The Fellowship of Joy

  Art - the Zacchaeus Tree Duccio, di Buoninsegna, -1319?. Zacchaeus, detail from Entry into Jerusalem, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.  Hymn - Gather Us in, Oh Love That Fills Us All We are about to read a conversation between God and the seventh century prophet, Habakkuk. It takes place shortly before the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem in 586 BC. We know little about the prophet himself, but we think he was probably a temple prophet. He was most likely a singer and this was possibly a song. Babylon was a brutal power when they overthrew nations. There is dread in the prophet's voice. We can hear it  over 26 hundred years later. But there is also faith, the steady kind, the kind that makes us just before God. Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me...

  There are messages today for two kinds of people: For those who are humble - God's mercy is for you and God will justify you. For those who are prideful-  Do not trust your own righteousness and look on others with contempt.   YouTube Version of the same message: The Jesus Prayer Chanted All The Scriptures for Today Read with Comment on II Timothy 4 The Prophetic Word Spoken Through Joel Joel 2:23-32 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition O children of Zion, be glad, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army that I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord you...

Lamentations 1:1-6  How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies. Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her  priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter. Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper, because the LORD has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe. From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princ...