{"id":29197,"date":"2023-12-19T22:00:37","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T05:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joel-2_1-11-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-12T17:40:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T00:40:45","slug":"joel-2_12-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joel-2_12-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Wait Till Tomorrow to Turn to God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joel 2:12-17 <\/strong>\u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Joel\u00a02:12-17.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joel 2:12-17 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0‘Even now,’ declares the\u00a0LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing– grain offerings and drink offerings for the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Let the priests, who minister before the\u00a0LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O\u00a0LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a012-17:\u00a0 The day of the Lord will be a dreadful day for those who have rejected God.\u00a0 That is why in verse\u00a012 God is quoted as saying (in the NLT version), \u201cTurn to me now, while there is time.\u00a0 Give me your hearts.\u00a0 Come with fasting, weeping and mourning.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is also why\u00a0Joel\u00a0implores his people to \u201creturn to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.\u201d (v13)\u00a0 Echoing what God has already said in verse\u00a012,\u00a0Joel\u00a0calls his people to fast (v15), to gather together (v15-16) and to pray and intercede for the people (v17) and to plead for God\u2019s mercy.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Turn to God while there is still time.<\/strong>\u00a0 Is there something God wants you to do that you haven\u2019t done yet?\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait until tomorrow to turn to God, since you don\u2019t know what will happen tomorrow.\u00a0 \u00a0You are always better off turning to God and obeying Him today than to wait for tomorrow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God does not delight in punishing the wicked.\u00a0 While God\u2019s justice and holiness demand that sin be punished,\u00a0God\u2019s heart is that every person be spared from the day of the Lord<\/strong>.
\nSo when people say, \u201cHow could a loving God send people to hell?\u201d they\u2019re misunderstanding the situation.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that God wants to send anyone to hell.\u00a0 Rather, those who go to hell and who suffer God\u2019s wrath are those who had ample opportunity to receive protection from God’s wrath through Jesus Christ, but who refused and rejected God\u2019s offer of protection and in so doing chose hell for themselves.<\/p>\n

No matter how much God loves a person and despite how much God tries to spare that person from wrath (including sacrificing His Son to die to pay for their sins), it is still up to that person to decide whether or not to accept God\u2019s mercy expressed through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

God will not force that person to return to Him.\u00a0 That is why here in\u00a0Joel\u00a02\u00a0God has to plead with people to return to Him, rather than just making them return.\u00a0 Our God wanted a world where true love and true choice were possible, so He respects and upholds our decisions, even when He knows those decisions are wrong.<\/p>\n

Father, I pray that those around me who do not yet know You would turn to You while there is still time.\u00a0 I pray we would not take Your patience for granted.\u00a0 If there is something You want me to do right now, help me to do it today, and not wait till tomorrow.\u00a0\u00a0 Thank You that I am always better off obeying You today than delaying my obedience until tomorrow.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Joel\u00a02:12-17.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joel 2:12-17 (NIV)
\n12\u00a0\u00a0‘Even now,’ declares the\u00a0LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’
\n13\u00a0\u00a0Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a012-17:\u00a0 The day of the Lord will be a dreadful day for those who have rejected God.\u00a0 That is why in verse\u00a012 God is quoted as saying (in the NLT version), \u201cTurn to me now, while there is time.\u00a0 Give me your hearts.\u00a0 Come with fasting, weeping and mourning.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is also why\u00a0Joel\u00a0implores his people to \u201creturn to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.\u201d (v13)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29200,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29197\/revisions\/29200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}