Saturday 21 Sep 2013

Saturday Reading: Joel 3:9-11

Key Verse: Joel 3:10
10  Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

Devotion:
There is coming a time when man will think that he is a whole lot better than he is; and no, I mean a whole lot more self-opinionated than he is already! We do like to think all manner of things about ourselves that are just not right. When man is under the influence of drink or drugs he gets even worse and there may be no holding him back. But the prophet talks about a time when he knows God’s power is going to be shown much more than it has already been done.

We can look at various times during the Old Testament when man has been shown the Awesome power of God from people being able to walk as the sea is parted to God wiping out large armies. In the case of wiping our armies, God would support and strengthen the army of Israel to defeat the enemy or would fight the fight before the Israelites got up. But in this case every person is going to join in the fight and not just the strong men in the army; the weak will gain courage to be strong to join in. But the prophet continues on to call on God to bring down His angels to fight the war instead.

It is God alone who has the right to judge the world and it is Him alone who will do so when the time is right. For us, we have the choice right now as to whether we continue to ignore God and try to live our own lives or whether we turn to Him and ask Him for His forgiveness before we go too far. We do not know the time when Christ is going to come back so we need to be ready before He does! That means being ready right now!

Do you really want to be caught up in the heat of the moment and follow the rest of the people into the pit of destruction? God has given us the truth through His Word, from the earliest history through the prophets to the account of what Christ has done on our behalf. This same truth tells us that Christ is going to be our Judge and that He alone is worthy of such a position. No matter how much of an effort man makes to gain all he can on earth, it is of no consequence when we face Christ in judgement.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you can do it alone?

Do you really think the Omnipotent God will let you run wild?