Blow the Trumpet

With the new year only days away, and many planning large celebrations, I wanted to share a bit about another celebration that is in the future of those who believe.
Today's passage is from the book of Joel, found in the Old Testament. It is one of the prophetic books and chapter 2:29 - 32
"I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens, and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for on Mount Zion and Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls".
Now I know that the references to some of the things the Lord has said will happen on the earth don't sound like something to celebrate, but they are signs that the Lord will soon return to this earth, and that IS something to celebrate!
Joel tells us back in the first verse of chapter 2, "Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain". This is a call to believers to get the word out, that the time of the Lord is near.
People are searching for answers - looking for hope in these hard times the whole world is facing, and the answer can only be found in Jesus. He promises us that He will never leave us or forsake us, so we need not fear the strain on our economy, the wars all around us, or the strange and unexplainable things that we see happening in the weather all across the world.
All these things were foretold hundreds of years before Jesus was even born, and when he began his ministry at 30, he reiterated them many times.
I pray that the outpouring of his Spirit will be multiplied in 2009......it's time to wake up and stand up for what is right.
Happy last Sunday of 2008!
Janelle