texting habakkuk

You are a runner and I am my Father's son. Come, run the miracle mile with us, run the but-if-not, run the come-what-may, run the race marked out, run London.  07729056452

Ha1 Prophets major and minor manifest an v2-4 honesty before God, a holy grumpy complaint to God the best friend, which at the same time is v12 surrender submission to God the sovereign... v5 'you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you ill not believe when you hear about it.' Yes to receiving this word, to turning it over in my heart, and to declaring it over the situations we find ourselves in, as a declaration of faith in the name of Jesus. Praying this over household transitions, over parents, griefs, seasons and over my own transformation. I believe you, God.

Ha1 At the end of Habakkuk's second complaint 'I will take me stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me' v6 I am raising up the Chaldeans .. all their faces forward … they laugh at every fortress' v6 'I am raising up the Chaldeans .. the pile up earth and take it … they gather captives like sand' v6 'I am raising up the Chaldeans … their horses are swifter than leopards … that bitter and hasty nation' Who had God rasied up? A bitter and hasty transnation? 'I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will asy to me' (why do you idly look at wrong?)

 Ha2 v2 Prophetic running. Olympians, why do they do it? One can run-from, as Elijah Runs (1Ki19v3) which would make sense given the woes that follow in Na2. Or you can run-to, as to the name of the Lord is a strong tower. Or you can run-with, as Liddell run-to-feel-His-pleasure. Or you can run-for-a-reward, as 1Cor9v24-7. Or you can run because of the urgency of prophetic proclamation. This is a Prescottian running-for-archbishop (.co.uk) running with the beautiful feet (Ha3v19) on the mountain to bear good news Is52v7. We. Are. Heralds. And. Time. Is. Short. #RunLondon. .. v6 Please pray for my house. .. v11! Architectural life-verses! Sermons in Stone! By comparison to Lk19v40's stones which worship, these stones here offer a dialogical lament. Awesome. The very components of the building speak their unjust means of production, exploitatively extracted elements. Combined with v6's 'heaping up...' What is a 'heap' and what is 'not your own' in this world? The glass on glass of plundered gains and the conspicuous disparity of wealth heaped up on SE1's skyline? .. Contrasting v14's 'knowledge' with v19's 'teach'. Our knowledge of God is Polanyian personal knowledge, storied, living and active. Our knowledge of God is a Word who wants to make Himself abundantly known, in a flooding filling washing over sort of living water to be drunk with and in and swallowed by and soaked in. Enjoy, surf it, share it. .. Lastly, of the Habakkukian confidence in God, we have this triplet of assurances:1v5 an astounding work unseen; 2v3 an answer worth waiting for; and 3v18 (as Dn3v18) a but-if-not. These are uniquely Christian confidences, and they are why we can speak joy in funerals, when there is no earthly reason to rejoice, but God has been our salvation.

Ha3 v2 We have heard what you have done, at a distance, in the past, over there, but I need you here and now God, we need you now to be miraculous mighty & merciful. Please please, that we might be able to say that Jb42v5 no longer do we know you because of what others have told us, but that we have seen you with our own eyes, touched and tasted you. Jesus, be the cornerstone captone of all our stories, all of our own stories. Asking for these things of you God, with fear and trembling, and yet, and yet remembering that we are already v19 safe. This is the word we need as we v16 wait. Already safe in the face of death and expectation and the unknown and the worst of ourselves, we are already safe. Mercy is the first and best miracle which makes this possible (hallelujah.) So our 3v18 but-if-not come-what-may of marriage to this God, which is JOY. I feel it wash over me, the painful surrender of being turned inside out that is still the sweetest joy. I'd rather be here than anywhere, this is the miracle to pray from.

Ha3 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' v17 'Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will tak joy in the God of my salvation.' v19 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' v16 'I ehard and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.' v19 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' v19 'God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he make me tread on my high places.' v19 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' (my high places?)