one.

Let me just say it now, Habakkuk (a book of the Bible) has become my new favorite. Why? Well over the next several posts, I will attempt to win you over as a Habakkuk fan too.

Maybe you’ve noticed that there are so many questions that are so difficult to answer.
Think about it:
*Why do they say that an alarm clock is going off, when it is really coming on?
*Why do they say they you drive on a parkway, but you park on a driveway?
*I slept through the night, like a baby. (we all know that’s not right)
*If you throw a cat out of a moving car, is it called kitty litter? (I am not a cat fan)
I know those are not the most difficult questions to answer. In fact as I get to know more of you, I realize your life has not turned out like you thought it would. You have some very difficult questions about life. I believe you will definitely be able to identify with the Old Testament prophet: Habakkuk.

Here’s a sample of the driving question Habakkuk: “Why don’t you seem fair God?”

How long, O LORD, must I call for help?
But you do not listen!
“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,
but you do not come to save.
Must I forever see these evil deeds?
Why must I watch all this misery?
Wherever I look,
I see destruction and violence.
I am surrounded by people
who love to argue and fight.
The law has become paralyzed,
and there is no justice in the courts.
The wicked far outnumber the righteous,
so that justice has become perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2-4)

Habakkuk is one of the 12 MINOR prophets (That doesn’t mean he never played in the majors; like he never got the Nike contract or their own sports drink).

We know less about Habakkuk than any of the other minor prophets. We do know that he lived in Judah, during the divided Kingdom. We know he was most likely a Temple Musician. At some point he became a Priest and then a Prophet.

You might wonder “What is a Prophet?”
A Prophet (in the Bible) is someone who would typically speak on behalf of God.
God would say “Habakkuk, here’s what I want you to tell my people.”
And so Habakkuk would say “Thus says the Lord”
And he would speak, to them, whatever God told him.

Habakkuk was unique in that instead of God just telling him what to tell God’s people, Habakkuk went to God on behalf of God’s people. He asks God the tough questions that the people were already thinking.

Now the book was written in about the year 600 BC. It was a time period where Gods people were becoming very corrupt: Violence, People in power abusing their authority, Sexual misconduct, Corruption, People taking advantage of each other, Stealing, Crime, hatred… A lot like what we see around us today, right?

Basically Habakkuk has 3 major problems with God
1) GOD You don’t seem to care. You are letting all these things go on in the world that don’t seem fair, so therefore God, you must not even care.
2) You GOD aren’t doing much…when I know you could.
3) And GOD what you are doing doesn’t seem fair.

In other words, what Habakkuk is saying is — “GOD if I were in your shoes, I would do things totally different.”

Be honest. How many of you have ever thought something like that?
Is that even legal to ask those sort of questions to God?
Do you and I have Permission To Speak Freely To God?

Is God going to punish me for even feeling this way?
Is it even appropriate to say; “God, I don’t understand. You don’t seem to care. You could do something here to help and it seems like you are not. What you are doing seems totally unfair.”

It is ABSOLUTELY not only a good thing to question God, But there are times when questioning God, like this, could become a significant part of your faith journey.

Do me a favor. Would you mind sharing with me some of your very difficult (and messy) questions you have for God? I will go first in the comment section.