Tag: Joel

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, God is good, Journey Through The Word, Know These Truths, LGG Study, Our God Who Pursues, Quiet Time

A Change of Heart

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Based on: Our God Who Pursues w1/d3

Many people mistakenly believe that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and judgment, whereas in the New Testament He is solely characterized by love. However, Joel 2 shows us that God is both angry at sin but full of love towards the sinner. It’s important to know and understand God’s character as it greatly impacts how we live. … While we wait for that coming day, we are charged to live faithful lives. We are to regularly repent and live a life of obedience. When our hearts can view God truly for who he is, it changes the way we live.

LGG Journal/Our God Who Pursues/p49

Friends, as the LGG journal points out today, “It’s important to know and understand God’s character as it greatly impacts how we live.” So, while our focus is on verses 12 and 13, we must first address the overriding theme of Joel’s prophecy, which is “the day of the LORD,1” or as Gotquestions.org describes it, “a day of God’s wrath and judgment.”

It will be such a terrible day that Job’s opening words of the second chapter are a message from the LORD, to “Blow the trumpets in Zion, sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear, for the day of the LORD is about to come.” If we know the hope of salvation, we may not be as prone to fear the day – yet surely, if we look around us today, it seems there is undoubtedly great cause for alarm – a truth that prompted me to write in the margin of my journal: Should this not also be our message to the people around us and across the world? After all, if the day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing, threatening the survival of mankind, as verse eleven announces, should we not also heed the call of repentance and sound the alarm to alert ‘all the inhabitants of the land?’

The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing.
    Who can possibly survive?

A Call to Repentance

12 That is why the Lord says,
    “Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
    Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
    but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
    He is eager to relent and not punish.

Joel 2:11-13

I’ve heard it said that God is a God of second chances, and in verses twelve and thirteen, we see an example of this truth. Joel’s announcement of the coming awesome, terrible day is followed by his message from the Lord for the people to turn to Him while there is still time. You see, God wasn’t interested in their outward expressions of tearing their clothes but rather an inward change of heart that they might return to Him. He desires their hearts be broken for what breaks His heart, and he was giving them more time, or a second opportunity, it would seem, to repent. Don’t miss the beauty of His message that He was ready and waiting to pour out His mercy and compassion as a wonderful reminder that He is slow to get angry and abounding in unfailing love. – When we know this side of God’s character, it shouldn’t just change the way we live, but it should spur us on to sound the alarm so that the people around us will turn to the Lord while there is time.

God doesn’t desire an outward repentance of tearing the clothes, but instead desires an awareness of our sin that brings sorrow on the deepest level – so that we turn to Him and away from the sin.

Prayer of Response

Father, You are a merciful and compassionate God. You are slow to anger and filled with unfailing love. Thank You for letting me know this side of You and for the way it has changed my life through the years. Help me to be better about sounding the alarm so that those around me can turn to You while there is still time. May my heart be broken for what breaks Yours, and may my will align with Yours. – Let sin break my heart so that I always turn away from it – for Your glory – Amen!

The More We Know

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, Know These Truths, Lent, LGG Study, Quiet Time

Whatever You Do

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based on the LGG study, Lent, A Season of Drawing Close to God / w1d3

Scripture: Psalm 1; Joel 2:12-14 / SOAP: 1 Corinthians 10:31

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NET

The words found in the first chapter of the Psalms teach us that what we do – ie how we spend our time and who we spend it with matters to God and has a direct effect on our lives. As God’s word teaches: obedience brings reward and disobedience, or ungodly living, leads to destruction.

How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand in the pathway with sinners,
or sit in the assembly of scoffers.
2 Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands;
he meditates on his commands day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by flowing streams;
it yields its fruit at the proper time,
and its leaves never fall off.
He succeeds in everything he attempts.
4 Not so with the wicked!
Instead they are like wind-driven chaff.
5 For this reason the wicked cannot withstand judgment,
nor can sinners join the assembly of the godly.
6 Certainly the Lord guards the way of the godly,
but the way of the wicked ends in destruction.

Psalm 1

Once upon a time, this would have described me. When I was in my early twenties I had veered off the path of true obedience and had turned toward many of the ways of the world. Oh, I was good at playing the game of “Christian” on Sunday and Wednesday but the rest of the week I was just living whichever way the wind of my desires blew. Yet, God, in His goodness met me on the path and turned me back toward Himself- compelling me to ‘follow Him and to walk with Him in all my ways, I am eternally grateful and forever indebted to Him for rescuing me from the wilderness that was leading to sure and certain destruction. I am also grateful to Him for instilling in me the message of Paul to the Philippians – that regardless of what we do or don’t do we are to do everything for God’s glory

“Yet even now,” the Lord says,
“return to me with all your heart—
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13 Tear your hearts,
not just your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and boundless in loyal love—often relenting from calamitous punishment.
14 Who knows?
Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve,
and leave blessing in his wake—
a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God!

Joel 2:12-14

The Lord warns the people, in Joel chapter two, to “return to Him with all their hearts – with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” He tells them to not just focus on the tearing of their garments but rather to be concerned about their hearts. Joel encourages the people to – “Return to the LORD – for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love — often relenting from calamitous punishment.” From the day, somewhere in my mid-twenties, when I began to understand the true depth of my sins and what they deserved – these words, along with the one word that incapsulated them all, GRACE, became some of my very favorite words of the Bible.

Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and boundless in loyal love—often relenting from calamitous punishment.

Joel 2:13 NLT

Knowing that God allows us to “return” to Him is beautiful in and of itself. However, the knowledge of the depth of His mercy and compassion, of His slowness to become angry, of His boundless love, and the hope of Him relenting from the devastating punishment we rightly deserve – these were the words that drew me back to Him then and continue to draw me to Him now. They are the words that have shaped my heart and mind to live with the attitude that says – whatever I do, I will do it all for God’s glory.

Paul’s words to the Corinthians remind me of the words of Joshua to God’s people long ago – “But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” (Josh 24:15) –

Oh friend, how I pray that today, wherever you are in your relationship with the Lord – that you will heed the words of the Psalmist and of Joel, and of Paul, and of Joshua – and you will choose this day – to do everything you do for the glory of the God who loved you and saved you by His own glory and goodness!

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9
The More We Know

Do it all!

Whether you eat or drink …

Know The Truth

If you aren’t yet in a relationship with God or perhaps you need to remember why you were in a relationship with Him – I invite you to read these truths so that you can choose well whether you will serve the gods of this world or the one.true.living God –

https://atomic-temporary-62140760.wpcomstaging.com/2023/03/14/know-these-truths/