The Daily Readings for SUNDAY, September 2, 2018 - Fifthteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Tradition of the Elders
Mark 7:1-23

The Daily Readings

SUNDAY, September 2, 2018 - Fifthteenth Sunday after Pentecost

(Revised Common Lectionary Year B)

Greeting

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

~ Phillipians 1:2

Prayer of the Day (Collect)

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Confession and Forgiveness

Trusting God's promise of forgiveness, let us confess our sins against God and one another.

Eternal God our creator, in you we live and move and have our being. Look upon us, your children, the work of your hands. Forgive us all our offenses, and cleanse us from proud thoughts and empty desires. By your grace draw us near to you, our refuge and our strength; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lessons

Old Testament

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Moses Commands Obedience
4:1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.

6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children—

The Psalm

Psalm 15 Domine, quis habitabit?
1 Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? *
who may abide upon your holy hill?

2 Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, *
who speaks the truth from his heart.

3 There is no guile upon his tongue;
he does no evil to his friend; *
he does not heap contempt upon his neighbor.

4 In his sight the wicked is rejected, *
but he honors those who fear the Lord.

5 He has sworn to do no wrong *
and does not take back his word.

6 He does not give his money in hope of gain, *
nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

7 Whoever does these things *
shall never be overthrown.

The Epistle

James 1:17-27
1:17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Hearing and Doing the Word
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The Gospel

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The Tradition of the Elders
7:1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
    teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Here ends the Lessons

Click HERE to read today's Holy Gospel Lesson message

The Apostle's Creed

We believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ ore Lord. Amen.

Blessing

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

~ Numbers 6:24-26

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.
... there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

"Am I A Religious Or A Christian Person" The Sermon for SUNDAY, September 2, 2018 - Fifthteenth Sunday after Pentecost

"Am I A Religious Or A Christian Person"

The Holy Gospel comes to us this morning from Mark the 7th chapter, beginning at the 1st verse.

7:1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ 8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” [...] 14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” [...] 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Grace and peace to your from our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

One of my favorite plays is Fiddler on the Roof. In the opening scene, you hear that famous music and you see a fiddler on a roof, then Tevye walks onto the stage, points to the fiddler and say: "A fiddle on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask, why do we stay here, it’s so dangerous? We stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in a word -- TRADITION ----. Because of our traditions, we’ve kept our balance, for many, many years. Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything -- how we eat, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl. This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this traditions start? I’ll tell you -- I don’t know. But it’s a tradition. Because or our traditions everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do."

Then the whole village comes out and sing that haunting song, Tradition.

Traditions for Tevye was important even though he didn’t know why or where the traditions came from. They were important. This fact is seen throughout the whole play. Tevye was a religious man in that he kept the traditions even when they did more harm than good.

I began this sermon talking about traditions and Tevye, because that is exactly what our gospel lesson is about this morning, keeping the traditions of the elders. As it says in our Gospel lesson: And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?”

Then Jesus goes on to point our to theses men there is a difference in traditions or religion. Jesus says that is what he came for. Jesus came to establish a relationship with Him, so one could worship the Father not the traditions of the past. Being religious means it is an end in itself. Christianity is a means to an end, a relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the difference between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisees turned what was suppose to be worship of God into an end in and of itself. They were religious for religious sake.

But Jesus is saying worship of God is a means to an end, a relationship with Him plus a relationship with your fellow human beings. So the question can be asked of us. Am I a religious person, where religion is an end in and of itself. Or am I a Christian person where I am led by a relationship of Jesus and God and my neighbor.

Let us explore that question in the next few moments.

We must understand the Jewish law that they were working from. The law as given to the nation of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy and Leviticus. But it was given in broad principals so that the people might have some freedom in interpreting the law for themselves. But about 500 years before Jesus was born, a group of people emerged, the scribes, who were interested in upholding the letter of the law as they saw it. So they developed their own oral law, or the law of the elders, to put exactness into these broad principles. Over the course of time, the broad principles of the law became lost to the exact rules and regulations that were being poured out by these scribes.

For example, the hand washing law became something like this: Before one ate, one must pour 1 1/2 egg-shells of water over his hands, but not just in any manner, but in this prescribed manner. He must hold the hands with the finger-tips upwards and pour the water over them until it ran down his writs; he must then cleanse the palm of each hand with the fist of the other; he must then hold the hands with the fingertips pointing downwards and pour water on them from the wrists downwards so that ran off at the fingertips. This was not a matter of hygiene; it was a matter of ritual, even if the hands were spotless it must be done. To do it was to please God, to fail to do it was to sin.

Religion became to the scribes and the Pharisees an end to itself. Jesus says to the scribes and Pharisees "You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”

Jesus saw that the law was being used to turn people away from God by being so exact, instead of it being used to bring people to God to see his love and mercy. Jesus goes on to say that it's not what is outside of a person that makes that person unclean, but it’s what is in his/her heart that matters. He says: “Hear me, all of you, and understand:

15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

Jesus saw that religion was being used to escape the true religion, the worship of God. The religious leaders were using the law of men to gain respect, position and wealth over the people. They used the law to have power over people, instead of showing the people how the law can help them to find God in their lives. Jesus was freeing the people from the tyranny of the externals, and giving them a freedom to live with the law of love in their hearts.

Religion became an end into its self. And there are people today that turn religion into an end, not a relationship with Jesus.

As Pastor John Brokhoff says in his book Faith Alive, "the pietest are long on their rituals but short on their performance of what they claim to believe."

Many pieties can talk well, but as seen in this fable they don’t perform.

"A man went to heaven and to his surprise saw a shelf covered with human tongues. The heavenly guide told him, ’These are the tongues of people who spoke sweet words without virtue, who said what was right but never did anything to follow their words, so their tongues heave come to heaven and the rest of them is somewhere else.’"

It is only a means in and of itself, you talk about what your are going to do and not follow through.

Like Tevye, many people don’t know why they follow certain rituals. It is Tradition.

But Christianity, a Christian person has a religion that is not an end in itself. But it is a means to an end. It is service to God and human kind. A Christian is one who is not only a hearer but a doer of the word. Prayer must end in service. Worship leads to service. Laws are made to help and serve other.

Religion as practiced by Jesus meant for people to come into a relationship with Him. That relationship would lead to a stronger relationship with the Father. Religion as seen in the life of Jesus leads somewhere. It leads to Jesus. It leads to the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. Being a Christian is being as Dr. Martin Luther would like to say: "Christ-like in all areas of life."

For example: "A downtown business man liked to have his shoes shined every day. He always had the same little boy do it. The shoe shine boy always did a good job. One day the man asked him, ’How come you are so conscientious about your work?’

The boy was quite pleased with the compliment. In answer to the question, he looked up and said, ’Mister, I’m a Christian and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if Jesus Christ were wearing them.’"

The little shoe shine boy knew of the special relationship he had with Jesus. He knew doing his best was following the love Jesus had for him. He knew of that special relationship he had with Jesus, relationship established on love not law.

He knew that Jesus puts each person in a special relationship with himself. For God enjoys, I think, the way each of us use the resources he has given us to worship him and to serve him through our neighbor. In some ways, this freedom to live in the principle of the law is more difficult than living by the letter of the law. Living by the letter of the law is easier because it is all spelled out in black and white. I don’t have to take any responsibility for my own actions, if I follow the law I can say it is good law, if I cannot follow the law I can say it is a bad law.

But when I am given the freedom to express the principle of the law in my own way, then I have to take the full responsibility for my actions. I stand alone before God. I cannot blame anyone or anything for my failure to act, or for my failure for acting wrong. I have a greater responsibility, but I think it is in that very freedom to act and to fail that I am more confident of the grace of God in my life. For when I fail, I know his forgiveness is there for me. When I succeed, I know it is by the grace of God, the love that God has for me that has seen me through. I stand alone and naked by myself in the freedom of the law to worship God in my uniqueness. Then serve him by serving my neighbor. It is God and I in the world together.

Living by the principle of the law, means living by the love of Christ. I have freedom to risk, freedom to fail, freedom to live in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Love rules the relationship.

A closing story sums up what we have been trying to say;

Young Tommy was saying his bedtime prayers as his mother was listening. She heard him say, "if I should die before I woke . . . If I should die . . ."

"Wait a minute," said Tommy as he scrambled to his feet and ran downstairs. Within a short time he was back; dropping to his knees again, he continued the prayer where he had left off.

When Tommy was safely tucked into bed, his mother asked why he had to run downstairs. He said: ’Mom, I thought about what I was saying. I had to stop and put all of Danny’s wooden soldiers on their feet. I had turned them on their heads just to see how mad he’d be in the morning. If I should die before I wake, I wouldn’t want him to find ’em like that."

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Seeking God?

Click HERE to find out more about how to have a personal

relationship with Jesus Christ

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. Sermon written by Rev. Tim Zingale.
It’s a tradition!

The Morning Prayer for SUNDAY, September 2, 2018

Sunday morning prayer

Lord on this special day, I run into Your loving arms. May Sunday be a celebration, filled with thankfulness, where I connect with the presence of Heaven, seek Your beauty and goodness, and cherish special family time together. Come fill my heart afresh with Your love. May it overflow with Heaven's bounty, moving through this rest day and into the week ahead.

Lord on this special day, I run into Your arms. Spend cherished time with family, and find shelter in Your palm. May Sunday be a celebration, full up to the brim, with Heaven's promise ringing loud, and Your love flowing in.

Amen

Verse of the Day for SUNDAY, September 2, 2018

Mark 7:15 (NIV) Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

Read all of Mark 7

Listen to Mark 7

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Un dia a la Vez - Disfruta la vida

Disfruta la vida

¡Despierten, arpa y lira! ¡Haré despertar al nuevo día! [...] No [...] pongan su esperanza en las riquezas [...] sino en Dios, que nos provee de todo en abundancia para que lo disfrutemos.

~ 1 Timoteo 6:17 (NVI)

Creo que nunca sobrarán este tipo de libros llamados de inspiración o motivación, ya que necesitamos escuchar a cada momento cosas como estas. Todo se debe a que nada nos resulta suficiente para ser felices. Por cualquier asunto, por pequeño que sea, dejamos que se dañe nuestro día y nos preocupamos.

Dios hizo la vida para disfrutarla. La hizo para el deleite tuyo y mío. Los planes originales del Creador eran que viviéramos en el paraíso. Y no fue así por nuestra recordada Eva.

La mujer se dejó convencer por la serpiente y terminó haciendo lo que le prohibió Dios. Luego está Adán que, en vez de pararse firme y decir no, también cayó en la tentación y le falló a su Creador. A partir de allí comenzó el pecado.

Sin embargo, Dios en su amor nos ha permitido conocerle. Ha perdonado nuestros pecados y nos da el mejor regalo de todos: La vida eterna en su presencia.

Seamos conscientes de esto y no permitamos que las pequeñas cosas acaben con nuestra alegría.

Un Día a la Vez Copyright © by Claudia Pinzón
Creo que nunca sobrarán este tipo de libros llamados de inspiración o motivación, ya que necesitamos escuchar a cada momento cosas como estas.

Standing Strong Through the Storm - RECONCILIATION IN THE MIDST OF PAIN

RECONCILIATION IN THE MIDST OF PAIN

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)

The first of September is a memorial day for the people of Beslan in North Ossetia as they remember the awful events of September first 2004. More than one thousand children and adults were taken hostage in School Number One and two days later more than three hundred and thirty of them were killed in the violence.

Memorial services are held and memories of the nightmare overwhelm everyone in town. Beslan’s cemetery is unique; it has the youngest average age in the world (7-12 years old). The sight of so many graves of children deeply affects any visitor. One said, “People who do not live in Beslan have often forgotten the tragedy already, but as soon as you enter the city, you cannot escape the atmosphere of grief and deep mourning that is still enveloping the city.”

When the tragedy occurred at School Number One, almost every family in Beslan was affected. A peculiarity in Ossetia is that nearly everybody is related to one another, so the catastrophe has affected many people in a personal way. Even those who were watching television during the event suffered diseases, heart attacks and strokes.

Pastor Taimuraz Totiev and his wife Ria had their five children at school; only the eldest daughter, Madina, survived the attack. Their four other children, Larissa, Luba, Albina and Boris, were buried on September 7, 2004.

The pastor’s brother, Sergey Totiev, also had children at the school. Sergey and his wife Bela buried two of their children on the same day: Dzerassa (15) and Anna (9). Their son Azamat lost his sight in one of his eyes and is having surgery to save his other eye.

Both men are pastors of the Beslan Baptist Church. At the children’s funeral Sergey spoke of forgiveness and advised people not to seek revenge, but to serve as peacemakers. His exact words were: “Yes, we have an irreplaceable loss, but we cannot take revenge. As Christians, the Bible teaches us that we must forgive. Vengeance is in God’s hands.” According to a Christian worker in the area, a demonic plan was broken when those words were spoken!

Since that time they have been doing everything they can think of to minister to families of the victims. Other churches and ministries have also taken up the enormous task of counseling and helping the survivors and the bereaved. Others decided to reach out to Chechen people (nationality of the neighboring terrorists) and are finding ways to minister God’s love to them. 

RESPONSE: Today I commit to being a messenger of God’s reconciliation through Christ—even to those who may cause harm to me or my family.

PRAYER: Pray for the church to be an instrument of reconciliation and restoration in this volatile area of Central Asia.

Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS), a daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks. © 2011 Open Doors International. Used by permission.
The first of September is a memorial day for the people of Beslan in North Ossetia as they remember the awful events of September first 2004.

LHM Daily Devotions - By Grace I'm Saved

"By Grace I'm Saved"

Sep. 2, 2018

"By grace! Oh, mark this word of promise

When thou art by thy sins opprest,
When Satan plagues thy troubled conscience,
And when thy heart is seeking rest.
What reason cannot comprehend
God by His grace to thee doth send

"By grace to timid hearts that tremble,
In tribulation's furnace tried,
By grace, despite all fear and trouble,
The Father's heart is open wide.
Where could I help and strength secure
If grace were not my anchor sure?"

Music moves us. It's a primal human language that flows straight to our hearts with more information than words alone can convey. Search no further than the movies to find that often it's the music informing us if the main character is being courageous or stupid to go check on the noise they heard in the basement.

Similarly, our lives often have sound tracks attached to different seasons lending insights into the thoughts, feelings, struggles, and joys of that age. And in many ways the church is no different. The tunes to which we sway, the rhythms that move us forward, the words that we communally sing into each other's ears when we gather -- those also become the soundtrack of our faith journeys and compel us instinctively forward when the fury of hell rattles up again from our lower dwellings.

Take the story of an eight-year-old girl who stood by her mother's grave, along with hundreds of other lives the mother had touched. There the child sang, "Amazing Grace." Talk about a timid heart trembling! The girl trembled and quaked with the fear of her earthly anchor now lost. For years, she experienced deep existential fear and loneliness that beckoned her find an anchor more secure than a loving mother. In the end, she was thankful the invitation to faith came so early in her life because, as the hymn suggests, grace alone was powerful enough to tether her troubled soul.

Grace gave her the courage to keep going forward though others judged. In fact, it was grace that saved her from her own harsh judgments, learning over time to accept God's unmerited love and favor as a truer identity than the rumblings of fear and trouble with which she was still familiar in the basement of her soul.

The amazing thing is that grace has been a powerful enough source of strength that the music has changed when she now descends the steps of her soul to see what the trouble is. There are still notes of dissonant fear and foreboding, unexpected rhythms of suspense, and tones from instruments we know not yet how to identify. But there are also the familiar notes of grace and love reminding her that fear, doubt, hatred, lust -- not one of them, nor all of them combined -- can overpower the grace of God in Jesus Christ by which she is held secure. Now she is free to face tribulations -- even those of her own making -- because by grace she is saved, grace free and boundless.

THE PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, keep us ever mindful of the grace You have shown us in Your Son. It is He who has conquered our deepest hurts and fears through His blood on the cross. Amen.

This Daily Devotion is based on the hymn, "By Grace I'm Saved," which is found on page 566 in the Lutheran Service Book. Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
Music moves us. It's a primal human language that flows straight to our hearts with more information than words alone can convey.

Notre Pain Quotidien - Des forces pour le voyage

Des forces pour le voyage

Lisez : Habakuk 3.16-19

La Bible en un an : Psaumes 137 – 139 ; 1 Corinthiens 13

L’Éternel, le Seigneur, est ma force ; il rend mes pieds semblables à ceux des biches, et il me fait marcher sur mes lieux élevés. V. 19

Hinds’ Feet on High Places, une allégorie classique de la vie chrétienne, repose sur Habakuk 3.19. L’histoire suit le personnage de Much‑Afraid, en voyage avec le Berger. Comme Much‑Afraid a peur, elle demande au Berger de la porter dans ses bras.

Le Berger lui répond gentiment : « Je pourrais te porter jusqu’aux Lieux élevés, plutôt que de te laisser y monter par toi‑même. Si c’est ce que je faisais, par contre, tu n’aurais jamais le pied sûr d’une biche et tu ne pourrais m’accompagner là où je vais. »

Much‑Afraid fait écho aux questions du prophète Habakuk (et, pour être honnête, aussi aux miennes) : « Pourquoi dois‑je souffrir ? » et : « Pourquoi mon parcours est‑il difficile ? »

Habakuk a vécu en Juda avant que les Israélites soient emmenés en exil. Le prophète vivait dans une société que les injustices sociales indifféraient et que l’invasion imminente des Babyloniens paralysait (HA 1.2‑11). Il a demandé à Dieu d’intervenir en éliminant la souffrance (1.13). Dieu lui a répondu qu’il agirait selon sa justice, mais en son temps (2.3).

Avec foi, Habakuk a choisi de croire en Dieu. Même si ses souffrances n’ont pas pris fin, il a cru que Dieu continuerait d’être sa force.

Nous pouvons aussi trouver du réconfort dans le fait que Dieu est notre force, qu’il nous aide à supporter la souffrance et qu’il se servira de nos pires épreuves pour approfondir notre relation avec Christ.

En situation difficile, nous pouvons puiser notre force en Dieu.

par Lisa Samra

© 2018 Ministères NPQ
Hinds’ Feet on High Places, une allégorie classique de la vie chrétienne, repose sur Habakuk 3.19.