Religion

The prophet Habakkuk lived during a dark season in Israel’s history. Violence, injustice, and corruption filled the land. As he looked upon the sin of Judah, he cried out for God to act. Yet when God answered, His response was not what Habakkuk expected. The Lord declared that He would raise up the Babylonians as His instrument of judgment. Habakkuk struggled to understand how God could use a nation more wicked than Judah to accomplish His purposes. In the midst of his questions, God reminded him that while the proud would surely perish, the righteous would live by faith. God’s people were to trust Him even when they could not fully understand His ways.

Last night I stood in the kitchen with Chad and asked him if he thinks my brain is working okay. I had had two incidents in the past couple of days of not being able to think of simple words that I was trying to use. We faced each other by the sink, and my eyes filled with tears, and he joked and then gave me a quiz on things I should remember. The good news is that I could remember the model and make of my first car, the names of people we haven’t seen in years from our distant past, and who the president was when I was born. A few moments before, I was afraid I was losing my mind, but in true Chad fashion, he reassured me and made me laugh and proved to me that I’m not losing my memory quite yet.

About one hundred miles east of Ephesus sat a city named Colossae. It was a city encompassed in spiritual darkness, void of the true knowledge of God. Its population was made up of both Jews and Gentiles, and it was steeped in pagan mysticism, human philosophy, and the practice of magic arts. During their worship, they sought to work themselves into a religious frenzy, entering trance-like experiences that claimed to transcend the ordinary limitations of human nature.