New Life and New Opportunities for Service
From Joel 2: 23 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. 24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. 26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 28Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. 30 I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
Thanks for tuning in. In the last episode of Who Gets On The Wheaties Box, it was the Apostle Paul, who knew he never stood alone. He knew he mattered to God and that God stood with him and shared with him words to help and comfort him, as well as words to further the gospel. The episode prior to that was about the man who thought he did not matter to God because of his sinfulness as a tax collector; the man who thought he deserved his picture on the Wheaties box was mistaken. In today's passage, it is God who deserves the picture reserved for champions on that box. For it is God who has starred in the three readings thus far. In today's reading, the prophet Joel is sharing God's words to a people who had felt forsaken and abandoned. The message was a familiar one; you matter to God! God says that the rain is a symbol of the washing away of sins and a symbol of provision. With good rain come good crops. And with good crops comes an abundance of blessings. Verse 26 says, "You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame." And what strikes as a powerful verse is the one that follows that says our God is involved in our lives if we so invite Him. And with the invitation to God to become involved in our lives will come the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. At this point of history as Joel is sharing this message, it was not known how the Holy Spirit would come and what would be the result of His arrival, but Joel says, for God, "I will pout out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female salves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit." (vss. 28-29). We will see these verses again in Acts 2 when Peter remembers this passage and then understands the Holy Spirit's coming among those mentioned in the promise.
The promise is to help people enter into a loving, trusting, relationship with God, and thus an escape from the ravages of sin and death.
You matter to God. Go tell somebody all about that.
PRAYER: Awesome God, thank You for allowing me to matter to You. Thank You for the promises of Your presence and power always in my life. May I use those for good; this I pray in Christ Jesus' precious name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
