The Church Series - Part Nine - Call The Solemn Assembly
Writer Author Sylvia Huffnagle
Christian Article
:
Church
- Fiction No
Joel 1:1-4: The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 2: Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 3: Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4: That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
(I liken this to the post-modern church of today. The churches could take up this lament: Isa: 26:18: We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
I am not trying to ridicule or put down the church. My intent is to convince her that it is time to call the solemn assembly. In chapter two I will show just what needs done. I believe that the churches’ crops have been destroyed as described above.
When God sent Jesus and called us to repentance he had in mind what is written in Jer: 24:7: And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
But instead it seems to me to be as in Jer: 51:51: We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.
Below is what God says must be done to get back on tract. A little dab will not do you. We need to do this God’s way. We cannot make a few adjustment. We cannot try new ways. We must do this God’s way.)
5-8: Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 6: For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 7: He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. 8: Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
(Why does he call us drunkards? It is because we have drunk fermented wine in abundance, but we have not feasted on God’s new wine--Eph: 5:18: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
A nation has attacked God’s church. Who is it? Babylon. All the post-modern beliefs and teachings that take away from the written Word of God or from the truth that Christ has come in the flesh are Babylonian and anti-Christ. The world should not influence the church. In the church, the church should be living and acting like the church. Strangers to the gospel should not feel at home there. They may be made to feel like welcomed strangers, but they should not fit in until they receive Jesus--the Jesus in the Bible. The one who says: You cannot serve God and mammon. The one who says: Why do you call me Lord and do not the things that I say? The one who says: You must forsake all to be my disciple.)
9-13: The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn. 10: The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 11: Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
12-13: The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 13: Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
14-15: Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, 15: Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
(That’s what we are going to talk about in chapter two. The things described above and below sound to me like the baroness of the church. Some may look at the works of some churches and say: “See how much they do. At least they are trying.” But there is more to this than getting people to come to church. They must be given the Spirit and the Word of the Lord. They must be brought into a condition of holiness--set apart for the Lord--and they must be taught how to live.)
16-20: Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17: The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. 18: How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 19: O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. 20: The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Joel 2:1-11: Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 2: A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 3: A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 4: The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 5: Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6: Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 7: They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 8: Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 9: They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 10: The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 11: And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
(Everyone thinks this mighty army is the church, but it is not. It says in verse eleven that it is God’s army, but it is His army to execute His wrath. Look at verse 20. It is Babylon--New Age--Gnosticism--Post-modern thinking. It has crept into every venue of life on planet earth.)
12-14: Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14: Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
15-17: Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 16: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17: Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
(What God wants us to do--what has to be done to gain the restoration we need is to call all those who love God--all those who care about the church--all those who want God to manifest Himself in a mighty way--to the house of prayer. They are to drop everything. Don’t worry about meals. Don’t worry about duties. Get to the house of God and fall on your face and cry out for God to restore all that has been taken away. Below, God tells us what He will do for us when we do this.)
18-20: Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. 19: Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: 20: But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.
21-27: Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. 22: Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. 23: Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. 24: And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25: And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26: And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27: And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
(He will send His teachers and preachers and they will teach all--the full council of God. Afterwards He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh.)
28-32: And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:29: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.30: And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.31: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
(As the song says: These are the days of Elijah... This is the end of the age. The war is between Christ and the anti-Christ spirit in the world. God wants to pour out His Spirit. God wants people to call on His name and be saved. Let’s do it! Call the solemn assembly.)
Editor's Comment:
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huffnagl@verizon.net
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