Brown's Daily Word 11-25-08

Good Morning,
Today we are a just one month away from Christmas Day. Praise the Lord that we can enter the Advent and Christmas Season through the doors of Thanksgiving. The prophet Habakkuk provides us with an example of someone who understood “unconditional thanksgiving,” which is the kind of thanksgiving we should demonstrate. Rejoice in the Lord Always (Habakkuk 3:17-19) Here we see that Habakkuk was thankful to the Lord even though there was a lack of food and his physical needs may not have been met. These verses represent unconditional thanksgiving! The word “unconditional” means not dependent on, or conditioned by any external thing, but rooted in God alone, rooted in the experience of the wonder of salvation. Our thanksgiving to the Lord should be unconditional, just as God’s love for his people is unconditional. God’s love for Israel was definitely unconditional, as is his love for us. In Deuteronomy 7:7-8 we read, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” The Lord did not deliver Israel from Egypt because he was pleased with the amount of people. Israel was not very great in number. He chose Israel because he was faithful to the promise he had made that he would make of Israel a great nation. God is always faithful and ever loving. We need to be consistent and faithful in giving thanks to the Lord, because he is faithful in loving us. The thanksgiving that Habakkuk spoke of is a thanksgiving, which is not dependent upon any thing, object, or circumstance, but it finds its source in God. It is not dependent upon the things that God has given, but upon who God is. Habakkuk wished to say, “Even if all my worldly comforts were taken away and God allowed my life to become desolate of any earthly ease, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. I will return to His presence with thanks.” He was proclaiming that his thanksgiving would not be infrequent. It would not be shallow. It would not only be given when things were agreeable and comfortable, but always-because his thanksgiving would be rooted in a profound, personal, and real experience of God’s salvation and of God’s present strength. I am reminded of the song by Matt Redmon called, “Blessed Be Your Name.” . This song is one that I first heard from my daughter, Sunita. We sang this song last Sunday during both morning and the evening worship services. He sings, “Blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful; where your streams of abundance flow, blessed be your name. Blessed be your name when I’m found in the desert place; though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be your name. Every blessing you pour out I’ll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say, blessed be the name of the Lord . . . Blessed be your glorious name . . . You give and take away . . . my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name.” The inspiration for this song came from Job, where he declared, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Habakkuk spoke here not merely of the loss of everyday comforts, but of the very supports of his earthly life. He imagined one of the darkest and blackest pictures a person could possibly know. He used the language of the agriculture of his day. He said, if the fig tree does not blossom, the labor of the olive fail ; the fields would have no meat (the corn, the barley, the wheat-no food to be brought to the storage bins); the flocks would be cut off from the fold (the herds would not be found in the stalls (the barns would be empty and the livestock dead and gone). He imagined economic ruin, disaster, circumstances leading to famine, hunger, crying children, and malnutrition. He was talking about the collapse of the economy, somewhat similar to the Great Depression, but more severe. Though we are in recession right now, hopefully we will never have to see another depression. Habakkuk basically said that although my job may be gone, my income would be cut off, my ability to provide one mouthful of food taken away, (and we could add to that, my health or my loved ones lost); yet, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Bible commentator Matthew Henry, after being robbed once, wrote in his diary the following message about thankfulness, “Let me be thankful. First, because I was never robbed before. Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life. Third, because although they took my all, it was not much. Fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.” Come what may we should declare, “I will rejoice. I will joy in the God of my salvation.” The word “rejoice” means a leap for joy. He makes my feet like deer’s feet, says Habakkuk - the feet of a deer that is swift and leaps through the air, whose spirit soars. He says, “I will walk upon the high hills”. The idea here is of victory and calmness, rest and serenity, looking over all the land in victory. He spoke of an abundant, spiritual joy, unquenchable and victorious.

In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cyqn2LxKVk