Praise
the Lord for this new day. Last week I attended the annual conference of our
church that was held in the Oncenter in Syracuse. The theme for the conference
was, "Called to till". Praise the Lord for the Church of Jesus Christ . He has
built His church upon His Rock; the gates of hell can not prevail against it.
The Church is the only body on earth under the same management for over 2000
years. I am so blessed to be loved by Jesus and called to be part of His Church.
It is a high honor to serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
I
have been watching a portion of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the queen of
England. The English know how to celebrate with great grandeur and pomp. The
monarch of England is traditionally known as the defender of the faith. Praise
the Lord, for the Lord is at work through the work of the Holy Spirit around the
corner and around the globe reconciling the world unto Himself. He is in the
business of restoration and reconciliation. He calls us to be
partners in His miracles.
I
was reading from Joel 2 as part of the celebration of Pentecost in the life of
the church. “I will repay you for the years the Locust have eaten — the great
locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm — my great
army that I sent among you.” “I will repay you for the years the locusts have
eaten.”
I can not think of a better promise to claim either as an individual Disciple of Jesus Christ or collectively as His Body than this one as we enter the summer season. The image “have eaten” paints a literal picture of something that has been completely, totally destroyed.
I can not think of a better promise to claim either as an individual Disciple of Jesus Christ or collectively as His Body than this one as we enter the summer season. The image “have eaten” paints a literal picture of something that has been completely, totally destroyed.
God
speaks again through the prophet Amos in Amos 4:9 and says, “‘Many times I
struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and
mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the LORD.”
The fruit of those fig and olive trees were totally destroyed in the same vein
as in the 1870's when the Great Plains were “utterly barren, with only holes in the ground where wheat or range grasses had been.” The Lord promises, “I will repay you,” meaning nothing less than “I will restore, I will bring the gardens and the vineyards back to their original productive state."
Often our lives seem to be devastated from years of destruction because the locusts have consumed. We all experience disappointments, we all have regrets, and we all have made mistakes and experienced neglected opportunities. Each of us has made wrong decisions that can not be reversed. Perhaps there is even sin that remains unconfessed. Whatever the locusts have destroyed, God is able to restore. The past cannot be reversed, but in Christ we all can have a new beginning.
I appreciate Nicky Gumbel’s observation in one of his awesome Alpha talks. He reminds us that we all wish we could have a dress rehearsal for life. In a dress rehearsal you can make all the mistakes possible, but you then have the opportunity to “get it all right” in the actual performance. Nicky says, “Unfortunately that is not possible; from the moment we are born, we are all on stage.” We can not reverse the mistakes of our past, but Jesus promises us a new beginning, “I will restore the years the locust have devoured.”
Oswald Chambers once said it so well in a devotional from "My Utmost for His Highest": “Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ. Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.”
He is always there to “restore our years the locusts have eaten.”
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,’
declares the LORD.”
The fruit of those fig and olive trees were totally destroyed in the same vein
as in the 1870's when the Great Plains were “utterly barren, with only holes in the ground where wheat or range grasses had been.” The Lord promises, “I will repay you,” meaning nothing less than “I will restore, I will bring the gardens and the vineyards back to their original productive state."
Often our lives seem to be devastated from years of destruction because the locusts have consumed. We all experience disappointments, we all have regrets, and we all have made mistakes and experienced neglected opportunities. Each of us has made wrong decisions that can not be reversed. Perhaps there is even sin that remains unconfessed. Whatever the locusts have destroyed, God is able to restore. The past cannot be reversed, but in Christ we all can have a new beginning.
I appreciate Nicky Gumbel’s observation in one of his awesome Alpha talks. He reminds us that we all wish we could have a dress rehearsal for life. In a dress rehearsal you can make all the mistakes possible, but you then have the opportunity to “get it all right” in the actual performance. Nicky says, “Unfortunately that is not possible; from the moment we are born, we are all on stage.” We can not reverse the mistakes of our past, but Jesus promises us a new beginning, “I will restore the years the locust have devoured.”
Oswald Chambers once said it so well in a devotional from "My Utmost for His Highest": “Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ. Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.”
He is always there to “restore our years the locusts have eaten.”
In
Christ,
Brown
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