Zephaniah (Letter 36, Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters)

Do not settle for cosmetic change, that is not God’s plan.
Surface change is often mistaken for deep change.
When the medication of exciting worship and inspiring preaching relieves the symptoms of sin, the need for the surgery of brokenness is no longer recognized.
Only when surface revival where hearts remain unchanged is replaced by deep renewal, only when the judgment of death destroys the power of selfishness and opens the door to the resurrected power of love, only then will God’s plan become visible.

Book Name: ZEPHANIAH – From Ray Stedman

Click here for entire Bible Summary from Ray Stedman

ZEPHANIAH: The Day of the Lord’s Wrath

The very book that tells us that God is a God of love also says he is a God of vengeance. And any one who thinks carefully about himself and about love will understand why a God of love has to be a God of vengeance. For if we love someone, we hate everything that injures that person. We are against whatever threatens or destroys what we love. And the very love that moves the heart of God to pour himself out over the centuries in an unceasing effort to awaken man to his need and to hear the call of grace, is the same love that at last prompts him to eliminate those who refuse all the province of his grace, and identify themselves with that which is opposed to his will and to his work among men. Then he has nothing left to do but to destroy them. And that is why the prophet speaks so plainly about this.
After the darkness, after the slaughter, after the terrible destruction comes the time of the singing. That is what God is after in our life. That is possible on the level of the Spirit right now when God deals death’s stroke against the flesh within us and brings us through that painful experience of saying “No” to the ego and the self-life. There follows the time of the singing, the time that he is after, the reason he takes us through the pain and the darkness. What you see to be true of the individual life will also be true on the whole wide canvas of history as God brings human history to an end.

ZEPHANIAH – David Jeremiah (Understanding the 66 Books of the Bible)

Key thought: The day of the Lord will come with the whirlwind of inevitable destruction on the complacent and ungodly, but will also bring the fulfillment of the ages to God’s people.

Key Verse: The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

Key Action: Rejoice in the love of a God who rejoices over you in song.