Category: Wildman Journey (Page 4 of 86)

Having grown up near Lake Superior, I am familiar with the sound and fury of the waves breaking on the shores of the great lake.  Ps. 93 reminds us that God is “robed in majesty and is armed with strength.  The world stands firm and cannot be shaken” (v.1).  The Psalmist seems to describe his experience, “The floods have risen up, O Lord.  The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves” v.2).  But he can confidently declares, “But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore – the Lord above is mightier than these!” (v. 4).

One way to describe the state of our nation is that of flood waters breaking in all upon us.  It can be typified by the chaos and confusion that is felt due to the completing voices speaking loudly for our attention and allegiance.  The sheer noise of conflicting opinions will only increase. It seems that the storm of discontent, misfortune, and misinformation has suddenly crashed in upon our shores.  The storm has been a long time in coming. It causes fear, anger and resignation in the hearts of many.  It almost seems like there is a spiritual component orchestrating the chaos and confusion.  I am afraid that social media will only keep creating even more of a storm.  

What are followers of Jesus to do?  We certainly cannot go and hide from the sounds of “bad news.”  We must keep engaged by announcing in both word and deed the “good news” of Jesus and his kingdom.  While staying engaged we also have a hiding place from the storm. We read in Psalm 32:6 -7, “Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.  For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble.  You surround me with songs of victory.”

Men, the floodwaters of judgment could very well be ever increasing amidst the continual negative rhetoric being voiced by opposing voices.  Where in the chaos can one possibly hear “good news? Could it be in our present cultural condition, we are drifting further from the Lord, while worshiping the gods of our own making?  The confusion and uncertainty could be God’s warning,  allowing us to experience our own rebellion.  The Psalmist encourages us to “pray while there is still time.”  In other words, turn our hearts to the Lord and cry out for mercy.  The focus on the noise should not be our first concern.

In the midst of the present storm bearing down on our nation, the Psalmist offers us a lifeline.  The Lord is a “hiding place” able to protect us from trouble.  Not only a safe place, but also the assurance that we are surrounded with “songs of victory.”  The NET puts it this way:  “You surround me with shouts of joy from those celebrating deliverance.”  The Message is rather blunt.  “When all hell breaks loose and the dam burst, we’ll be on high ground, untouched.”  Men, we need to run for higher ground to be with others celebrating God’s victory in spite of the raising waters.

Later in the Psalm, the Message puts the advice of the Psalmist in blunt words. “Let me give you some good advice; I’m looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight: Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule that needs bit and bridle to stay on the track” (vs. 8-9).  Our loving Father is heaven looks us straight in the eye, warning us not to respond like an ornery horse or mule.  

“America and the West stand at a civilizational inflection point.”  These are the opening words in a guest article by Dr. John Seel at Aaron Renn’s blog.  “We are amid a 500-year historical geo-political inflection point,” observes Seel, “in which a Negative World is becoming an outright hostile world.”  

There are four primary shifts believers face;   Shift One: Christian to Post-Christian.  Our world is divorced from any reference to the sacred.  “We have shifted from societies based on fate and faith to one based on fiction.” What is distinctive today “is that it is a negation against all sacred orders and the verticals in authority that mediate the sacred to society….[this means] we cannot simply return to older approaches as they are no longer relevant to our cultural situation.”

Shift Two: Classical Liberalism to Nietzschean Nihilism ( Individual Rights to State Power).  “Social solidarity requires shared social beliefs.  When these are abandoned….. then politics naturally defaults and devolves to the will-to-power in a world where the leadership class believes in nothing…..This is the experiential definition of nihilism.”

Shift Three: Global West to Global East.  “The combined reality of these first two shifts is the growing global awareness of the spiritual and political demise of the West….The West is no longer seen as a desired model for the rest of the world.” The West has become the spiritual problem not the spiritual solution. “We are amid a global realignment that is lost on the State Department because it is blinded by our own Western spiritual corruption.

Shift Four. Enlightenment Rationalism to Post-Enlightenment Enchantment.  “We are rejecting forms of Enlightenment rationalism in favor of a more enchanted form of spirituality.”  There has been a rebirth of older and new forms of enchantment, such as neo-paganism and the occult.  Seel warns, “If we react to the rise of the occult with more rationalism, more courses of apologetics and worldview, more abstract dogmatism, we will miss an opportunity and be further marginalized culturally.”   

These changes in our world will soon change our lives.  Seel give three reasons.  Reason One: These realities are going to be  the context of discipleship for our children.   “We may be dead before the full weight of these shifts are felt culturally, but they will be the lived reality for our children and grandchildren.”

Reason Two: Our entire approach toward missions is going to have to change.  “The West represents the most strident global unreached people group……..Almost every ministry organization is going to have to learn to reframe, explore, and network their missional strategy.”  

Reason Three: These changes will greatly challenge our collective sense of identity.  We are going to experience tension between our political geographic citizenship and our spiritual citizenship in heaven.  “We’re going to have to develop a greater sensitivity to our Western and Enlightenment accomodation to the gospel.”  We need to have the orientation of being missionaries. 

Dr. Seel give this challenge: “We are as a Western Christian church at an historic inflection point.  We are at a point of decision.  To meet our moment, we will need the courage to face these realities, the humility to see God’s leading, and the discernment to balance innovation with historic orthodoxy.

Personally, I believe Dr. Seel is “spot on.”  Here is my challenge to men.  Reset your perspective on our nation.  Biblical beliefs are irrelevant,  in a culture where the last word is with the elites.  The West is the spiritual problem.  Yet there is a deep hunger for God.  Therefore, we must be motivated for the sake of our families.  Our nation is a mission field and we are now missionaries in a foreign land.  

The journey through my 80’s in retirement, I have found my main spiritual work has become the formation of my  own soul, that is, giving attention to the formation of my life in Christ.  I have become more comfortable resting in the mystery of my inner life, not depending on my understanding or experience.  The words of Paul in Colossians 3:3 have taken on new meaning for me.  “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”  As an evangelical protestant I have found both “soul food and spiritual nourishment” in the Christian spirituality of the Catholic Church, which is part of the “Great Tradition” going back to the earliest centuries of the Christian story.  I have discovered and tasted this rich spiritual vineyard, having been nourished by its rich spiritual fruit.  I thank God for this discovery. 

In these days of spiritual awareness and growth, Carmelite nun, Ruth Burrows has been a spiritual guide on my journey.  Some years ago I read her book, “Essence of Prayer.” Chapter four, “Prayer that is Jesus” made an impression in my spiritual awareness.  I found in Burrows, someone who was totally focused on Jesus.  This spoke to my Lutheran pietistic roots, with its focus on a warm hearted experience of Jesus.  She stated, “Only One has attained the Father and we can attain him only insofar as we allow ourselves to be caught up in Jesus, carried along by him.”  

She went on to say, “….we must die with Jesus: not of ourselves, or by ourselves, but ‘in him.’ I must enter into his death.  This death is a death to my self-centeredness and self-possession.  It is an ecstasy: a going right out of myself to belong to God.  This is the essence of faith.  I cannot achieve it myself; it is wrought by God and is the effect of mystical contact.  God reveals himself to the inmost depths of the self, but ‘no one can see God and live.'” Speaking of contemplation she plainly explains, “Ultimately, to be a contemplative means to  be holy, to be transformed into Jesus…..This profound communication of God cannot be known by our natural  faculties.”  Further she notes, “God’s direct communication and his transforming action must remain secret.  Only by their fruits will they be known: by a quality of life.”

One of the images from Burrows’ writing, that has been most helpful for me has been Paul’s words in Philippians 2:6-11, where the “Kenosis,” the emptying of Jesus, is described. “Who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave” (Phil 2:6-7).  Burrows encourages us to enter into Jesus’ experience as Jesus expresses his “yes” to the Father’s outpouring of love in and through his frail humanity.    

By faith, I find myself taking my place with Jesus on the cross.  I  continually release into Jesus all of my old nature.  As I enter into his death, I find my life being enfolded into Jesus, as He takes me to the Father.  I stand empty handed before the Father’s love.  Burrows has helped me see that I my identification with Jesus on the cross in the presence of the Father allows me to release unto him all my nothingness, poverty and emptiness.  I can experience God loving me, so that I might be able to love him, with the love I have received.    In Burrows words, “We come to Jesus with empty hands so we are able to let ourselves be loved.”   

M. Robert Mulholland Jr.’s book, “The Deeper Journey,” has a wonderful prayer in Chapter 4, entitled,  “Hidden with Christ in God.”  “Gracious and merciful God, whose cruciform love has plumbed the depths of my false self, awaken me from the pervasive bondage of my false self and enable me through the power of your indwelling Holy Spirit to be restored to wholeness in the image of Christ.  As I look into the nature of this Christ self, stir my heart to hunger and thirst for your transforming work in my life through the Holy Spirit, who with Christ lives and reigns with you. Amen.”

Men, as we deal with “the tiger in our tank” let us be thankful for the cruciform love of Christ present in the midst of our struggle. Our old, unregenerate self (the tiger),  does not conform to our new self in Christ.  When we enter into relationship with Christ we enter into his death (Rom. 6:3-6), but our old self dies a slow death.   “Living out this reality means a deep inner acknowledgment of our false self and a radical commitment to abandon our old way of living.”  Jesus’ death on our behalf is a demonstrates of God’s nature as cruciform love.  By His Spirit, He enters our false self, with cruciform love, to restore us in loving union with himself.  Our part is to  receive his love and allow the false self to be crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:19-20).

How the false and true self relate within us is a divine mystery.  “Christ dwells in the depths of our false self as the crucified one, yet at the same time as the risen Lord  and our new life, the Christ life (II Cor 4:6-7 & II Cor 4:10-11).”  In the cruciform experience we enter with the false self into Christ.  At the core of our false self, the cross exists for us.  As we embrace the cross in our false self, we release our false self to the cross,  allowing our old self to be nailed to the cross, so we might raised with Christ (Rom 8:10-11, Phil 3:10-11).  

Col 3:1-3 express this reality.   First, the resurrection life – “you have been raised with Christ.”  This  gives us a new mind set – “setting our hearts and minds on things above.” Verse 3 describes this reality as beyond  our natural understanding. “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  Our life is now hidden with Christ and grounded with Christ in God.  “In the cross God has entered the entirety of our false self and confirmed it dead and in the core of our deadness God planted Christ as the seed of new life in  living union with God.”  

Living in this new reality, we let go of the old and become attached to the new. Col. 3:9-ff describes this practice.  “Paul reminds us that our true self is being renewed by God – it is his work not ours.  Just as putting off our old nature is a matter of acknowledging its deadness and abandoning it……….. so putting on the new nature is a matter of acknowledging our life hidden with Christ in God, as we send the roots of our being deeply into God’s love for us.”

Men, our belovedness is revealed in God’s cruciform love for us in Christ. Even when we turn from God’s love and into our false self, God’s love continues to enfold us and indwell us, since his cruciform love is at the heart of our false self.  “Even when we are most alienated from God…..we are still beloved.”  The work is a mystery to us, but it is accomplished by our dying and be raised in Christ.

On a recent Sunday in our Sunday school class, our leader mentioning going to the local school board meeting. He told us about a conversation he had with one student.  The student revealed how many students were contemplating suicide.  That  comment struck me at a deep place in my heart.  I raised my hand and said it make me sad to think the condition of a large number of students in our school system has deteriorated to such a desperate state.  The blame rests with my generation. Instead of complaining about the condition of our youth, we need to share the “Good News” of Jesus with them.    

As I look back during the late 1940’s and 50’s, when I was growing up,  suicide was never on the minds of my buddies.  But today we have an environment in which fragile, insecure and deeply lonely students think about ending their lives.  This is black mark on our culture!    Research paints a picture of young students alone, despairing  and feeling hopeless.  As a nation we struggle with how to address this condition.

I was reminded of a passage in Amos, which I have been wanted to include in my blog.  This discuss regarding teen suicide in America gives me the opportunity to share the words of  prophet Amos.  “‘The time is surely coming,’ says the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine on the land – not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord.  People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord. but they will not find it.  Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day.'” (Amos 8:11-13).  

What can we learn from these words of the prophet.  First, the warning  of what could happen in our day.  We need to pay heed to our moral and spiritual condition.  If we neglect nurturing young people by not sharing Jesus, who is the “bread of life” we will have to face the consequences of starving young people,  who hunger for real  food.  Secondly, God will bring about a famine.  There is  plenty of physical bread and water, but little guidance in helping young people to find the “bread of life” and “living water.” They will experience spiritual famine, as they wander in a modern spiritual waste land.  

Thirdly, we will see young people “staggering” and “wandering” all across our nation searching for a clear word from God, in whose image they were created.  I picture a whole generation being influenced by those we call “influencers” in the social media.  The conflicting messages  only distort reality and cause the young to live in an illusionary world – hunger and dissatisfied.  

Fourthly, there is a desperate search for some grasp of transcendence and heavenly voice. saying “you are loved.”  But as the prophet warned, “they will not find it.”  Like students in my local school system, kids live in a self contained bubble that is suffocating their sense of being.  They really are crying out, but not finding what they really are looking for in our culture.

Finally these are some of the brightest and best.  Amos warns us, “Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day.”  In other words, normal, healthy, young people will end up having thoughts of taking their own life.  

Ecclesiastes gives this advice, “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator.  Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, ‘Life is not pleasant anymore.'” (Eccl. 12:1).

I read an informative review of a book for men entitled, “Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 lies that keep men from becoming fully alive.”  I was intrigued with the premise of the book.  “There’s a shadow that’s settled over the hearts of men today.  Masculinity is in crisis.  Critiques about the dangers of toxic masculinity and the abuses of patriarchal systems have grown louder than ever.  The very notions of masculinity and manhood are under attack.  In response to cultural shifts, some have doubled down on old stereotypes in ways that just add to the conflict and confusion.” As a result many men are confused and in the dark about manhood.

When did talk about masculinity became controversial it is hard to pinpoint ?  Certainly in the last decade,  men have moved into the darkness and shadows regarding their maleness.  Using metaphors such as “fighting shadows” and being “shadow men” gives the impression that men are confused about modern masculinity.  The authors Jefferson Bethke and Jon Tyson talk about the dark places as shadows in the lives of men.  They list lust, worldly ambition, loneliness, shame, apathy and despair.  

The book looks at external explanations for the crisis of masculinity.  “Men face problems because they believe cultural lies.”  The authors blame the shadowy lies on sin and Satan.  But they are also critical of the church.  “Unfortunately, much of what is taught at church about masculinity is so theoretical that it doesn’t seem to work in real life.  In the absence of effective mentors and models, not to mention the lack of margin to really work on ourselves, we just drift to the edge – out of the light.” 

While it is helpful to be aware of how the lies of our secular culture keeps men in the shadows, we need to be careful not to point the finger away from our responsibility before the Lord.  Men, indeed, feel beaten up by a hostile culture.  They need support and especially affirmation as men.  To help them interpret the negative message they are continually facing in the culture,  men will need help in being a godly man in a hostile culture.  The authors maintain, “the greatest problem facing men today isn’t our culture or the church; it’s our need for repentance and submission to Christ. What’s wrong with the world is also what’s wrong inside each of us.”

Richard Rohr is known for accusing men of “shadow boxing”  He observes, “It takes so much energy and effort to suppress what we find unacceptable in ourselves that we can have very little energy left for anything else.”  We end up shadow boxing when we place “a great portion of our unacceptable self in exile.”    

It takes courage for a man to face his real self, and not be afraid of those misconceptions of maleness internalized by the culture.  Rohr gives this warning, “We need to acknowledge, forgive, and heal all that lurks in our shadow, or we will continue to distort reality by projecting all that we hate from within ourselves onto other people and the world around us.”

In our day there is a need for men to be gathering in support groups so as to help one another with how we distort reality by avoiding the unacceptable parts of our story.  AA as a saying that speaks to this condition: “You are only as sick as your secrets.” A lot of the male influencers in the media have become well versed in projecting their shadows on younger, unsuspecting men, who are struggling with their shadow.  We need what Rohr calls, “male mothers.”  These are older mentor who can name the shadow-boxing taking place.

Anthony B. Bradley has an interesting article on the hoodie worn by young men, entitled, “Hoodie Nation; The official uniform of the crisis of boys and men.”  He notes the hoodie, “has become the all-purpose, all-season expression of conformist, homogeneous masculinity.”  It has become a symbol of resignation.  It’s like the uniform of boys and young men in hiding.  It’s a signal that reads, ‘”Do Not Disturb.”  It has become an easy way for young men to send a message when they pull it over their heads: “Leave me alone.” Wearing a hoodie says, “I Don’t want to be bothered.”  The hoodie nation is, “telling the story of a nation of hurting boys and men.”

Bradley refers to Dr. Karen Horney, who describes  “basic anxiety.”  This is “a pervasive feeling of isolation and helplessness in a potentially hostile world.”  Bradley theorizes many boys grow up in “the parental environment that creates the conditions for children to look at their futures being afraid of uncertainty and discomfort.  Today, it’s nearly impossible to escape childhood without some level of fear about the future thanks to what children experience at home and on social media.”  The result often is moving away from people (resignation or detachment). 

Bradley believes “the crisis today for young men and boys is largely one of resignation.  Boys and men are checking out, responding to basic anxiety by withdrawing from social interactions, emotional investment, and having demands placed upon them.”  Resignation is really an act of resistance.  The resigned man according to Horney, “is a composite of self-sufficiency, independence, self-contained serenity, freedom from desires and passions, stoicism, and the idealization of noncommitment.” 

Bradley sees this crisis symbolized by “the fashion choice of pulling a hoodie over one’s head.” “The hoodie,” in Bradley’s view, “allows for easy detachment, self-sufficiency, apathy, isolation, and cynicism….”  It’s a way of saying, “I just want to be left alone to do whatever I want, on my terms.”  The hoodie is a symbol of being resigned from the expectations and demands others. 

Bradley wonders when the crisis will end for boys and men.  He ponders, “when boys and men are free to build genuine connections, develop emotional resilience and spiritual confidence, find meaning and purpose, feel needed and respected, and challenge the beliefs that underpin their resignation and detachment, we may see them moving away from checking out.”   

There will be a shift when, “apathy ends, when striving for achievement and effort returns for its own sake and to serve others and when enthusiastic goal-setting and future planning take hold.”  Then hoodies may fade.  They could be replaced by attire that  “encourages being seen, known, admired respected and sought after.”  Bradley notes that engagement is the opposite of resignation.  This is “where individuals actively participate in social interactions, pursue relationships, and invest emotionally, spiritually, and professionally.”   

Here are some takeaways from this article.  First, men need to beware of “basic anxiety” in men of all ages.  Culture is not supportive in helping  emotionally “wounded” men.  Men need to  find support groups for males.  Secondly, we each need to evaluate our level of engagement, reaching beyond our own “silos of protection.”  Thirdly, what is my equivalent of “the hoodie.”  What do I do to protect myself in an unfriendly culture.  And finally,  this article cries out for older men to be available to younger men, with  the pain and hurt they carry in their masculine souls.

Men, take Ecclesiastes 4:12 to heart.  Don’t be a “lone ranger.”  “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.  Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken”  

Daniel Taylor, while accepting the increasing  list of names given to the trends in the confusing expressions of contemporary Christian spirituality, suggests another name.  He notes, “The labels have proliferated: nones, dones, nonverts, New Atheists, unaffiliated, unchurched, dechurched, and exvangelicals, and the like.  I would like to add one more: yearners.”  Taylor chooses to see yearners not as skeptics.  “They live,” observes Taylor,” in the borderlands between committed faith and full disbelief – just inside the border or just outside, only God knows which.”  They are restless, while often enduring psychological and spiritual pain.  Taylor states, “yearners are earnestly searching for a meaningful relationship with transcendence.” He quotes Blaise Pascal, “Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied.”

Yearners fall into two categories: First, committed yearners, who affirm faith in God but struggle with doubts and secondly, uncommitted yearners, who cannot commit to faith but still believe in God.  The key component is  each category is commitment.  There will be the usual doubts.  “For many believers,” Taylor maintains, “faith is the melody and doubt, the counterpoint – sometimes harmonious and sometimes dissonant. Genuine faith is compatible with doubt and hard questions, yet it is not compatible with a lasting unwillingness to commit.”

Taylor points to,  yearner-poet Anne Sexton, as an example of a  struggling yearner.  Referring to the title of one of Sexton’s books of poetry, “The awful Rowing Toward God,” Taylor focuses on the word, “toward”- “a rowing toward God, yearning for God, and for the embrace and restoration of God, but always ‘toward.”‘ A few years before her death, she said, “There is a hard-core part of me that believes, and there’s this little critic in me that believes nothing.”   

This is a description of many spiritually minded men in our churches, struggling with the cultural label of “toxic masculinity. In their rowing toward God, men who are yearners “need to be shown understanding and compassion as well as encouragement to accept the risks and rewards of commitment to the God of the Bible.”

“The Christian church can do better by its yearners.  Taylor gives the following suggests.  First,  change the vocabulary. Doubter, “suggests a disease that can be ‘cured’ through proper ‘treatment.'”   Secondly, “before you ‘solve’ their problems, respect their stories.  Thirdly, treat a yearner as a Thomas, not as a Judas.  “Thomas stayed committed despite his understandable doubts…….A yearner seeks to be a committed Thomas.  Fourthly, “live out the Bible that you say you believe.  Consider the way you live could be the evidence of faith a yearner is seeking.”  

What can we learn from Taylor’s description of a “yearner” in relating to men and their spiritual journey.  Men who are “yearners” have a desire to know God at a soulful level, beyond  believing and doing.  Does God  really live within me or am I looking at the Father from a detached distance.  Yearner have a hunger to come home to a safe place with the Father. 

We must remember “rowing toward God” will necessarily  mean having doubts as a man makes his way home to the Father.  Men in the church will often hide their doubts out of shame or fear of rejection.  We need to honor and respect the stories of other men.  This means paying  loving attention to their stories. We need male “soul mate.” to journey with them. May the “yearners” see love in us.  “No one has ever seen God.  But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (I John 4:12).        

“Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, ‘Is this idol that I’m holding in my hand a lie'” (Is. 44:20 NLT).  I just read this in my morning devotions.  In this section of Isaiah (44:6-20), the prophet is depicting the foolishness of idols.  The section begins with the Lord declaring, “I am the First and the Last; there is no other God” (44:6).  God then challenges the people to prove him wrong.  “How foolish,” God observes, “are those who manufacture idols.”  Being even more direct, God says, “Such stupidity and ignorance!  Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see.  Their minds are shut, and they cannot think” (44:18).  

Do we have idols in our lifestyle that seem plain foolish in the eyes of our Lord?  Could our devotion to the use of modern idols point to our stupidity and ignorance?  Are we so blind that we cannot see what we are doing?  Are our minds so closed that we do not realize our devotion to modernity?  Could we hold in our hands an actual idol?  Could we be believing a lie when we can’t live without an i- phone?   If we think of devotion to an idol as the time we spend with it, how much we depend on it, and the almost addictive lifestyle habit the I-phone creates, then I would say “the I-Phone has become one of the chief idols in our day.”

Men, living in the modern world,  have to examine their lives, asking themselves if their I-phone have become an idol:

First and foremost, the I-phone has severely distorted our view of reality.  It can easily shape reality, from God as Creator and Redeemer of reality, to that which is formed by human beings in rebellion against the reality of a creator God.  Most damaging is how human life is portrayed.  The young, suffer the most, living with thoughts of suicide under the deception of not being created in the image of God for a loving relationship with him.

Second, simply put – because of the distortion of reality the I-phone is loaded with “misinformation.”  It is a powerful tool that “the father of lies” uses to spread his “lies.”  Jesus declared, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8: 44). Our arch enemy will use every instrument at his disposal in his attempt to destroy humans made in the image of God.  The internet has become a primary tool of the enemy for fabricating lies.  Misinformation is really lying.  Satan will promote lying to spread his agenda of hate and anger.

Thirdly, the I-phone we all hold in our hands is a effective means of “propaganda.” It will take a concerted effort on the part of each of us not to be persuaded by the distorted views of reality on the web. Beware of how “the father of lies” can us the internet.

In Revelation, the devil is described as a dragon. the antichrist.   In Rev. 13, the spirit of the antichrist symbolized by the beast coming out of the sea having political power and the beast coming out of the earth with the ability to perform miracles. “The dragon gave the first beast his own power and throne and great authority” (Rev. 13:2). The second beast, “exercised all the authority of the first beast” (Rev.13:12). He will do “astounding miracles” by which “he deceived all the people who belong to this world” (13:14).    

Men beware of the enemy’s cunning ability to distort reality and spread lies over the web.   

The final words of Habakkuk’s prophesy are a prayer (Hab. 3:16-19).  The prophet had begun with a cry of complaint, “How long, O Lord, must I cry for help” (1:2). God then revealed to him how he was working mightily in his day in an most unexpected manner.  Habakkuk vowed to keep watch for a move of God. “I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint” (2:1).

He ends by rejoicing in the Lord. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour” (Hab. 3:19).  “Like Habakkuk, we need to start where he begins in his dialogue with God: “How long….Why? (1:2-3).  Like Habakkuk, we need to reach the place where we can quietly say, “though….Yet I will rejoice in the Lord (3:17-18)…….Questioning God is acceptable, but refusing to trust him is our downfall, for whatever the circumstances, personal grief or national disaster, the just God, the sovereign Lord gives strength to the righteous person of faith.” (BST).  

In verse 16 Habakkuk describes the impact on his awareness of God’s activity.  His heart is pounding, his lips quiver and his legs tremble.   He is deeply troubled by the prospects of God’s coming  judgement.  “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.” (3:16).  He knows he will be living in the midst of God’s judgment.  

Habakkuk’s view of the coming days had now been deeply informed by God speaking to him.  When we experience the prospects of God’s judgment on our nation, with a fervent belief for God to will bring revival, we can experience, “deep agony of spirit for the state of God’s people and of the nation, fervent intercession for the intervention of God in saving power, increasing awareness of the inevitability of judgment and of the human suffering which accompanies it, and intense person engagement with God’s word for the present situation” (BST).    

He has no idea how revival would happen.  In desperation he  cried out to God.  God gave Habakkuk assurance of his presence in the culture, but not in the way anticipated by the prophet.  Habakkuk had prayed, “In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by.  And in your anger, remember your mercy” (3:2).  The prophet did not know how his prayer would be answered. 

He only could wait.  “Habakkuk has been transformed from an impatient prophet into a calm and expectant one.” Earlier Habakkuk had been told to wait for God’s will to be accomplished. Habakkuk had reminded God of past revivals. “I have heard of all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works” (3:2b).

But in the present, it did not look very hopeful. But God was at working in history to bring about his purpose, even as he has been using the Babylonians. “If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.  It will not be delayed” (2:3b).  The prophet was encouraged by God in his waiting. “But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive” (2:4 Message).   

Men, this a vital lesson for us to learn.  As we pray and seek God’s will, it might seem that God is not at work in our culture.  God can change our attitude from lament to hopeful praise, knowing that God will at the right time bring revival.  Habakkuk ends with praise “yet I will rejoice in the Lord!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! (3:18).