Today's Reading:
Amos 4,5,6; Psalms 86,87; Titus 1
I've added an extra section after my daily devotions. I call it "Personally Speaking" (or "PS" for short) where I share my personal thoughts on what's happening in the world and the Church.
Scripture
“Therefore, this is what I will do for you Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel: ‘Prepare to meet your God’” (Amos 4:12)
Observation
Yikes! This is a bone-chiller. But it was not their first warning. It was the 5th! This section is, for me, a head-shaker. I can’t believe it. God is doing everything He can to get their attention so they won’t go over the edge. He pulls out all the stops to get them to return.
Israel was the split-off of Judah after the reign of David, Solomon, and Rehoboam. Then Jeroboam splits the kingdom and it goes downhill from there. Again, and again we hear the oft-repeated phrase: “And Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.” Five times we will read about their stubbornness with the same response to God’s efforts. God tries everything. He sent prophets and judges, He sent pestilence, wars, and famines … “Yet you have not returned to me.” To get their attention, God starts with a tap; then a pinch; try a push. Then a 2X4, and finally a wrecking ball … and still they defy God’s attempts. So, finally, God gives them what they were wanting all along: the wages of their sin.
In a few years, the Kingdom of Israel will be no more. There is a massive transfer of power. In history, you will read that the Assyrians eradicated the 10 tribes of Israel which began with the Assyrian Captivity (721 BC). Till this day, they are known as the “10 Lost Tribes of Israel” because no one knows what happened to them. They were either killed or dispersed.
Come to think about it, they were actually “lost” long before them being called the “lost.” Years before the Assyrian captivity, they decided to walk away from God, write their own laws, and excommunicate God out of their society.
Application
- Can this happen to America?
- Can this happen to our families?
- Can this happen to our churches?
Absolutely. And it has already begun. When churches and families lose their purpose, the nation follows suit, and when God taps and we don’t listen, then we just may be standing in line for the wrecking ball.
What does it take for God to get my attention? A tap or a wrecking ball? He doesn’t try to get our notice simply because He wants to bring us down. Instead, He wasn’t to bring us back to Himself and to the purpose for which He created us. Yet how often we would rather bring God down to serve our purposes rather than lift ourselves up to follow His! If we make God serve us, we will be constantly frustrated, but when we choose to serve Him, we will be constantly amazed.
God knows that we are not punished FOR our sin as much as we are punished BY our sin. Oh yes, the enemy of our souls will hide any consequences so we are deceived into thinking that it won’t affect us. However, God’s Word tells us, “Be sure of this, your sin will find you out.” (Nu. 32:23). But the truth is not found in how I see things, and it surely is not in what the devil says. Rather, it is found in how God sees it and in what His Word says! And if we keep resisting, then when we meet our God (and we all will), those who refused God’s invitation will receive what they so desperately wanted during their lifetime … an eternity apart from God.
Prayer
Dear Father: Please teach me to catch the taps of the Holy Spirit instead of waiting for a wrecking ball. Help me to walk in step with You so I sense your Spirit’s guiding me with each thought, each word, each act. I want to be so near to You that the inklings of Your heart will become the firstlings of mine.
More resources like this...
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What Direction Is God Headed In?
Paul’s constant prayer was that God would fill us with the knowledge of His will. Reason? Well, we’d have to admit that we don’t always move by the knowledge of God’s will. We move by peer pressure, by pain; we move by emotion, and we move according to our own desire.
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