A Word from THE WORD

Good Morning Happy Church,

Today is Tuesday, March 15^th 2016. Today is the 75^th Day of 2016.

Today is Hope Walker’s Birthday

Today is Stacy Clough’s Birthday

Today is the “Ides of March”

There are only 291 days left in this year; and, there are only 26 Days Left until Our Spring Revival Meetings Begin!

We will begin the Revival Meetings on Saturday, April 9^th with a Banquet and Sermon at 6pm.

Sunday, April 10^th, we will hear Bro Bobby at 10am and again at 6pm.

Monday and Tuesday, April 11^th and 12, we will hear Bro Bobby at 7pm each night!

Please clear your schedule to attend as many of these meetings as possible.

As I often say, “The two things you have to invest to be blessed are your Attendance and your Attention!”

Please be in prayer for Dr. Bobby and Sandra Boyles as they travel here and back.

Pray that God will pour out HIS SPIRIT on us as never before!

Pray for the salvation of the lost; repentance and renewal in the life of God’s people; new people to become part of our Church Family; the calling out of ministers and missionaries; a spiritual awakening in our area; and, for Jesus Christ to be glorified in all that we do!

Joel was a Prophet to Israel just after the end of the Babylonian-Media-Persian Captivity that ended around 516 BC.

The people had not completely turned back to Jehovah and HE responded to their continuing rebellion with continuing judgments – primarily through a devastating plague of Locusts. (Joel 1:1-2:11)

Here is God’s inspired action-plan for revival:

¹⁵ “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶ gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
¹⁷ Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Joel 2:12-15

(1) “Blow the trumpet in Zion!”

(2) “Consecrate a Fast!”

(3) “Call a Solemn Assembly!”

(4) “Gather the People!”

(5) “Consecrate the Congregation!”

(6) “Assemble the Elders!”

(7) “Gather the Children, even Nursing Infants!”

(8) “Bring the Newlyweds!”

(9) “Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Let us commit ourselves to doing all 9 of these preparatory steps; for today, I want to focus on Step #7 – “Gather the Children, even the Nursing Infants”

Anyone who has ever gone door-to-door talking to people about the LORD and HIS Church will have some funny stories to tell.

I am no exception to that rule…

One of the things you hear over and over are excuses for why people don’t want to accept the LORD now; or, why they just do not have time for Church.

One afternoon after asking a man why he did not attend Church any longer, he replied, “Because I have wire wheels on my Buick.”

I had to admit to him that this was a new one on me; so, I asked him what on earth the wheels on his car had to do with him not attending Church…

“Nothing. Nothing at all Preacher” he replied. “But, one excuse is as good as another.”

He was exactly right.

There is simply no excuse for walking away from the LORD and HIS Church.

Think about our passage for today. If anyone ever had “a good excuse” for not attending a four-day series of revival meetings, it would be those who are mothers of small children.

Raising small children is the hardest thing in which I have ever taken part, and I know it was much harder for Lin that it was for me.

BUT, TAKE CLEAR NOTICE HERE: God will not even accept that excuse.

“Gather the children, even Nursing Infants.”

Load up the family and head to Church. The Solemn Assembly is to be a family affair.

Moms are tired, tired, tired, and children are busy, busy, busy. (We should know; since by the grace of God we have a church nearly FULL of them).

Any compassionate person, even the Pastor, would likely give a hard-working Mom a pass on getting the kids ready and getting out to Church for FIVE MEETINGS in just FOUR DAYS.

But not God.

You and I may not see the importance of renewing God’s people in the same way that God does; but, HE obviously puts great importance on the idea of EVERYONE attending – even Children and Nursing Infants.

Obedience. Simple obedience.

God always has blessed and HE will always bless HIS obedient people.

REMEMBER: Our Revival Meetings begin in only twenty-six days!

Get ready now… set aside the time now… Start praying now… DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY to experience a great moving of God!

Revival CAN happen, it really CAN happen!

Will we really have revival?

Carpe Diem!