12.18.10 "Christain"

"Christain"

Habakkuk 1:1-3:19
Revelation 9:1-21
Psalm 137:1-9
Proverbs 30:10

The misspelling of the title is intentional. I'll explain in a minute. (cuz I know it drives some of you crazy!)

Today's reading from the One-Year Bible is pretty intense. At first glance it's tough to find a scripture that gives you that "warm-fuzzy" feeling. It's about destruction and plagues, and torment.

Habbakuk (I love that name!) is crying out to God because of the rampant sin and lack of justice. The Lord answers with this: "Look, and be amazed! You will be astounded at what I am about to do! For I am going to do something in your own lifetime that you will have to see to believe. I am raising a new force on the world scene..." (Hab. 1:5-6)

Sounds great doesn't it? God's going to do something amazing! Do you know what it is? In the scriptures following he says he's raising up the Chaldeans, a "cruel and violent nation who will march across the world and conquer it."

How does that make sense? At first it doesn't to Habakkuk. "O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal - is your plan in all of this to wipe us out? Surely not! O God our Rock, you have decreed the rise of these Chaldeans to chasten and correct us for our awful sins. We are wicked, but they far more! Will you, who cannot allow sin in any form, stand idly by while they swallow us up? Should you be silent while the wicked destroy those who are better than they?" Hab. 1:12-13.

Growing up in the late 70's & early 80's there were these movies that showed some of the post-Rapture terror that would cover the earth. They would scare me to repentance every time. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I think if that's our only exposure to the character of God, it leaves our understanding at about the level of Habakkuk's question.

I think many believers stop there as well. "Oh-oh. Look at that war, look at that disaster... here come the end times... better hunker down. Hit the fox-holes, it's going to be bad."

None of that is wrong, but it's tragically incomplete! In the 2nd Chapter of Habakkuk the Lord says this: "Note this: Wicked men trust themselves alone [as these Chaldeans do], and fail; but the righteous man trusts in me, and lives!"

Revelations 9 speaks of the same torment. It describes these horrific metal locusts out of a sci-fi movie that come to torture millions. in verse 4 it says, "They were told not to hurt the grass or plants or trees, but to attack those people who did not have the mark of God on their foreheads."

Here's why the title's misspelled. I'm a pretty fast typer, but some words I consistently spell wrong cuz i'm going too fast. One of them is "Christian". For some reason, I spell it "Christain". It's misspelled, but I'm really starting to like that word. I want to have the mark (stain) of Christ on my life.

What's the point of all this? There's a real urgency for us to BE who Christ wants us to be. The very nature of God is to weed out all of the impurities of sinful man. If you don't know God, trials and disasters will be overwhelming, but for those who truly know Christ it is a different story.

Habbakuk gets it. "O Lord, now I have heard your report, and I worship you in awe for the fearful things you are going to do. In this time of our deep need, begin again to help us, as you did in years gone by. Show us your power to save us. In your wrath, remember mercy." (Hab. 3:2)

Listen to the contrast: "But the men left alive after these plagues still refused to worship God! they would not renounce their demon-worship, not their idols made of gold and silver, brass, stone, and wood - which neither see nor hear nor walk! Neither did they change their mind and attitude about all their murders and witchcraft, their immorality and theft." (Rev. 9:10-21)

"Even though the fig trees are all destroyed, and there is neither blossom left nor fruit, and though the olive crops all fail, and the fields lie barren; even if the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be happy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my Strength, and he will give me the speed of a deer and bring me safely over the mountains." (Hab. 3:17-19)

Which option do you wanna take? I want to trust in the Lord! I want to BE stained with the precious blood of Christ so that the stain of sin is gone! I don't want to be tainted with the injustice of the world. God's wrath WILL be poured out on the earth. But it's not a wrath of hatred. It's a wrath that comes from incredibly intense love for His own.

I'm so glad that I'm one of His own! I want to be who He's created me to be! I want to devote my life to helping others to do the same... to be a "Christain"... to Live the DREAM!



Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

P Greg


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