{"id":7599,"date":"2021-07-07T14:57:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T19:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7599"},"modified":"2021-07-07T14:57:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T19:57:30","slug":"devotional-on-joel-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-joel-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Joel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1535px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-i-NpHk5hkaY\/YOSAiLuZULI\/AAAAAAABKsg\/PcAu-LAz5XgvH58cag-uQcJv6mU0Vg5iQCPcBGAsYHg\/s1535\/image-002.jpg\" width=\"1535\" height=\"1147\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 &#8211; Covered Bridges in west central Indiana<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nWeeping with those who weep<br \/>\nJoel 1: Get them into God\u2019s Sanctuary for serious prayer to God.<br \/>\nThe event that drives Joel\u2019s sermon is a natural disaster.  A swarm of millions and millions of locusts have devastated the country.  Every green thing has been stripped bare.  The result is that famine is most certainly coming to the land.   What are they going to do now?  One thing Joel calls for is for people to take their fear and pain to the Lord.  He says to the priests, \u201cYou, who lead people in worship, lead them in lament.\u201d   This is no time for empty promises that everything will be okay.  Rather, this is a time for fasting and crying out to God.   Joel takes his own advice and a few lines later he prays, \u201cGod! I pray, I cry out to you!\u201d  Today, I find this passage to be frighteningly instructive.  It\u2019s quite likely that our version of the disaster of Joel\u2019s day will come.  What is the church to do when a hurricane or earthquake or tornado sweeps through the community destroying lives and property?   Joel says this is a time for pastors and other leaders to lead the community in lament; a time for \u201cweeping with those who weep.\u201d  I\u2019m not ignoring the good that can be done in practical ways, but I&#8217;m reminded here that the church isn\u2019t to just \u201cput on a happy face.\u201d  It\u2019s okay, and even necessary, for God\u2019s people to lead the way in crying out to God, declaring the pain and suffering of a community in the face of disaster.<br \/>\nTake Away: Sometimes it\u2019s the role of the people of the Lord to lead the way in crying out to God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weeping with those who weep Joel 1: Get them into God\u2019s Sanctuary for serious prayer to God. The event that drives Joel\u2019s sermon is a natural disaster. A swarm of millions and millions of locusts have devastated the country. Every green thing has been stripped bare. The result is that famine is most certainly coming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1506,6,7],"tags":[134,180,272,798,845,1049],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7599"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15384,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions\/15384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}