Word for the Church: The Snip in the Cloth

I hardly know what to write. This isn't unusual; I usually begin every morning after my time with the Lord in my "War Room" (You should watch the movie; I just did two days ago, and it's excellent), asking Him what He wants me to write about this day. I pull my keyboard over... and start typing, not really having any idea what is going to show up on the screen. Whether I have a coherent thought in my head isn't important -- what is important is this: I have the Word of God sitting right next to me, and I have an open and thirsty spirit that longs to hear what the Lord has to say.

He is so, so faithful. Not one day, not even once, has He let a morning go by without saying something profound to my heart. 

This morning... the Lord took me out of Romans all the way back to the book of Joel, and to the creepy-crawly locusts I hate so much. I've told before about the 17-year locusts that swarmed my hometown when I was eleven years old. 

The worst part about them to me personally was that they actually landed on you. They didn't show a healthy fear of humans; they just... used you as a landing pad, and if your hair happened to tangle around them, they'd buzz around inside that for a short stretch of time while the owner of said hair shrieked and screamed and ran and batted until they were severely traumatized for life...

I may or may not be speaking from personal experience.

Anyway, one of the things I remember about that time was watching the trees. I watched the trees from inside because a.) if I was outside, I would have to face down the red-eyed, black-bodied, yellow-winged locusts (ugh!), and b.) I wanted to see which trees the locusts seemed to be hanging around so I could better plan my direct trajectory from the school where I waited to the car. If I got too close to a tree, I might have to fight the battle of locusts-in-the-hair or on my back or anywhere near me.

The trees were where the locusts had their breakfast, lunch, dinner, after dinner snack, bedtime snack, midnight snack, and every other time in-between meals meal. They ate tirelessly. 

And it was interesting. Almost before you could blink (not quite that fast, but close), whole branches full of healthy green oak leaves... would turn brown. You'd blink again, and branches would be stripped bare. 

Healthy vibrancy stripped to dead nothingness in the face of hordes of hungry insects. 

This morning, I was praying for the church. When I say church, I usually mean the global body of believers, the followers of Christ. If I specify a church body, I'll make that clear, but this morning, I was praying for the whole church. 

Anyway, the Lord brought me to Joel 2. "Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand -- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old, nor ever will be in ages to come" (Joel 2:1-2).

And Joel begins to talk about locusts, of all things. 

"Before them, fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the Garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste -- nothing escapes them" (Joel 2:3).

These things that Joel describes destroy everything: They are a judgment over the entire land. Joel uses a lot of metaphoric imagery, but one thing is clear -- whatever is coming will leave nothing untouched, nothing green, nothing healthy. Bare branches are the result of the locusts' hunger. 

In Joel 2:12-13, he writes: "'Even now,' declares the Lord, 'return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' 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."

When I was learning to sew, my mom showed me how to tear a straight rent through a piece of cloth. All you have to do... is snip. If you try to grip both sides of a piece of whole material and tear it in two, and you succeed, you're either way stronger than I am or you have a fault in your material. But if you take your scissors and make even the tiniest snip in the material, a little, minor incision in the fabric, you can gather the material, and, as easily as tearing paper, you can rend one side of the garment from the other in a straight line right down the middle.

This morning, the Lord showed me that picture, but when the scissors bit into the material to snip it, a small amount of blood blossomed around the cut.

"Rending hurts the heart," I heard Him say, "But I will heal." And He led me to that verse: "For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love" (Joel 2:13).

The snip hurts, doesn't it? Repentance hurts. Admitting we're wrong hurts. Refining hurts. Seeking when we don't immediately find... hurts.

Joel pushes it a little farther in 2:15-17: "Blow the trumpet in Zion (see how he repeats 2:1, where he "blows a trumpet in Zion" to warn about the locusts? That was an important announcement. Now he's got another important announcement to make, so sit up; pay attention!). Blow a trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast -- see Isaiah 58:6-11 for directions on the 'holy fast' -- call a sacred assembly!"

Here are the instructions: "Gather the people, consecrate the assembly, bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar."

This particular phraseology and placement hit me hard. In our church, we don't call our leadership "priests;" they are pastors or ministers in our church, and they do "minister before the Lord." But when I read this verse, I saw the church offices where they do their work -- situated between the church porch... and the "altar" in the auditorium.

And I felt such a burden to pray for our pastors, our leadership as they "weep between the temple porch and the altar." This is not limited to my specific church, simply because the church offices are situated between a porch and the auditorium altar -- but as shepherds of a flock, pastors have a responsibility to lay their flock before the Lord, to "weep" as they bring their charges in front of the Good Shepherd as they seek Him. Y'all, that's a heavy, heavy responsibility. Pray for your pastors. Seek the Lord yourselves, but pray for your pastors. 

Joel goes on: "Let them (those priests/pastors) say, 'Spare your people, oh Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

Joel starts with brown leaves, dead trees, but he doesn't stay there. This is the best part: "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten -- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm -- my great army that I sent among you."

To note: The locusts are judgment; they're a God-sent army. Because the people of Israel have sinned and turned their backs on the Lord, have stopped seeking God, Joel warns of this particular judgment. In Joel 1:5, he is speaking to a people who are living a self-indulgent lifestyle. 

Thank goodness that's not a problem today, right? But back then, it was a problem.

"Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips."

In other words, you don't get to keep what you've been imbibing without restraint. Self-indulgence and luxurious looking out only for your own interests will stop really soon, because the Lord is directing your attention back to Him. Stop living your indulgent, selfish lifestyles, and seek the Lord!

Oh, this, this right here is awesome. Joel doesn't leave it there! And neither does God! He brings mercy out of judgment! Look at what happens!

After the self-indulgent lifestyle comes the repentance. The fasting. The slice of hunger. The... snip in the cloth in order for the garment to be rent. And then after that -- after the prerequisite of seeking, the Holy Spirit suddenly comes in the finding. (Follow that link; the Lord has a message He wants to share.) "You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the Name of the Lord your God, Who has worked wonders for you; never again will My people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will My people be shamed."

Never again will my people be shamed! Twice-written, double the emphasis. Never again, as long as we have our knees on the ground, seeking the Lord, will we have to feel the snip of our hearts, the rending of our garments. Because the Lord meets the ones who seek Him! "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will freely pardon" (Isaiah 55:6-7). Promises from God! He never, ever leaves a promise unfulfilled!

My mom used to try to calm me when I pitched a fit about getting a shot. I'd cry and cry and cry (I dreaded needles almost as much as I dreaded spiders, which is saying something), and she'd tell me through my blustery tears, "It's just a tiny pinch, and then it's over." One little bit of pain for a whole world of good.

One tiny little snip for a whole garment to be rent. One stance of repentance and seeking the Lord for fellowship and joy and peace in His Presence.

Let Him restore to us the years the locusts have eaten. He will remake the Garden of Eden in hearts that are furrowed and ploughed and ready for the planting, and we can turn around and sow the harvest in the hearts of others!

Look at this: "The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings" (Isaiah 58:11-12).

Resewer of Torn Cloth.