Comfortably Cool

 

Read Malachi 2

As we approach the days when the temperature will likely hit the century mark, think to those very cold days we had a couple months ago. That was some cold.

I remember some counsel from over 40 years ago about dressing for cold weather.  It was to dress comfortably cool.  You didn’t want to be warm or if you had to move or do something strenuous, then you would be hot and quickly become overheated. Dress comfortably cool.

As a second lieutenant going through my first combat readiness evaluation in Japan near Mount Fuji, my platoon was about one minute from moving out from our assembly area.  At the last minute, I was given a squad of combat engineers.

They had no assigned mission at that time other than to stay with my platoon in case something came up. 

It was drizzling when they arrived and they were all dressed in rain suits.  If you have never worn one, a military issue rain suit is essentially rubber coveralls. 

If you need to lose 20 pounds of water weight in 20 minutes, then put on one of these suits and walk a mile.  Make sure there are plenty of saline bags for your IV when you are done.

I had to get my platoon moving so I told my platoon sergeant to get those guys out of the rain suits and catch up.  Fifteen minutes later my platoon sergeant caught up to me and told me that the engineers had all dropped out.  They didn’t shed their rain suits and were soaked with sweat and totally dehydrated.

They didn’t understand comfortably cool. The engineer lieutenant and I had a long talk after the readiness evaluation was over but this was a memorable lesson in comfortably cool that I remember to this day.

God through Malachi chastised his people, but reminded the priests that they were not off the hook.  They had a role in the people going astray.

What if your Sunday messages never made you a little uncomfortable?  What if they never invaded your comfort zone?

What if your Sunday messages simply scratched your itching ears and affirmed what you believe without testing it against God’s word?

What if the shepherd entrusted with this flock led you to become more transactional?  What if the vending machine became our model?

What if you were counseled to minimize your contact with those whom we might call the least of these our brothers and sisters?

What if you were led to embrace disconnection from God and the body of Christ?

What if your counsel from your pastor was to just give God the leftovers?

I think that I would hear many comments to the effect of that dog don’t hunt.

You don’t have the same relationship with your pastor that the ancients had with their priests.  You have a personal relationship with God that came through Christ Jesus and continues in the Holy Spirit that dwells within you, but there are expectations from your shepherd.

Some of those expectations might just come from Malachi even though you didn’t know until now and some might just ruffle your comfort zone.

For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.

The latest trends are good, but truth is essential.

Understanding the world’s systems is helpful, but knowing the heart of God from his holy word is mandatory.

Knowing the seasons and festivals and traditions of God’s Chosen People and of the modern church are enriching, but knowing that God desires mercy more than sacrifice, more than perfunctory offerings, and more than mindless lock-step compliance is sharing a loving God with those in your charge.

The priests and today pastors have always been set apart and are a little different from the people who have a relationship with them.  Jesus noted that the priests violate the Sabbath law and yet they are innocent.

The context of this discussion was that the religious hypocrites were criticizing Jesus for working and healing on the Sabbath.

You will see your priest or your pastor at the ball games or at Walmart or at the town-wide yard sale and he is the same as you, except he is set apart for a specific purpose—to preach the truth and good news.

For that reason, he may not sugarcoat the truth. 

For that reason, you may have some discomfort around him or her.

For that reason, compassion may look more like instruction than a that’s ok.  It doesn’t matter comment. Your priest or your pastor is required by his or her calling to deliver the messages of God.

God was serious about the descendants of Levi honoring his covenant and his laws. You just don’t see many places where God says, If you get out of line not only will I curse you but I will rub manure in your face.

The chapter concludes with some words for Woke America.

You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

Your ears will not be tickled here. 

The word of God will be understood by the word of God and illuminated by the Spirit of God and not made to fit into the flavor of the week.

Sometimes you will receive challenges.  Sometimes you will receive affirmation, but you will never receive apathy or ambivalence.

I have a role.  My fellow pastors have a role in helping you to respond to God’s love with passion and purpose.  Everything that we do should be done in response to God’s love that we know in Christ Jesus and guided by his example.

It is wholly your response but you who belong to body of Christ and continue to worship him in the assembly are not alone.

You have the counsel of the body.  You have the counsel of your pastor.  You have the counsel of the Holy Spirit who lives within you.

The proverbs tell us that plans fail for lack of counsel but with many advisors they succeed.

They continue:

For lack of guidance a nation falls,

    but victory is won through many advisers.

The book of wisdom of which we will soon embark continues:

A man without self-control

    is like a city broken into and left without walls.

You do not have to navigate this world alone.  You have God’s holy word.  You have a pastor called to speak the truth without sugar coating.  You have God’s own Spirit living in you.

The message may come in different forms and different personalities, but the word of God, your pastor’s message, and God’s Spirit speaking to you should all be in one accord.

If that is not the case, then it is the wrong time to make a major decision.

Imagine if the priests of Malachi’s time had turned away the defective animals.  We don’t know what would have happened, but we do know that the issue would be before the people with each and every sacrifice.

God is first in all things.  Don’t bring him your leftovers and save the good stuff for yourself.

The people might have ignored the counsel and just stopped bringing sacrifices.

The people might have pressured the religious hierarchy to replaces these priests with others more pliable.

The people might have remembered that nothing is hidden from God. God sees the heart.

In any case, the priests would not have been coconspirators in the ambivalence of the people, but those are all hypotheticals.  The priests were complicit in helping the people just go through the motions.

I have told some of you before, that if I ever stand in front of you and just say the words:  For God so loved the world, and there is no passion; it’s time to form a search committee.

Your worship, your offerings, and your sacrifices in whatever form they take in this age must be out of joy not duty, love not compliance, and hope not doubt.

My part in this is to help you remain comfortably cool.  I’m not talking about our passion for the Lord.  We should be on fire.

I’m talking about your personal comfort zone.  We should always be ready to move towards what God has for us next and not pass out because we are comfortable right where we are.  My part is to help you live in faith and love and hope.  It is to challenge you to set doubt aside and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. It is to know with certainty that the promises of God are true.

I will not be complicit in giving quarter to apathy, ambivalence, malaise, or rebellion. Sometimes you may think me a pain in the …you pick the body part.

We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Even the Levitical priests had to sacrifice for their own sins before they offered the sacrifice for the sins of the people.  We have all sinned as well—pastor and parishioner alike, but we remain people of passion and purpose and as we live completely for God, our encouragement from fellow believers should be such that we long to stay the course and finish our race.

Our desire to continue and finish our race of faith must be so much more than our desire to remain in our personal comfort zones.

We don’t want to quit.  We won’t just go through the motions.  We long to worship and serve and love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Your pastor might just challenge you along the way.

And here is something to chew on as we consider God’s chastisement of the priests.  We are all a holy priesthood.  All who have come to Christ Jesus—the stone that the builders rejected—are now a people—God’s people.

You are now a royal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. Now God does call some to ordained ministry, but all who profess Jesus as Lord are to minister to the world, not because of your Levitical lineage but because your Lord is the cornerstone and foundation of all that you do.

OBTW- Your pastor still will challenge you along the way.

Amen.

God Hates Divorce

 

Read Malachi 2

I begin with verse 16.  The Lord God of Israel said:  I hate divorce.

Why such strong language?  God said thou shall not murder.  It was and is a command.  He didn’t add, I hate murder.

What is it about divorce?

God noted that through marriage sanctified by him you get godly offspring.  In flesh and spirit both husband and wife become one through the union blessed by God.

The Hebrew people had intermarried, at least some of them.  Think to the times of Jesus when the Jews detested the Samaritans.  They had intermarried with their conquerors.  This was mostly the women being taken as wives by the Assyrians or other invaders and remaining in the land.

Before the people had entered the Promised Land, God gave directions against intermarrying with the pagans.  Don’t marry people who worship a false God.

How do I preach this in an age where almost every family you know is impacted by divorce?

That’s easy.  God hates divorce.  It doesn’t matter what my opinion of the matter is.  It doesn’t matter if this is easy to preach or not.  Don’t do what God hates.

But I am in an abusive relationship!

You don’t know what it’s like.

You don’t understand.

Understanding is a good quality for counseling but obedience to God is essential for right living. But let's speak briefly to the counseling side of this equation.

Ask yourself how you got there and you will have your counsel for how to live with whomever or whatever comes next. Broken marriages can be fixed but they seldom are.

How did you get there?  You were not ready to enter into a promise that you would never break.

But I didn’t know he or she would be like that.

Then you casually made a promise that God takes very seriously.

Why does God hate divorce?

God hates broken promises.  Marriage is a covenant.  It is an unbreakable promise and God hates it when we break what he made to be unbreakable.

Do not enter lightly into an unbreakable promise with a partner, because the promise is also with God. 

What if at the end of the age, you were standing before Jesus and he said, “Send this one to hell.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.  Go directly to hell.”

But, but, but…. You promised me eternity with you.  I professed you as Lord.  I believed in my heart that God raised you from the dead.  I was your disciple.  I confessed when I sinned.  I even read my chapter every day even though some days I didn’t want to.

You promised.

Imagine Jesus saying, “Yeah but, I’m going to have to break that promise.”

We live under the new deal, right?  No, it is the New Covenant.  God does not break his promises.

A covenant is an unbreakable promise.  God does not break his promises and he does not want you to make promises that you will break, especially in the marriage covenant.

Malachi puts in like this.  You wonder why God doesn’t respond to your prayers?  You don’t keep your most important promises.

You are not faithful to God.  You are not faithful to each other.

If you are young, don’t rush into marriage.

If you have been divorced, don’t rush into the second or third time around.

Years ago as a manager for the newspaper, some of my carriers told me about some of their friends who were also carriers.  Two of them were getting married.

I thought, “that’s nice.”

Then they told me it would be the fifth wedding for each of them.

Today, we are told not to intermarry.   You didn’t know that, did you?

Those of you who received the stone that the builders rejected as your cornerstone are now a people—God’s people. 

Do not marry someone who does not proclaim Jesus as Lord. 

But, but, but…  

He could change.  She could change.

That’s true.  Wait until they do before you commit to an unbreakable promise. If they are going to change, it’s worth the wait.

That’s cool.  We will just do the friends with benefits thing until somebody changes. 

If you think the FWB package is ok until both are ready for the covenant of marriage, you will never get to the covenant.

Marriage is tough but doable with God and in a godly relationship.  It has many benefits and is the prescribed process to bring godly children into the world.

There is probably not a person alive who has been married for 5 years or more who has not entertained the thoughts of either killing or divorcing their spouse.

If you are at that point, remember that God hates divorce and I can help you dispose of the body.

Seriously, if you are at that point, remember that you made a promise that was never to be broken.  If you can’t continue your marriage, then don’t jump into a second or third one without understanding that marriage is a covenant—a promise never to be broken.

We have forgiveness in Christ Jesus but we are counseled to be wise.  Do not enter into a marriage covenant until you can do so knowing that you will never break your promise.

Amen.

Leftovers

 

Read Malachi 1

Malachi prophesied sometime after the Hebrew people returned from captivity in Babylon and after the second temple was built.  Unlike other prophets who looked forward to destruction at the hands of the Babylonians; this was history for Malachi.

These Hebrews from Jerusalem—Jews—had come home and worship in the temple had resumed, but unlike when Ezra and Nehemiah summoned all of God’s people to hear his holy word read aloud once more; the people of Malachi's day had become apathetic.

They were on fire when God’s words were first read again in their own land.  Those days and that passion had passed.

Now idolatry and apostasy were not big issues.  The captivity had cleansed them of most of that, but apathy and malaise had become the norm.  Worship and sacrifice were items on a list to be checked off.  They were no longer central in the lives of God’s Chosen People. 

The people had become lethargic.  They were indifferent.  There was an attitude of it just doesn’t pay to play God’s way.  The people wanted to blame God for their difficulties.

Malachi takes a series of interrogatives to discern that it was not God’s indifference but the lackluster effort of his own people that resulted in a drought of blessings.

As we navigate this short book of prophecy, we will come across many things familiar.  They will add context and antecedent to many things that we know from the gospels.

Blemished sacrifices were offered to the Lord.

For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.

I hate divorce.

A Day of Judgment.

I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

I will send my prophet Elijah before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.

There is much in Malachi that will sound familiar.  Let’s dive into the first chapter.

The people were showing contempt for the Lord.  How?  They offered imperfect animals for sacrifices.

Really, if you are just going through the motions, why would you give your best lamb to the Lord?  Cut that blind runt out of the flock and send it to the priest for sacrifice. 

The Lord noted that a son honors his father and a servant honors his master, but who honors God?

Try paying taxes to the governor with your rejects and see how far that gets you.  You know what the law that was given through Moses requires and you know that your stunts wouldn’t pass muster with human authorities; yet you try them with your God.

God through the prophet told his people that he would rather they shut down this whole offering and sacrifice business than to do it in the perfunctory manner with which they had grown comfortable.

God doesn’t like lukewarm.  God isn’t fooled by what is going on externally.  God sees the heart.

God chose Jacob over Esau even though both were from the line of Abraham, but Jacob’s line was blind to the blessing.

God’s Chosen People saw only the burdens and not the blessings.

His people saw only regulations that required compliance, not divine directives to be embraced for the fullness of life.

His people saw a God who could be outsmarted, not one who was feared among all the nations.

The people had brought themselves to their present predicament.  Only God could deliver them once more, but they were just going through the motions in their relationship with God.

I think the counsel from our Lord to the Church in Ephesus (Revelation 2) would have fit in here.

Consider the height from which you have fallen and repent!

Let’s examine our world.  Do we ever just go through the motions?

Do we give God our leftovers?

Have we abandoned our first love?

Is the body of Christ truly connected? Do we have those within the body of Christ who feel like outsiders?

How do we live in a world that says one god is as good as another?

How do we preach life in Christ in a world that demands tolerance of all religions and all beliefs?  Do we still bring passion with good news? Are we afraid that the truth might offend someone?

I have some good news for you.  Every time we have a food offering, our people bring mostly new food.  Sometimes, people buy specifically for the food offering. 

When there is a community food drive, that’s something different. I wonder how many cans of something will be more than 10 years expired.  How many will be 15 years expired?

It’s been a couple of years since I received anything that expired in the previous millennium.

I understand what’s going on when the community gives food.  Sometimes, it’s just cleaning out, but what if God’s own people did the same thing?

What if those desiring to be blessed because they thought they lived in faith, practiced these offerings of contempt? What if our practice was to give God our leftovers? 

I think that most here are saying to themselves, that’s not me.  I think when you give your time, money, or treasures, you know that you are making an offering to the one true God and your heart desires to please him and not slip in something contemptible while he isn’t looking.

I can tell you that you understand making an offering to God out of the best that you have. It is not a duty.  It is not a burden.  I can see that, but you have to inspect the other areas of your life to see if you are just giving God your leftovers.

Only you and God can know for sure.

Sometimes your leftovers are good.  I like some leftovers better than the original serving, but when it comes to making an offering to God we must ask:  Am I giving this to God so I can keep something better for myself?

Is God first in all things and in all parts of my life?

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The challenge for us today is to ask if we are consistently giving God our first things or just throwing a few leftovers his way now and then.

Malachi admonished his own people for the latter.  In the King James and New King James Versions, the introductory text reads:

The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

This was not going to be an enjoyable message.  It was admonishment and even reprimand.  Our times are different but our counsel is the same.

In these days where the gods of apathy and ambivalence reign in the world, are we giving God our leftovers or are we still keeping God first in all things?

This is not something that we say, when it’s all said and done, I think God will come out first in my life.  This is not something to be left to happenstance.

This is our choice.  God is first in all things.  He is first in my mind when I awaken.  He is first in my heart.  He is first in my time, talents, and treasures.  He is first.

Keep God first in all things!

Amen.

Let us not undervalue the mercies of God

 

Read Malachi 1

I don’t bring much in the way of published commentaries into my weekly messages, but I will make a brief exception today.  Matthew Henry noted that:

All the evils sinners feel and fear, are the just recompence of their crimes, while all their hopes and comforts are from the unmerited mercy of the Lord. He chose his people that they might be holy. If we love him, it is because he has first loved us; yet we all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences.

Let’s think about being prone to undervalue the mercies of God and to excuse our own offenses.

Isn’t it our nature to see sin in others while concurrently justifying or forgiving it in ourselves?

Isn’t it our nature to see all of the things that God needs to do for us while concurrently missing the multitude of blessings poured out on us throughout our lives?

God’s Chosen People—especially those in Jerusalem—had gotten into this all about me rut.  Complying with God’s divine directives was obligatory but not profitable, at least in their own eyes.  

It seemed like a waste of time to them.  They just went through the motions.  OBTW—they were not fooling God.  God saw that their hearts were not in their worship and sacrifices and offerings and he was not pleased.

He had chosen these people to be his own.  The world would know the one true God through his people.  Now it seemed that his people didn’t even know him or want to know him.

God reminded them that he chose Jacob over Esau.  Esau's people could put all of the earthly effort they wanted into their enterprises, but God’s people would prevail.

God had blessed his people—those who came through Jacob.  Those who came through Esau were like those ages before building the Tower of Babel.  Their own achievements would never compare to what God did for those whom he had chosen.

But God’s own people had forgotten their blessings.  They considered their sacrifices and offerings to be of no value—what a waste of time and resources. They had contempt for God and what he had required of them and were just going through the motions.

They had forgotten how recently God had restored Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.  This captivity was the result of their own apostasy but their deliverance was wholly of God’s mercy.  These were his own people and he loved them.

They did not return the favor.  They had grown lukewarm and their worship was perfunctory.

God had provisioned his people to build a new temple.  This was the temple in which people begrudgingly sacrificed animals full of defects.  Why waste a good animal on a sacrifice to God?

Back to where I started with Henry’s commentary.

We all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences.

If you want to see blessings in your life, look for them.

If you want to see the hand of God at work in the world, look for it.

If you want to see the great mercy of God, examine your own life and where you would be based solely on your own merits.    We often think that we would be at the top of the world, until we actually examine ourselves and our choices and our priorities.

We are so prone to forgive our own shortcomings but so ready to find fault in others.

We are prone to see what we think we must have but are often blind to what God has already given us.

God loved us first.  He doesn’t owe us anything.  We owe him everything.  When we remember this, we start to see our blessings and we can begin to worship God as he desires.

Let us never undervalue the mercies of God.

Amen.

Joel--In your face prophecy for then and now

  

Joel was a wake-up call for those in Judea centuries before Christ and for those who now live in the last days.  In the battle of good and evil, God wins.  Love wins, but how many must lose?  How many will continue in rebellion?  How many can even recognize rebellion?  It looks just like our own understanding.

Joel is three chapters of in-your-face prophecy.  Links to messages for each chapter are provided below.

 

Joel 1

Wake Up!

Have you ever seen anything like this?

 

Joel 2

Even Now

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord

 

Joel 3

The Valley of Decision

Last Days

 

Last Days

 

Read Joel 3

Let’s consider the last days.  Are we talking a week or a month or a year?

We are talking about every day that you have ever lived.  Since Christ rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, we have been in the last days—the last age if you will.

Now will certain things happen as we get closer and closer to the second coming of Christ?  Yes, but consider when Joel talks about in those days, he is talking about these days.  He is talking about this age.

Again, we see some near-term and long-term prophecy.  Jerusalem would be taken captive into Babylon and returned to its land before Christ came, but they would not yet have the blessings of all of the prophecy until the end of this age.

At some point, all of Israel will cry out: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  They will welcome and receive the Lord, Jesus Christ. 

At some point, God will hold court on the nations of the world.  Everyone who has wronged his chosen people will be held accountable.  It is as if God is saying, “I double-dog dare you to rebel on this day.”

Go ahead and make your weapons of war.  You have enjoyed peace in your ungodly ways long enough. 

Go ahead and generate that machismo spirit.  It won’t last when you face the one true God.

Everything you did against God’s people will be settled and those who have wronged God’s people will not come out of this in good shape.

Your days of getting away with stealing from, ridiculing, fighting against, and otherwise showing scorn for God’s people will be dealt with by God himself.

Nations of the world, you are invited to judgment.  You don’t get to send your regrets and sit this one out.

Where will this take place?

In the Valley of Jehoshaphat.  Where is that?

Some think perhaps the Valley of Beracah where King Jehoshaphat once had a military victory.

We don’t know.  Some suggest the Valley of Kidron, but surely it is too narrow for such a massive gathering.

Some suggest the Valley of Megiddo. Some think this will be Armageddon.

But the Valley of Jehoshaphat is less a location than an event.  Jehoshaphat means the Lord judges or Jehovah Judges.

Joel uses a different term to describe this valley.  He calls it the valley of decision.  Nations will gather there amidst cosmic disturbance as the Lord judges from Zion.

Does the prophecy of Joel leave room not only for people but for nations to repent?  Is it possible for nations to come to this time of judgment not in war against God but in total surrender?

I don’t know.  I do know that God will reign with a heart that desires none to perish but that the blood of his people will not go unavenged.

Where does that leave us?

Stand strong to the end.  Remain faithful to the very end.  Never abandon God.  Never resist his Holy Spirit.

If the nation in which you live is judged, be among those who have taken refuge in the Lord.

I’m going to use some highly technical terms here.  There is going to be some stuff going on as we grow closer to the end of this age.  Our mission does not change.  We are people of light and love and hope and even joy in the midst of calamity.

Don’t’ underestimate God.  He can bring judgment and reconciliation concurrently.  He can do more than one thing at a time.

Judgment may befall our nation but you have been saved from God’s wrath.

The Day of Decision is coming upon the world.  Take refuge in the Lord now for you have made your decision already.

Amen.

The Valley of Decision

 

Read Joel 3

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

   Someone had blundered.

   Theirs not to make reply,

   Theirs not to reason why,

   Theirs but to do and die.

   Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

   Rode the six hundred.

Alfred Lord Tennyson continued for another 3 stanzas but the outcome was clear.  The decision to attack when and where they did was a blunder, but the brigade rode on.

The decision to continue the attack was not made in the ranks.  Theirs was but to do or die.

This poem reflected upon one brigade that would be eternally known for its courage in a hopeless cause.  It was in Crimea not Kidron or Megiddo.  It was not the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

But it was the Valley of Decision.

Multitudes, multitudes

    in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

    in the valley of decision.

 The sun and moon will be darkened,

    and the stars no longer shine.

 The Lord will roar from Zion

    and thunder from Jerusalem;

    the earth and the heavens will tremble.

But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,

    a stronghold for the people of Israel.

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, but you must call upon the name of the Lord.

The ultimate battle of good and evil is on the horizon.  We know God has already won, but some remain in rebellion. Some avoid the decision to accept God through Jesus Christ.

I meet with many people whose lives are a mess but their excuses are in order.  They have so many reasons and justifications for living in their own understanding instead of living God’s way.

Their lives are a mess but their excuses are in order.  This is a defense mechanism to avoid making real-life decisions.

There are so many that live under the umbrella of what is often called determinism.  That is their circumstances determine their outcome.

I spent many hours in conversation with inmate clients who had years to go on their sentences who still wrestled with, I didn’t have a choice.

Only when they realize that we always have a choice can we move beyond our circumstances into real decisions.  Yes, many decisions are difficult to make and harder to live by, but they are our decisions

They take us out of the victim mentality and put us in the more than conquerors category.

The decision that I speak of is the decision for life in Christ.  The decision is to profess Jesus as Lord and serve him as Lord, Master, and Savior.

The decision is to take his yoke and learn from him.

The decision is to obey his commands with joy in our hearts not as burdens on our backs.

I feel for many of you as you minister to those who pay lip service to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and diligently serve the god of their own understanding.

You, like the prophets, often minister to deaf ears and are not well received.  I get it. 

But we are not allowed to throw in the towel.  We reveal God’s grace and mercy every chance that we get.  One day, time will be up.  The battle in the Valley of Decision will be consummated in God’s victory and those who held onto their own understanding will go the way of the 600, without the human glory.

Joel is a wake-up call for all generations.  God wins.  That means that love wins.  Why would anyone decide to play for the wrong team in the battle of eternal outcomes?

The Lord will roar from Zion

    and thunder from Jerusalem;

    the earth and the heavens will tremble.

But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,

    a stronghold for the people of Israel.

He is our Rock and Stronghold as well.  Our salvation is secure but the nations of the world are in peril.  So many are at risk of being eternally separated from God.  It may seem comfortable now to not deal with this God stuff, but is that really the eternal condition that some want to choose in their valley of decision?

The world is gathering for war in the Valley of Decision.  The only winning decision is to receive Jesus as Lord and serve only God.  We go forth into battle armed with the Sword of Truth—the Sword of the Spirit—that we know as the word of God.

God wins.  We know that part, but how many must lose.  We have a part in keeping that number low.  It’s a target-rich environment.  Everywhere we look there is someone who needs the Lord.

Everywhere we look we see people with their excuses in order but their lives are a mess.

Everywhere we look we see people living in their own understanding and rejecting God.

Multitudes, multitudes

    in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

    in the valley of decision.

Joel is a wake-up call for this generation of apathy and ambivalence that lives entrenched in its own understanding.  For many, the time for decision is already upon them.

For us, the message of hope and love and grace and mercy must be delivered with more urgency now than ever before.

We all are entering the Valley of Decision.

Amen.