"Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth--yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob." Amos 9:8
Shhhhhh.... It is not very tactful to talk about sin. Although gossiping about the sins of others can be kinda fun, huh? As for my sin, that is a personal matter, between me and God. After all, only He can and should judge, right?
As I am reading the book of Amos today, I note that the word 'sins' is used 8 times in the first 2 chapters. Then Amos speaks God's heart for several chapters…. about what He has done, is doing, and will do because of sins. Then a call to repentance, followed by the choice given between destruction and restoration, and then our verse for today. Verse 8 says to me to say to you.... C'mon people, God sees what we are doing, He knows. We are not getting away with anything! Those eyes not only see, but they care and they deserve better than what we do. His mercy and grace should not be taken for granted. We are not 'entitled' to grace or mercy. He bestows it because Jesus is worthy of it, not us. We should be so grateful that it would change our choices and attitudes and behaviors. We could be totally destroyed by God and that would be justifiable except for the 'saving grace' of Christ's forgiveness on the cross, the payment price for our sins.
As I close, let me give you the short list of those sins that He sees, yet will forgive, taken from Amos 1 and 2.
1.) Worshiping idols 2.) Pride 3.) Oppressing the poor 4.) Slavery 5.) Murdering the unborn 6.) Callousness 7.) Selfishness 8.) Sexual immorality....Just to name a few.
I am struck by how much some form of these we do, and how tolerant we are of those who do them.
We are despised by some other religions for two reasons, one valid and one invalid. We are disdained for worshiping the One True God and for being so worldly. Guess which one is valid, and which one is invalid? Let us stop sinning and stop kidding ourselves too.
With Conviction,
Pastor Fred
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So, the last few devotionals have really spoken out to me regarding current situations in my own life. This one spoke too, but not quite as loudly. Hmm...wonder if it means I'm just not a sinner like the rest of you.
ReplyDeleteBahahahahahaha!!! I am so completely kidding! If God struck us down according to the magnitude of our sin, I'd be one of the first to fall. Thank You, Jesus for the cross, and thank you, Pastor for sharing! I've never read in the book of Amos, but my curiosity has now been peaked!