Cruising Route 66
Getting A Wake-Up-Call
I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; ……
Joel 2:28-32
As I read these words, I can honestly say I believe I have seen them all play out. God has graciously poured out His Spirit on all mankind, but man has chosen to reject it. The knowledge that God has placed in the hearts of men and women has provided an understanding of the minutest details of human existence and the wonders of the universe. Instead of calling upon our Creator with a heart of thankfulness, we boastfully claim independence from any divine influence and manipulate our discoveries for profit rather than good.
Joel prophesied that a dreadful day is coming, and to that end, God has and will continue to speak to and through those who will proclaim the warning. Man’s hope rests on what has been freely made available to anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. It will require humbly setting aside self.
To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. The Lord works out everything to its proper end—even the wicked for a day of disaster.
Proverbs 16:1-4
What gets your attention? For some, it may be just a gentle touch, for others a commanding shout. Some may take heart and move with just a word of direction, while others need a stern warning. There are those folks that seem oblivious to everything and everyone.
Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes– joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Joel 1:15-16
The people of Judah needed just such a call. They were coasting. Prosperous and complacent, they had become self-centered. Taking God for granted, they turned to the idols they made with their own hands. Sound a bit like our world today?
God, through Joel, sends a wake-up call, a divine attention-getter, to shake them out of their lethargy sin and to get them back on track. Joel predicts a devastating plague of locusts that will destroy the land unless the people repent and start living their lives for God. The promise that comes with this warning is simple. When we put our tomorrows in God’s hands, He assures us we will prosper.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. 27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.
Joel 2:26
Let me propose a few questions, and you answer them by rating them 1 to 10. One is Never, and Ten would be Daily.
Have you committed your future goals in life to God and His perfect will?
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. Psalm 143:10
Are your future goals in accord with the direction that He has chosen for your life?
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans.12:2
Are you willing to use those goals at this time in history to fulfill His special purpose for your generation?
Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. II Corinthians 5:5
Consider the words of the Apostle Paul, who faced a world as corrupt as our own.
Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-16
Until next time,
Ben
