LEARNING DAILY

Joel 2:12-13, “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend the heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.

There needs to be some follow up on the last page of the blog. I wanted you to consider if you thought people would humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, and seek God. This morning I just briefly listened to the news, wanting to hear how elections turned out. Many elections were to give indications about the 2024 elections. What I was really interested in hearing concerned the issue of abortion. I was terribly disappointed to see how many elections were centered on this issue and the result was people favored to keep aborting babies.

The prophet Joel spoke to Israel to return to the Lord, to “rend the heart, and not your garments”.  His message was to change their heart by turning to Him, following His commandments; their tearing of their outer garments was just for appearances and their heart did not change. Israel had become a nation following other gods. Part of that following included bringing their children to a sacrificial altar to be sacrificed to the foreign gods. The falling away of Israel from God also included unrestrained sexual desire and activity to the goddess Ashtoreth; there was no moral restraint.

Believers today must do the same thing! America is in a freefall in our worship and in our following God’s Word. Is the great desire to abort babies any different from ancient Israel taking their children to be sacrificed on an altar or from throwing them into a fire? Over the years, the desire to strike down the Ten Commandments, remove statues that represent the founding Fathers (and their faith), and the attempt to destroy the foundations of this nation can easily be seen. There is certainly a strong desire to remove all aspects of Christianity from the land. The calling of good evil and evil good is a nation who has turned away from God to serve other gods. We are doing the same thing as ancient Israel.

Jonathon Cahn has written in his latest book The Josiah Manifesto, “A CIVILIZATION that departs from God will, in the end, give itself to other gods and idols to fill the void of His absence. It will serve and worship them, even without calling them by name, even while denying their existence. And so American civilization has become permeated with gods and idols. As in the ancient case, it has become increasingly carnal and base. In place of God’s worship, it venerates profit, money, and increase. In place of the Gospel of salvation, it preaches the gospel of materialism and success. The civilization that had once been known as a beacon of Christian values has now become the world’s central conduit for the promulgation of a brazenly anti-Christian morality and gospels.”

Do we need to turn to God? Do we need to hear and follow the command that Joel spoke, “turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Absolutely! Will the people of America humble themselves, turn from their sins and follow the Lord? Yes, we desperately need a revival! “Without a revival America will be lost; without repentance, there will be no revival” (Cahn).  Have we gotten past the point of the American people turning their hearts back to God, trusting Him and believing He will heal our land? What do you think? I think a revival is greatly needed!