“The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders from Tekoa — what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
This morning we are finally turning the page on the prophet Joel and beginning a walk through the prophetic record of Amos. Amos had a bit more to say than Joel, but his message is just as focused as Joel’s is. Like Joel, though it was written long ago, Amos offers a powerful opportunity to reflect on some things that are happening now. And it all starts by reminding us that God’s concern for His people is always historically rooted. Let me explain.
This past Sunday morning we wrapped up our series, Bible Stories to Make You Squirm, by looking at another doozy. When Jesus entered the world as a baby and King Herod found out about it, he murdered all the boys two years and under in Bethlehem. What we are supposed to do with this and what it means for us is what we talk about here. Keep reading to learn more.
Also, this week I am going to make some changes to my posting schedule. Producing two posts, three days a week isn’t such a big deal for me on the writing side, but as someone who reads other blogs, I know that trying to read two posts on any given day is a lot. You’ve hung in here with me as I keep learning how to do this better over the last couple of years, and I am supremely grateful. Going forward, I am going to move to five weekly posts–one each day, Monday through Friday, all at 8:00 am. Mondays will be the previous day’s sermon or a Digging in Deeper post if I’ve had the weekend off. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be the usual Morning Musings. Wednesdays and Fridays will be Digging in Deeper posts (usually just a bit longer than the Morning Musings or else a chance to go a little deeper into a conversation we have started on Tuesday or Thursday). Saturdays and Sundays will still be off, although I may start adding some guests posts on the weekends in the not-too-distant future. Hopefully this will make for better pacing for you, the faithful reader, while keeping you still interested in making connections between the Word and the world. Thanks for sticking with me all this time. I’m looking forward to many more good conversations in the days ahead. Blessings to you!
The Hard Road
Most cultures have a set of proverbs, adages, axioms that form the popular foundation on which the bulk of its people stand when it comes to thinking about how they are going to get by and get along with one another. Many of our culture’s most popular proverbs come from the wit and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers. Many of these you probably know well: Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man…healthy, wealthy, and wise. A penny saved is…a penny earned. Don’t put off for tomorrow…what you can accomplish today. Some of his proverbs are a little less familiar, but still really good: He who sows thorns should not go barefoot. The one who is content has enough; the one who complains has too much. Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
This past Sunday morning we continued our series, Bible Stories to Make You Squirm, with what I think is about the hardest story in the whole of the Scriptures. I didn’t want to write this sermon. But if all Scripture is God-breathed, then we need to be able to deal with this part of it too. Check out what makes it so hard and what we should do with it below. Thanks for reading.
Strange Fire
I didn’t want to write this
sermon. Can I say that out loud? I didn’t want to write this sermon. Have you ever felt that way? I mean, probably not about a sermon, but
maybe about something else you’ve done.
You did it. You had to do
it. It needed to be done. But you didn’t want to do it. Maybe you were helping somebody out and you
knew it was going to wind up being a lot of effort for you for a little
gratitude from them. Perhaps you were
given some task at work that you knew was just not going to be a pleasant
undertaking—and you were right, by the way—but the boss asked for it and you
were stuck with it. You may have
experienced this kind of feeling in yet some other way. I don’t know what your experience was. All I know is that I didn’t want to write
this sermon.
“The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age are more shrewd than the children of light in dealing with their own people.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
As we saw this morning, this parable is another one of those stories of Jesus that start out as we might expect, but then suddenly take a sharp left turn into ground that not only isn’t what we expect, but doesn’t make any sense. If you had only this verse to go on, you might think that the unrighteous manager had done something good. You would be wrong. He cheated his master out of a lot of money (thus his title). So then, what are we supposed to do with this?
“The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age are more shrewd than the children of light in dealing with their own people.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Jesus said some strange things during His ministry. There are whole books dedicated to examining this or that hard saying. LifeWay’s Bible Studies for Life Sunday school material has been looking at different hard sayings of Jesus for the last few weeks. I’ve preached at least two sermon series on the subject. Of all the weird and hard things Jesus said that the Gospel authors recorded for us, this parable ranks right near or even at the top of the list. Let’s talk about why and what we are to do with it.
The Nexus 