A scroll from Joel: look up!

My name is Joel, and these podcasts are called “A Scroll from Joel”.

Let me tell you about our time of crisis. It was a terrible time. There were locusts all over the country. Swarms of the things. They were chomping through all our food supply. It was terrible. There hadn’t been a time like it. God had warned it would happen if we turned our backs on him, but no-one believed it. Vines, fruit trees, crops, everything was gone. It was eaten up by the locusts- a punishment from God for the way we had ignored him and his ways.

You see I want to share with you in 2020 with this crisis that we learned from our crisis so many years ago. The first 2 weeks ago was look around- survey the damage, and see the devastation the locusts, or for you the Coronavirus has brought you. The second last week was look down- mourn the devastation and the loss of life. We had to do both of those things. Look around, and look down. But also we had to look up.

And that’s the message for today. Joel chapter 2 and verse 12. “Even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning”. That’s what we had to do, and that’s what you have to do- look up. Return to God. I don’t know what your view of God is. Maybe you don’t believe God exists at all. Maybe you think he’s a distant grandfather in the sky. Maybe you stopped going to church because you thought God wasn’t very nice like the people you met there! Maybe you believe in the universe and that is your god. But all these views of God are wrong.

God has told us what he is like in the Bible. God is a strong and good God who tells us to turn around when we have got things wrong. But he’s also a kind and forgiving God who loves us, and forgives us when we turn back. Here’s another verse from my book… “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity”. That’s Joel 2:13.

This virus that you are going through at the moment is tough in lots of different ways. For some it’s making life annoying and boring. For some it’s making life worrying. For others it is life threatening. But whatever your experiences this far. Look up. Look to God, he is the one who can help you. Turn back to him. Maybe he has sent this virus as a wakeup call. As a Christian writer who lived after me, CS Lewis put it, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world....” (The problem of pain).

God is using this crisis to get your attention. He is full of love and compassion and he wants you to find the ultimate safety and refuge in the only place possible- in the arms of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Look around. Look Down. Don’t look back in anger. But Look Up. Look up to God. Don’t ignore him, don’t blame him, look to him. Turn back to him and say sorry for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. I’m Joel and this has been the third edition of “A scroll from Joel”.