A Time Like This
Has there ever been a time like this: Pandemic, Economy, unemployment, Distancing and now rioting?. Let’s continue watching, praying, and passing on the hope of Jesus Christ to the generations coming after us. Here are some words today from Joel 1
verse 1 – This message from the LORD came to Pethuel’s son Joel. 2 – “Here this, you elders! Listen, all of you residents of the land! Has there ever been anything like this during your lifetime, or even when your ancestors were alive?
Verse 3 – Pass it on to your children, and from your children to their children and from their children to the following generation. 4 – Whatever the devouring locust left behind the locust swarm has consumed! Whatever the locust swarm has left behind, the young locust has consumed! Whatever the young locust has left behind, the ravaging locust has consumed!”
verse 5 – “Wake up, you drunkards! Cry aloud and howl, you wine drinkers, because your supply of new wine has been snatched from you. 6 – Indeed, a nation has invaded my land – it is strong and its population is too large to count – with teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.
Verse 7 – That nation laid waste my vines, and stripped bare my fig tree, discarding it. It stripped off its bark. 8 – “Grieve like a virgin, who, dressed in her mourner’s clothes, cries out in memory of the man she was going to marry.
Verse 9 – Both grain offering and wine offering have been removed from the LORD’s Temple; the priests and ministering servants of the LORD are mourning.” 10 – “The fields lie in ruins and the ground is dried up. Indeed, the grain is ruined, the new wine has evaporated, and the olive oil has run out.
Verse 11 – Be dismayed, you farmers! Cry aloud, you vintners, or the wheat and barley, because the harvest in your fields has been lost. Verse 12 – The grapevine is shriveled and the fig tree is withered, along with the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, the apple tree and all of the cultivated trees. Truly, joy has evaporated from Adam’s children.”
verse 13 – “Put on your mourning clothes, you priests; and cry aloud, you ministering servants at the altar! Come! Stay the night in mourner’s clothes, you ministers of my God, because the grain offering and the wine offering is held back from the Temple of your God.
Verse 14 – Set apart time for a fast! Call a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and everyone living in the land to the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD!”
Add to the list we began with – any personal struggles that you may be dealing with and truly, like the rest of Adam’s children, it’s easy to be robbed of the joy of life and be filled with unrest and fear. Let’s follow the instruction of Joel and cry out to the LORD.
And then witness how the LORD will respond!
Joel 3:16 – “The LORD will roar from Zion, and shout from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth will shake, but the LORD will be the refuge of his people, and the strength of the people of Israel.” 17 – “And truly you will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no foreigners will invade her again.
No matter how bad things get – the Lord will be the refuge and strength of His people and we will know that He is our God.
Where two are gathered 