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1 My Master God showed me this vision: A bowl of fresh fruit. 2 He said, "What do you see, Amos?" I said, "A bowl of fresh, ripe fruit." God said, "Right. So, I'm calling it quits with my people Israel. I'm no longer acting as if everything is just fine." 3 "The royal singers will wail when it happens." My Master God said so. "Corpses will be strewn here, there, and everywhere. Hush!" 4 Listen to this, you who walk all over the weak, you who treat poor people as less than nothing, 5 Who say, "When's my next paycheck coming so I can go out and live it up? How long till the weekend when I can go out and have a good time?" Who give little and take much, and never do an honest day's work. 6 You exploit the poor, using them - and then, when they're used up, you discard them. 7 God swears against the arrogance of Jacob: "I'm keeping track of their every last sin." 8 God's oath will shake earth's foundations, dissolve the whole world into tears. God's oath will sweep in like a river that rises, flooding houses and lands, And then recedes, leaving behind a sea of mud. 9 "On Judgment Day, watch out!" These are the words of God, my Master. "I'll turn off the sun at noon. In the middle of the day the earth will go black. 10 I'll turn your parties into funerals and make every song you sing a dirge. Everyone will walk around in rags, with sunken eyes and bald heads. Think of the worst that could happen - your only son, say, murdered. That's a hint of Judgment Day - that and much more.11 "Oh yes, Judgment Day is coming!" These are the words of my Master God. "I'll send a famine through the whole country. It won't be food or water that's lacking, but my Word. 12 People will drift from one end of the country to the other, roam to the north, wander to the east. They'll go anywhere, listen to anyone, hoping to hear God's Word - but they won't hear it. (Amos 8:1-12 The Message)
May the anointing hand of the Lord Jesus be upon you and yours on this day, dear Friend! That's my prayer and there's nothing you can do about that! Please remember that today is Baby Sophia's heart surgery. Please pray for the Lord to bring healing to her body and comfort and peace to her family. Pray for a safe and healthy recovery time. Pray for one another, pray for yourselves.
A noted UM preacher from the northern part of our state once spoke at a special celebratory event. He was pastor of a very large downtown church and was known for his preaching ability. He was known for preaching without notes. And after he was introduced he took a dig at those preachers whom he said hadn't written a fresh sermon in so long that if their sermons fell to the floor, they were shatter into a million pieces, which I took to mean these pastors once chiseled their sermons onto stone tablets. Years later as I had finished a meeting with the leadership of a small church in my district, a sweet lady took me aside, and said, "Please don't send us a preacher that preaches out of the box." I made a quizzical face and she said, "You know, the ones who ordered pre-written sermons that come in a box and all they do is take them out on Sunday and read them." Gulp. She was right. There are sermon services to which one can subscribe, but most pastors do so in the most secretive way possible.
Not so the prophets. Being God's mouthpieces, they preached what God placed on their hearts through visions, conversations, dreams, or whatever manner God chose to make His will known. One can only imagine the tremendous weight that came with God's prophetic word, which was usually a very serious one. Prophets were not people pleasers; they were God-pleasers. They preached truth not ear-ticklers. And here we have the sermon, along with illustration, that God wants Amos to preach.
A bowl of fruit was placed before Amos as a symbol of all that God had provided for His people Israel. And it was ripe fruit meaning that was the last crop they would see as a gift from God. God was fed up. Let that sink in. Have you ever done something that made your mom or dad get fed up with you? Or, should I ask, what was the last thing you did to frustrate them? We are talking major infractions! I thank God that my Mom and Dad never reached that point except one time. I was in my last year of college, and my Dad did not approve of long hair, and guess what? I had long hair. Dad was right, I did not look good with long hair. But when push came to shove, I left the home. Dad was yelling; as was I. Mom was crying, as was my grandmother. Not a pretty scene. I had a plan. Sort of. I would jump in my old Ford and pray that it would take me back to the dorm before nightfall. The car ran great, the AC froze me out, but once I turned on the headlights, they would choose when to turn off. And it was usually on a curve of a two-lane highway! Israel had pushed God past His limits. And we're talking the God of infinity. I believe we don't fully understand God and the things of God because we have finite minds with beginnings and ends; we can't understand the truth of God having always been, and who will always will be. We can't imagine the size of Heaven and for that matter, the New Earth, that can fully accommodate all the righteous people since the beginning of time. But, like Israel, we sometimes make decisions made thinking we know better than God, and off we go. We run the risk of frustrating God. I do not want to hear God say about me, "I'm calling it quits with Eradio. I'm no longer acting as if everything is just fine." Gulp again.
Here is what God found Israel found wrong in Israel's behavior. They walked all over the weak. When people were down, Israel just stepped on them. They treated poor people as less than nothing. Someone just this afternoon on a program I was watching asked, "How are we (he's way younger than me!) going to justify 2019 to our grandkids? What will say about the homeless? "We just walked past them as quickly as we could without making eye contact. Sometimes, we did open our wallets and said,'Sorry, all I have is 20s.' and prayed these were not the type of homeless that would chase you." They cared more about paydays and the days following when the paycheck could be spent; ignoring the main purpose of our work and the mission of our careers. God was, and is, "keeping track of every last sin."
God's promise to us is that we will have to be accountable to Him for how we lived. We promised to be faithful and fruitful; as we know that God has been faithful to us. While we're on the right path with God, we are blessed; the option is to wander around aimlessly, knowing we are destined for destruction if we wander away from God.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, bless me as I pray. I am aware of my past sins especially the fresh ones of this morning and afternoon. Guide me always to stay on Your path. Let me be the one who blesses You by the good I do for others. In Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Be a beacon of hope for others!
Blessings of love,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
