Virtual Bible Study: Amos 4

Welcome to this week's Virtual Bible Study! Let's get started!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long). This Week’s Reading is Amos 4. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel...prepare to meet your God. He who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness and treads the high places of the earth–the Lord God Almighty is his name.” Amos 4:12-13

Perking Up Your Ears to God

Bill Cosby has the funniest segment about children. He says children have “brain damage” which is shown in how many times you have to tell them to do something and how little they understand why they do what they do.

I can honestly say that he’s absolutely correct. I have told my son to do something(say, take out the dogs. Not something too hard to do). He won’t acknowledge me the first time or the second time. The third time he’ll say he will. But it won’t be til the fourth or the fifth time telling him(and usually threatening him) that he finally gets up and does it.

I’ve tried to figure him out. I’ve tried to understand. But I just can’t. Why does it take threats for him to finally turn around and do what I’ve asked him to do?

This is what God is thinking in this chapter of Amos, I’m sure. Amos repeats the phrase: “...yet you have not returned to me.” Not once...not twice...but FIVE TIMES! Five times God repeats this phrase to the people. Here’s what he says before. You can join in on the chorus if you like. The chorus is... “Yet you have not returned to me.”

- I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town.
CHORUS
- I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another...People staggered from town to taown for water but did not get enough to drink.
CHORUS
- Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees.
CHORUS
- I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps.
CHORUS
- I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stink snatched from the fire.
CHORUS

See? God is talking to children! Very obstinate children too. Children who don’t understand or listen. Children who, even when they are punished, still don’t listen!

And God wants what every parent whose children are misbehaving wants. He wants them to admit they’re wrong! To say they’re sorry! To repent and turn from their ways. That’s what God is after. God wants a relationship with them again. He wants them to treat the poor right. To do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with their God. That’s what God wants. That’s what he’s after.

And God is not only mad but also very sad too. God is hurt in this chapter. Hurt over his own children’s actions toward other people. Hurt to see people at the margins of society trampled on by the rich and haughty. That is the spirit behind the first five verses of chapter 4. There is deep hurt and intense pain throughout these verses. It’s almost like God is saying: “Fine! Just do what you want! I don’t care!”

But God does care. And so cries out to them over and over again. He tries to get their attention time after time, only to be ignored. And so God decides to show Himself.

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel...prepare to meet your God. He who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness and treads the high places of the earth–the Lord God Almighty is his name.”

God takes the same approach to get our attention too. When our minds and hearts are far from God, we find the consequences of our behavior close at hand. The natural ups and downs of life take their toll on us even more. A death in the family and we feel abandoned and lost. A relationship is broken and we feel hurt and rejected. We worship ourselves and hide away in our entertainment or in the latest craze. We sin and lose ourselves in our drug of choice.

But all the while God is calling us to repent. Calling us to see the error of our ways, to return to God and be saved. God shakes us up to get our attention, to see the relationship restored, and to push us in the direction we should be going.

Let us now be like obstinant children. Let us lift up our heads, hear God calling to us in the distance, and rise to meet the God who showers us and all the world with hugs and kisses.

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...
1. Where is God calling you to repentance? Where have you fallen off the path?

2. What events have happened in your life that have turned your attention back to God? What would it take to turn your attention back to God now?

3. How does knowing God from verses 12-13 change things in your life?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it to craznluv@msn.com.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer...
Forgiving God, you call us back to yourself over and over again throughout our lives. Use the events in our life to remind us of you. Forgive us when we stumble off the path and embrace us in your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

See you next week!

Virtual Bible Study: Amos 3

Welcome to this week's Virtual Bible Study! Let's get started!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long). This Week’s Reading is Amos 1. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“The lion has roared–who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken– who can by prophesy?” Amos 3:8

Sand castles in the Shores of Life

A few weeks ago, my family went and had the time of our lives at a wedding! Jenny and Jon Steffenson, two friends of ours, were married outside Columbus here on the banks of the Yellowstone river. After the wedding and eating, my children busied themselves by making sandcastles in the sand along the shoreline. My kids got really into it, especially Matthew our middle child, who spent hours and hours building his castles.

Of course those castles would, with the rain the next day, all be a faded memory. The waters of the river will rise up and all their work, all their labor, will be washed away down the river. One day soon there will be nothing left of all the work and sweat they spent there one fateful day in July.

This is what Amos sees happening to Israel. Listen to what Amos says here:

- Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt... An enemy will overrun the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.
- On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
- I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house;
- The houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished...

The Bible repeats this theme again and again. All the mansions of the world, all the gold and finery, everything that we treasure in this world will all be turned to dust. Everything we materially invest our lives in will return to the earth again. It came from there. It will return there someday. Our summer home and our winter home both will fall and be abandoned. There is nothing on this earth that will last. All will be torn down.

That is because these things don’t last. They don’t remain. The computer you bought today that you’ll treasure for the next couple years will soon become obsolete. The truck you bought and showed off to your friends will soon rust and break and be replaced by something newer. The clothes you bought will be eaten by moths. These are all just sand castles, made on the shores of life. They may remain for a time. They may last through your lifetime, but they will not live past you and at your death they will pass into the hands of another, leaving you just as poor as the next man.

The thing that lasts is the love and compassion you show others. That remains! That lasts! A single action you take will be remembered for years to come. And that action will inspire other actions and other actions down the road. Until you’re never sure where the line of action started or where the love originated from. It’s just there! “Who started that tradition,” they will say. And they will never know. For the love that was given and passed and given and passed sustains others long after you’ve passed through the years.

This love remains. This love lasts. This love will be around long after the people have passed away and gone their own separate ways. The homes these people lived in will all be owned by others or demolished or abandoned. The possessions they clung to will have passed into the hands of others or be turned over in some garbage pit. The treasures they cherished will all be garbage. But the love shared one to another will last. This is the treasure Jesus spoke of in Matthew.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

God in Amos challenges us. In his judgement against Israel we are called to repent. To repent of our own materialism. To repent of our own consumerism. And to realize that in the end all the things we surround ourselves with are just sand castles made in the shores of life. Amen!

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...
1. How much stuff do you really need to live life? Look around your home: What do you really need?

2. Is there anything you are working toward that is pointless? Or whose novelty will fade with time? How could that money and time be channeled in more productive ways?

3. What treasures are you storing up for yourself here on earth? What would happen to it all if you died today? What treasures might you store up for yourself in heaven?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it to craznluv@msn.com.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer...
Eternal God, we live in a temporal place where the only certain thing is change. May we rest in your changeless grace and love, reaching out to our neighbor in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

See you next week!

Virtual Bible Study: Amos 2

Welcome to this week's Virtual Bible Study! Let's Get Started!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long). This Week’s Reading is Amos 1. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed...” Amos 2:4

How Bad Is It?

My daughter is known to exaggerate. Everything is drama for her. She either loves us SO much or she hates us and wants us to go away or die. It all depends on her mood. She can love us one moment more than anything, and she can want to kill us the next. It just depends. And everything is an exaggeration! Especially when we’re not doing what she wants.

Most of us don’t exaggerate as much as we did when we were four years old. We do the opposite. We downplay what is happening or find reasons and excuses for our own actions. We see a homeless man on the street or in the park, assume he is mentally ill or just lazy, and pass him by. We see our neighbor in pain across the way, their shoulders slumped down in sorrow, and we pass by the other way, thinking its none of our business. We hear of another’s surgery or illness, think about them once or twice, but never reach out in compassion toward them.

We downplay much in our life, especially as it relates to other people.

God however doesn’t. At least not in Amos. In fact, in Amos God sounds more like a four-year old, exaggerating the oppression and injustice in society! These are the words God uses in Amos to describe the actions of Israel against the poor and distressed...

- They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.
- They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground.
- They deny justice to the oppressed.
- Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.
- They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge.
- In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines.

Now I’m not sure which of these things you could say ACTUALLY happened just as they are described. I don’t know how many fathers and sons used the same girl or how many heads were actually trampled upon. I think there is a little poetic license here. But still the point remains. Injustice against the poor is NOT ignored by God. It is seen in all its sinfulness, in all its stain, in all its horribleness. There is no way to get around it. There is no excuse.

God sends His messengers with words of warning to the oppressors. “I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this not true, people of Israel?... But you made the Nazirites drink wine and command the prophets not to prophesy.” But the people do not listen. They fail to heed God’s warning. They fail to see the poor standing at their gates.

So, as Amos concludes in the final verses of chapter 2, God must shake the people up. The scales have been turned over. The poor are brought up. The rich made low. Even their massive armies cannot stand against the power of God as he turns the world on it’s head. This is the same reversal that happens in Mary’s Magnificat as she glorifies God after hearing of she is pregnant with Jesus.

“He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.”

So what does this say to us? How do these words affect our lives? Or do they? Are these words relevant today? Or are they just the ramblings of a poor ancient shepherd that have nothing to do with how we live?

We, twenty-first century Christians and people of faith need to hear these words from Amos in all their seriousness. This is not an exaggeration. God cares about the poor! He cares about those who are at the bottom of society. And He wants you to care for them too! Even today, on your block there are people in need. People struggling to make ends meet. There are people on the street corners of every major city, sitting with small cardboard signs, crying out for help in more ways than one. There are abused people in every city and in every land. Standing in line with you at the grocery store. Sitting next to you in church. It’s time we wake up and pay attention!

It’s time we stand up for what is right. It’s time we quit ignoring them or making excuses for our own behavior around them and speak up for them against their injustice. It’s time we say we’re sorry we can’t help more than we do! The least we can do for those at the bottom of society is realize the gravity of their situation and understand, at least intellectually, how hard it must be to be living in their shoes. That’s a start. It’s a start of compassion. The start of love. And God can do amazing things with just a little of this. Look what God did with the sacrifice of one man, Jesus Christ! Over a billion people worship him. What can God do with your life given to the poor and needy?

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...
1. Confession time: How have you diminished the suffering of others? What excuses do you tell yourself when you are confronted with the needs of others on the street corners

2. Who living near you needs your compassion? How can you change their world through your own acts of kindness?

3. Even Jesus realized the poor would always be here. Still how can your heart go out to the needy? How can you be on the side of the poor and oppressed in this world?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it to craznluv@msn.com.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer...
God of the poor, you weep and mourn over how our world treats the least, the little, the lost, and the poorest. Help us to reach out in compassion and love toward those in need. Break our hearts that we may feel what you feel and know the extent of your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

See you Next Week!

Virtual Bible Study: Amos 1

Welcome to the this week's Virtual Bible Study!

This week we're starting in on the book of Amos. This ancient prophetic book written almost 3000 years ago was penned by a shepherd in anciety Israel. Though the words are themselves the message it brings from God speaks to us today. It is just as offensive and just as critical of our society as it was back in Amos' day.

So... are you ready to see what Amos says? Ready or not...here he comes!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long). This Week’s Reading is Amos 1. You can read it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

“The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds dry up and the top of Carmel withers.”

God Takes Sides!

“God bless America! My home sweet home!”

We just finished celebrating the most sacred of all American holidays: the 4th of July! An awesome day to come together, grill outdoors, and celebrate the freedom we all so enjoy! To remember those who gave their lives to secure that freedom. And to celebrate all that we are as a nation! And what’s not to enjoy! We have parades down main street. Carnivals in the park. Not to mention fireworks! My dogs might not like them...but my kids sure do!

Despite all our separation of church and state talk, there is a deep seated connection in America between the blessings of God and our own nation. When our nation prospers, we call ourselves blessed by God. When tragedy happens, we turn to God again for answers. We have always believed we were special somehow. Set apart from the rest of the world. Years ago this notion, called “Manifest Destiny”, led many in our nation to commit terrible actions against the native tribes and the land because they believed God blessed their actions.

So whose side is God on? Our side? Is God a good American? Or does God take another nation’s side? Is God an Israelie? Or a German? Or a good Scandinavian? And if he’s not on our side, then whose side is God on? Does God take one side or another?

Our lesson from Amos answers this question. Amos, that shepherd-turned-prophet from ancient Israel, comes to us to say: Yes! God does take sides! Only...not the sides that you think God should be taking. God is taking the side... of the outcast, the transient, the homeless woman in the park, the abused woman and her children, the orphan, the abandoned one, the widow, the developmentally disabled, the starving. God is standing with the poorest of the poor, the AIDS victim in South Africa and Chicago, the jobless in Los Angeles and Mexico, the migrant, the illegal and the legal immigrant, and those at the bottom of society.

God is taking their side! And there’s more. God is fighting with them against their oppressors whomever they may be. The Book of Amos begins with a litany of curses and plagues sent from God on the various nations and regions around Israel. We might think God is cruel and mean in this chapter. How could God say such things and do such things to people... But we must read closer.

God is calling the nations to account for their sins. Only its not the sins we think of...

God punishes Damascus... “Because she theshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth.”
God punishes Gaza... “Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom...”
God punishes Tyre... “Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding the treaty of brotherhood.”
God punishes Edom... “Because he pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion, because his angfer raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked.”
And God punishes Ammon... “Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders.”

Do you notice something here? God is handing out justice to those who hurt the less fortunate. In fact, as we will see next week, God deals justly even with his own people when they ignore the people that God loves and cares for. God deals harshly with those who do not show compassion on the helpless and the needy.

So where do we fit in? Where do we stand with God? We are too individualistic not to disassociate ourselves with the nation, but we too are a part of the problem and the solution. How we govern ourselves in our daily lives reflects how the nation governs itself. What we do with our time reflects what the nation does with it’s time.

Matthew’s parable from Matthew 25 speaks here I believe. In it, the Son of Man judges between the NATIONS on his right and the NATIONS on his left. And the judgement comes down on how the INDIVIDUALS in those nations acted. “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat...I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink...I was a stranger and you invited me in...” And if you notice, all the actions the nation is punished for or commended on are actions of the individual. Think on this the next time you pass by the homeless shelter, the food bank, or your on your next big expensive vacation. How does your life reflect your commitment, and God’s, to the less fortunate in our midst? Or does it?

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...

1. Imagine that you are a refugee, thrown out of your homeland, or a homeless person who feels abandoned by the country that you served. How might these words from Amos bring you hope?

2. In what ways can you as an individual or family influence just one person and change one less fortunate person’s life?

3. What is God calling you to give up in order to follow him?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it to craznluv@msn.com.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer...

God of the poor, we do not understand the depth to which humanity can fall. We do not know the pain of hunger or the want for decent housing and clean water. But others do. Unbind our hearts that we might reach out in love and compassion to those in need, through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Next week: Amos Chapter 2. Are you excited??