The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

    Hear this, you elders;
        give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
    Has such a thing happened in your days,
        or in the days of your fathers?
    Tell your children of it,
        and let your children tell their children,
        and their children to another generation.
    
    
    What the cutting locust left,
        the swarming locust has eaten.
    What the swarming locust left,
        the hopping locust has eaten,
    and what the hopping locust left,
        the destroying locust has eaten.
    
    
    Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
        and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
    because of the sweet wine,
        for it is cut off from your mouth.
    For a nation has come up against my land,
        powerful and beyond number;
    its teeth are lions’ teeth,
        and it has the fangs of a lioness.
    It has laid waste my vine
        and splintered my fig tree;
    it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
        their branches are made white.
    
    
    Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
        for the bridegroom of her youth.
    The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
        from the house of the LORD.
    The priests mourn,
        the ministers of the LORD.
    The fields are destroyed,
        the ground mourns,
    because the grain is destroyed,
        the wine dries up,
        the oil languishes.
    
    
    Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
        wail, O vinedressers,
    for the wheat and the barley,
        because the harvest of the field has perished.
    The vine dries up;
        the fig tree languishes.
    Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
        all the trees of the field are dried up,
    and gladness dries up
        from the children of man.
    
    
        Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
        wail, O ministers of the altar.
    Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
        O ministers of my God!
    Because grain offering and drink offering
        are withheld from the house of your God.
    
    
    Consecrate a fast;
        call a solemn assembly.
    Gather the elders
        and all the inhabitants of the land
    to the house of the LORD your God,
        and cry out to the LORD.
    
    
    Alas for the day!
    For the day of the LORD is near,
        and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
    Is not the food cut off
        before our eyes,
    joy and gladness
        from the house of our God?
    
    
    The seed shrivels under the clods;
        the storehouses are desolate;
    the granaries are torn down
        because the grain has dried up.
    How the beasts groan!
        The herds of cattle are perplexed
    because there is no pasture for them;
        even the flocks of sheep suffer.
    
    
    To you, O LORD, I call.
    For fire has devoured
        the pastures of the wilderness,
    and flame has burned
        all the trees of the field.
    Even the beasts of the field pant for you
        because the water brooks are dried up,
    and fire has devoured
        the pastures of the wilderness.
    
    
        Blow a trumpet in Zion;
        sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
    Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
        for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near,
    a day of darkness and gloom,
        a day of clouds and thick darkness!
    Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
        a great and powerful people;
    their like has never been before,
        nor will be again after them
        through the years of all generations.
    
    
    Fire devours before them,
        and behind them a flame burns.
    The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
        but behind them a desolate wilderness,
        and nothing escapes them.
    
    
    Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
        and like war horses they run.
    As with the rumbling of chariots,
        they leap on the tops of the mountains,
    like the crackling of a flame of fire
        devouring the stubble,
    like a powerful army
        drawn up for battle.
    
    
    Before them peoples are in anguish;
        all faces grow pale.
    Like warriors they charge;
        like soldiers they scale the wall.
    They march each on his way;
        they do not swerve from their paths.
    They do not jostle one another;
        each marches in his path;
    they burst through the weapons
        and are not halted.
    They leap upon the city,
        they run upon the walls,
    they climb up into the houses,
        they enter through the windows like a thief.
    
    
    The earth quakes before them;
        the heavens tremble.
    The sun and the moon are darkened,
        and the stars withdraw their shining.
    The LORD utters his voice
        before his army,
    for his camp is exceedingly great;
        he who executes his word is powerful.
    For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome;
        who can endure it?
    
    
        “Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
        “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
        and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
    Return to the LORD your God,
        for he is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
        and he relents over disaster.
    Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
        and leave a blessing behind him,
    a grain offering and a drink offering
        for the LORD your God?
    
    
    Blow the trumpet in Zion;
        consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly;
        gather the people.
    Consecrate the congregation;
        assemble the elders;
    gather the children,
        even nursing infants.
    Let the bridegroom leave his room,
        and the bride her chamber. (ESV)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

  This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

  If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

  We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

  We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

  And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (ESV)