Have you read Habakkuk Lately? (p1)

Thumb through your Old Testament until you happen across Habakkuk.  His oracle only takes about ten minutes to read through.  Read it out loud. You'll be struck by how something so bad can sound so good...so ugly, yet so beautiful.

What do you hear?  What do you see?

I see a jazz-shaped relationship with God...

Comments

[Sherman Haywood Cox II]

Man I love Habakkuk...A man not hiding behind a veneer of "holiness" but being real with God...Why do you allow this mess to happen...

And then when God answers...Habakkuk has the audacity to answer back..."I don't think your answer is in line with your own principles...How can you who can't even look at evil allow such an evil nation to overtake those who are more righteous than they..."

And then God says, I will take care of things. Write it down..and then wait for it to happen...

And then Habakkuk has to just sit back and wait for the answer...fully expecting that it will come...Habakkuk sings praise to God even while waiting for the fulfillment of what God has said...

But the interaction would not have happened had Habakkuk not questioned God...

[Jan Narracci]

Hi Robert,
Wow! Joe and I were sitting back a ways second service at Aurora because we had our grandson (2 yr. old) with us. So many times I wanted to stand up and shout. Yes! Preach it Brother! Thank you Robert for sharing that story of when you were 18 going with the youth group to Arkansas to a church that had never had a black person step foot in its doors. I'm sure there still are plenty of churches that have never had a person of color step through the doors. How sad and what a loss. We absolutely must unite! I truly believe the kingdom of God is here and now. We don't have to wait and we must not wait to live as Jesus would have us live.
Thank you Robert. In Christ, Jan Narracci

[Joe Narracci]

Dear Robert,
Your comments Sunday were at a politically astute time. I'm also sure you were not motivated by that but were rather thinking in terms of God's Kingdom and America's nitch in it. Hilary has decided to step aside, a very difficult decision hopefully made in earnest with a view to what is best for our nation, with her encouragement to unite together for the common good and not be blinded by any other goal. I commend her setting "self" aside, though I'm sure it won't end the merciless, mindless, heartless criticisms of her by the hate mongerers and smug elite of our day.

That is what I heard you talking about. Setting our "self" aside and seeing ourselves and all others the way God sees us. Not color blind but not blinded by color either. That is going to be the challenge over the next few months...can America sacrifice its impaired culture full of fear, hatred, entitlement, priviledge, materialism, and pride, often taught and spoken about under the guise of patriotism, and see itself entering the culture of the Kingdom of God? There is room for all of us in that Kingdom but our accepting the teaching that we have to fear anything different is our downfall. You dispelled fear Sunday I hope. You talked about embracing others, and really ourselves, as God does. Thomas Keating writes, "We must gradually recover the conviction, not just the feeling, of the Divine Indwelling, the realization that God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- is living in us. This is the heart of the spiritual journey..." from Intimacy With God p. 119.

It seems to me that another politician was right not that many years ago, we sholud be more afraid of fear itself because we are failing to see God's perfect love that casts out fear. That got us through another war, maybe we can get through this one too by trusting God and not our culturally compromised teachings that are in conflict with God and our life with Him.

[Sherman Haywood Cox II]

man I'm a little confused...looks like you guys are referring to a sermon...is there any place I can hear it online?

[jazztheologian]

Sherman,

The references are to my sermon this last weekend...you can find it here http://www.coloradocommunity.org/sermons/index.htm

The title was Spirit-led p3

Blessings,
robert