Tag Archives: trials

Itty Bitty Bible Study – Habakkuk 2

My thoughts for the Itty Bitty Bible Study group on Facebook. (join if you’d like to get these in fb!)

IBBS Habakkuk Introduction
IBBS Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk 2

In IBBS Habakkuk 1, we discussed that sometimes bad things happen to discipline us. that is not always the case.

Sometimes, it’s to test us…(though we are told not to blame God for our temptations!

James 1:12-15 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
12 A man who endures trials[a] is blessed, because when he passes the test he will receive the crown of life that God[b] has promised to those who love Him.

13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil,[c] and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

There are those that fall because of their own lusts…and they need Psalm 38

The truth is, that there are those that are refined by the fire, and that refining has a higher purpose!

Habakkuk is not happy with the answers by God in the first chapter…

Habakkuk 1:13 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do You tolerate those who are treacherous?
Why are You silent
while one[a] who is wicked swallows up
one[b] who is more righteous than himself?

He decides to:

Habakkuk 2 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Habakkuk Waits for God’s Response
2 I will stand at my guard post
and station myself on the lookout tower.
I will watch to see what He will say to me
and what I should[a] reply about my complaint.

Here’s a few of the clarifications that God gives in Chapter 2, for what His purposes are:

Habakkuk 2
8 Since you have plundered many nations,
all the peoples who remain will plunder you—
because of human bloodshed
and violence against lands, cities,
and all who live in them.

11 For the stones will cry out from the wall,
and the rafters will answer them
from the woodwork.

13-14 Is it not from the Lord of Hosts
that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire
and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory,
as the waters cover the sea.

16 You will be filled with disgrace instead of glory.
You also—drink,
and expose your uncircumcision![i]
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will come around to you,
and utter disgrace will cover your glory.

Bottom Line?

Habakkuk 2:20 But the Lord is in His holy temple;
let everyone on earth
be silent in His presence.

God sees us, even in the midst of darkness!
Here’s some examples:

Daniel and the Three Hebrew Children

Daniel 1 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
6 Among them, from the descendants of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7 The chief official gave them other names: he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.

Daniel and the three Hebrew children and many others were taken away in Babylon and they were made eunuchs, which to be very graphic and specific means they were neutered. Everything that they understood from their religion was taken away from them and they had a reason to cry out like Habakkuk!

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Daniel 3

The three Hebrew children were thrown into the fiery furnace, because they would not bow down and choose fleshly comforts in exchange their lives.

Daniel 3 – their declaration of faith.
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question.
17 If the God we serve exists,[f] then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king.
18 But even if He does not rescue us,[g] we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

The rest of the story is that they were not delivered from the fiery furnace, but another walked with them who was like the son of God. later in the Bible we find out it was the pre incarnate Christ that walked with them and protected them from the fire while they were in the furnace. Those that were unrighteous and had been trying to destroy the righteous Hebrew children, thought they had one, and those that cranked up the fire were actually swallowed with the heat. The three Hebrew children were pulled out. When they were not consumed, Nebuchadnezzar declared praises to their God, and freedoms to serve their own God!

Dan 3
28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent His angel[m] and rescued His servants who trusted in Him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I issue a decree that anyone of any people, nation, or language who says anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be torn limb from limb and his house made a garbage dump. For there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.” 30 Then the king rewarded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

Would that have happened if the Three men had not endured this fire?

Daniel in the Lions den.
Daniel 6
Daniel was recognized as being a very gifted leader, and he actually served under a couple of the leaders of his day. And then there were those people that set him up that he should not pray to any God other than Darius. Not only did he continue to pray, it says he opened his window, and knelt by his window to pray to God. Daniel didn’t go into hiding!

It horrified the king that he had been duped to put this law into effect and he worried about Daniel being thrown into the lions den. The rest of that story is the unrighteous thought they were winning the day as they threw Daniel in, but God sent the angel of the Lord to keep the Lions from eating Daniel. So the righteous was pulled out of the Lion’s Den and the unrighteous were thrown in afterwards.

The end of this chapter has Darius, not a Hebrew, God worshiper, giving God, Yahweh, YHWH, Jehovah, praise!
Daniel 6:25-28

Would that have happened if Daniel had not endured this trial?

Jesus and Judas

Judas was one of Jesus’s top 12. Judas was given the responsibilities of finances. He went out with the others and apparently was able to do the same Miracles that the others. If he didn’t, whoever he was sent out with would come back and say

“yeah well whenever we go with Judas he just can’t do anything! I have to do all the work!”

The thing about the story at the Last Supper was that no one had any idea that it was Judas that was going to turn in Jesus.
So we have the Last Supper and then some very ugly days of thinking everything has gone wrong and that the wicked have won!
We, as Christians, know that the rest of the story is that on that third day Jesus rose from the dead and some days after that He rose to sit beside his father and to intervene, and to pray on our behalf. They didn’t have this Bible from which to draw strength!

If Judas had not betrayed Christ, there wouldn’t have been the crucifixion and there would not have been the days where everyone questioned their loyalty to Christ.

There are others!

Moses on the back side of the desert – or he would not have experienced the burning bush!
Paul in prison – Purposes for his suffering were to spread the gospel!

I’ve shared this testimony before and some of my stories specifically in IBBS Jonah, but it fits here as well.

My life was rough, but there’s many who had lives worse than mine. I had a very, very difficult ability in pushing for things or believing things that I believed were God’s call for me because I had no one in my life that actually was hearing God’s call and following it. I didn’t know how to embrace God’s calling!

So when I was told to go to Ohio State University for art and music and English, because of varying scholarships for the different schools, I told God He didn’t know what he was talking about, I wasn’t good enough for college. I joined the Navy. I want to get this very clear. I joined the United States Navy in direct opposition to what I knew God wanted me to do. At the time, I was attending churches, I was attending youth groups, I was attending Bible study. My life had gotten very rough in my senior year of high school, and I could not see any way that I could go to college. So I decided (I DECIDED) that I should go in the Navy to get an education and to learn a trade and to serve my country. Also to be clear, I don’t think the serving my country was where I was wrong. Where I was wrong was knowing God’s direction for me, and having probably half a dozen Bibles and even more Bible studies available to me to tell me how to hear God’s voice, and I told God no. I TOLD GOD NO! that is the error, the mistake, the sin. In Jonah, I talk about what happened.

If you look at Moses and the burning bush and God telling him that he is being sent to deliver his people, Moses says “I can’t speak send somebody else!”

If we look at Jonah, which I did in itty bitty Bible study about Jonah, Jonah said “no I’m not going to Nineveh!”

In both of these guys’ lives, God used some very interesting techniques to get their attention. We all know Jonah was thrown over the side of the boat and was swallowed by a fish and was spit up on the shores of Nineveh.

What did God use for Moses? Well for one his brother Aaron showed up having walked all the way across the desert and he finds Moses whom the Pharaoh wanted Dead! There’s also the little thing where Moses is almost being killed on his way back and God speaks to Zipporah who circumcises her sons and throws the foreskins at Moses and says “a bloody husband out art.”

If there was any doubt of the seriousness of God’s call for Moses or Jonah, that would get their attention.
Me, well, I ended up paralyzed from the waist down after a fall the third day of boot camp. I still struggle with the physical ramifications of that choice! Kind of like Jacob walking with a limp because he wrestled with God.

There is a history book that we had when our children were being homeschooled that shared how history when looked at from above from the big picture, can be seen as the varying ways God uses the wicked to orchestrate his greater plan.

Providential History
disclaimer – I do not get any benefit for sharing an amazon link.

One such example is Nazi Germany and the extermination of Jews.
If there had not been such a horrid Event that was documented by photographs and newsreels, the global mentality would not have been such that they would have the outcry to create the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel being reestablished is a crucial point in the Fulfillment of the end time prophecies. The whole aspect of what was done to the Jews was horrific. I don’t know what the spiritual status was of the Jews in the way that we know by God’s word back in the time of Saul and David and Solomon and Josiah and Hezekiah. But I do know that this one event caused sympathy for this one nationality and everyone agreed to the creation of the nation of Israel.

Why does God allow evil? Rabi Ravi Zacharias explains this so well in his answer to Gun violence.

Another of his messages is How could an all-powerful, all-loving God allow evil to exist?

For me, there are two key verses…

Habakkuk 2:4 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
4 Look, his ego is inflated;[a]
he is without integrity.
But the righteous one will live by his faith.[b]

and

Habakkuk 2:20 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
20 But the Lord is in His holy temple;
let everyone on earth
be silent in His presence.
But the Lord is in His holy temple;
let everyone on earth
be silent in His presence.

In honor of the three Hebrew children, I’m going to put Even If by Mercy Me here again.

And this is a reminder for us!

The history of this hymn story is huge.

Hi!
My hope in the midst of despair and my joy in the face of depression is because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. If you do not have one, or are not sure you will join him in heaven, please check out these links.

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

Copyrights and Legal-eze
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My prayer – 2018 day 4/100

Day has come
The night is gone,
My will to live
Today is strong.

My children hurt,
And so I burn
With desire to help.
To the Lord I turn.

Please be with them,
In all their needs,
For them, O Lord,
To You, please lead.

Remind them of
The verses true
That in their heart
Do speak of you.

Declare to them
That you are near,
And to their prayers,
You listen and hear.

Repentance, Lord,
Is always new,
Because we sin,
And disappoint you.

So day by day,
We have to start,
And end to say,
Please cleanse my heart.

Please draw me near
And hold me close,
For I cannot touch
Those that I love.

But you, O Lord,
Do reach near and far,
In your hands you do hold,
Them, as from the start.

Their children, too,
I must remind,
Are declared for YOU,
To love and to bind.

Sickness and wounds,
And financial burdens,
Are things you handled,
On your earthly sojourn.

You promised your Word
Would heal and provide,
And draw all my children,
Back to your side.

My husband, dear Lord,
The one you have given,
Is struggling, too,
With the trial you have given.

Please touch his heart,
his head his body,
And give us the wisdom
To trust in you wholly.

My heart is filled
With worry and fear,
My head is filled with
What ifs, and tears.

I love you Lord,
And I know you love me,
And I know that you love
My whole family tree.

I pray this prayer,
In Jesus’ name,
And I give over my fear,
To one and the same.
(c)2018 MCWildman

 

Jim & Christi 2017

 

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

I want to thank

for the ability to search the Bible online.

Some artwork is from me – ChristArtist. It is copyrighted – by me. Please do not share it without my permission.
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There are many organizations that support children and families. Here is one that we are blessed to be a part of. Please consider sponsoring a child – the life you change could be your own.

Itty Bitty Bible Study – Ruth 1

My thoughts for the Itty Bitty Bible Study group on Facebook.

Ruth 1

First is the background for the Story of Ruth!

Ruth 1:1-2
1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

  • Famine.
  • With two sons.
  • And no hope.
  • This was not supposed to be a permanent decision! “For a while”.
  • But the plans did not happen as they had planned!

3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.

How many mothers plan for their husband to die before them, much less, leave them with TWO sons?

4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

TEN years – this is such a drop in a bucket in a life. Yet, so much happened so fast in Naomi’s life! Famine, Husband dies, two sons die – and in the middle of this, her sons marry outside of the faith! Nothing is looking right for Naomi!

6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

About now, I’d be thinking – “Now what if I’d stayed in Bethlehem in the first place??? Would Elimelek still be here? What about my two sons? Would I have righteous daughters-in-law?”
I would be scared to take the road back to the land of Judah, but, I’d be scared not to! I’d be thinking I need to start all over, and maybe I can find some family that will help me out. There’s laws in Israel that take care of widows!

The thing is, she had TWO daughters-in-law!

“Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

These girls had been her daughters for about 10 years. They shared grief. They apparently did not provide children for her sons, but, they loved her. And she loved them enough to want to set them free, free to their own homes, with their own families, with their own faith. Free to have a new life.

Orpah said ok, but Ruth said NO WAY!

Ruth’s Song!

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Where you go I will go, and
where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and
your God my God.
17 Where you die I will die, and
there I will be buried.
May the Lord deal with me,
be it ever so severely,
if even death separates you and me.”
18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

Why was Ruth so determined? Did she not have a home to go back to? Or had she seen the faith of Namoi, and decided to hook her wagon to Naomi’s God? This verse has been used in marriage ceremonies for generations, and yet, it is the statement of a young woman for her MOTHER-IN-LAW! One that may not have approved of her in the beginning. One that had nothing to offer her, and yet, Ruth devoted herself to the care of her mother-in-law. This is beautiful. This was my standard for my relationship with MY mother-in-law, though things didn’t work out as I’d hoped. This is a beautiful example of Love…selfless love(and I don’t mean that I was an example!). This should be our example, our goal, for our relationship with our mother-in-law. Or, just to be like Ruth!

19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Depression takes on many forms. Grief can lead to depression, and grief upon grief upon grief is hard to overcome. In addition to her husband and sons, she had also lost a daughter, even though she’d given her the freedom to go. She returned to Bethlehem with nothing to show for leaving. The famine in her heart was far greater than the famine that was in the land when they left.

22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Famine – is it WRONG to go somewhere else during a famine?
Abraham when to Egypt – to escape a famine.
Joseph called his family to come to Egypt during a famine.
Is it wrong to try to get away from trials? We are promised a way of escape. (1 Cor 10:13)

Why are there famines?
In several instances, famine is a judgement.
Even in Judgement – famine is utilized by God to MOVE people!

Psalm 33:18-22
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, 19To deliver their soul from deathAnd to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. 21For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name.

Psalm 37:18-19
The LORD knows the days of the blameless, And their inheritance will be forever. 19They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, And in the daysof famine they will have abundance.

In this case, whether Ebimielech was lacking in faith, scared, or actually heard from the Lord to go to Moab – this choice laid into motion a Moabitess as a the grandmother of King David, and an ancestor to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah 29:11 says

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And
Jeremiah 29:12 says:

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

It would seem that in my life, sometimes God allows famines to move me to my knees!
He has a plan for me.

  • But I need to get on board,
  • call upon HIM,
  • come to HIM,
  • pray to HIM –
  • humble myself….

1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time

James 4:7-10
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

  • Naomi is humbled.
  • Naomi has cried out to God.
  • Naomi has returned to the place of her birth, and the place of the birth of her faith.
  • God will lift her up!

Here is what I hear about my responsibility if I am in a famine:

James 1:2-8
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

If I truly believe what this book talks about, I believe that God has a plan, and that HE will orchestrate whatever needs to be done in order to help me make the proper choices for HIS good will in MY life.

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

I want to thank

for the ability to search the Bible online.

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Or choose to LIKE me on facebook, or other social media!
I’d love to stay in touch with you – we are working on email subscriptions…sign up! 
Soon, we will have a gallery for the art I have created by the hand of God.

There are many organizations that support children and families. Here is one that we are blessed to be a part of. Please consider sponsoring a child – the life you change could be your own.