Joel in 3D

So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you...And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:25,28

No matter the summer sun, tropical climate, or length of day, countless people around the world are living in darkness. Maybe you feel like you're one of them.

The darkness I'm talking about looks like loneliness, joylessness, hopelessness, anxiety, and anger. If you have any of these operating in your life, how do you get out? I'll tell you.

First, repent from living one-dimensionally and allow the Lord to fill and rule your life. Don't be caught just living for yourself. Instead, ask Jesus to join you in life and lead you by His light.

Second, return to the Lord. This is a heart issue, making what's important to God important to you and leaving the rest behind.

Third, re-gather, making the study of God's Word in fellowship with other believers a priority in your life. If you're repenting from fellowship with the world and returning to the Lord, you have to have a new place to go-that place is a fellowship of believers.

Fourth, resist the devil. Don't buy into the things the world is trying to sell you, but instead fix your eyes on the things the Lord wants to give you.

Fifth, rejoice, for there's always something to rejoice about no matter what your circumstances are, especially in light of God's gift to us in giving us what we don't deserve. Things might look dark now, but as you follow the Lord, He will turn the darkness to light.

Sixth, restore-this is God's promise to you, that He will restore to you what the enemy has wiped out. As you turn to God, He really does redeem and restore what the devil took from you.

Seventh, receive, because God has promised to pour out His Holy Spirit on you. He has determined to do this, pouring out His very self into you so that you will never be the same again.

And in case you didn't notice, number seven above is way different than number one. God meets us in the darkness the moment we turn to Him, but He never leaves us there, having promised to lead us all the way into fullness of life in His Spirit.

Come trade your darkness for His light today.

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You for being such a good and generous God! I willingly turn to You today and give up the things that have led me into darkness. Please lead me into Your light and fill me with Your Spirit!

Amen

Blind Curves, Hidden Driveways, and Falling Rocks

Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no one else besides me.' Therefore evil shall come upon you, and you shall not know from where it arises. Isaiah 47:10-11 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. 1 Corinthians 8:2-3

I'm giving you a two-for-one deal today. We're going BOGO on the Bible verses so you feel like you're getting a really good deal.

But seriously, look at these, especially the verse from Isaiah. And evil will come upon you, and you won't even know where it's coming from. Wow. Does anybody want to sign up for that? No way! I want to avoid that. How do you avoid that?

You avoid it by allowing love in your life to overrule your knowledge.

Knowledge matters. Knowledge is important. We should all have this thirst for knowing more about God. But, in that knowledge, love certainly does not go away. No way.

Now, look at the second verse for today. What does that verse mean? It means you don't really know God until you-what?-until you love God.

Well, I know a lot about Him. Yeah, but you really don't until you love Him.

I think the same thing needs to be said for our relationships with each other, as certainly it is here said about a relationship with God. And that love is what was missing in Corinth.

You see, there was an issue going on regarding food offered to idols. The people with knowledge said, Ah, it's no big deal; idols are nothing, really. And they were right, but the problem was that not everyone was so confident on that particular truth. So some believers were eating food that had been sacrificed to idols with no twinge going on in their conscience, but when other believers saw it, it made them stumble.

Paul says, Hey, let's come back to the point. I don't care what you know; I care about whether you love. In other words, what you know and the freedom you want is not as important as your brother or sister in Christ.

What's at the center of your world today-yourself, or love?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for loving me enough to die for me, laying aside all that you had a right to for my sake. As I look to Your example, help me to do the same and show love for the fellow believers around me.

Amen

Better Jobs

Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:1-2

Imagine with me for a moment that you stand before a room full of business owners and you can say anything you want to them, but you only have one sentence to do it. What would you say?

Boil everything down into the most simple, yet powerful thing you could tell them. What could you say to them in that brief moment that would still be worth saying?

Paul did exactly this, and what he told them was, Remember that you have a boss, too. Remember the way that your Boss treats you, then treat your employees the same way. Become a picture to your employees of your Employer so that they will see Him through you.

He followed this simple, transformational business principle up with the most impacting business strategy he could think of-Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

Remember that Paul could speak to business owners from firsthand experience. He had run a business as a tentmaker in Corinth while also planting and pastoring a church (talk about busy!). His experience in business taught him that you need the same things in running a business that you need in running a church-lots of prayer.

And not just prayer from other people, though that is good, too. No, Paul says you have to be the leader in your workplace prayer movement. You continue earnestly in prayer! Then let others join you in that, but the responsibility falls on you first because you are the owner.

Pray for your business. Pray for your employees. Pray for your future business. Pray for your clients. Pray for the atmosphere of your office. Pray for the companies who are your neighbors in your office building. Pray for your customers. Pray for your suppliers. Pray for your competitors.

Pray! And when you pray, pray earnestly. Do not be passive and removed from the circumstances for which you pray. Rather, dive into them wholeheartedly so that you are earnest in your prayers.

Finally, be vigilant in your prayers, not forgetting to be thankful for what God has already given you. Even, I challenge you, be thankful for the things for which you are praying even before God grants your request.

God wants your workplace. Will you follow His Word and invite Him in?

Prayer Lord God,

You are a good and just Master, and I thank You for the way you treat me. Please help me to be earnest and vigilant in praying for my workplace and help me to be the employee/employer You call me to be.

Amen

Downpour

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8

Have you ever wondered why God gave you the Holy Spirit to live inside of you? There are a number of reasons, but let me tell you one that I think a lot of people forget. Listen closely; it might just be the most important one.

See, if you read our verse today, you see Jesus' promise regarding the Holy Spirit. You see that He promised that the Holy Spirit would bring the power of God's presence into our lives in the most intimate and personal way imaginable. But He also promised that there was a purpose to that power-that we would be empowered to be His witnesses throughout the whole world.

And we see that beginning to be fulfilled and confirmed even from the very moment that the Holy Spirit is first poured out on people, because as soon as those first disciples received the Holy Spirit, they all started speaking supernaturally in languages from various nations all around the world. All the people who hear them say, What is going on? We hear people speaking in our native languages the wonderful works of God!

Listen, this is not just God showing off; it is meant to show His heart for the whole world getting saved. The reason the Holy Spirit comes is because we can't accomplish the task Jesus has given us in our own strength. But God is showing us here what we can do together with Him. There are no limits to what we can do or where we can go; God can help us no matter what in bringing this world to a saving knowledge of His love.

So as I'm studying this, I'm just reminded that this is why we're here. This is what we're to be about. And then I start praying for my neighbors, If they don't know You, Lord, I pray they'd come to know You. I start praying for countries. I start praying for heads of state and leaders and different parts of the world.

Then I start asking myself questions like this: Am I holding back the Holy Spirit? Who's controlling whom? Am I controlling Him? Or is He controlling me? Who's following whom? Am I still living in the comfort zone of my own environment? Or am I living wherever He sends me?

I hope you know that the Holy Spirit lives in you. I hope even more that you know why He lives in you, and that you then live for His purposes in and through you.

Prayer Holy Spirit,

Thank You for living inside of me! Please lead me and guide me, use me however You desire to reach this world for You and lead people to Jesus!

Amen

What Nothing Tells Us About God

And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.' Exodus 34:6-7

If you knew nothing about God, our verses today just might be the best place to start.

In these verses, we learn that God is merciful, gracious, patient, abounding in goodness and truth, faithful, keeping mercy for thousands of generations. He is forgiving of iniquity and transgression and sin.

Now, this is not some blanket statement that God is making here to say that He's forgiv-

ing. Actually, iniquity, transgression, and sin are three separate things, and God forgives all of them.

Iniquity, in the Hebrew, is literally the word avon, which means perversities or depravities. I always think that's absolutely hilarious. I grew up in a culture where every once in a while the doorbell would ring and there she would be. The Avon lady. Yet avon literally in the Hebrew means iniquity. Oh, that's great.

But isn't that quite interesting that oftentimes we will manufacture things to cover the stench and mess that we've made? Man thinks he is able to cover up his perversity and depravity with some sweet-smelling fragrance of a candle or cologne, but God says it can only truly be taken away by His forgiveness.

Secondly, transgression in the Hebrew is the word pasha, which means rebellion. Moses certainly could relate with that, considering all Israel had done. They've been complaining since the get-go. We've parted the Red Sea. We've seen the manna fall. We've seen God provide quail every night. But it was still never enough; this rebellious, stiff-necked people continued to transgress. And the only cure-the only cure for a pasha heart, a heart that continues to trespass when it's been clearly posted, No trespassing-is the forgiveness of God.

Thirdly, who forgives us of our sin, the word chattah in Hebrew. It means the punishment for our rebellion, perversity, and depravity. And we know that all sin certainly does have punishment, right?

Listen, if sin requires punishment, then what's our only way out? It's God's forgiveness. We need Him to forgive our iniquity, transgressions, and sin, taking hold through repentance and faith His attributes of mercy, grace, goodness, and love.

Have you turned to God for forgiveness yet?

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You for being rich in mercy and grace for me today! I'm sorry for the wrong things in my life and I ask You to forgive me for them today. Please come into my life and make me a new person in You today!

Amen

The Integrity of Redemption

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 Hope.

It's amazing the power this little word has.

Just consider that the promise of hope elected President Obama. Proverbs tells us that Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Hope gives strength that helps the suffering to endure.

Hope is strong. Hope is powerful. Hope is life-giving and life-sustaining. Studies even show that hope prolongs and saves the lives of cancer patients, as many times people have died quickly when diagnosed early on with treatable cancers because they lacked hope and people have survived late diagnoses of horrible cancers because they held fast to hope.

What are you hoping for today? What hopes have you held in the past that you have given up on? And how do you grow in this powerful thing we call hope?

No matter how much hope you have today, let me encourage you-the God of all hope is also the God who redeems all things.

Look at our verse today. That's a life verse for me that speaks of the freedom that is found in our redemption. It speaks of the faithfulness of God where our redemption is concerned. It speaks of His forgiveness over our past, present, and future, over things that we're not even aware of right now that we're going to royally screw up.

His Word declares that we can know this, that all things work together for good-not just the good things, but also the bad things, not just the successes, but also the failures, and even the things that you look at in your life and would call somewhat neutral-all things. He promises to redeem all things.

I get questioned on this all the time because so many people are right in the middle of it. They're like, How could this be redeemed? This is sin. This is sick. This stinks. I've lost hope. That's a big question, and I don't want this answer to sound trite, but as soon as we look to God more than we usually do, redemption has begun. If we're looking to God more because of something, then it's worth it right there. Now that is not where God's redemption stops,

but it is where it begins.

Once we have fixed our eyes on the God of our redemption, we have found our God of hope, too.

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You that You are the God of both redemption and hope! I need hope refreshed in my life, so I look to You with joyful anticipation of how You are going to redeem my circumstances for Your glory!

Amen

A Plaguing Prophetic Prediction

And He said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.' Mark 4:26-29

Moses warned him. He said that death was coming if he didn't heed God's voice, but he didn't pay any attention. Are you?

Starting all the way back on Mt. Sinai, God gave Moses signs by which he could prove that God had spoken to and sent him. Moses took these signs before Pharaoh, but the ruler said, Big deal. My magicians can do those parlor tricks with their eyes closed. He ignored the first signs; the blade was starting to peak out from the ground.

God gave Moses the first plague, turning the water to blood, signifying the death that would later come to every Egyptian household. Pharaoh ignored this sign, and the next one too, and the blade grew bigger in the ground.

God released the third plague: lice on every head. This time the magicians couldn't repeat the sign. Instead, they said it was the finger of God. But Pharaoh still refused to see the sign and what it pointed to.

And so it kept going until finally God sent the tenth and final plague: the death of every firstborn son. The stalk was full grown, bearing fruit, ready for harvest. Pharaoh finally saw the sign, but it never had to come to this sign of death.

Death is coming for all of us one day, and God is continually sending signs for us to see. He is yelling, Hey! See that the stalk is growing and will soon be ready for the sickle! Repent now! Don't be foolish like Pharaoh and wait until it's too late!

I hope that it's enough for all of us that the sons of Egypt died in foolishness, ignoring God's signs. Let's see His signs and repent now, so that when that final sign comes we do as Israel did and pass under His blood into freedom and life everlasting.

Prayer Lord God,

I know that death is coming for me one day, but I thank You that I don't have to face it alone. You have already beaten death for me! I choose to repent now and follow You. Please lead me into life and freedom!

Amen