I have to admit that I have been surprised by how much I have enjoyed reading Amos for the past couple of months.
One of the greatest parts of being able to regularly teach the scriptures is that I take a few months (usually) before I teach on a book or a topic to try to immerse myself in it. I was once challenged to never teach on scripture that I hadn’t read fifty times, the idea being that the more you dive into the scriptrues the more you can grab what was going on. The Holy Spirit seems to really draw me into interactions that have really blessed me; and hopefully those that hear me! 
I have been excited about us teaching on Amos for well over a year now, volunteered to teach the three weeks we will be dealing with it, and even am leaving our staff retreat early to get back August 8th to finish the series up. But my excitement has been due to the sense that God wanted us to talk about it, not about the book itself.
Amos is the third of the minor prophets. A section of short accounts of seasons in Isreal and Judah’s history when God is saying Enough! The minor prophets writings are full of God’s judgement, unpleasant verses, and involve a tough task of understanding what was going on then that led God to say what he did and how that connects with our experience today and what he is intending us to take from it. It is not a very highly read book, tucked into the back of the Old Testament and full of tough stuff.
Honestly, it isn’t easy.
But I have been surprised.
As I have read Amos more times than I can count in various translations, relfected on how specific writers and the church has looked it over the centuries and spent a great deal of time asking God what he would want to say to us… I have started to see something that I had missed. A great deal of love and hope. An incredible example of how God blends the fact that he is fully in charge of everything he has created and that we as humanity seem to have genuine freedom in the choices me make within that creation.
In light of that, this week’s challenge is fairly straightforward.
Read Amos a couple of times. You need to read it a couple of times to get through the initial feelings you will have when you do read it. The language is strong, God is upset. That is clear. If you would like some of the context of why, you can listen to my from last Sunday.
As you are reading, ask God to help you look past how you feel about what he is saying, so that you can start to get to how he feels about what he is saying. Then pose the question, am I doing what the Israelites were doing?
Pray that God will give you a heart that is more tender to both your weaknesses, but also to the love that God so clearly feels for you. Remember, in God’s eyes, if you have accepted Jesus’ offer of forgiveness and call to follow him, you are part of the family of Israel. Keep that in mind as you read.
Finally, share what you are seeing with someone else. I would love if you would share it here so we can all be encouraged, but the most important point is that you share.
Last thing, if the website is a bit tough to get around, give us some grace, a totally new and revamped one is coming in the next couple of weeks! Long overdue!
Peace, Jim
Effislatt said...
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01/8/11 1:05 AM | Comment Link