Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 (click to view Scripture below)
The tragedy that the prophet Joel describes could be headlines taken from our current versions of “breaking news.” Joel’s answer to the dilemma of his day is also the answer to ours: the key is to return to God. In the middle of chaos, Joel is certain of very little other than the fact that God is gracious and merciful and his abounding love breaks the back of the hopelessness people are facing.
The tragedies facing many children in our Childhope schools would qualify as overwhelming. Yet, everyday our teachers are reminding their students that God is a gracious God and He knows their address, though the home they live in may be a shack. While the world may offer gloomy statistics that describe poverty, Childhope schools are daily reminding students that the God of the Bible is compassionate and has sent His very Son to transform them. The power of the Gospel will replace the gloom of “breaking news” with the hope of “Good News!”
Vice President, ChildHope
Prayer: Lord, we admit our need for a Savior. Our world is chaotic, but your salvation brings hope and we are in desperate need of that great hope today.
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Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 (ESV)
1Blow 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,
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
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?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
assemble the elders;
gather the children,
even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
17 Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
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Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.