Daily Encouragement

Thursday, July 20, 2023

We are blessed with not only a quiet country road to walk on but tractor trails between the fields. However this same trail is actually Meeting House Road, a public right of way that leads from our house over to Colebrook Road. The neighbors keep the trail mowed (those who drive their golf carts on it). The pets' ears perk up when they hear the word, "Trail" since they know their daily walk is about to take place.

"Gleanings From Habakkuk"

(Part 3)

"Renew Us Again!"

Message summary: Today, join us as we boldly declare, Lord renew, in our day, in our time. May the Lord use you and me and each faithful follower to make His fame and deeds known among the people and bring renewal to hearts everywhere beginning with our own!

Listen to our message on your audio player.

“LORD, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known” (Habakkuk 3:2).

Renewal - nations, families and individual lives need it. It is certainly needed after years of spiritual neglect but it's also an ongoing need even in the life of the devout believer. In today's text Habakkuk cried out for renewal in his time and provides a lesson for us over 2,600 years later.

Habakkuk is one of the lesser known and read Biblical books. It is among a collection known as the “Minor Prophets”. (Not minor in the sense of being less important but a designation from Augustine, due to them being generally shorter in length from the Major Prophets.)

The basic theme of his book is living by faith. Habakkuk wrote when the nation was coming under judgment and his focus was to encourage the godly remnant to understand God’s ways in regard to their sinful nation and impending judgment. He greatly desired that they were to live their remaining days exalting God and witnessing His awesome deeds. We believe that's a timely word for us as well in our current generation.

What matters most is the decision to follow God. Habakkuk stood up for God in his day as have millions through the Bible and church age. Now it’s our turn. It's our day, our time.

Our daily Scripture portion from Habakkuk has two elements:

1) “LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.” As the people of God, let us rejoice in hearing the fame of God that far surpasses human fame that exists for only a season and touches relatively few. May our Lord’s supernatural deeds keep us in a state of awe and wonderment of His great power and His message that supernaturally spreads to the uttermost parts of the world.

2) “Renew them in our day, in our time make them known.” My, how an awareness of and appreciation for God’s fame needs renewed in our day which would accompany the fear of God. Perhaps the availability of Scripture and access to learning more about God somehow diminishes people’s interest in our time. How desperately we need a renewal of awe for His deeds. Consider the deluge of moral confusion and idolatry. Consider how God’s name is all too often trampled, cursed, and used as a mindless exclamation instead of being reverenced and held in awe by those who speak it. My heart grieves at the apostasy and blindness sweeping our land. Good is called evil and evil is called good.

But also consider the aspect of unanswered prayer in this text. In the sense of having a national revival Habakkuk's prayer, was not answered but the nation was judged and was taken captive by the Babylonians. Chris, a California reader responded to a point we made about God's judgment, "The response to Habakkuk (regarding judgment) is pretty scary, given the state of our nation." Indeed it is.

However, "renew them in our day" in the sense of personal renewal was answered for Habakkuk and others who called on the name of the Lord. The same is true today! As we put our trust in the Lord we see the big picture.

“You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). John Piper wrote, "Living knowing that your life is a vapor is different than just living. Things here are passing away. You’ve got to hold firmly to that which will stand. Savor what matters."

Today, join Brooksyne and me along with those whose steadfast heart boldly declares, “In our day, in our time”. The nation did not experience the renewal he prayed for but rather judgment. That very well may be the same as we pray for America (or the country you live in). May the Lord use you and me and each faithful follower to make His fame and deeds known among the people. Bring renewal to our hearts and empower us to stand as part of God's righteous remnant!

Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Heavenly Father, we want to be a shining light to the nations. We want to bring a word of hope to the peoples of this earth so that the whole world will know there’s salvation in Your name, there’s awe in Your supernatural deeds and there is eternity to be gained in exchange for a temporal sin sick world. We don’t want to take for granted Your awesome deeds recorded in Scripture or things done for us in the past. Would you do it again, Lord! Reveal Your power anew and make it known in our time, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Note: When I get to heaven I'm going to have some questions (actually many) and one of the first questions I'll ask when I meet Habakkuk is, "How do you pronounce your name?" I've sure heard various pronunciations on this earth and right in my own household! If you listen to us read this message you will probably hear two different pronunciations.

In our daily encouragement messages we often emphasize the aspect of daily choice and commitment. Each of us has an apportioned amount of time to live on this earth known only to God, our day and our time. We are physically designed to die. Each day approximately 178,000 people die worldwide. The Bible forthrightly states, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). But we all have this moment.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Revive Us Again" Click to watch on YouTube Gaither Vocal Band The hymn we often sang in Bible College in the seventies.

"Revive Us Again" Click to watch on YouTube Reawaken Hymns

"Revive Us Again" Click to watch on YouTube Phil Wickham A new song with the same title.

"Do It Again" Click to watch on YouTube

Here's another the view of the Meeting House trail around the corner from our lead photo. In this one you can see the sunset over the corn. The trail is here on Google maps. When the trail is narrow and the corn is tall it's like walking through a slot canyon, although just a bit less dramatic than "Wall Street" we walked through years ago at Bryce Canyon National Park!

Visiting with Dave, a carpenter at White Oak Display. Dave represents one of the hundreds of hard workers we visit with each week in the course of our chaplain work. But Dave has an interesting distinction. He is nearing retirement and his first job was way back in the seventies at this very location when it was a shoe factory. Later in life after working in various places he came back to work at the same factory, though he no longer makes shoes but he still labors with his hands. He expects to retire from the same place he started some 50 years earlier. How many of our readers have that kind of work experience?

Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne

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