by Deanna Etienne - used by permission Zephaniah 2:3a Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,        you who do what he commands.        Seek righteousness, seek humility; When I take time to seek the Lord, I find Him everywhere.  He is in the clouds, in the sunset, in a friend's smile, in my husband's warm embrace.  He is represented in so much if His creation it is hard to miss Him if we only would take the time to seek Him. Seeking righteousness can be hard especially when there are seemingly several righteous solutions.  I read a book once called Right From Wrong by Josh McDowell.  It was a hard book to read because I wanted to argue with each chapter that I didn't immediately agree with.  As I got into each chapter and argument, I had to agree with the author.  We have lots of gray areas where there are two or more seemingly correct, righteous choices but with God there is only bla...

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is with you,        he is mighty to save.        He will take great delight in you,        he will quiet you with his love,        he will rejoice over you with singing."  The Bible lets us know about the promises God has made. We can depend on each one.  When we know enough of the Bible through study and reading, we understand that many of these promises have "catches".  We have to do our part. There are other promises that don't require us to do anything.   This verse tells us that because God is mighty, He can save us and He is with us.  He takes, or rather will take, great delight in us. We don't know the circumstances of what will cause Him to delight in us. He will also quiet us. I think of a squirmy, fidgety baby who needs quieted before he can fall asleep.  Softly singing, rubbing his back,...

  Zephaniah 1:12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps        and punish those who are complacent,        who are like wine left on its dregs,        who think, 'The LORD will do nothing,        either good or bad.'  From a freelance war reporter-see link How many people can you say are complacent?  How many of them say they follow Jesus?  That they believe in God?  I know plenty.  I can count myself in that number sometimes too.  Not that I think the Lord will do nothing but that .... well I guess I don't care if He does or not.  Boy, that sounds awful, doesn't it? I have to say that because there are situations that I don't pay attention to.  I don't pray about.  They don't affect me so I .....am complacent.  If called to act, if a friend asks for prayer or for action, I may be likely to respon...

Zephaniah 1:7 Be silent before the Sovereign LORD,        for the day of the LORD is near.        The LORD has prepared a sacrifice;        he has consecrated those he has invited. Why are we to be silent before the Sovereign Lord?  Is it because He already knows so we don't need to defend or explain ourselves? Perhaps it's because the more we explain, the worse we make it for ourselves.  We really don't have any decent excuses for anything we do.  But we ALWAYS seem to want to explain.  "I'm sorry I did that but...."  We often think that the excuse makes it okay regardless of the transgression. The sentence ends with " for the day of the Lord is near ".  Are we supposed to be silent so that we don't draw attention to ourselves?  Maybe God won't notice when he pours out his wrath? Then the next sentence is hopeful. "The Lord has prepared a sacrifice...." We...

Here are additional verses from Zephaniah that I want to explore.  I'll do that over the next few days.  I may post on them or not.  Depends on where my explorations take me. Zephaniah 1:7 Be silent before the Sovereign LORD,        for the day of the LORD is near.        The LORD has prepared a sacrifice;        he has consecrated those he has invited.  Zephaniah 1:12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps        and punish those who are complacent,        who are like wine left on its dregs,        who think, 'The LORD will do nothing,        either good or bad.'  Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,        you who do what he commands.        Seek righteou...

Have you read Zephaniah, the book of the Bible?  Zephaniah was a prophet. A tough job when the Israelites spent more time rebelling against God than listening to their prophets. It is a very short book, having only three chapters. Much is spent on warning about the coming "day of the Lord" when there will be destruction and God's wrath poured out. This is a hard thing for me to grasp. The God of the New Testament is so full of love that all the talk of wrath and destruction seems so out of character. I want to think about some of the passages and see if I can find hope and Jesus in this hard book. After introducing Zephaniah and his reason for speaking ( "1:1 The word of the Lord ...came to Zephaniah... ) it quickly gets into the heart of the matter. (Zeph 1:2-3): "I will sweep away everything        from the face of the earth,"        declares the LORD.  "I will sweep away both men and animals;   ...

Zephaniah 3:17   (ESV) The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Isn't that just a wonderful verse?! How could it get any better than God is in your midst?  I looked for a picture for that but couldn't find anything that came close to illustrating "God in your midst".  I could find pictures of nature.  Sure God is there.  I could find pictures of churches.  We know God is there (or wants to be invited to be there).  I found photos of families and groups of people.  God is there too but I couldn't find anything that adequately illustrates God is in your midst .   It is just too much to fathom, too big to understand, too awesome to fully appreciate.  But I wanted something so I used a photo taken by a friend. Then the passage goes on: a mighty one who will save.  God is mighty AND He will save ...