Have Faith

Joel 1:4-10 “4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. 5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. 7 It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white. 8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. 9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD. 10 The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.”

Leaders not just those who show up, leaders are those who take initiative; especially in a Crisis.

Rom. 10:14 “14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

1 Cor 1:21 MSG “Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb— preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.”

CS Lewis “Virtue—even attempted virtue—brings light; indulgence brings fog.”

Michael Eaton “If it takes severity before we take God seriously, then God can act in severity.”

Sometimes you face a crisis because of obedience.

Sometimes you face a crisis because someone else needs to learn something.

Sometimes a crisis is an essential part of your call.

Luke 22:31-32 “31 Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat Luke 22:31-32 “31 Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Turned Back = epistrepho “to revert (literally, figuratively or morally) - to return to a point or area where one has been before, emphasis on turning about.”

Chuck Swindoll “God would have us dig down past the natural disaster of a locust invasion and uncover deep insights into His universal plan.”

God reverses the entropy of the universe with the repentant heart, with sentient submission to eternal order.