Vision

English Standard Version Chapter 2

The LORD Will Pour Out His Spirit

Joel speaks in terms of the Law being written on your hearts. A sinful nation who has turned from their sin to focus on God.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

28  “And it shall come to pass afterward,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

We are living in a time when we do not see the need for God as our Lord. In the day of Joel the people had fallen away from God. Joel speaks of a new era of perfect relationship with God. Jeremiah describes a new Covenant. The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Je 31:31–34.

Today as we celebrate the past may we also look to the future and strive to be in perfect relationship with God. Today is not and ending, it is not a goal completed but a turning back to God and an opportunity to grow in our relationship with God and our neighbor. Let us strive together to be connected to God through the Holy Spirit. One with God, one with each other, and one with the community we serve.