Friend or Foe? -- Amos 4:12-13

Amos 4:12-13


"‘So this is what I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, get ready to meet your God, Israel.’ He is the one who makes the mountains and creates the wind and makes His thoughts known to people. He changes the dawn into darkness and walks over the mountains of the earth. His name is the Lord God All-Powerful." (NCV)

We will meet the Lord.

Each of us. There is no getting around this fact. Whether or not we believe in Him, whether or not we’re obedient to Him, whether or not we want this to happen. We will meet the Lord and at that time we will truly understand that He is God and we are not.

In Hebrew, His name here is YHWH ‘Elohiym Tsobeh. YHWH—sometimes pronounced Jehovah and by others Yahweh—is the name that He has given Himself. ‘Elohiym means the true God. Tsobeh is the host of angels that goes to war. God has established that there are two sides to creation: those who are with Him and those who oppose Him. Because He is a God of justice, He will oppose those who oppose Him and He will embrace those who love Him. But we don’t love Him according to our own desires or our own designs. We must love Him according to His desires and His designs. Why? Because He is Yahweh the true God. It’s His turf, His rules, His game plan.

God’s plan—His plan all along—has been to create a companion suited for Him, a companion for all eternity, that would be compatible with Him. Compatible means sinless, someone who would agree with Him, understand Him (as far as any creation might understand Him), someone who would be in tune with Him and His desires. A bride . . . and that bride is the Church. We are that companion, created and saved to become suited to live with Him outside of time, for what we can only describe as eternity, time without end, but what is really a life without the constraints of time. And it’s God’s desire that all persons would be made pure from sin so that they can be part of His companion.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).

He is "longsuffering." This Greek word means "to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others; to be mild and slow in avenging; to be longsuffering, slow to anger, slow to punish." (Strong’s G3114). We have to remember, this earth and all of creation is His. He made it. He established the rules. He is the only One Who has the right to have a say in what happens. It’s all His! We have no rights, no right to establish, no right to determine except that He has allowed it. He made us with free will so that we would freely come to love Him, to want to please Him, to want to be with Him. He won’t force us, but He longs for us to come to Him. His longing is so intense that He is willing to be slow in avenging, slow to punish when He has every right to wipe us from the face of the earth. He is longsuffering because of His love for us!

"God shows His great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:8 NCV).

The breadth of this is overwhelming when you think about it. God Himself—as His Son Jesus—came to earth and allowed Himself to be manhandled, wrongly convicted, and killed just so we could be reconciled to Him because of our sin. The Lord Jesus paid the price for what we did! And He did it because He loves us so much. But that price paid is only effective if we embrace it. Why? Because God is preparing us to be His eternal companion and what we do in this life fully determines what happens after we die. Once we die, we will face Him. Each and everyone of us. It doesn’t matter what we believe. It doesn’t matter what we do. It doesn’t matter whether or not we even believed He exists.

We will meet Him.

The question is . . . when we do meet Him, will it be as His enemy or as His adopted child?

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Being Right? Or Being Righteous? -- Matthew 1:18-20

Matthew 1:18-20


"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’" (NKJV)

There is a difference between being right and being righteous.

Joseph was betrothed to Mary. Betrothal was more than an engagement and less than a marriage; however, it was a time when brides were to prove, through this period, that they weren’t already pregnant with another man’s child. Mary was betrothed to Joseph . . . and she became pregnant.

Joseph knew he wasn’t the father.

Verse 19 tells us that Joseph was a "just" man. This Greek word, dikaios, means "righteous, observing divine laws; in a wide sense, upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands of God." It can also mean someone who prides themselves on their virtues (on being right). Joseph was this kind of man. He knew that he hadn’t had relations with Mary. He knew that she was pregnant by someone else.

He had every right to sever his relationship with her.

His first impulse was to sever the relationship quietly and have her go away, probably into hiding, to have the baby. Perhaps he didn’t want the questions about the pregnancy. "Who’s the father?" "Are you?" "Wouldn’t she wait for you?" "Doesn’t she respect you?" "Isn’t she loyal to you?" The fact that Mary became pregnant—and not with him—had to be a huge blow to his psyche. He had to have felt betrayed, embarrassed, disrespected, even very much alone. All the plans that he had for their future were gone! There would be no marriage. Mary had betrayed him.

Many have commented that Joseph was an honorable man in wanting to have Mary "disappear" with her pregnancy. But another view is possible. Since dikaios also means "someone who prides themselves on their virtues," Joseph may have been so embarrassed and demeaned by what happened that he didn’t really want anyone else to know. He may have been wanting to protect his reputation and his rights by having the only other "witness" to the event disappear.

Joseph was used to being right . . . and, to be honest, he had every reason to deserve to be right in this situation. He had been betrayed. His bride was pregnant by someone else.

The problem is . . . Joseph was right, but his initial response wasn’t righteous. He made assumptions based on the facts as he knew them and he was acting according to those facts. However, the facts as he knew them were wrong! And Joseph came "this close" to missing out on one of the greatest blessings of all time—being the earthly "father" of the Messiah. Joseph, in his desire to be right, almost failed to be righteous.

Being right isn’t the same thing as being righteous.

2 Chronicles 7:14 says: "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways . . ." (NKJV).

Humble. To destroy the power or prestige. To give up being right.

In America, we pride ourselves in being right. It’s a national culture. We are right before the world; we can do no wrong. And that attitude has permeated the American Church as well. We know what is right and we will vote it into existence. And if we can’t vote it in, we will somehow force it upon others. We know we are right and we will make sure that everyone else is subjugated to that "rightness."

As Christians, we have become bullies. We are so convinced that what we believe, what we want, what we believe is "right" that we want to force everyone else to our mindset, whether on a national level or in our own interpersonal relationships. And in that belief of our own "rightness," we have failed to see that we have missed the mark of being righteous.

Luke 18:9-14: "Then Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else: ‘Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored." (NLT)

The word translated here in the NLT as "great self-confidence" is the same Greek word used to describe Joseph. Jesus was making a comparison between being right and being righteous. The righteous are humble. The right are . . . well, right. But they aren’t righteous. When we go into a situation with our goal to be right, we stop seeing the other person and we only see our own goals, our own rights. Jesus never saw His own rights; He only saw us, the people He came to die for.

Humility breeds righteousness. Humility seeks God’s will and wants to love in every encounter. Being right breeds arrogance. It seeks it’s own and wants to win in every encounter.

Being right isn’t the same thing as being righteous. Unfortunately, too much "being right" is being preached from our pulpits, from Christian television, from Christian media. But none of that matters. The Father isn’t ever going to ask us if we were right. He’s only concerned whether or not we are righteous.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

In the Midst of Disaster - Amos 4:6-11

Amos 4:6-11


"‘I did not give you any food in your cities, and there was not enough to eat in any of your towns, but you did not come back to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I held back the rain from you three months before harvest time. Then I let it rain on one city but not on another. Rain fell on one field, but another field got none and dried up. People weak from thirst went from town to town for water, but they could not get enough to drink. Still you did not come back to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I made your crops die from disease and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards got larger, locusts ate your fig and olive trees. But still you did not come back to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I sent disasters against you, as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with swords, and your horses were taken from you. I made you smell the stink from all the dead bodies, but still you did not come back to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick pulled from the fire, but still you did not come back to me,’ says the Lord." (NCV)

Things in America seem to be pretty horrible if you’re a Christian. Day after day more articles appear in the media bemoaning how Christians are losing their rights, are being persecuted for their faith. In addition, despite our seeming advances in medicine, illnesses are increasing. Economies are failing. Social constructs, such as traditional marriage, are falling apart. In response, Christians are talking . . . and talking . . . and talking.

What we aren’t doing is praying. What we aren’t doing is repenting. What we aren’t doing is becoming more like Christ.

"When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NKJV).

Do you see the parallels between the Amos and 2 Chronicles passages? When difficult times came, the Lord’s desire was that the Israelites would turn away from their sins and turn back to Him. They didn’t.

"Still you did not come back to Me."

Not enough food. "Still you did not come back to Me." Drought. "Still you did not come back to Me." Inadequate production. "Still you did not come back to Me." Disasters and wars and destruction. "Still you did not come back to Me."

GMO foods that fail to nourish. Vaccines that harm rather than heal. Wars everywhere. Earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and super storms. Wild fires, invasions, and unemployment. "American Church, still you did not come back to Me."

How do we ‘come back" to God? How do we return to the Church that He wants, that He longs for?

• Humble ourselves: The word humble means to submit and to not be assertive. It means to give up any "rights" we believe we have and to do only what God wants us to do. It also means to submit one to another. We are more concerned about the other person than ourselves. When coupled in the phrase "humble themselves and pray," it means to completely give ourselves over to God and His will, laying down any and every need that we think we have, trusting Him to provide and accepting His provision as complete.

• Pray: S. D. Gordan, a great saint and prayer warrior, once said, "You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray before you have prayed." American prayers tend to be in one of three categories: (1) Public prayers are often sermons to the hearers rather than communication with the Father. (2) "Purchase orders" where we tell God what we want Him to do, often using His own Word as a weapon against Him, demanding that He do what we want because He "promised" that He would. (3) Asking Him to bless us after the fact, after we have already made our decision or already done the action. Prayer isn’t about any of these things. Prayer is about going into the Father’s presence, worshiping Him and asking Him what He wants us to do. Prayer is about finding out what it is He wants and then doing it.

• Seek His face: There is a sense here of really wanting to get to know God, really wanting to be with Him. In conjunction with the other two parts, we see that we are to humble ourselves in prayer, earnestly seeking God, His will, His ways, His desires, His Word. And we are to do this diligently. That takes times. It means that we are going to need to turn off our devices, turn away from at least some of our recreational activities, and make prayer a priority everyday.

• Turn from our wicked ways: We cannot remain in sin and be in God’s presence. But it’s more than that. The Hebrew word for "turn" here is shub. "Shub can imply the cessation of something. In this sense, the word can imply ‘to go away or disappear’"(Vine’s). Our sins need to disappear, to go out of our lives. We need to turn away from our sin completely, absolutely, and for good. If we refuse to give up our sins, for whatever reason, God will refuse to heal our country. It’s that simple.

The way to solve the ills in America isn’t with elections or policies or finances. The way to heal America lies within the Church, the Church that is refusing to come back to the God that loves her. The Father has sent His messages of love through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus on the cross. He has sent His messages of warning through the disasters that we have faced (and continue to face). The question then becomes, "Will we come back to Him?" Humbling ourselves through prayer and seeking His face, turning completely away from our sin, these are our only hope! It’s time to stop talking and start doing what we know will work. It’s time we start doing what God has told us to do.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

My "Rights" -- Amos 4:1-3

Amos 4:1-3


"Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan on the Mountain of Samaria. You take things from the poor and crush people who are in need. Then you command your husbands, ‘Bring us something to drink!’ The Lord God has promised this: ‘Just as surely as I am a holy God, the time will come when you will be taken away by hooks, and what is left of you with fishhooks. You will go straight out of the city through holes in the walls, and you will be thrown on the garbage dump,’ says the Lord." (NCV)

The cows of Bashan (or in the NKJV, the "kine" of Bashan) were a type of cattle. Being a sheepherder, Amos was familiar with animal stock and their behavior. This is a description of the "kine of Bashan:"

"The kine of Bashan . . . were a breed of cattle very large and strong, especially if, though bred there, they were fed upon the mountain of Samaria, where the pastures were extraordinarily fat. Amos had been a herdsman, and he speaks in a dialect of his calling, comparing the rich and great people, that lived in luxury and wantonness, to the kine of Bashan, which were wanton and unruly, would not be kept within the bounds of their own pasture, but broke through the hedges, broke down all the fences, and trespassed upon the neighboring grounds; and not only so, but pushed and gored the smaller cattle that were not a match for them." (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible).

The analogy here—the word picture—is about people who demand their rights, who not only demand their rights, but who make sure that they get what they need and what they want. These are not people who were content with what God provided or content where God had placed them, but made sure that they got everything that they felt they deserved.

Rights are not in the Bible. Rights are not what Christians are about.

"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away" (Matthew 5:38-42 NKJV).

We either believe God or we don’t. Unfortunately, I think that most in the American Church don’t really believe God. We don’t believe that He will provide for us. We don’t believe that He is making good out of all circumstances. We still believe that we have to push and shove our way through life, getting what we and our family "should" have. We have yet to truly come to believe—to truly realize—that for Christians life is always about win-win. WE CANNOT LOSE! And yet, we don’t live that way. We live as if we had to grasp everything close to us, never letting go, rarely sharing.

Look at what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew. "I tell you not to resist an evil person." Give, give, and give some more. Will we be taken advantage of? Yes! Who cares? We serve the God Who owns everything! What does it matter if we are "taken advantage of?" Our Lord Jesus was unjustly and cruelly executed and He went to that execution without a protest. Why? Because He knew the Father was in control.

The people Amos describes in chapter 4 are people who were demanding their rights. They were, in essence, bullies. Now, not one of us wants to be considered a bully, but the fact is that every time we insist on our rights, we are shoving and bullying our way through life rather than trusting the Lord to take care of us. We don’t need to demand our rights. Our Father in totally in control. We simply need to live obedient to His will. We simply need to give, give, and give some more to everyone around us. We are blessed so that we can give to those God places in our path. We are blessed so that we don’t have to worry about our rights or even our needs. As we take care of others, God will take care of us. He rained down manna on the Israelites in the desert. He is fully able to take care of my needs today!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

What Do We Do with Our Money? -- Amos 3:13-15

Amos 3:13-15



"‘Listen and be witnesses against the family of Jacob,’ says the Lord God, the God All-Powerful. ‘When I punish Israel for their sins, I will also destroy the altars at Bethel. The corners of the altar will be cut off, and they will fall to the ground. I will tear down the winter house, together with the summer house. The houses decorated with ivory will be destroyed, and the great houses will come to an end,’ says the Lord."

Summer houses and winter houses. Amos is talking about great wealth, excessive wealth. More than what one needs to have.

That’s a problem for Americans. Most Americans tend to have much more than we actually need to have. In fact, most of our commiserations about lack are about the fact that we don’t have all that we want. And we turn wants into needs.

We truly do.

For example, according to one report, 21% of the families in America spend more on their cell phones than they do on groceries (http://www.examiner.com/article/examining-the-cost-of-the-american-dream) yet fewer than 25% of evangelical Americans tithe to their church and if you include all believers and all faith organizations, only 6% donate at least 10% (https://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/180-americans-donate-billions-to-charity-but-giving-to-churches-has-declined#.U8pklHkg-M8).

What does that mean . . . exactly?

It means that, for whatever reason, as a Church, we keep our money for ourselves. And yet, is that what the Lord wants? Does He bless us so that we can bless ourselves . . . or bless others? Paul talks about giving in 2 Corinthians:

"Now I want to tell you, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done for the churches in Macedonia. Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, their wonderful joy and deep poverty have overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the gracious privilege of sharing in the gift for the Christians in Jerusalem. Best of all, they went beyond our highest hopes, for their first action was to dedicate themselves to the Lord and to us for whatever directions God might give them" (2 Corinthians 8:1-5 NLT).

"They gave not only what they could afford but far more."

We can give a million reasons why we don’t give, but there is only one reason that we do give: because we love Jesus. The Father was very angry with the Israelites who took their wealth and used it on themselves. They built great houses of ivory and had both summer and winter houses so that they wouldn’t have to suffer because of the changes in the weather. We surround ourselves with creature comforts, even going into debt to do so, and then wonder why we can’t help those around us who are in need. If we were honest, we would admit that there are things—the stuff we have—that distract us from the Lord. If we didn’t have TV’s, would we spend more time in the Word? If we didn’t have smart phones, would we spend more time talking to our families? If we didn’t go on multiple vacations, would we spend more time in our communities serving the needs of others? It’s time that we began, as believers, to start allowing the Holy Spirit to purge our lives so that we can focus more on the Lord. If we truly love the Lord, we should be able to imitate the Macedonian believers and in great joy give in rich generosity of our money, our resources, and our time.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Amnesty or Forgiveness -- Amos 3:13-15

Amos 3:13-15


"‘Listen and be witnesses against the family of Jacob,’ says the Lord God, the God All-Powerful. ‘When I punish Israel for their sins, I will also destroy the altars at Bethel. The corners of the altar will be cut off, and they will fall to the ground. I will tear down the winter house, together with the summer house. The houses decorated with ivory will be destroyed, and the great houses will come to an end,’ says the Lord."

"Make each of the four corners of the altar stick out like a horn, in such a way that the corners with their horns are all one piece. Then cover the whole altar with bronze." (Exodus 27:2 NCV).

Since the time of Solomon, the horns on the altar had culturally come to signify amnesty. This wasn’t something the Lord had established in their religious practices, but something that the people had concluded based on the fact that the horns of the altar were used in the sin sacrifice. In this prophesy, God recognizes that the Israelites have put more meaning into the horns than were originally intended and He uses that meaning (of amnesty) to drive home His point: Their sin has been so great, there will be no escape from judgment based on their false religious practices. You see, holding onto the horns to find escape from punishment was, in our terms, an urban legend. It had occurred once (1 Kings 1:50ff) and out of that incident this "tradition" had been established. But this wasn’t something God had established. There were practices the Lord had established for the forgiveness of sins, but this wasn’t one of them.

We often use our own ideas of what "should be" as ways to negotiate with God. We want to continue to embrace our sins, so we rationalize our behavior and then expect God to come along and agree with us. After all, He’s a God of love, right?

I have, most of my adult life, struggled with my weight. I still do. And, to be honest, there are some medical problems which don’t interfere with my life except that it makes it harder for me to lose weight than for some other people. (I’m grateful that at my age I’m still so healthy!) But I have to also admit that I am an emotional eater; I use food as a buffer between me and pain, both physical and emotional pain. When I hurt, I eat. And because my life has been more stressful than normal this past year, I ate myself into an additional 15 pounds. If I were brutally honest (and I try to be on occasion), I needed to lose 15 pounds, not gain them!

Added to this problem is the fact that my body needs protein. People’s bodies are different. Some are carb burners; some are protein burners. I need protein. But I used all of this as an excuse not to ever fast. I had tried fasting and every time given up on it because the experience was so debilitating. I felt that in fasting I basically couldn’t function. But this past week, early in the morning, I had an opportunity to read an article written by a dear saint (who’s now Home) about a 30+ day fast he did. This article so touched me because it was written very matter-of-factly, not like some of the articles I’ve read about fasting. I could hear the Lord saying to me, "Fast today. You’ll feel better." One of the problems I’d encountered this summer was that eating (didn’t matter what I ate) made me feel yucky. Now, you have to know, I was totally unconvinced that fasting was going to make me feel better. Remember, I’d tried it before with horrible results (headaches, migraines, exhaustion, etc.), but one of the things I’ve committed myself to these past months is obedience to His voice.

And so, I fasted for a day. I live alone and had no plans that day, so I didn’t have to worry about the temptations of what others in my life might want to do. I simply went hour to hour. There were two or three times that it got hard not to think about eating, but I would pray . . . and I drank a lot of water! And by the end of the day, I felt pretty good. Tired, but I’m always tired. But I felt better than I usually do even with the tiredness.

So, the second day, I asked the Lord, and He told me to fast for a while. Now, I was having company that day which meant I fixed lunch for them, but I didn’t eat. I drank a lot of water. It wasn’t hard to watch them eat. I really wasn’t concerned about it all (which is such an amazing thing for me). That night, the Lord told me I could eat and I fixed a "normal" dinner. I felt horrible and discovered that "normal" for me is way too much food. So God and I had another conversation and He showed me the size of portions I should have. Yesterday, I had a normal day with my new "normal" sized meals and felt wonderful! In addition, a lot of the desires I’ve had to eat are gone. Could my system have cleaned out this quickly? I have no idea, but I do know that obedience to the Father results in living a good life!

What does all this have to do with the study? Because I spent my life rationalizing my overeating. And eating became an obsession for me; it became one of my sins. I knew it was! And the Lord in three days has walked me through what I needed to overcome that sin. Do I still have to control my thoughts? Absolutely! But praise the Lord, every step we take with Him is one of victory.

The Israelites had come to rationalize their historical/cultural practice of grabbing hold of the horns of the altar to find amnesty for sin. Notice, they weren’t looking for forgiveness (that practice, in the way of a sin sacrifice, had already been established by the Lord); they were looking for amnesty, for tolerance. They had no intention of changing their lives. They simply didn’t want to have to suffer judgment.

Avoiding judgment is never about amnesty or tolerance, but is always about repentance and forgiveness. When we repent, the Lord forgives. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). If we confess our sins. Vine’s (G3670) tells us that this Greek word "homologeo" means "to confess by way of admitting oneself guilty of what one is accused of, the result of inward conviction, to declare openly by way of speaking out freely, such confession being the effect of deep conviction of facts." Repentance must start with a confession of sins and confession is only valid when we are convinced that we are guilty . . . when we are convinced we are guilty (not when others are convinced) . . . and when that guilt is so present that we freely admit our guilt; we have a deep conviction about our sin. In other words, we have to look at that sin in the light of the Throne of grace and see that we have deeply offended and acted against the Father. We have to first see our sin as sin before we can homolegeo it. And if we see our sin as sin, we aren’t going to want amnesty; we’re going to want forgiveness because we aren’t going to want to have anything to do with our sin. We are going to want it gone!

Today, we choose . . . amnesty or forgiveness. With amnesty, our sin and our sinfulness remain. With forgiveness, the Lord replaces our sin with righteousness. Today, as a Church and as individual believers, we choose.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Who Will Save Us? -- Amos 3:12

Amos 3:12


"This is what the Lord says: ‘A shepherd might save from a lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a scrap of an ear of his sheep. In the same way only a few Israelites in Samaria will be saved—people who now sit on their beds and on their couches." (NCV)

"I look up to the hills, but where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not let you be defeated. He who guards you never sleeps. He who guards Israel never rests or sleeps. The Lord guards you. The Lord is the shade that protects you from the sun. The sun cannot hurt you during the day, and the moon cannot hurt you at night. The Lord will protect you from all dangers; He will guard your life. The Lord will guard you as you come and go, both now and forever" (Psalm 121:1-8 NCV).

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (NKJV).

The world is upside down crazy right now. Maybe it’s always been that way and we are just more aware of it due to the ease at which information is passed from one country to another, from one continent to another. There is a barrage of information and usually most of it awful.

Things are just nuts!

And with the craziness, the chaos, there is also accompanying fear. A lot of it! People are wondering what’s coming next and how they will prepare. They want to protect themselves, to make sure that whatever harm is falling around them, it won’t fall directly on them. And so the Internet is filled with videos, websites, blogs, and conversations about the things we "should" be doing to protect ourselves. Invest in precious metals. No, invest in mutual funds. No, invest in lands. No, invest in gardening. No, invest in this kind of food. No, invest in this kind of exercise. Eat this. No, eat that. Breath this. No, don’t breath because it’s polluted. Do this. Do that. Go here. Go there.

Stop the merry-go-round! I want to get off! There’s too much to process, too much conflicting information, too much craziness.

Selah. (In Hebrew that means to stop, pause, and think. For me right now it means simply to stop and breathe.)

There is only one Savior and that’s Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing else will save us. No one else will fix us. No one else is in control! We need to remember whom we serve and we need to remember who He really is.

In Amos, the Lord warns the Israelites that only a few will escape the punishment that is coming. God is in control and He won’t be thwarted! It doesn’t matter what we plan, where we go, how we invest, or what we do. We cannot get away from His hand. The only place we can run is to Him. The only place we are safe is in His presence doing His will. Nothing—NOTHING—else matters. Everything else is of no consequence.

Where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord! Psalm 121 begins with a question: "I look up to the hills, but where does my help come from?" We could just as easily rewrite that to say, "I look to the ______, but where does my help come from?" Now fill in the blank with whatever is your "savior" of choice these days. Are you looking to diet or exercise or location or investments or politics or entertainment or . . . ??

Where does my help come from? My help comes . . . from . . . the . . . Lord . . . who made heaven and earth. Who made heaven and earth. He made all this stuff (including us). He knows exactly what’s happening. He provided food—the perfect nutritious food—for the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. He provided water for them and their animals for 40 years. He is fully able to provide completely and absolutely for us wherever we find ourselves, whatever our circumstances. He is our provision. Are there better ways we could live? Absolutely! But none of them will avail us of anything if we aren’t living in the center of His will. He is working all things for our good. It’s time that we began to truly look to Him and trust Him.

Where does my help come from? It comes from my Savior and Lord . . . always and forever!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Where Is Our Treasure? -- Amos 3:10-11

Amos 3:10-11


"‘The people don’t know how to do what is right,’ says the Lord. ‘Their strong buildings are filled with treasures they took by force from others.’ So this is what the Lord God says: ‘An enemy will take over the land and pull down your strongholds; he will take the treasures out of your strong buildings.’" (NCV)

"Their strong buildings are filled with treasures they took by force from others."

The King James translates this phrase as "who store up violence and robbery." The Hebrew word for "who store" also means "to treasure" (Strong’s H686). The Lord Jesus taught about treasure:

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV).

Basically, we do what’s important to us. If we want something, we will make a way to get it, even if means taking out a loan, using a credit card, or even stealing it. Yes, even stealing it.

Have you seen the recent YouTube video about the two women on the beach who were packing up a whole host of things that didn’t belong to them? (I won’t post a reference here because my hopes are that these women will change their hearts.) When they were confronted, they continued to deny that the canopy, the chairs, and the toys weren’t theirs. One woman even asked the owner, "Is this toy yours?" as if she hoped he’d say no. You know what happened? They saw some "stuff" that looked interesting to them and they justified the theft with the concept of "Finders keepers, losers weepers." And after they had "found" the items, I think they truly had convinced themselves that these things were theirs. "I found it. It’s mine now." These women were doing what was important to them, accumulating stuff.

We do what’s important to us.

I’m convinced that the Lord Jesus was talking about more than just stuff. I believe He was talking about anything that we value: time, relationships, ideas, activities. Why do I believe this? Because the treasure we will have in heaven is far more than stuff. What we will have in heaven will be however much of a relationship we have developed with the Lord here on earth. Nothing that He might give us there will have meaning compared to seeing Him face to face.

What if that treasures that we are promised in heaven reduce down to one thing: the depth of our relationship with Him? What if that is the treasure? What if our eternal experience is based on how much we want Jesus?

Amos wrote:

"The people don’t know how to do what is right" (v. 10).

If you look at the Hebrew, that sentence is divided into three sections:

They know / not to do / right.

The emphasis is not that they lack knowledge, but that they are aware or understand to the point that they could teach someone else how to not do right. They have practiced not doing the right thing. (That is very different than not having the knowledge of how to do the right thing.) We have to ask ourselves if that is true about us as a Church and as individuals. Are there things we have practiced that aren’t right? Are we experienced, adept, even expert at doing things that aren’t right?

The result of this "practice" was that the Israelites had taken "treasure" from others in order to enrich or reward themselves. How might this look in our culture? (This could get very uncomfortable.)

Our culture talks about taking time for ourselves. Do we steal from others relationship time that they need from us in order to have "my" time? Do we use resources that could be used for others in order to satisfy our own lusts and desires? Here’s the truth: Living a life of ministry to others means that we are going to do "without" in our own lives. There won’t be sufficient resources to satisfy their needs and our desires. (Even the rich find there is never enough money, never enough time, never enough energy.) But when that need arises, do we have to ask ourselves if we have "enough" to meet the need, or do we simply go and meet the need, trusting the Lord to take care of us?

Where are our treasures?

I know many families who refuse to homeschool, not because both parents are working, but because the one stay-at-home parent feels that their "needs" (exercise, go to the gym, have time with friends, etc.) are more important. Oh, I’ve heard the excuses: "I don’t know enough to teach." "My kids and I wouldn’t get along." But I can tell you unequivocally that every child of every Christian family needs to be out of public school in America. And if a family can’t, for some reason, homeschool then others in that church need to rise up and either offer to homeschool or the church needs to establish (or co-op with other churches) a Christian school with no tuition. We are stealing from our children their spiritual inheritance by filling their minds and hearts with secular nonsense. And we are losing the next generation to evil.

Where else do we take from others to give to ourselves? In many places. How much television do we watch? I know many families where there are televisions in just about every room, with family members totally separated, watching "their own" shows. Sell the TV’s. Turn them off. You are stealing from your children in order to "treasure" those shows. (I don’t care what you’re watching. It’s not more important than interacting with the people around you.)

Where are our treasures?

There are so many things in America that we treasure aside from God. And in each and every case, we need to brutally ask ourselves if we are stealing from someone in order to have that treasure.

"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Does Jesus have our hearts? If so, then our treasure is His presence and His Word . . . and nothing else. Can we say that? Can we truly say that Jesus is our only treasure? The Israelites had practiced storing up treasures that didn’t matter and treasures that God hated! We need to start practicing storing up treasures that matter—storing up our relationship with our precious Lord Jesus Christ.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

We Need to Live as Christians -- Amos 3:4-8

Amos 3:4-8


"A lion in the forest does not roar unless it has caught an animal; it does not growl in its den when it has caught nothing. A bird will not fall into a trap where there is no bait; the trap will spring shut if there is nothing to catch. When a trumpet blows a warning in a city, the people tremble. When trouble comes to a city, the Lord has caused it. Before the Lord God does anything, He tells His plans to His servants the prophets. The lion has roared! Who wouldn’t be afraid? The Lord God has spoken. Who will not prophesy?" (NCV)

"Before the Lord God does anything, He tells His plans to His servants."

The Lord is so good, amazingly good. I think that if you’ve been a Christian for a long time (like I have), it’s easy to begin to take the Lord for granted. But He is so good! Before He does anything, He tells His plans to us. And, in fact, He has laid out His plans in His Word sufficiently that we can know His intentions and even His future interactions with this world. We may not know the dates, but we can know what He will do and why He will do it.

"The lion has roared. Who wouldn’t be afraid?"

This message from the Lord is one of love, but it is also one of judgment. Why of love? Because the Lord has chosen, before He does anything to tell His plans to His servants (us) through His prophets (in the Word). Why of judgment? Because He is never pleased with sin.

I think we mistake the Lord’s patience with tolerance or even approval. The two are far different. The Lord loves each of us so much that He will give us time and time and even more time to repent of our sins and turn back to Him. But at some point, He will lift His hand of protection and bring down judgment upon us.

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." (Galatians 6:7-8 NKJV).

There is, in a very real sense, a system of cause-and-effect, action-and-consequence that God has created within the universe. This system in inherent even into the smallest piece of creation, but perhaps is most evident within the lives of people. "For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." Paul uses a farming analogy to explain this system. How we live determines what our future will be. If we live a life of sin, the promise is corruption, but if we live a life unto the Spirit, the promise is everlasting life.

As Christians, we should live with a healthy fear of sinning and of God’s judgment upon that sin. That kind of fear is good for us because it can act as a deterrent in those moments when we are faced with a temptation we think we cannot withstand. God’s love is so great that He has a provided a means of forgiveness, but only if we repent of our sins which means to turn away and put them aside.

"Now the works of the flesh are evident . . . just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19, 21 NKJV).

When Paul wrote these words, he wasn’t preaching to nonbelievers, but to believers, believers who evidently were choosing to continue to embrace their sin, even though they now had the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that allows us to turn away from sin and embrace righteousness. Paul was telling them that their very salvation was in jeopardy if they continued to choose to sin. "Those who practice such things." This isn’t about a singular sin, but a lifestyle. And certainly, if we are honest, there are certain sins that we are likely to do over and over again.

That pattern has to be broken. Our hearts need to be broken so that we will surrender even those "comfort" things that we use to insulate us from the pain of the world. We need to begin to live as if having the Holy Spirit were enough (He really is enough!). We need to begin to live as if our calling as the light on the hill was important, rather than continuing to indulge our flesh.

We need to begin to live as Christians!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

We Are God's People. Let's Start Acting Like It. Amos 3:1-2

Amos 3:1-2


"Listen to this word that the Lord has spoken against you, people of Israel, against the whole family He brought out of Egypt. ‘I have chosen only you out of all the families of the earth, so I will punish you for all your sins.’" (NCV)

Fair or not, God calls His people to a higher standard than He does others. "I will punish you for all your sins." And yet, as believers, that shouldn’t be a threat, but rather an encouragement to live even more holy, to seek His face more often, to rest in His love all the more.

"So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace? No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin? Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ when we were baptized? We shared His death in our baptism. When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared His death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life. Christ died, and we have been joined with Him by dying too. So we will also be joined with Him by rising from the dead as He did. We know that our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would not be slaves to sin. Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control. If we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. Christ was raised fro the dead, and we know that He cannot die again. Death has no power over Him now. Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and His new life is with God. In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive with God through Christ Jesus. So, do not let sin control your life here on earth so that you do what your sinful self wants to do. Do not offer parts of your body to serve sin, as things to be used in doing evil. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used in doing good. Sin will not be your master because you are not under law but under God’s grace" (Romans 6:1-14 NCV).

Things in the world are bad. In fact, right now, they are pretty horrible! There are hundreds, maybe thousands of families in Chicago without water because they couldn’t pay their water bills. There are cities in America being deluged with illegal immigrants who may be carrying disease and may be affiliated with gangs. There are people dying in the West Bank from the Hamas and Israel bombing each other. There is war in Iraq. There are earthquakes. There are threats of economic collapse. People are hurting, people are frantic, people are dying.

Things are bad.

Things have always been bad. Sin has always had reign on the earth. It’s just that with the Internet, we hear about them. They may even be escalating, but that doesn’t mean God’s not in control. And it certainly doesn’t mean that this is a time for the Church to panic.

Absolutely not! This is a time for the Church to become the Church. To stand up and take hold of our birthright as God’s people. To act like His adopted sons and daughters and begin to calm the waters with the peace of God that passes all understanding. It’s time for us to be the light on the hill!

How do we do that?

We do that by becoming God’s people and putting aside our sin. Pure and simple. Our Father calls us to a higher standard and the world is watching to see if we truly will live up to that standard. It’s why they call us hypocrites, because we don’t live to that higher standard even though we are equipped and fully able to do so. We choose to wallow in sin. Satan rejoices and the world despairs. We are the light on the hill and we are hiding that light under a basket of self-indulgence and self-pity.

We need to snap out of it! We need to become the Church that God created. We need to be the people He envisions. We need to act like the Christ-ones, to live as if the Holy Spirit truly lives within us (He does, you know.)

Sin has no power over us. Sin has no power over us. Sin has no power over us.

I said it three times because I really think most of us don’t believe it. We think that those habits that we "can’t" break really do control us.

Really?

Sin has no power over us. "Our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us." We have been freed from the power of sin! Our Lord Jesus Christ did that for us. And that power isn’t just about when we’re in heaven. It’s about now! Paul asks, "So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace?" And he answers himself forcefully, "No!" Sin has no power over us, so if it has no power, then when we sin, we are freely choosing to sin. We can choose not to. We have that choice! We can deny the power of Satan (he’s really powerless), and we can live fully in the grace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So how do we do that?

Well, first, we don’t think about sin, we think about God. Secondly, we stop and think about our decisions, our behavior. We stop acting like automatons that have no control over what they do. We use whatever is necessary (accountability, a prayer partner, lists, whatever) to remind us to think about what the Father wants us to do. And we offer ourselves to be used for doing good all the time in every situation.

Do you realize that our greatest weakness as Christians is self-indulgence? It’s why one of the fruit of the Spirt is self-control! We don’t need to be happy, we need to be righteous! We don’t need to have stuff, we need to be ministering to others. We don’t need to plan for the future, we need to trust our Father. And we need to be about the Father’s business which means we need to be living the fruit of the Spirit every day, every hour, every minute.

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things" (Philippians 4:9 NKJV).

From out of our thoughts come our words, our choices, and our actions. We need to spend much more time in the Word, much more time with the Father thinking on those things which are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy. We need to consciously choose to do good. We need to live, walk, breathe the fruit of the Spirit. We need to truly become what we were meant to be—the light on the hill! The world can’t wait. They need us now!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Choose Sin or Choose God -- Amos 2:11-16

Amos 2:11-16


"‘I made some of your children to be prophets and some of your young people to be Nazirites. People of Israel, isn’t this true?’ says the Lord. ‘But you made the Nazirites drink wine and told the prophets not to prophesy. Now I will make you get stuck, as a wagon loaded with grain gets stuck. No one will escape, not even the fastest runner. Strong people will not be strong enough; warriors will not be able to save themselves. Soldiers with bows and arrows will not stand and fight, and even fast runners will not get away; soldiers on horses will not escape alive. At that time even the bravest warriors will run away without their armor,’ says the Lord." (NCV)

God has always had a remnant and, within that remnant, He has always had prophets who spoke out His word with boldness. But there come times when we don’t want to hear what the prophets have to say and we do everything we can to shut them up, choosing instead to listen to what we want to listen to.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:3-5 NKJV).

What God says—what His Word says—is always true. But it is a truth that is sometimes difficult to hear because it convicts us of our sin, it tears away the lusts of our flesh, and it exposes us to the truth of who we are, sinners. We don’t want to hear that. We want to hear that we should have good self-esteem, that we should love ourselves, that we shouldn’t judge others (and if we don’t judge them, we certainly aren’t going to judge ourselves). The Father, through Paul’s letter, warns us that we will have to endure sound doctrine. That means it won’t feel comfortable! But we need to do it for our own spiritual health. Unfortunately, the day will come—and may already be here—when people will refuse to endure sound teaching. Are we one of those people? God has appointed prophets to proclaim His Word. That Word may be difficult to hear. The Israelites told their prophets not to prophesy. They didn’t want to hear from the Lord.

They also told the Nazirites—those who had set themselves apart to God—to defile their vows and sin. Do we encourage others to sin so that we can feel better about our own choices? If we know that we aren’t supposed to do something, but we can get another "Christian" to also do it, we can justify that it isn’t such a problem. However, that isn’t the scriptural way to live.

"But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak . . . Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble." (1 Corinthians 8:9, 13 NKJV).

In 1 Corinthians, Paul discusses the matter of eating meat where another believer feels that eating such meat is a sin. Paul concludes his discussion by stating unequivocally that, if his actions would lead someone else to sin, he won’t do those actions. Are we so loving, so charitable? The Israelites, instead of encouraging each other to righteousness, actually encouraged each other to sin. The Nazirites had each taken a vow not to drink wine and yet the Israelites were encouraging them to break their vows. Have we ever done that? I think that sometimes we encourage others to follow our lead without thinking through the ramifications of our "advice." Just because it works for us doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be healthy or successful for someone else. We need to continually think back to the fruit of the Spirit—being loving, being kind, being gentle, being patient—when we are dealing with others, particularly those who may not be as spiritually or morally mature. Are we giving them the best advice? The best example? Paul said that he would give up eating meat in front of those who believed that eating meat sacrificed to idols was a sin. Paul knew it wasn’t a sin, but he was more concerned about the spiritual welfare of those around him than his own rights.

The Lord’s punishment for the children of Israel was harsh. He told them that the best and fastest warriors wouldn’t be able to stand against the punishment and that the bravest would run and hide. Because of the salvation of the Lord Jesus, we are able to trust that we won’t be punished for our sins, but it’s a given that God will cease to bless us while we are choosing to walk in sin.

"Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective." (James 5:16 NRSV).

It’s interesting that here, in James, confession of sins comes before praying for each other. And then James describes the type of prayer; it is the prayer of the righteous, of the forgiven. As Christians, we avoid our "earned" punishments because the Lord Jesus bore them on the cross, but we still can take ourselves to the place where God refuses to hear our prayers because we are living in sin. The prayer that is powerful and effective is the prayer of the righteous—the forgiven—person. God loved the Israelites greatly, but He was angry at their sins. God loves us greatly, but He will refuse to hear our prayers when we choose sin over loving Him.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

God IS Mighty -- Amos 2:9-10

Amos 2:9-10


"But it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them, who were tall like cedar trees and as strong as oaks—I destroyed them completely. It was I who brought you forth from the land of Egypt and led you for forty years through the desert so I could give you the land of the Amorites." (NCV)

Although these are two short verses, they describe a lot about God’s power and might.

The Amorites, among others, were a people who originally lived in the land of Canaan. According to historical records, they were a strong fighting people. And yet God destroyed the Amorites. Their strength, their experience, their resources didn’t matter. God was in control.

God also provided for the children of Israel for 40 years as they lived in a desert. I live in the desert and I can attest that it’s difficult, very difficult, to harvest what you need from the natural desert. The land is rock and sand, water is far underground (inaccessible without wells), and the natural tundra is dry and prickly. And yet the Israelites were provided for in a mighty and miraculous way, a way that was beyond and separate from what the environment could provide.

There are two really important truths here.

First, no one and nothing is too strong for God to conquer. He is mightier than anything! We know that fact with our minds, but we often act as if God were impotent, unable or unwilling to act. He always acts, He is always acting. It’s simply that He is acting according to His character, His will, His timing . . . not ours. But He is fully able to bring about what He has planned and He is doing it! He is not only able, He is active! And whatever it is that we need, He will provide it.

I think that we often forget that Christians can’t lose! It doesn’t matter what happens to us, God will work it for our good. Thus, there are no bad situations, no impossible circumstances. Paul wrote:

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:16-18 NKJV).

We are always to rejoice, always to pray, always to be thankful because God is working His will and His way for us always! We cannot lose.

The second important truth is that God will always provide. He isn’t confined by natural resources, financial shifts, or even whether or not we are obedient! (The children of Israel were often perverse and disobedient.) God provides for His children. Now, His provision may look very different than what we expected or wanted, but He will provide! We need to trust Him for that provision and learn to walk anticipating that He is going to send whatever it is we need when we need it.

When the Lord sent manna as food for the children of Israel, He sent new manna each day. If the people kept some for use the next day, it was totally spoiled. But on Friday (the day before the Sabbath), God would send double the manna and the manna would remain fresh throughout the Sabbath. This goes beyond scientific laws. The manna should have either kept for two days regardless of what two days it was or always spoiled on the second day. But it didn’t. It remained fresh for the length of the need.

God will always provide when and what we need. We just need to trust Him. He is mighty and He is faithful. His job is to take care of us; our job is to rejoice, pray, and be thankful.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Cut Off Your Hand -- Amos 2:6-8

Amos 2:6-8


"This is what the Lord says: ‘For the many crimes of Israel, I will punish them. For silver, they sell people who have done nothing wrong; they sell the poor to buy a pair of sandals. They walk on poor people as if they were dirt, and they refuse to be fair to those who are suffering. Fathers and sons have sexual relations with the same woman, and so they ruin my holy name. As they worship at their altars, they lie down on clothes taken from the poor. They fine people and with that money they buy wine to drink in the house of their god." (NCV)

"Fathers and son have sexual relations with the same woman."

Repeatedly in scripture, there are commands about sexual purity. The Lord Jesus took these even a step further:

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you tosin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell" (Matthew 5:27-30 NKJV)

We—human beings—are created in the image of God. Even more than that, the Father uses marriage as the way to describe the relationship between our Savior and His Church (we are His Bride). The Old Testament also used adultery as a way to describe the times when Israel turned from God and worship idols. There is some sacred about sex, about the bonding between a man and a woman. This sacredness was defined by God Himself. But even more than that—even if God hadn’t required sexual purity in the Old Testament, which He did—we, as Christians, are commanded to be sexually pure:

"Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:18-19 NKJV).

Once we are saved, the Holy Spirit dwells inside us. Every sin we commit, He witnesses, but the sexual sins are done against His temple—our bodies. Paul clearly tells us that we don’t have the rights over our bodies once we are saved. Our bodies now belong to God, bought with the price of the blood of the Lord Jesus. Everything we see, taste, touch, experience must now be done with the knowledge that we are to keep this temple, this body, pure.

Is that what happens?

Most people ignore the ending part of Matthew 5. They can’t imagine that the Lord Jesus truly meant to cut off our hands or pluck out our eyes. But what if that is symbolic and what He meant was for us to totally eliminate all that which draws us to sin? What then? What books draw us away from Him? What TV shows? What movies? What activities? What habits?

I have known for a long time that I had a problem with food. I watched my friends, even those who struggled with their weight like I do. They didn’t seem preoccupied with food like I am. And I suddenly realized that what I needed to do was to purge my home of those foods which were a temptation to me. I also have had to exercise my self-control (and my prayer life) to avoid buying those foods in the store. Food is for sustenance, not for comfort or pleasure (regardless of what the advertisements tell you). I’m learning to resist for the sake of taste or pleasure, and one thing that’s helping is that I’ve cut myself off from the temptation.

What things keep us from the Lord? Do we rush home from church, ignoring the end of the service and wishing the pastor would just "shut up" so that we don’t miss the football game? What about the mid-week service? Have we stopped going so that we won’t miss the latest episode of our favorite television series? What about tithes and offerings? Have we lowered our giving so that we can afford the latest smart phone with all its new gadgets? Of course I could go on and on, but I don’t need to. If you ask the Holy Spirit, He will begin to reveal to you the problem areas in your life. And after a while, if you are diligent in your desire to please Him, those activities will stop "tasting" so good. You will see the destruction in your life and not want it anymore.

As believers, we need to brutally look at what we do and take inventory. We need to begin with sexual purity and move on from there. Are there images in movies, in TV shows, we shouldn’t be seeing? Are we attracted to things of darkness or things that can live only in God’s light? Where are our priorities? Do we miss church because we can’t miss that activity, that sporting event, that gathering? Have we missed being with the Lord because other things are gradually taking His place?

The Lord warned the Israelites about their sexual purity because He knows that sexual purity is part of the slippery slope that takes us away from Him. If we have questions about our sexual purity, then we need right now to look at our lives and see where else we have wandered away.

Don’t you want to be close to the Father, to be in the center of His perfect will? If so, then you will have to cut away things in your life that are now standing between you and Him. I’m doing that and it’s hard. But it’s so worth it.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The Poor -- Amos 2:6-8

Amos 2:6-8


"This is what the Lord says: ‘For the many crimes of Israel, I will punish them. For silver, they sell people who have done nothing wrong; they sell the poor to buy a pair of sandals. They walk on poor people as if they were dirt, and they refuse to be fair to those who are suffering. Fathers and sons have sexual relations with the same woman, and so they ruin my holy name. As they worship at their altars, they lie down on clothes taken from the poor. They fine people and with that money they buy wine to drink in the house of their god." (NCV)

Amos was called to be a prophet to Israel and now God begins to speak directly to Israel, last and most completely. Why? Because it was with Israel (and Judah) that He had the most intimate relationships and because God expects more from His people than from the remainder of the world. It is to His people that He has given His word (and now, to the Church, His Holy Spirit). The unbelieving world sins from ignorance; God’s people sin from knowledge.

There are two specific areas of sin listed in the accusations against Israel: (1) Persecution against the poor, and (2) sexual sin. There could also be a third sin which is implied and that is persecution against women since in that day a woman didn’t have the right to refuse to have sex; she could lose her marriage and thus both her livelihood and her home.

There are two verses in scripture which is often taken out of context as a way to refuse to help those who are in more need than we are:

"But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always." (Matthew 26:10-11 NKJV).

"For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10 NKJV).

These verses have been used (both spoken and implied) wrongly to justify a lack of ministry to those around us. The first verse was given as an admonition to the disciples themselves who criticized the woman anointing Jesus—doing an act worship—by saying that the oil should have been sold and given to the poor. Jesus wasn’t saying not to give to the poor; He was for this one instance defending this woman’s love and devotion to Him. In the Thessalonians scripture, Paul isn’t dealing with the poor, but rather with idle Christians who were more busy being gossips (v. 11) and not tending to their own business.

Scripture is replete with commands that we give, give, and continue to give to others, trusting God Himself to provide for our needs.

• We are told if someone demands our coat, to also give our cloak (Matthew 5:40).

• We are told how to give alms (gifts to the poor, Matthew 6:20).

• If someone takes from us, we aren’t to ask them to return what they took (Luke 6:30).

• Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all that he had and give it to the poor (Matthew 19:21).

• In Matthew 25:35ff, Jesus tells us that in doing ministry to the poor—feeding, clothing and visiting them—we are ministering to God Himself.

• We are to share half of what we have with those who have none (Luke 3:11).

• Paul talked about a regular offering that was to be a gift to the poor Christians in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1).

• Giving to the poor was an obligation assumed by all the apostles (Galatians 2:10).

• We are to help anyone in need, but particularly to help other Christians in need (Galatians 6:10).

• The purpose of honest work isn’t to accumulate for ourselves, but to have enough to help the poor (Ephesians 4:28).

• We are to care for orphans and widows (James 1:27).

In Amos, the Lord condemned the Israelites for persecuting the poor in numerous ways: for selling them in slavery, for walking over them, refusing to be fair, and for penalizing them with money. The other day, I watched a video on Facebook about a wonderful young Asian man who spent his life giving to others. He wasn’t a Christian, but just a nice person. It was a video encouraging others to give, even sacrificially, to help those around him. The video made me sad because that’s really how Christians should be viewed and instead we are viewed by most nonbelievers as quite the opposite. We are viewed as being self-centered, self-interested, and demanding. I greatly admire Matthew and Caroline Barnett, the pastors of the Dream Center in Los Angeles, not because the Dream Center is getting it perfect, but because they are at least doing something; they are at least trying to help the poorest of the poor around them. And they’re doing it in ways that respect people, that love them, that try to help them, rather than demeaning and belittling them.

Let me give you some very depressing news about the American church.
"Giving USA, a non-profit foundation that studies philanthropy in the United States, in its 2008 report found 33.4% of estimated total giving, $103.32 billion, went to houses of worship and denominational organizations in 2007"¹.

To put some perspective on this, the 2013-2014 budget for the City of Los Angeles will be about $5 million². The State of California’s total budget in 2013 was about $228 billion³. The American Church raises about half of what the State of California does in taxes (remember, the tax rate is much higher than the percentage of tithe or 10%).


It gets worse.
According to another report, 85% of all church monies go directly to the internal operation of the church: salaries, buildings, and supplies⁴. Eighty-five percent! We could operate half of California every year—that’s every school, every public works, every state agency—and with all that money, 85% goes to make our own lives more comfortable while people in our communities are homeless, hungry, and needy. On the bright side, 85-90% of the churches provide direct assistance in either cash or food to people in need⁵ which says we’re aware as a church of our Biblical mandate. The question is, is it enough?


If we have, as a church body, enough money to run half of California (California is so large as to be considered in many economic forecasts it’s own country), then why aren’t we having more of an impact on our communities. Is it because while we provide assistance, that assistance is minimal?

We have to remember that often, reading scripture, what we see is a very flat account of the reality of the people who were actually living during that time. The Israelites who lived during the time of Amos were just like us, folks trying to get by. They weren’t like some kind of villain in a movie who laughs evilly because he’s defying God; they were just families following along with the culture of the day . . . and yet God condemns them. Why? Because they knew better. They had the advantage of the Torah (God’s law) and His presence because they were His people and yet the culture around them became more influential in their choices than did what they knew to be true about God’s commands.

How is this different from us?

That’s a question we need to ask ourselves in a daily basis. Where does our money go and do we need to spend it as we do or are there other options we should be choosing? Is our giving sacrificial enough? Do we believe that all of our money really belongs to God (as does even each breath we take) and, in obedience, it should go where He deems best, or do we believe that—after our tithe is paid—we can spend what’s left as frivolously as we wish without giving it a second thought?

I think it comes down to the idea of what do we really need? Perhaps this is the day, the week, the month that we, as a Church, think about what needs really are and then begin to look around and see how we can minister to the Lord by meeting the needs of those around us.

　

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

They Rejected God -- Amos 2:4-5

Amos 2:4-5


"This is what the Lord says: ‘For the many crimes of Judah, I will punish them. They rejected the teachings of the Lord and did not keep His commands; they followed the same gods as their ancestors had followed. So I will send a fire on Judah, and it will destroy the strong buildings of Jerusalem.’"
Judah and Israel were the Lord’s own people, His chosen. And yet they had refused to be obedient to Him. Where Amos had listed usually one crime against the neighbor’s of Judah and Israel, he know lists three:

• They rejected the teachings of the Lord
• They did not keep His commands
• They followed the same gods as their ancestors.

God’s punishment was that He was going to destroy the core of their country, the strong buildings in the capitol, Jerusalem.

Literally, they rejected the Torah, the part of the Bible which, at that time, they had. They rejected God’s Word. Now understand, they didn’t throw it out or stop using it. They continued in the traditions they had been trained. No, they simply stopped applying it to their lives; they stopped allowing God to change their hearts. So while their religious practices continued to honor God, their lives didn’t. And God saw the truth!

The Lord Jesus talked about this in Matthew 23:

"How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You give to God one-tenth of everything you earn—even your mint, dill, and cumin. But you don’t obey the really important teachings of the law—justice, mercy, and being loyal. These are the things you should do, as well as those other things." (v. 23 NCV).

The Lord wants us to do all that He commands, not just what we pick and choose. The Jews had rejected the parts of the law they wanted; they believed that following the form would get their God’s approval. But the Lord wants our hearts as well as our lives. He wants us to not only follow Him with our actions, but with our desires and our thoughts.

"They followed the same gods as their ancestors."

Family culture and tradition is important. It’s what ties us to the past and can give meaning to the future. That being said, as Christians, we need to realize that we are culture-less. Our culture is scripture, the Word of God and living out the Lord’s will in our lives. If our family culture honors the Lord, then we should embrace it. However, if our family culture draws us away from the things of the Lord and pollutes our witness to the world, then we should summarily reject it.

In fact, as Christians, we need to be brutal in our evaluations of our lives everyday. It’s easy to get swept away in the tide of life, particularly when we are exposed to so much through the Internet, television and social media. We need to pray for discernment and a longing to be in the Lord’s presence. We need to begin to reject all that isn’t of the Lord and to cling to that which honors Him and brings Him glory. There is nothing on this earth of any value except what honors our Savior. Everything else is meaningless; we need to leave it and turn away. It doesn’t matter what meaning it may have in our lives. If that meaning comes between us and the Lord, we need to reject it . . . not Him!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The Course of Revenge -- Amos 2:1-3

Amos 2:1-3


"This is what the Lord says: ‘For the many crimes of Moab, I will punish them. They burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. So I will send fire on Moab that will destroy the strong buildings of the city of Kerioth. The people of Moab will die in a great noise, in the middle of the sounds of war and trumpets. So I will bring an end to the king of Moab, and I will kill all its leaders with him," says the Lord." (NCV)

This doesn’t seem to make much sense unless we look at the history behind it.

Years before, the Israelites, the Jews, and Moabites were fighting. The Israelites had made a treaty with the Jews and the Edomites and they were all fighting against the Moabites. Their combined armies went to Moab to fight a battle there. God laid a trap for the Moabites who weren’t expecting the combined armies.

"When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too much for him, he took seven hundred men with swords to try to break through to the king of Edom. But they could not break through. Then the king of Moab took his oldest son, who would have been king after him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. So there was great anger against the Israelites, who left and went back to their own land." (2 Kings 3:26-27 NCV).

The Moabites, in smoldering anger and revenge for what they thought the Edomites had forced their own king to do, came back again with another revenge and desecrated the body of the late Edomite king. Revenge against revenge.

"He/she made me do it."

Rather than take responsibility for our own actions, we often blame others for backing us into a corner where we feel we have no choices and then wanting to take it out on them because "they made us to do it."

No one—NO ONE—ever makes us do anything. We are creatures of free will. We choose how we will respond in any given situation. Our choices may seem limited, but we always have a choice. When we are cornered, when we are placed in situations of great distress or great hurt, we have the choice to react with the fruit of the Spirit or with anger and revenge. We have the choice. When we are accused, we can try to manipulate the situation to present ourselves in the best light or we can react with honesty and truth regardless of the outcome. When we are rejected, we can react with quietness and love or we can lash out, protecting ourselves.

The Moabites found themselves in a terrible situation. They were alone, ganged up upon by the Israelite, the Jewish, and Edomite armies. It’s possible the Edomites were former allies who now had chosen to ally with the Israelites instead. Friends who had betrayed them and were now enemies.

They were alone and afraid.

They were tricked. The Lord had laid a trap for them and the Edomites walked right into it. They felt foolish.

They were desperate. Their king, in an effort to appease their gods and win the battle, took his own son and sacrificed him . . . to no avail. They were angry and wanting revenge.

Rejected . . . feeling foolish . . . desperate . . . angry. They allowed their anger to fester until they were willing to do anything to get revenge against the Edomites. And so they desecrated the tomb of the Edomite king, dug up his body and destroyed it. They did what they thought would hurt the Edomites the most.

Tit for tat.

Anger unchecked and uncontrolled can lead to horrible results. Have you ever met someone who, because of their anger (and what they thought was their right to be angry) backed themselves so far into a corner that there was no escape? Have you watched them do more and more horrible things as their anger (and their pride) continued to control their decision-making? I have. It’s sad and horrible to watch.

As Christians, we need to do two things. First, we need daily to give everything to God Who is in absolute control and trust Him to deal with every situation so that we don’t find ourselves being that person. Second, when we find ourselves involved with such a person, a person who is angry beyond measure, we need to try to back off and give them space to recoup themselves. That is humility. That is kindness. That is gentleness. It’s easy to be gentle when someone is nice. It’s more difficult to be gentle when the other person is mean and vindictive.

We can choose our response. Today I want to learn how to choose to be gentle . . . even when it seems like I’m losing. I can’t lose. For Christians, life is always win-win because God is always in control. I need to start living like I believe that.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com