JOEL 2:28 MINISTRIES

 JOEL 2:28 MINISTRIES

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I shall pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."  Joel 2:28

     My husband, Brian Wooster, teaches adult Sunday School in our church.  He does not use a Sunday School quarterly or any set curriculum.  He did for a time, but one day the Lord told him, "I will reveal to you what I want you to teach each week.  And every Saturday night when he goes to bed, he has no idea what he'll be teaching the next day, but in the morning, he knows, because the Lord showed him during the night in dreams the lesson to be taught.

     Joel 2:28 says that in these last days, our old men would dream dreams.  Here's proof my husband, contrary to how he feels, is an old man - because God gives him his lessons through dreams.  Quite often these dreams minister to him personally, and he then shares them with the class, who are also ministered to by what my husband was shown.  JOEL 2:28 MINISTRIES is a compilation of these lessons that we are sharing in the hope that they may minister to some of you too.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

                       By Brian Wooster

THE DREAM:  I dreamed that God put it on my heart to tell a man about Jesus.  I knew the man was not a believer.  I didn't talk to him about the Lord.  Then the man died.  I missed my opportunity and the man lost salvation because I was not faithful to do what the Lord had shown me to do.  In the dream I felt awful and guilty.  I awoke knowing how vitally important it is not to miss any opportunity we are given to witness Christ to another.

THE LESSON:  The lesson is taken from 2 Corinthians 6:1-10.

V1: "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."  Q:  What is the grace of God that you received?  A. Salvation through Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  The word "vain" used here from the Greek means "unemployed" or not put to work. Q: How could the salvation we received be in "vain" (unemployed, or not put to work)?  A: By keeping it to ourselves, by punching our ticket to heaven but never telling another how they can receive this grace of God for themselves.  So, this whole passage we will be reading will be about taking the opportunities we are given to witness to others.

V2: "For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation."  "I heard thee in a time accepted" means, "When the time came that I knew you'd accept me, I heard your cry to be saved."  "And in the day of salvation have I succored (aided, helped) thee."  Q: What is the day of salvation?  A. It's different for every person.  It's the day that they are finally ready to accept Christ as their savior. You can tell a person about Christ until you are blue in the face and if they are not ready, they are not ready.  Only God knows when a person is ready, when it is their day of salvation, and if he tells you to witness to a person, it is likely because it is the time when they will be ready to accept His gift of grace for themselves.

V3: "Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed:" This is explained by Ephesians 4:15 which tells us to "Speak the truth in love."  When we witness, we must do it out of love and concern and in a kind and loving manner.  "You're a sinner and you're going to hell," doesn't minister to anyone.  It causes offense and causes the ministry to be blamed as unkind and unloving.

V4, V5: "But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;"  St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the gospel, when necessary use words."  We approve ourselves as ministers of God when we witness through our actions, especially when we have patience when we are afflicted, in need, in distress, if we are persecuted for our faith, in stormy circumstances.  These speak of a confidence in Christ to take care of us during such times that others wish they had.  We need to be patient as we watch and wait, in our labors for the Lord if they are not immediately bearing fruit, and we need to fast and pray for those we are trying to minister to.

V6, V7: "By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left." We are approved as ministers of God when we witness to others by pureness (you spoke the pure word and you lived as purely as you could), you study so you have the knowledge necessary to witness, you witness with patience and kindness under the Power of the Holy Ghost, He telling you what and when to say.  You witness out of true love for the soul of the one to whom you are witnessing, and you are protected by the righteousness of God in Christ which has been ascribed to you everywhere you turn.

V8: "By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;" This is explained by Philippians 1:18 which says, "What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice and yea, will rejoice." I'm reminded of the movie Leap of Faith, in which a travelling con-man posing as an evangelist for the offerings he could receive, told a crippled young boy that if he had enough faith to believe he could walk, God would heal him.  That way, when the boy wasn't healed, it would be his own fault not the evangelist's.  But the boy believed and God took him at his faith and healed the crippled boy.  The lesson is this:  It is our responsibility to witness, to tell others of Christ. The result is up to God.  Jesus saves.  We don't.  We witness and that is our part.  The rest is up to God.

V9, V10:  "As unknown, and yet well-known; as dying and behold we live; as chastened and not killed; As sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing and yet possessing all things."  We may be no one anyone would recognize, but our reputation for being a child of and minister of God precedes us. Even if our bodies are dying, we are alive in Christ. We get reprimanded by God when we miss the mark, but not to death.  We are sad that those we are ministering to don't know Christ but are rejoicing because they still have a chance to meet him.  We may not have much in this world, but are making others spiritually rich, and we, ourselves possess everything that matters.

     If we take every opportunity to witness that comes our way, we can say like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:6,7, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."  If we do not, we can feel the shame and guilt I experienced in my dream. Let's be faithful to witness when the Lord puts an opportunity before us.  We never know if it is that person's day of salvation.  We don't want them to miss it because we missed an opportunity.