Living by Faith in Troubled Times

Dear parents and students,

Every week I am going to post a quick recap of the previous nights lesson with a Word document attached where you can download the lesson's outline and questions so you can carry the conversation further at home with your youth. The purpose is to equip the families with material to further spiritual growth in the lives of their children.

We have been going over a series in Velocity called, Living by Faith in Troubled times. Its a sermon series from Tim Keller from Redeemer Church in NYC. Below is a quick recap of the introduction to the series.

The study is going over the little explored Old Testament book of Habakkuk which might sound really obscure but it is really relevant for our times today! Habakkuk is writing during a time when his country is dealing with violence, economic crisis, wars, injustice, suffering and trials.

We decided to study this because it our times are pretty difficult too. We turn on the TV, the internet and see reports of evil and injustice, wars and crimes, and hard economic times. Thus having a study on how to have faith in troubled times is very important for everyone these days.

So the book of Habakkuk is a dialogue between the prophet Habakkuk and God. In fact its a prayer by Habakkuk and God answering him. Habakkuk starts out by complaining to God about all the hard times. Hab. 1:2,3 "How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? ... Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? " So Habakkuk is pretty honest and frank about his feelings but the one thing we learn about Habakkuk is that even though he doesnt understand and even though he questions God it was never a choice for him to leave God...to find answers somehwere else. He was faithfully wrestling with God. And that kind of unconditional faithful wrestling produces maturity, wisdom and grace.
If we never struggled or went through hard times or if we always knew what God was up to then we really wouldnt need God. It was never an option for Habakkuk to walk away from God and he faithfully prayed and stuck to his relationship with God.

The problem is we all have this assumed omniscience....we think we know how things should end up and if they dont that upsets us. We need to realize we dont have the control of every outcome and we need to learn to let go and trust.

Habakkuk learns this throughout this book and we reflect on living by faith in troubled times in this series so wonderfully put together by Tim Keller.

If you would like to read more and actually download the lessons we've down the last several weeks, I have included the first lesson here and will have the next lesson up next week. My goal starting next week is to have the lesson from Monday night posted on this site on Tuesday so you can read it for yourself or use it to create dialogue with your children.

Week 1 Lesson on Living by Faith in Troubled Times.
You will have to copy and paste this link just as it is and it should open up a word document.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2372651/Habakkuk.1.doc

Something to keep in mind about this lesson is, it may seem on an adult level but I really use it as a guide for me and definitely teach it at a middle school level.


I also recommend listening to Tim Kellers sermon titled:
"The Problem of Suffering and Evil" Its an excellent sermon by one of the best preachers in America today.

This is part one of a four part lesson, the other parts can be found on YouTube.com or when the first one finishes you can scroll on the bottom of the video screen for parts 2-4. Its really worth listening to!