“Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility, perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.”
~ Zephaniah 2:3
Hi James and Ellen,
What is the one message do you think that guys, gals and kids who are living today in the countries that are on planet Earth need to hear and respond to? God for centuries and centuries has sent guys and gals with this message to guys, gals and kids who are living in countries all over planet Earth. God sent your grandmaa and grandpaa first to Bolivia and then to Guatemala with this message for the guys, gals and kids who are living in these countries to hear and to respond to. The message that guys, gals and kids who are living in every country that is on planet Earth need to hear and respond to is an exhortation to repent of their sins. Repenting is sincerely asking for forgiveness from God – as God the Father, through the name of Jesus – Who is God – as God the Son. Repenting is being genuinely remorseful for having deceitfully done something that was morally and ethically wrong to do. Repenting is recognizing and acknowledging the effects that the blackness of sin has on eroding interpersonal and spiritual relationships. Repenting is admitting that personal arrogance and egotism will invariably lead to self-destruction. Repenting is unconditionally accepting a radical life change from having a self-centered and self-serving life that was being lived to serve the gods of wealth, power, position and prestige to a God-centered life that is simply lived humbly and with thankfulness to God for His grace and mercy. Repenting will bring hope and peace into the picture for a guy, gal and kid – and for a country.
God assigned prophet spokesmen to take His messages to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem and in the land area that He told them that they would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . and to the countries that surrounded the land area where God’s specially chosen guys and gals were living. Zephaniah was one of God’s prophet spokesmen who He sent to exhort repenting. Zephaniah lived during the time when Josiah was the king over the guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area. Zephaniah’s exhortation is found in a short book that goes by his name. Zephaniah 2 is an exhortation for the city of Jerusalem and a grocery list of neighboring countries to stop doing what they were doing and to make a radical change to worship just God. Zephaniah’s exhortation for the city of Jerusalem is verse 3, “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility, perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.” Zephaniah knew that God was very close to indicting His specially chosen guys and gals for their refusal to repent and to change their ways. Zephaniah knew that God was very close to doing to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem and in Judah’s land area like He did to His specially chosen guys and gals who had been living in Israel’s land area when He had the Assyrian army exile them from their land area. After exhorting God’s specially chosen guys and gals to change their ways or . . ., Zephaniah tells them what God was going to soon do to their irritating neighbor to their west. God was going to make the Philistine land area – from the Gaza Strip to Askelon, one big pastureland after He was finished destroying the guys and gals who were living in that land area. The next taunting, insulting neighbors of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who would soon face God’s judgment of wrath would be their two neighbors on the east side of the Jordon River. God was going to depopulate the guys and gals from the Moabite and Ammonite land areas just as He turned Sodom and Gomorrah into a wasteland of salt pits. The next neighbor of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who would soon face God’s condemnation would be their neighbor to the southwest. God was going to level on the Egyptian Cushite guys and gals for not being more supportive and helpful to His specially chosen guys and gals. The next neighbor of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who would soon face God’s mighty hand of destruction would be their neighbor to the north. God was going to turn Assyria’s land area – including Nineveh, into a dry, barren desert where the rubble of destroyed houses would only hear calls from desert and screech owls and be homes for wild beasts.
Not wanting to hear and respond to God’s messages is insulting to God. It is even more insulting to God if His specially chosen and elected messengers do not pass on the messages that He has told them to pass on to the guys, gals and kids who He wants to hear those messages. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the rural resident training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez in Bolivia, your grandpaa scheduled practical ministry assignments for the guys who were studying at the training center. During the thirteen week trimester that emphasized evangelism, your grandpaa divided the Centro de Capacitación (training center) students into pairs and assigned each student a nearby village that he was to go to each week with the student who your grandpaa had assigned to him as his partner. On the first visit that one of the students made to the village that your grandpaa had assigned him to go to with another student, he was told to never come back or . . . when this student told the other students what had happened, they all wanted to go with Plinio on his next visit to the village. Guys in another village would not allow your grandpaa to show the film in their village that your grandpaa was showing in each nearby village. Your grandpaa showed the film on the dirt road that ran next to the village – as the dirt road was public property. Most of the guys, gals and kids in the village stopped what they were doing to watch the film. Would you try to continue sharing the Good News message with a guy, gal or kid after he or she has told you to stop doing it?
Zephaniah 2 (485)