OUR DAILY BREAD : WARNING LIGHTS

[cimi]

December 14
Monday


WARNING
LIGHTS

READ:
Joel 2:12-17
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"Now, therefore,"
says the LORD, "Turn
to Me with all your
heart, with fasting, with
weeping, and with
mourning." __Joel 2:12
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I didn't think that the hesitation in my car engine and that little yellow "check engine" light on my dashboard really needed my immediate attention. I sang it away, saying that I would get to it tomorrow. However, the next morning when I turned the key to start my car it wouldn't start. My first reaction was frustration, knowing that this would mean money, time, and inconvenience. My second thought was more of a resolution: I need to pay attention to warning lights that are trying to get my attention-- they can mean something is wrong.

In Joel 2:12-17, we read that God used the prophet Joel to encourage His people to pay attention to the warning light on their spiritual dashboard. Prosperity had caused them to become complacent and negligent in their commitment to the Lord. Their faith had degenerated into empty formalism and their lives into moral bankruptcy. So God sent a locust plague to ruin crops in order to get His people's attention, causing them to change their behavior and turn to Him with their whole heart.

What warning lights are flashing in your life? What needs to be tuned up or repaired through confession and repentance? __Marvin Williams
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``````````````````God's love is not some fuzzy thing```````````````
``````````````````That lets us do what we think best;``````````````
````````````````It guides and warns, and shows the way,```````````
``````````````And always puts us tot he test. __D. De Haan`````````
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Conviction is God's warning light.

****************Today's Bible Reading __ Joel 2:12-17************

12 "Now, therefore," says
the LORD, "Turn to Me with
all your heart, with fasting,
with weeping and with
mourning."

13 So rend your 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. 14 Who
knows if He will turn and
relent, and leave a blessing
behind Him--a grain
offering and a drink
offering for the LORD your
God?

15 Blow the trumpet in
Zion, consecrate a fast, call
a sacred assembly; 16 gather
the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the
elders, gather the children
and nursing babes; let the
bridegroom go out from his
chamber, and the bride from
her dressing room. 17 Let
the priests, who minister to
the LORD, weep between
the porch and the altar; let
them say, "Spare Your
people, O LORD, and do not
give Your heritage to
reproach, that the nations
should rule over them. Why
should they say among the
peoples, 'Where is their
God?'"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Despite the misperceptions of neighboring nations (v.17), God's
judgment of Israel's sins actually indicated their covenantal
relationship with Him. Likewise, for the Christian believer
today, divine discipline is always with a view to repentance and
restoration. __DENNIS FISHER