Joel 2:1

The Day of the Lord

Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,

There was a time when sandwich boards advertising was popular. It began with stationary signs outside shops and restaurants advertising specials. The idea was to peak interest and increase sales. Then the sandwich boards went mobile and men were hired to walk nearby trying to draw in customers that were not at the shop or restaurant door.

Then there was a trend to advertise the end of the world and a call to repent seen. As I recall, that method didn’t work. Those men were thought of as being a little unhinged. As it turns out they were wrong, at least in the short term.

People do not respond kindly to threats. They have immediate needs that prey upon their minds and a doom and gloom message does nothing to ease the troubled mind that is already in crisis.

Ask a man with a wife and children who has been out of work long enough that his savings have been depleted and his house is in foreclosure if he is concerned with the end of the world. No, don’t do that, his response will be unpredictable, maybe even violent. People don’t worry about the end times when their children are hungry and homeless.

I look back to the ministry of Jesus and saw compassion for the plight of the people. He was able to take away their pain, anxiety, and frustration by looking to their needs that were immediate and then and only then He delivered the message of hope. His method was befriending those in need and listening to them, no judgment, just compassion.

He is God and changed lives for the better. He is still God, He is still on the throne and He is still at work. Our message will not work if we are alarmist, no matter how soon the day of the Lord is coming. The lost sinner will not even know what that means, only that his belly is empty.

We are the sandwich board for today. What message of hope can we deliver that the needy will stop and listen? He is abiding in us so maybe it is best if we let Him do the talking.

If we say we can’t He won’t. Faith is about showing up. That is the first step.

Joel 2:12-14 English Standard Version

Return to the Lord

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13  and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
14  Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?

Here is a memory I believe many of us share. A parent tells us to do something and we do not move fast enough and the next thing we hear is “NOW!”

There is that fearful moment when we know what will happen if we don’t obey immediately. We don’t need an additional warning, we already know what will happen.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

2 Timothy 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

1 Corinthians 14:21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”

Has the Lord changed His mind?

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

What I hear the Father say to me is “Now!”

So I preach the gospel of truth, even if many will not listen.

This is for the few that do.