Joel

Joe_2:13

“…rend your heart, and not your garments…” Many times our repentance over sin is superficial. When we are convicted about our failure to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, oftentimes we shed tears and make promises. However, when the time to give substantial amounts of money or to go to a mission field that is dangerous comes, suddenly we aren’t willing to go unless we are assured of safety. Or some other excuse presents itself, such as we have to go take care of our parents, or some family need comes up that prevents us from going. God des not want your outward expressions of surrender and repentance; He wants your heart. If He has your heart, he has your life, your family, your money, your time, your all. Will you rend your heart, or will you continue to make promises and decisions that please men but produce no sacrifice? TRS

Joe_2:17

“Where is their God?” This is one of the saddest questions. When we are overcome with sin and the cares of this life; when there is not substance to our Christianity; when we are spiritual salt that has lost its savor; when we no longer are witness and making a difference in the lives of lost people, the saddest thing is not the lack of blessing, joy, or victory that we experience, but rather the saddest thing is that the heathen will not know our God. So many Christians have become so lazy, selfish, and worldly that the lost world looks on and says, “Where is their God? There God must not be real, because He is making no difference in their life!” Our life ought to proclaim the message of the gospel. It ought to make our message credible. Does your life glorify God or make a mockery of Christianity? TRS

Joe_2:25

You may have wasted many years of your life, but there is no time like the present to give what is left of your life, your money, your strength, and your time to God. He is able to make the remaining years of your life far more profitable than the time you wasted. Let him “restore to you the years that the locust have eaten…” TRS

Joe_3:3

The effects of sin not only destroy the lives of those who commit the acts of sin, but also they affect the lives of many other who are associated with those who are involved in the sin, including children. In this verse, children are traded and sold for whoredom and alcohol. Sin has a desensitizing affect. A normally rational, moral person will commit all kinds of immorality and wickedness when in bondage to sin. Children become nothing but an obstacle in a person’s path or an object to satisfy wicked desires. What these slaves to sin need is not necessarily moral reform or government legislation. What they need is Christ! Christ can set them free. Christ can deliver the children from the ravages of sin. Will you take the message of the freedom in Christ to a lost and dying world, so children like the ones in this verse can be spared? TRS