Spirit for everyone

Good morning brothers and sisters,
In today's reading God promises not only deliverance from the locusts, but good harvests to make up for that devastation. As the nation looks back to an economic disaster God has brought them through, Joel also points them ahead towards the "Day of the Lord." This is the day, some time in the future, when God's power over everything will be revealed. Christians tend to think of this day in terms of the second coming of Christ, but many religions look forward to a time of judgment and fulfillment, when everything wrong will be made right and we will stand at God's throne to account for our lives.

In the Book of Acts when the Holy Spirit comes to all the disciples and they speak in other languages praising God, Peter explains that event by referring to this passage (the second paragraph) from Joel. Joel announces that when the Day of the Lord approaches God will pour out his spirit on everyone. At that time, not only priests and prophets would speak God's word, but everyone. At that time the gates of God's kingdom would open for everyone who calls on God's name. This vision is a natural fit for what Peter experienced on Pentecost. The church's ministry is about welcoming all people into the joy of God's kingdom, and we trust the power of God's Spirit to lead us in that ministry.

God bless,
Sam

Joel 2:23-32

23O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. 24The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. 26You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

28Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. 30I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 32Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.