Tag: Amos

A Good Story

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The season of Advent is finally here! For the next month followers of Jesus around the world will be setting aside some time to give special attention to preparing for the arrival of Jesus. Our celebration is not simply for His birth, though, but for His return when He will make all things new. With that in mind, I want to help you get ready for the arrival of Jesus into your lives. Each Monday will bring a new sermon exploring the story of His arrival through a different lens. Each other week day will bring a new reflection on the Advent season that I hope will set your season in the right terms. Blessings to you as you preparing for the coming King!

A Good Story

That was a moment right there, wasn’t it?  I don’t know about you, but that song is one of my favorites.  There is power in this proclamation, “it is well!”  There is strength in being able to declare that though sin or storm or suffering may loom dauntingly large in front of us, nonetheless, “it is well with my soul.”  Maybe you are in a season when that declaration is little more than a faint whisper, but nonetheless, to stand…perhaps to sit…maybe even to simply fall to your knees and with even a mustard seed-sized faith in the God who alone has the power to push back the darkness and, with defiance in your spirit, breath out, “it is well with my soul,” can have the effect of throwing on a floodlight in a dark room. 

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Morning Musing: Amos 9:14-15

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“I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities, plant vineyards and drink their wine, make gardens and eat their produce. I will plant them on their land, and they will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them. The Lord your God has spoken.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you’ve been reading along with me for very long, you know that I’m a big nerd. This is actually a bit of a culture-wide trend. As millions of comic nerds have grown up big studios have started making movies out of their favorite stories. Marvel Studios have done this better than anyone else in my humble opinion. One of the things they’ve done that have kept audiences returning from one film to the next is that they’ve mastered the post-credit scene (scenes actually). As each movie ends, there’s a little hint that the story isn’t over. God’s story works the same way.

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Morning Musing: Amos 9:2-3

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“If they dig down to Sheol, from there my hand will take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. If they hide on the top of Carmel, from there I will track them down and seize them; if they conceal themselves from my sight on the sea floor, from there I will command the sea serpent to bite them.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever tried to get along with someone who was set in his ways? In those types of situations, as long as you are willing to do things their way, you’re not going to have any problems with them. If, on the other hand, you try to introduce some variety to their routine…well…you’re probably asking for trouble. Just for fun don’t ask my wife and kids if I’m right about that. As someone who might be able to speak to this with…firsthand knowledge…I prefer to think of being set in ones ways as having a consistent character just like God does. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll go with that. And the thing about dealing with someone who has a consistent character is that it’s great if you operate consistently with it. If you don’t…things can get a bit messier.

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Digging in Deeper: Amos 8:11

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“Look, the days are coming — this is the declaration of the Lord God — when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Did you ever get separated from your parents when you were a kid? I’ll tell you a story of my own in just a second, but there are few things that feel scarier than that. This fear is not rooted primarily in the thought of what could happen to you without them nearby, but rather in something entirely simpler than that: being alone. We weren’t made to be alone. Being separated from people is scary. Feeling separated from God should be even more so. He obviously thinks so in light of what He says to the people here.

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Digging in Deeper: Amos 7:5-6

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“Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?” The Lord relented concerning this. “This will not happen either,” said the Lord God.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

What good is the church? If the church suddenly disappeared from the world, would it make any difference? If you count yourself a follower of Jesus, your knee-jerk anger to that is probably a quick, “Absolutely it would!” but think about it a little more than that. Make it personal. If you are a church person, if your church suddenly vanished from its community, would anyone notice? Unfortunately, for many churches, the answer is no. Yet God intends for His people to have a transformatively significant impact on the world around them. Amos gives us an example of that here.

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