You Did Not Return to Me

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah

Amos 4:7-13  The Message

^7-8 “Yes, and I’m the One who stopped the rains
    three months short of harvest.
I’d make it rain on one village
    but not on another.
I’d make it rain on one field
    but not on another—and that one would dry up.
People would stagger from village to village
    crazed for water and never quenching their thirst.
But you never got thirsty for me.
    You ignored me.”
        God’s Decree.

⁹ “I hit your crops with disease
    and withered your orchards and gardens.
Locusts devoured your olive and fig trees,
    but you continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

¹⁰ “I revisited you with the old Egyptian plagues,
    killed your choice young men and prize horses.
The stink of rot in your camps was so strong
    that you held your noses—
But you didn’t notice me.
    You continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

¹¹ “I hit you with earthquake and fire,
    left you devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick
    snatched from the flames.
But you never looked my way.
    You continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

¹² “All this I have done to you, Israel,
    and this is why I have done it.
Time’s up, O Israel!
    Prepare to meet your God!”

¹³ Look who’s here: Mountain-Shaper! Wind-Maker!
    He laid out the whole plot before Adam.
He brings everything out of nothing,
    like dawn out of darkness.
He strides across the alpine ridges.
    His name is God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

 

For Reflection 

Gods punishment did not seem to work with Israel.  However, God did not give up on them.  God will triumph.  Through Christ Jesus, God will bring God's people into God's household with joy and celebration.

Pray

prayers of thanksgiving for the living God, found in Jesus Christ.   Pray so that you remain in an intimate relationship with Christ.  Pray that you will emulate the living Christ.

Judgment Is Surely Coming

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah

Amos 4:1-6  The Message

You Never Got Hungry for God

4 “Listen to this, you cows of Bashan
    grazing on the slopes of Samaria.
You women! Mean to the poor,
    cruel to the down-and-out!
Indolent and pampered, you demand of your husbands,
    ‘Bring us a tall, cool drink!’

^2-3 “This is serious—I, God, have sworn by my holiness!
    Be well warned: Judgment Day is coming!
They’re going to rope you up and haul you off,
    keep the stragglers in line with cattle prods.
They’ll drag you through the ruined city walls,
    forcing you out single file,
And kick you to kingdom come.”
    God’s Decree.

^4-5 “Come along to Bethel and sin!
    And then to Gilgal and sin some more!
Bring your sacrifices for morning worship.
    Every third day bring your tithe.
Burn pure sacrifices—thank offerings.
    Speak up—announce freewill offerings!
That’s the sort of religious show
    you Israelites just love.”
        God’s Decree.

⁶ “You know, don’t you, that I’m the One
    who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards,
Who left you hungry and standing in bread lines?
    But you never got hungry for me. You continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

For Reflection 

One way to interpret God's judgments is to understand that the troubles confronting the Israillites living in Samaria, is to say that the trouble is a result of their own choice to behave Godlessly.  However, the prophet Amos tells us otherwise.  God intervened and caused the trouble.  God intervenes.

Pray

Pray for those whose abandonment of God will mire them in the muck of Godlessness.  Pray that they will accept God's invitation for reconciliation.  Pray that you will never abandon God.

I Will Punish Your Transgressions

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah

Amos 3:9-15 The Message

^9-11 Announce to the forts of Assyria,
    announce to the forts of Egypt—
Tell them, “Gather on the Samaritan mountains, take a good, hard look:
    what a snake pit of brutality and terror!
They can’t—or won’t—do one thing right.” God said so.
    “They stockpile violence and blight.
Therefore”—this is God’s Word—“an enemy will surround the country.
    He’ll strip you of your power and plunder your forts.”

¹² God’s Message:

“In the same way that a shepherd
    trying to save a lamb from a lion
Manages to recover
    just a pair of legs or the scrap of an ear,
So will little be saved of the Israelite s
    who live in Samaria—
A couple of old chairs at most,
    the broken leg of a table.

^13-15 “Listen and bring witness against Jacob’s family”—
    this is God’s Word, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
“Note well! The day I make Israel pay for its sins,
    pay for the sin-altars of worship at Bethel,
The horned altars will all be dehorned
    and scattered around.
I’ll tear down the winter palace,
    smash the summer palace—all your fancy buildings.
The luxury homes will be demolished,
    all those pretentious houses.”
        God’s Decree.

For Reflection 

The sin was not that the Israelites lived in Samaria.  The sin was that they allowed themselves to be deduced by Samaritan culture.  Living in God's household results in obedience and the blessings of a righteous life.

Pray

that you will not be seduced by the culture in which you live.Give thanks for your residing place in the household of God.  Serve God in humility and love.

I Will Punish Your Iniquities

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah

Amos 3:1-8 The Message

The Lion Has Roared

3 Listen to this, Israel. God is calling you to account—and I mean all of you, everyone connected with the family that he delivered out of Egypt. Listen!

² “Out of all the families on earth,
    I picked you.
Therefore, because of your special calling,
    I’m holding you responsible for all your sins.”

^3-7 Do two people walk hand in hand
    if they aren’t going to the same place?
Does a lion roar in the forest
    if there’s no carcass to devour?
Does a young lion growl with pleasure
    if he hasn’t caught his supper?
Does a bird fall to the ground
    if it hasn’t been hit with a stone?
Does a trap spring shut
    if nothing trips it?
When the alarm goes off in the city,
    aren’t people alarmed?
And when disaster strikes the city,
    doesn’t God stand behind it?
The fact is, God, the Master, does nothing
    without first telling his prophets the whole story.

⁸ The lion has roared—
    who isn’t frightened?
God has spoken—
    what prophet can keep quiet?

For Reflection 

We are responsible for our sins.  No one else is to blame.  The "Devil did not make us do it!"  We are seduced into believing that difficulties are not of our making and deluded into thinking that our successes are all a result of our own making.  Neither is true. 

The Old Testament is true.  God holds us in account for our abandonment of God's will.  God sits in judgment.  God's warnings have always been followed by God's compassion and recommendations.  God has sent God's prophets to warn us of the outcome of our self-absorbed behavior and even sent Christ to model his wish for our lives.   And yet, we ignore God.

But God will never abandon us.  God will always hold the invitation for reconciliation open for all to accept it.  In our disregard and delusions of self-direction, we are the prime cause of our own folly.

Pray

prayers of confession and repentance.  Pray often to stay the course God has set for you.  Pray for those who are still mired in the illusion of self-determination.  Pray for the peace in a world of chaos.

I Will Press You Down

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah

Amos 2:9-15  The Message

^9-11 “In contrast, I was always on your side.
    I destroyed the Amorites who confronted you,
Amorites with the stature of great cedars,
    tough as thick oaks.
I destroyed them from the top branches down.
    I destroyed them from the roots up.
And yes, I’m the One who delivered you from Egypt,
    led you safely through the wilderness for forty years
And then handed you the country of the Amorites
    like a piece of cake on a platter.
I raised up some of your young men to be prophets,
    set aside your best youth for training in holiness.
Isn’t this so, Israel?”
    God’s Decree.

^12-13 “But you made the youth-in-training break training,
    and you told the young prophets, ‘Don’t prophesy!’
You’re too much for me.
    I’m hard-pressed—to the breaking point.
I’m like a wagon piled high and overloaded,
    creaking and groaning.

^14-15 “When I go into action, what will you do?
    There’s no place to run no matter how fast you run.
The strength of the strong won’t count.
    Fighters won’t make it.
Skilled archers won’t make it.
    Fast runners won’t make it.
Chariot drivers won’t make it.
    Even the bravest of all your warriors
Won’t make it.
    He’ll run off for dear life, stripped naked.”
        God’s Decree.

 

 

For Reflection 

God seems to have a hard time leading the chosen into God's plan for human kind.  God is not one to decree and poof allegiance happens.  Gods want his people to choose righteousness.  God wants the chosen to chose God as God has chosen them.  But, the chosen can not avoid interpreting their good fortune as a result of their own rather than God's initiative.

Not much has changed.  Human kind still live in the delusion that they and they alone determine their fate.  We still bolster our own importance and trivialize God.  We still ignore God's prophets.  Do we forget that God is still the ultimate hand of justice?  Do we ignore God's warnings and recommendations for our salvation?

Pray

that all will respond to God's call for obedience, justice, forgiveness, compassion and peace.

Filled with the Fullness of God

The Spirit Comes
Woven together in Love

The Greatest Gift of Love

Ephesians 3:14-21  The Message

^14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

^20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

For Reflection 

In what ways do you live in the fullness of God?

Pray

prayers of praise.  Sing songs of joy.  Pray for peace and act for justice.

Love and Steadfastness

The Spirit Comes
Woven together in Love

The Greatest Gift of Love

2 Thessalonians 3:1-5  The Message

3 ^1-3 One more thing, friends: Pray for us. Pray that the Master’s Word will simply take off and race through the country to a groundswell of response, just as it did among you. And pray that we’ll be rescued from these scoundrels who are trying to do us in. I’m finding that not all “believers” are believers. But the Master never lets us down. He’ll stick by you and protect you from evil.

^4-5 Because of the Master, we have great confidence in you. We know you’re doing everything we told you and will continue doing it. May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

 

For Reflection 

Some times we just need to know that what we believe and what we are doing is recognized as authentic Christianity.  Paul is providing such feedback to the Thessalonians.  But, what is more powerful is your own recognition that because of what you believe and how you act out your beliefs brings comfort to those in distress, peace to those in turmoil and forgiveness to the unforgivable.  Have confidence in your faith.  Live in the world of agape.

Pray

for those whose lives are filled with distressing times.  Pray for peace for those in turmoil.  Pray prayers of intersession and forgive the unforgiving and the unforgivable.  Pray for the abiding love of God to surround you.