HEAR! RETURN!
Today’s Reading: Amos 3-4
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
There are many spectacular mountain views as you explore Petra in Jordan. In our key verse, God is called, “He Who forms mountains.”
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verses: Amos 3:7, 4:13
Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
…For behold,
He who forms mountains,
And creates the wind,
Who declares to man what his thought is,
And makes the morning darkness,
Who treads the high places of the earth–
The Lord God of hosts is His name.
Some believe that God as the Creator has abandoned His creation, hanging the world on nothing (Job 26:7), and then He proceeded to move to another part of the cosmos. Amos makes it clear that God has been involved in the past, is involved in the present, and will be involved in the future! There is a movie called, “God’s Not Dead 2″ that makes the point of God’s continued presence! Our first key verse states that the Lord is constantly communicating with us. He wants us to listen! Amos feels compelled to “Prophesy” (speak out what he has had revealed to him), “The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy!” (3:8b).
Our second key verse is not only stating the fact of God’s creation, but it shows that Amos is worshipping God for Who He is! The exercise of prophesying is not just foretelling but “forthtelling,” speaking of God’s greatness as we worship Him. Both chapters, Amos 3 & 4, begin with the word, “Hear!” Are we listening carefully, and are we, for example, doing the opposite to Amos 4:1? Are we doing our best to lift up the poor and needy? God cares intensely! During the entirety of these blogs we have paid attention to “repetition”…God’s way of making His point strongly. There are five repetitions of the words, “Yet you have not returned to Me, says the LORD!!!” This reveals the heart of God longing for closeness with His people.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I return to YOU! I run into Your open arms as Your wayward child! I pray that I will continually remain 24/7 in Your loving, strong embrace, hearing Your voice as I read Your Word, and doing that which pleases You. I pray this through the Person Who always pleased You, Father, Your Son and my Saviour, Jesus! Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
[Note: this blog post was originally written by David on April 5, 2016]
I’m here in Red Deer, Alberta, just now. I’m scheduled to speak at the annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast this morning. Ever since I passed the two-year life expectancy mark (the doctor diagnosed me with a terminal illness, MDS acute leukaemia, in March of 2012). I’ve been somewhat frustrated, because I don’t have a clear understanding of the reason why God has extended my life. I’ve read again the story of Hezekiah, whose life was extended 15 years by God and by the application of a poultice over the area infected. During those extra years he did something really stupid which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem. I ask for the prayers of all my blog family!
Yours for finishing well,
David
Thank You, Lord God, for making the Way for us to be forgiven, for giving Your Son for us. Thank You, dear Jesus, for ever interceding for us. We can hear Your call to us through Amos.
May Your call, Your Word, be heard throughout the world. Help people everywhere to hear You calling, help us turn to You, in Jesus’s name, amen
Amen Rob!!
Amen!
Amen …. joining you all in prayer for our world,
for those afraid and in pain, for those left homeless, for those who are mourning and grieving…and as Rob said ” thank you dear Jesus, for ever interceding for us.”
I am so comforted by the knowledge that Jesus lives to intercede for all of us, I believe David in one of his blogs called it….the never ending prayer room.
Amen,Anne.I’m thinking of Ukraine now knowing the world must get much worse before His return and trying to accept that fact.God bless
I love the thought in David’s prayer, of running into the loving arms of God. What an absolute joy it would be to literally do that. Forgive me Lord, in Jesus Name, for my sins committed knowingly and unknowingly. I know You cannot look upon sin – You had to turn away from Your Own Son on the cross. Amazing Love, how can it be? Thank You Lord.
Amazing thoughts too,Doreen.Amen again.Blessings
I think I wrote 2 or 3 poems inspired by the God Is Not Dead movies.Here is one and one I wrote for David.I hope they bless someone:
I Am Not Dead
I am not dead,I am your God,
You who deny me will face death,
I created you from the sod
And gave you life with my breath.
,
Nothing that you have is your own,
I own everything in your care,
I ask a tithe of what you’ve sown
And that you give the poor their share.
I came to teach but few would hear,
But those who follow have me near,
For those who serve I will hold dear,
But those who lie will hide in fear.
When I return to take My bride,
Satan will have nowhere to hide,
For all the angels at My side,
Will quell the waves of evil’s tide.
G W(Bill) Marshall / 20 Jan, 2014
Spread The Fire (4 David Mainse)
Though you have walked many oceans
And spread My word to many nations,
I saw in you and your devotions
A servant of joyous exhalations.
You have not asked for earthly wealth,
But just to be my most humble voice
And when adversity was kept in stealth
You still worshipped Me out of free choice.
So out of free choice I give you
More time upon the stage of learning,
Whereby My word you show to be true
And spread the fire that’s forever burning.
G W(Bill) Marshall / 01 February, 2014