Amos 7:1-9:15 ‘That’s enough, prophet! Go back to Judah and do your preaching there... Don’t prophesy here at Bethel any more’(7:12-13). Amos was a faithful preacher of God’s Word - but his hearers wanted to get rid of him! This was the beginning of a time of great darkness: ‘The days are coming when I …
Category: Amos
What does God say to people who keep on refusing to return to Him?
"And still you didn't return to Me, declares the Lord" (Amos 4:8-11). What does God say to people who keep on refusing to return to Him? This is what He says: "Prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12).
Almighty Lord, please forgive us!
"Almighty Lord, please forgive us!" (Amos 7:2) - This is the prayer that the Lord is waiting to hear and answer. "Almighty Lord, please stop!" (Amos 7:5) - This is a prayer for God's mercy. We come to Him, deeply aware of our sin and His judgment. We cry to Him for mercy. Why should …
Keep On Speaking The Word Of The Lord – And Keep On Walking In His Ways.
"How horrible it will be ... " (Amos 6:1,3-6,13) - This is a prophecy concerning God's judgment. Such words need to be heard, if people are to be turned back into walking in the ways of the Lord. If we don't hear of God's judgment, we are likely to keep on walking in our own …
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Beyond The Famine To The Blessing
"The days are going to come, declares the Almighty Lord, when I will send a famine throughout the land. It won't be an ordinary famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will wander from sea to sea, and roam from the north to the east, searching for the Word of the Lord, but …
Amos 7-9 and Obadiah
AMOS 7:1-9:15 - ‘That’s enough, prophet! Go back to Judah and do your preaching there... Don’t prophesy here at Bethel any more’ (7:12-13). Amos was a faithful preacher of God’s Word - but his hearers wanted to get rid of him! This was the beginning of a time of great darkness: ‘The days are coming …
A prayer for God’s mercy
"Almighty Lord, please forgive us!" (Amos 7:2) - This is the prayer that the Lord is waiting to hear and answer. "Almighty Lord, please stop!" (Amos 7:5) - This is a prayer for God's mercy. We come to Him, deeply aware of our sin and His judgment. We cry to Him for mercy. Why should …
God’s constant love – the divine pattern for our living in love
Amos 1:1-2:16; Romans 2:17-3:8; Proverbs 17:5-14 God is perfectly holy. He cannot stand sin. This is clear in both Amos and Romans. It is stressed in Proverbs, which emphasizes that sin is not so much sin against man but “contempt for their Maker” (17:5). Proverbs 17:9 tells us that we are to “promote love.” This love …
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The Gospel for our generation
Amos 6:1-7:17; Romans 4:16-5:11; Psalm 86:11-17 Amos was commissioned by the Lord - “Go, prophesy to My people Israel” (Amos 7:15). The purpose of such prophecy, in our generation, is to declare the Gospel: “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). If …
God Is Calling For True Obedience.
Amos 5:6-6:14 ‘Seek the Lord and live’. ‘Seek good, not evil...’(5:6,14). Those who truly seek the Lord are to live a godly life. God sees right through hypocritical religion. He is not pleased with it: ‘I hate your show and pretence - your hypocrisy of ‘honouring’ Me with your religious feasts and solemn assemblies... Away …
God has spoken to us. Let us speak to him, and let us speak for him.
"The Sovereign Lord has spoken: so who can refuse to proclaim his message?" (Amos 3:8). As I was reading these words from Amos, I recalled the words of Paul, "I believed in God, so I spoke" (2 Corinthians 4:13). We receive the Word of the Lord with faith. We are not to keep the Word of the …
Continue reading God has spoken to us. Let us speak to him, and let us speak for him.
God Is Calling For Our Attention!
Amos 1:1-2:16 ‘The Lord roars’. ‘The Lord thunders’(1:2). God’s Word comes to us from above - ‘The Lord will roar from on high’. He speaks to us from heaven - ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling’. We dare not ignore the Word of the Lord. His Word comes to us as a Word of …
A New Direction In Life
Amos begins with a humble description of himself - "one of the sheep farmers" (Amos 1:1). Being a prophet of God has nothing to do with what we are in ourselves. It's all about God. It's all about His grace and His call. Looking after sheep - This is such an apt description of the ministry …
Responding to God’s Word (27): Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
O Lord God, forgive (Amos 7:2). Here, we have a prayer for forgiveness. It's a prayer that every one of us must pray. However much we may wish to think good thoughts about ourselves, every one of us must face our dark side: we are sinners. However much we may dislike being called sinners, we …
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To Understand History, We Need Revelation.
Warning against "the danger of going outside the sphere of faith into the area of observation", G. C. Berkouwer disputes the legitimacy of interpreting the ways of Providence on the basis of facts" (The Providence of God, pp. 164-165). He aims to guard against the possibility that "everyone according to his own prejudice and subjective …
Life Can Be Turned Around.
"Search for Me and live! ... Search for Me and live!" (Amos 5:4,6). Life can be tuned around. This isn't something that we can do for ourselves. It must done for us by the Lord. "Search for good instead of evil so that you may live" (Amos 5:14). The Lord gives us a new direction …
Some Simple Thoughts From The Scriptures
Genesis When I was writing these words, I was thinking of some of the stories in the book of Genesis (the book of beginnings). I was thinking about Adam, Abraham and Joseph - and I was thinking about Jesus!___________________________________________ It was the genesis of my life.Things were looking so good.Then, it all went badly wrong.What …
Famine in the land
"There was a famine in the land" (Ruth 1:1). The situation seemed hopeless. We wonder, “Where will hope come from?” In Amos 8:11, we read about a different kind of famine: “not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” How do we find hope …
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Psalm 78:1-7 or Amos 5:18-24; Psalm 70; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13
Let us serve the Lord all the days of our life. Close to the end of his life, Joshua commits himself and his family to the Lord (Joshua 24:15, 29). Moved by his example, the people commit themselves to the Lord (Joshua 24:16-18, 21, 24). For Israel, this was a momentous decision - a definite, …
Are We Being Changed By God’s Love?
"I brought you out of Egypt... " (Amos 2:10-11). God had done great things for His people. Sadly, this is followed by "You made the Nazirites drink wine. You commanded the prophets to stop prophesying." God has been good to us. How are we reacting to His love? Are we being changed by His love? …
Lord, we thank You that Your Word comes to us from above (Praying Through God’s Word: Amos).
AMOS 1:1-2:16 ‘The Lord roars.’ ‘The Lord thunders’ (Amos 1:2). We thank You, Lord, that Your Word comes to us from above – ‘The Lord will roar from on high.’ You speak to us from heaven – ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling.’ We dare not ignore Your Word. Your Word comes to us …
An alarm to the unconverted – and the converted
"How horrible it will be... " (Amos 6:1,3-6,13) - This is a prophecy concerning God's judgment. Such words need to be heard, if people are to be turned back into walking in the ways of the Lord. If we don't hear of God's judgment, we are likely to keep on walking in our own ways. …
Continue reading An alarm to the unconverted – and the converted
Salvation – God’s reply to sin
Amos 3:1-4:13; Romans 3:9-31; Psalm 85:8-13 Scripture speaks honestly about sin – “You have not returned to Me” (Amos 4:6,8,9,10,11); “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18). God’s reply to sin is salvation – “Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land” …
A famine in the land, a famine of hearing the words of the Lord
"Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe." (Genesis 12:10). Later on, in the time of Joseph, we read about Egypt being a place of refuge in a time of famine. This story is told in Genesis 41-50. …
Continue reading A famine in the land, a famine of hearing the words of the Lord
Amos
AMOS 1:1-2:16 - ‘The Lord roars’. ‘The Lord thunders’ (1:2). God’s Word comes to us from above - ‘The Lord will roar from on high’. He speaks to us from heaven - ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling’. We dare not ignore the Word of the Lord. His Word comes to us as a …
God speaks to us from heaven. We dare not ignore His Word (prayers based on the book of Amos).
Amos 1:1-2:16 ‘The Lord roars.’ ‘The Lord thunders’ (Amos 1:2). We thank You, Lord, that Your Word comes to us from above - ‘The Lord will roar from on high.’ You speak to us from heaven - ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling.’ We dare not ignore Your Word. Your Word comes to us …
We speak because God has spoken.
Amos begins with a humble description of himself - "one of the sheep farmers" (Amos 1:1). Being a prophet of God has nothing to do with what we are in ourselves. It's all about God. It's all about His grace and His call. Looking after sheep - This is such an apt description of the ministry …
Privilege And Responsibility
Amos 3:1-5:5 ‘You only have I chosen... therefore I will punish you for all your sins’(3:2). Along with the privilege of being ‘chosen’ to belong to the Lord comes the responsibility of living as the servants of the Lord. God’s Word is not to be taken lightly - ‘The lion has roared - who will …
Amos 1-6
AMOS 1:1-2:16 - ‘The Lord roars’. ‘The Lord thunders’ (1:2). God’s Word comes to us from above - ‘The Lord will roar from on high’. He speaks to us from heaven - ‘He will thunder from His holy dwelling’. We dare not ignore the Word of the Lord. His Word comes to us as a …
God’s Word is not to go in one ear and out the other ear.
Privilege and responsibility (Amos 3:2). "The Almighty Lord has spoken. Who can keep from prophesying?" (Amos 3:8). God's Word is not to go in one ear and out the other ear. It's to change us. It's to equip us for living as His people and being His witnesses.
The great blessing of forgiveness
Amos 8:1-9:15; Romans 5:12-21; Proverbs 17:15-24 Christ restored what Adam lost (Romans 5:15). The Garden of Eden was devastated, but God promises to restore the garden (Amos 9:13-15). This is a prophecy – “The days are coming … “ (Amos 9:13). It is fulfilled in Christ, through whom we receive eternal life (Romans 5:21). In …
Learning From God's Word 