Read the Bible in a Year (23SEP19)

DAILY REMINDER – Today, September 23’s Bible reading is Amos 6-9.

NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, September 24’s Bible reading is Obadiah-Jonah. May God bless you with the reading of His WORD. 

AMOS MOMENT – (23SEP19) “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!” (Amos 6:1). During the time of Amos’ warnings, Israel was in a place of prosperity. They did not seem to have a care in the world as they enjoyed their material possessions, finest of food and wine, entertainment, and the best of fragrances. Amos had come from Judah to sound the alarm in northern Israel where he was not welcomed. Israel’s pride was too far gone for them to see that their days were numbered; therefore, the Lord told Amos to tell them that they would be the first to go into exile. They had been warned, but they had no regard for God nor His servants. The same mindset and disregard for God is happening today.

In America, we have been the land of plenty. We have had food to waste and money to spare. Although this is not the lifestyle of everyone, some of our poorest citizens live like kings and queens compared to some third-world countries. We have been blessed with more freedoms and rights than any other nation in the world. Unfortunately, just as Amos warned Israel that their destruction was drawing close, so is the case with America. Religious freedoms are being taken, freedom of speech is being censored, the right to bear arms is being debated, and to be proud of your country as a nationalist is being slammed politically. America is falling as a nation, and it is happening faster than most people realize. Why is this? It is because we have ignored the true prophets of God who have called the nation to repentance and run after the frauds for the sake of money, fame, and political correctness. God spent years warning Israel through His many prophets to repent and change their ways, but they were complacent and did not believe that they would lose their nationalism. America is treading the same path and even though these warnings may seem redundant; God repeats Himself in His Word so that no one will have an excuse for why they were not saved. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Something to ponder….

QUESTION OF THE DAY - (23SEP19) Why won’t the people listen? ^“Then Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom’” (Amos 12-13). Amos had not chosen to be a prophet. He had been a shepherd and was taking care of sycamore trees when the Lord called him into service. It was not something that he had aspired to do on his own but was appointed to do by the Lord. God had shown Amos several visions of destruction that He had planned for Israel. One was of locust eating everything after the king had taken his share, but Amos asked the Lord not to do it, so the Lord relented. Then the Lord showed Amos a destruction by fire planned for Israel that would devour the land, and once again, Amos asked the Lord for mercy, so the Lord relented. Then the Lord showed Amos a plumb line that was used to measure water, but the Lord used it to measure Israel’s wickedness and told Amos that He would not spare them anymore. So, when Amos told the priest Amaziah of Israel’s destruction, he was only giving him what the Lord had said. Unfortunately, Amos’ message was rejected; therefore, Amos prophesied that the priest’s family would fall by the sword and he would die in captivity.

Isn’t it sad that the Lord’s warnings are still being ignored today? What’s even sadder is the fact that just like Amos was not received by the priest, many evangelicals are not receiving the words coming from true men and women of God regarding sin. Even though they have the Word in their hand where they can verify God’s truth, they refuse to use it but take what they want out of scripture to accomplish their own purpose. Souls are literally dying in their sins daily, and someone needs to warn them that if they do not accept Christ in their hearts and repent of their sins, they will be eternally lost. It’s too late for the one in the casket at a funeral. The time to warn is now. The Bible says, “When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved” (Ezekiel 33:8-9). Something to ponder….

AMOS MOMENT – (23SEP19) “’The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.  People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it’” (Amos 8:11-12). Israel refused to listen to the warnings sent through the Lord’s prophets throughout the many years. They had turned a deaf ear to anything that came from the Lord; therefore, the Lord was not going to give them any words once judgment hit them. They would go for a while without having anyone to prophesy to them. They would look for a Word from the Lord but would not be able to find one. They would stagger from place to place hoping to find a prophet who would hear from the Lord, but there would be no Word for them to hear. They would be left for a time to their dire situation with only their own thoughts to ponder over the wrong that they had done. There would be a famine for the Word of God, but the people would find no satisfaction in finding a Word to ease their troubled minds.

It is a difficult thing when the Lord removes His hand and leave men to themselves. There is no peace when the Lord takes His Spirit away. Many things could have taken place in our lives if the hand of God had not been upon us. We sometimes may take for granted that we have access to the Word of God, but one day, the Bible may be outlawed, and those who have not meditated on His Word will have a famine for it. Let’s ensure that we are not one who fail to take advantage of the ability to read and study the Word while we have the freedom to do so. Our religious freedoms may soon be gone, and we would like communist China having to go underground as the body of Christ. Do not make the mistake of thinking that this could never happen in the U.S. It can and is on its way. Something to ponder….