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Joel 1-3

There's only THREE chapters to read today-- and there are only 3 chapters in the book of Joel. You wanna be able to say you finished an entire book in the Bible? Read 'em. Now.

REND YOUR HEART, NOT YOUR GARMENTS.

M&M's phrase now is "melt in your hand-- not in your mouth." It's catchy... don't get me wrong... but it's pretty false. M&Ms most certainly DO melt in your hand. And then, for a few minutes, you have multiple colors of M&Ms bleeding into your fingers, and it gets all messy.

In today's reading, God sent plagues to hopefully convince the Israelites to come back to Him. He was showing His power-- that He can send terrible things like plagues, but He can save us from them, too. Pretty neat stuff.

Anyway, this verse stuck out to me today:

Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

Joel 2:13

I was reading this, going "Ohh... a verse about returning to God. That's full of hope. I'll post that one." But then I looked closer, and saw this new word to me, rend.

REND: (as defined by www.dictionsary.com:)

to tear apart, split, or divide

So, what's it mean to "rend" your heart? And not only to rend your heart, but NOT to rend your garments. It's pretty interesting, I think. I think when we ask for forgiveness, we can't just do it freely. We can't just say "Oh shoot. I sinned. Hey God-- sorry about that one."

We have to rend at our heart, or pick a little at our soul before we can realzie the mistakes we've made. When we screw up, we shouldn't split up all our posessions. We need to instead split our heart up, and see what changes need to be made.

Then, we can be forgiven by the compassionate God.

That's the way I see it, anyway. Do you have other thoughts? Post them below!

Other than that, have a greatttt day. Peace.

Comments

Granny said…
I agree Carly. You tear apart your heart and examine your ways. Tearing your garmets is for show. God really wants us to decipher where and how we can change our ways when we sin. This is what counts.
September 18, 2010 at 9:49 AM
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