Hellfire And Healing

Dear Friends,

We’re nearing the end of the Old Testament now, on our journey through the books of the Bible, one or two verses at a time.  Here is the first installment of the minor, or shorter, prophets.  As you can imagine with these prophetic works trying to get Israel to turn from the evil they are doing, there is a healthy dose of change your ways or else! (These words aren’t used in any of these verses but with the severe judgment that’s present you can’t help but feel that the proverbial hellfire and damnation can’t be far behind!)  But there is also in the verses selected from this drawing, “God’s Fingerprint,” a sense of God’s healing and love.  Here, read for yourself, some of the verses from these prophets: 

“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.  I will be like dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily.  Like a cedar of Lebanon, he will send down his roots.”  Hosea 14:4-5

“Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”  Joel 2:12

“Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream.”  Amos 5:24

“The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who say to yourself, ‘who can bring me down?’”  Obadiah 1:3

“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”  Jonah 2:8

“He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.  And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach the ends of the earth.  And he will be their peace.”  Micah 5:4-5

I hope these weeks you are traveling through Lent have been a time of learning and challenge and growth for you.  Holy Week and Easter can’t be long now.

Grace and Hope to you,

Pastor Duane