Awake, awake, the hour is late!

Joel 2:12-17

Can one return to where they have never been?  The answer is obvious one cannot return to where they have never been in the first place, a question must be asked when reading Joel 2:12-13, have I ever been with the LORD? “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 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.” (Joel 2:12-13)

A hymn we often sang in small Baptist churches I attended as a child was;

“Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?  Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?  Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”  And I sang it with great gusto, but I had never been to Jesus, I knew a lot about Him, but I did not know Him, and I could not have returned to where I had never been. The Jewish people were into religion, and when in trouble they would fast, for my American readers that mean they would go without food for a time.  If someone rends their garments it was a sign of anger, grief, or despair, it was an outer act to be seen by others, but the LORD is saying do not do this to be seen by men, but by God only.  A reversal of course, once you were the captain of your ship, and now God is asking each of us to allow Him to be the only GPS we listen to.  Could it be that many into religion and into the church have no understanding of God, that we falsely believe one who has broken the big sin, and you have those in your mind, become an enemy of God?  If so, go back and read Hosea where God said His chosen people were whores and yet He shows mercy to them, in fact, He redeems them, and after awhile they believe their GPS is better than God’s.  When one desires to be the captain of their own ship, and disaster keeps returning to your life, and you run to God, you seek forgiveness, it becomes clear; God is “is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”  For one must ask: “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?” Awake, awake, the hour is late, your GPS is not working, your ship is heading to troubled waters, it is in the middle of a class 6 storm, it’s time to acknowledge your own sin, and repent, ask the LORD to take the helm of your life, and cry for mercy for your nation.  This is what the people of Joel’s time did; “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 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.  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?’” From the Back Porch, Bob Rice