Thoughts from Habakkuk

Habakkuk is an amazing view of the goodness of God in answering the questions of man; we are given a theo-centric view of history that lets us interpret all of the confusion of this life in a proper light.

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (2:14) - Human history does not unfold around the fact that men seek to glorify themselves and bring shame to others. Rather the goal and destiny of all this is that everyone would know the gloriousness of the Lord God, the Holy One.
For in all of this, the people on earth make for themselves gods of wood and stone and even of themselves (2:18-19; 1:11). "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him" (2:20).
Therefore, when we look around and wonder at the world we see surrounding us, let us recall these words of the Lord: "I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told" (1:5b). Thus, in all of this, we are called to trust in the God who gives us life and breath and salvation.
"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (3:17-18).
Is it well with your soul? Are you resting in the Lord and His goodness and His sovereignty? Our circumstances are not the casue of our unrest; they are a manifestation of the unbelief that resides still within us. But it is not about us: "God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places" (3:19).
Remember that the righteous will live by faith (2:4). Will you and I manifest our faith by living faithfully and following Him?


All Scripture taken from the ESV.

Where'd al-Qaida come from?

The Jerusalem Post today had an interesting article on Pakistan's potential future recognition of the Jewish state. But what really caught my attention was the information about the origins of al-Quaida. It is very easy for the West to forget that we were the ones funding "al-Quaida" (actually its idealogical roots) to fight the Soviet Empire. And then when we were done using them, we abandoned them to their poverty again. Not a very nice way to put it, but it explains a few things. Read the article to see the Pakistani President's take on it.


"[Musharraf] also touched on the anti-terror fight, saying that Pakistan was largely abandoned by the West in 1989, after playing a key role in ending the Soviet occupation of neighboring Pakistan [sic.; actually, Afghanistan].
"Everyone left us high and dry" to deal with 20,000-30,000 mujahedeen fighters holed up in Afghanistan and 4 million refugees who crossed the border into Pakistan," Musharraf said.
"The mujahedeen coalesced into al-Qaida," he added.
Then came the Sept. 11 attacks, and Pakistan found itself thrust back into the spotlight as a key supporter of the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan and the war on terrorism."
(For the complete article, go here.)

Failure

Since the quote below is the third time in the last 24 hours that failure/success has come up, and since it was something that I have had to start pondering because it came up, I decided to post the quote. I got it from Miles Stanford's website, in his devotional for today. How much does failure scare you? How much does success thrill you? Does your world rise and fall; is your praise altered; does your faith weaken? These are natural responses, and thus, they are wrong, for they are responses that come from the natural (old) man.

"The Father may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it."

Brief update on the Chivalry thing

Despite getting called a feminist by someone (ZV) last time I brought this up, I am going to throw out the topic again. The discussion on chivalry is still ongoing at "the Rebelution." They have now gotten to Part 5.
I have decided what I think of the blog: I like it. I have benefited from at least 4 or 5 of their posts. I still want to know why it's called something that sounds like a cross between rebellion and revolution though, since it's a Christian blog.
Anyways, that was all random and free.

The greatness of God's orchestration

Friends,
Have you ever considered the reality of that phrase "I will build my church"? I have thought about it a fair amount before, because it gives me confidence in going to a closed country. However, it has always either been theoretical or someone else's experience that backs it up.
Last night, my grandparents were telling me about their visit back to the village where I grew up. And they were sharing a number of encouraging things that are going on in that church. It's not that it somehow became perfect, or that they aren't struggling in some areas still. But, there is a strengthened, functioning church there. In a place where 50 years ago, there was nothing; and 5 years ago, there was a church mired in problems; Christ has magnified His name by strengthening and building the church which He has called in Ricanau Moffo.