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Habakkuk 2:3, Romans 8:24

Wait For It

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 20, 2024

I hate waiting! We live in a society that hates waiting. The faster, the better. It’s especially obvious for me when I’m on the computer. I want the fastest processor available, and I want the wait time to be microseconds! I can’t stand it when I have to wait for the processor to catch up to me. When it’s time to eat, I want my food when I want my food. Like the rest of us, I want what I want, and I want it now! I just found this entry in my daily journal from 2018. “Kathy was up, and I had to wait for her to get her coffee before I could get mine. I hate waiting. I set my clock five minutes earlier to prevent that, but it doesn’t matter. I still can’t guess when KJ is going to be at the coffee machine.”[1] Wow, that’s bad! Bouchelle confesses to a similar problem. He writes, “As a child, my impatience caused me problems in school. In junior high science class, we were all instructed to plant two red beans in separate styrofoam cups. We were to place one in a window and the other in a dark closet and water them both regularly. The idea was to chart the difference in how they grew. My experiment did not work. I kept digging in the soil to see what was happening and killed both plants. Waiting seems so unproductive—like nothing is happening. I am ready to get on with it. I want things to happen now, in a hurry. My epitaph will no doubt read, ‘Come on, let’s go!!’”[2]

Habakkuk knows what that’s like, but his impatience is for something much nobler than Mr. Bouchelle or mine. He wants the fulfillment of God’s promises now. His “vision” of God’s putting the world right is what he’s longing for and yearning for, and he wants it now.  There’s been enough evil and injustice in the world. He calls for its resolution now! Even for something as important as this, God has a purpose in making us wait. Habakkuk 2:2-4 gives us God’s response to his impatience. God consoles him in verse 3, “Wait for it. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come.” God wants us to trust Him. That’s why in 2:4, he says, “The Righteous shall live by faith.”

 I’m truly an impatient, restless person. When I have to stop and stare at the screen for a few minutes, or even seconds, for the process to complete, I get restless. Yet, slowing down and waiting is part of the human condition. I like how Henri Nouwen talked about waiting. He said, “Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.” Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Romans 8:24 is a perfect expression of the positive aspects associated with not getting what we want when we want it. He says, “Waiting does not diminish us any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting.” In our hours, days, and months of waiting, God is vibrantly at work within us.

[1] Larsen, Charles. 2020. 2018 February Journals. MYJOURNALS. Larsen.

[2] Bouchelle, Dan. 2005. Acts 1–9: The Gospel Unleashed. 3:16 Bible Commentary Series. Joplin, MO: HeartSpring Publishing.

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Habakkuk 1:5-6, 2:4, Isaiah 45:9

God Is Always In Control

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 19, 2024

Habakkuk shoots his questions at God like arrows.  But God quiets him with his answers. When Habakkuk cries out for God to act, God just patiently assures him that nothing is going on outside of his control. He tells Habakkuk, “I am doing a work in your days that would not be believed if I told it. I am raising up the Chaldeans…” Even the evil in the world is serving God’s good purposes in all of our lives. David Platt preached, “First, number one, God is sovereign. This line should just be a staple in pretty much every single sermon here because it’s evident in every single text. You might think, ‘Dave, why do you say this over and over and over again?’ Here’s why. Because I want you to be reminded—and the Bible seems to want to remind you—week in and week out that no matter what is happening in this world, no matter what is happening in your world, God is in control. He is on the throne. Always. God is in control, and Satan is not.” [1]

The purest mark of spiritual maturity is the confident acceptance and assurance that God is in control in all circumstances of one’s life and everyone else’s life as well. We need not understand the whys and wherefores or even the whens. We need to trust the one who is in control. It’s a waste of time to try to strive for control over what’s in God’s hands. Isaiah makes that clear for us in 45:9. He says, “Woe to him who strives with his maker! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, what are you doing?”

Even in the midst of Jesus’ execution, He maintained complete control. A mob of soldiers came and arrested him in the garden, and yet he was perfectly in control. He even took time to heal one of his captors by restoring the ear that was cut off by one of his own disciples, who was famous for always wanting to take control. He said, “Don’t you think I could call thousands of angels to rescue me.” God never loses control, even when things get ugly. Even that which appears to us as the ugliest will work out for the best. The resurrection is conclusive evidence for that in Jesus’ case. As believers, we know God is in control; nothing happens outside His knowledge, and underneath are everlasting arms. I’ve often argued that faith is not just believing that God exists. James tells us that even Satan knows this to be true. Faith is trusting God to have our best interest foremost in mind regardless of the circumstances we are experiencing at the moment. Habakkuk will say all that in Habakkuk 2:4 with just six words, “The just shall live by faith.”

[1] Platt, David. 2012. “What Ultimately Matters Regarding the Millennium.” In David Platt Sermon Archive, 3710. Birmingham, AL: David Platt.

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Habakkuk 1:2, 2:4

When God Is Silent

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 18, 2024

Habakkuk is full of questions for God. He opens up right away in verse 2 of the first Chapter asking, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” Every human being will wrestle with the problem of evil in the world. The problem is it usually comes too late. “Why did God allow such a thing to happen?” There will be no rational answer to that question in the middle of the suffering. No one can think straight in the midst of great pain. The time to reflect deeply on the existence of evil in the world is before it overtakes us. God’s truth works best as a preventative medicine. It should be seen more as proper diet, exercise, and vitamins, rather than radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or other drugs taken to cure the disease once acquired. The person who is well grounded in God’s truth is much more likely to be able to bear up under suffering than the one unprepared.

The Bible presents us with an all-powerful and all-loving God.  Therefore, if this is true we might expect God to prevent all evil and stop all suffering. But He doesn’t. Our emotions then drive us to think that God has abandoned us. This is exactly what happened to Job. Lawson points out, “The lack of response from heaven, despite his many pleas, had been a heavy burden for him to bear. Job had cried out to God again and again, but there had been no answer. The heavens had been as brass. Job had persistently appealed for an appearance before God, but there was no reply. Time and time again, he had requested a chance to argue his case before God in heaven. But permission had been denied by default. He repeatedly implored God for a change in his circumstances, but there had been no relief from above—only silence. This lack of response from God led Job to conclude that God was indifferent and uncaring toward him.”[1] But once Job repented of his need for God to explain himself, God spoke to Job. God led Job to understand that he did not know what God knew. He could not do what God could do. He was in no position to question God. It was this that led Job to say, “Though you (God) slay me, yet will I trust in you.”

All the Prophets make it clear that righteousness is not an issue of religious ritual. It’s an issue of relationship. We must trust God amidst it all. He has promised to deal with evil, and we must trust Him to do so in His time as we hold on to scriptural truths like Matthew 10:29-31, “But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” Habakkuk is going to come to this understanding as well through his questioning. He will tell us the most important verse, Habakkuk 2:4, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”

[1] Lawson, Steven J. 2005. Job. Edited by Max Anders. Holman Old Testament Commentary. B&H Publishing Group.

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Habakkuk 1:13, John 11:25-26

God, How Could You?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 17, 2024

Habakkuk was the prophet with all the questions. He challenged God! Why me? He didn’t want to be the one who confronted the people with God’s word. There is no way to be popular with that. Then Why the Chaldeans? The Chaldeans were the Babylonians, a wicked and cruel civilization. Why did God allow this evil nation to destroy His own people along with the place of worship in Jerusalem? Yes, Israel sinned, but the people doing the punishing were far worse than those being punished! What’s up with that? I know I’m not perfect, but I’m not as bad as Hitler or even one of my neighbors. Why am I singled out? Why aren’t you punishing them?

Habakkuk 1:13 asks, “Why do you look on the treacherous and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” What’s up with that, God? Habakkuk challenges God to do something about this. Life isn’t always fair, is it? Live isn’t always good, is it? Of course not. The wicked do prosper, and the righteous do suffer in this world. I don’t like it! You don’t like it, and God doesn’t like it either. You and I don’t have the ability to do much about it except in small ways in our own personal lives and relationships. But God can, and, what is more important, He promises He will!

With Easter 2024 behind us now, I find I’m still thinking about the resurrection. It dawned on me as I wrote the above paragraph that this was the exact question facing the disciples of Jesus on Good Friday. Jesus, the righteous one, was accused by the unholy religious leaders, condemned by a “stand-for-nothing” Pilate, and executed by a band of torturing soldiers. What’s up with that? The resurrection was God’s way of doing something about that! The resurrection will also be the way he does something about all the wicked and evil in the world. The wicked will be judged! The righteous will be vindicated! That’s what Easter is all about! I can hardly wait! Jesus reminded us in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

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Amos 1:2

When God Raises His Voice

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 16, 2024

I think it was C. S. Lewis who said that God speaks to us in our pleasure, but he screams at us in our pain. Pain is God’s megaphone. This might be one way to understand Amos 1:2. It says, “The LORD roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.” It sounds like the roaring voice of God comes in the form of pastures that mourn or don’t have any sheep. That Mount Carmel is withering might be understood as a time of great calamity. Reading the rest of Amos’ prophecy leads me to think that it might be just the opposite. Amos held no official title in Israel. He was just a Shepherd of Tekoa, and not a very significant one because the text points out that he was “just one of the many” among the shepherds of Tekoa. He was a common person, like you reading this and me writing this. Yet, he saw something that others could or would not see. The prophecy tells us that the words that come from Amos are words that he “saw,” not just heard. The words are described as those he saw during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The thing to notice about this timing is that it was the most prosperous time in both Nation’s histories.

It doesn’t take a college degree to recognize the similarities between Amos’ day and ours. We face very similar problems. Jesus himself addressed the dangers of prosperity on several occasions. He warns us much more about the dangers of pleasures than the dangers of pain. True, I’ve seen many who have turned from God because of pain in their lives, but I agree with John Piper, who says that more are lured away from God by their pleasures. Pleasures seldom awaken people to their need for God; pain often does.  The first danger of prosperity is complacency. I’ve seen many churches with huge endowments and debt-free buildings forget about why they exist and don’t care about being all that God intends them to be as a church. Another problem is arrogance. Prosperity often leads us to wrongly believe there is some kind of quality in us that makes us better than others. The third danger of Prosperity is self-sufficiency. Full barns often lead us to think we don’t need anyone, including God. All three of these dangers are addressed by Amos.

But Amos was alert to the fact that God wanted to break through all the luxury, financial security, and prosperity in the land. Thus, Amos tells us that “God Roars.”  A Study Bible says, “The Hebrew word for roars seems to compare thunder to God growling like a lion, the majestic king of beasts.”[1] Of all the things in that agricultural economy, that could not be ignored was a roaring lion. That’s the picture that Amos uses to describe God’s message to the healthy and wealthy nations. God must get loud to get our attention. God raises his voice because his children are distracted by their cell phones, fancy clothes, new cars, and comfortable homes. When God raises His voice, it does not bode well for his children. My mother used to say, “Wait till your father gets home.” But what was worse was when my father did get home, and he would raise his voice at us kids. We knew that he meant business. He would always scare us when he did that. We knew the next step would be the belt. “Jehovah will roar against them as a lion, terrible to shepherds and their flocks. His voice must be heard, and the message demands attention. God roars before he tears and warns before he strikes.”[2]

[1] Radmacher, Earl D., Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House. 1997. The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version. Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

[2] Wolfendale, James. 1892. Minor Prophets. The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary. New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

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Luke 24:44-45, Various

An Open Mind

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 15, 2024

Jesus claimed to be the subject of all three major sections of the Old Testament. During His post-resurrection appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the text informs us that Jesus taught them how all the scriptures spoke about him “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets…” (Luke 24:27). This phrase captures the customary Jewish division of two of the three major parts of the Old Testament; the law and the prophets. But then, in Luke 24:44, Jesus adds the third section of the Old Testament: the writings. The writings include the Book of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and the Psalms. The Psalms, being the largest part of the writings, is often used to refer to the entire collection of writings. This is how Jesus used it when He said, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” The Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, speaks of the coming one who will deliver his people from their sins.

Now, to understand what Jesus meant in His New Testament teaching, we must be familiar with the Old Testament prophecies relating to the Messiah or we will make some serious mistakes. Many today have missed the point of Jesus’ words about being the subject of the whole Old Testament. He said some things in the New Testament that can only be understood with the Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament in mind. On our trips to Israel, we always stop at the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter. This structure quotes Matthew 16:18 as being the basis upon which Peter is the first Pope and the foundation upon which Jesus will build his church. This verse says, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” This interpretation leaves out the context of the conversation where Peter makes his great profession as Jesus being the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. Peter’s recognition and acceptance of the fact that Jesus was the subject of the whole Old Testament is to receive Jesus as the Messiah. It’s Jesus’ complete fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophecies that will form the foundation upon which the New Testament Church is going to be built.

Isaiah, the great Messianic Prophet, spoke for God in Isaiah 28:16. He said, “Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, an approved stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation.” Peter identified Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore, Peter recognized Jesus as the cornerstone upon which the church would be built. Peter never thought of himself as the rock upon which the church would be built. He said so himself in 1 Peter 2:6-7.  He  says, quoting the Isaiah passage, “For it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” Peter knew the Old Testament and the messianic prophecies and didn’t fail to understand Jesus’ words in connection with the Law, the Prophets, and the writings.”  When Peter answered Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responded correctly, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” Jesus then said that Peter didn’t grasp this truth in and of himself, but the Father had revealed it to him. When Jesus revealed Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24:45 tells us that Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…” Jesus still opens minds today when His teachings are taken in light of the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

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Acts 20:35, Proverbs 30:15

Givers And Takers

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 14, 2024

If you have a red-letter version of the New Testament, you will see all the words of Jesus in Red print while the rest is in the usual black print. I was perusing one of those Bibles and was surprised to see red print, not only in the Gospels but also in the book of Acts. The last quote we have from Jesus is recorded for us in chapter 20 of the book of Acts. Acts 20:35 says, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” I always smile when I read this verse because it reminds me of a joke. A professional boxer was converted to Christ.  He felt it was wrong to continue hitting people, but he only knew boxing as a profession.  When he sought counsel from the deacons in his church, one of them responded, “I Don’t see why you can’t continue.  The Bible says that it’s better to give than to receive.” Of course, we all know that’s not what Jesus meant.  I remember my mother telling me that one Halloween when I came back from fleecing the neighbors of all the candy I could fit in a pillowcase. My brother was too young to go out, and my mother wanted me to share my candy with him. When I hesitated to comply, she said those infamous words, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” I did not believe it, but in order to avoid a spanking, I listened to my mother and shared my candy with my little brother.

In his little book “Christian Living Beyond Belief,” McManis says, “God has commanded the church, and Christians in particular, to give. Jesus said, ‘Give’ (Luke 6:38). Paul commanded Christians to give financially to the church (1 Corinthians 16:1–4; Romans 12:8, 13). John exhorted believers to give to those in need (1 John 3:16–18). Hebrews 13:16 says God is pleased when we give to others. Giving is a basic Christian virtue. Giving to God and others reflects the very nature of God. God’s greatest act of loving sacrifice entailed an act of ‘giving’—‘for God so loved the world that He gave’ (John 3:16). One of the most telling barometers of a person’s spiritual maturity is their quotient for giving. God has repeatedly commanded Christians to be giving people, for they are recipients of the greatest gift ever given—salvation in Christ.

The wisest man in the world, Solomon, tells us that there are two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers!  Proverbs 30:15 says, “The leech has two daughters: Give and Give.”  The leech is a reference to the bloodsucking horseleech that was common in Palestine. The ugly creature serves as an emblem of insatiable greed. If it could speak, it would say, Give! Give! Give! The leech is like the fictitious vampire sucking the very lifeblood from all it comes in contact with.  Christians should be just the opposite! We should all be givers. Haley writes, “In this world, there are two kinds of people. Those who throw beer cans alongside the road and those who pick them up. That is, there are givers and takers. All true Christians are givers, but not all givers are Christians. Some give to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. For example, some may give only to those who are able to return their ‘gift.’ Christians, on the other hand, give to those in need out of a sense of their own need to give. They give to debtors out of a sense of their own debt, which has been forgiven. They give to the unlovable out of the abundance of love which they have received.”[1] As I watched my children open up their Christmas presents over many years, and now get to watch my grandchildren do that. I have to agree with Jesus finally. It is more “blessed” to give that to receive.

[1] Haley, John. 1998. “The Christian Gives to Those in Need.” Edited by Brent Lewis. Christianity Magazine, 1998.

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1 Corinthians 12:12f

Stop The Insanity!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
April 13, 2024

Paul tells us that we are all part of the same body. 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” Each part of the body has its own function under the headship of Christ. A body is “healthy” when each part fulfills its particular role. But the body of believers in Corinth was not healthy. A visitor to a mental hospital was astonished to note that there were only three guards watching over a hundred dangerous inmates. He asked his guide, “Don’t you fear that these people will overpower the guards and escape?” “No,” was the reply. “Lunatics never unite.” I’m sorry to say that I’ve met a lot of “lunatics” in the church. Being unable to unite in an effort with others, they focus on their own interests and lose the impact of what it’s like to work together for the accomplishment of a common goal. Not only do they miss the thrill of seeing God work through the concerted effort of the body, but they also lose the strength, support, and joys that sharing their lives with others will bring.

There is strength and safety in the plurality of effort. For safety reasons, mountain climbers rope themselves together when climbing a mountain. That way, if one climber should slip and fall, he would not fall to his death. He would be held by the others until he could regain his footing. The church ought to be like that. When one member slips and falls, the others should hold him up until he regains his footing. We are all roped together by the Holy Spirit.

Paul often refers to the church as a body. Each of us fills a different role; some are hands, some are feet, some are noses, some are eyes, and some are mouths (See 1 Corinthians 12:12-18).  In his Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Michael Green gets even more specific. He says, “In any flesh-and-bones body, there are a variety of cells. There are nerve cells, blood cells, muscle cells, and many others, each having a distinct function. The body operates smoothly, not because the cells get together and vote on what to do, but because each one does what it was designed to do. It is the function of the head to bring all these different functions together so that the body operates effectively, as each cell gives itself to the task of functioning according to its design. Certainly, the body would not operate properly if its cells chose to go their own way. Do you know what we call a rebellion of the cells of your stomach? We call it indigestion! A revolt of your brain cells is called insanity. Any time the cells in our body don’t operate properly, it means that the body is sick, that something is wrong with it. Many of the problems in the church today are a result of our forgetting that the church is a body with a head, Jesus Christ.” Tidwell concludes, “Christ, the Head of this body, gives it unity, direction, balance, and control.”[1]

[1] Tidwell, Charles. 1985. Church Administration: Effective Leadership for Ministry. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group.

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