For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Christmas is coming soon. Let us remember what it is truly about, the birth of Jesus Christ. Let us strive to not be caught up in the commercialism which is what this season is about for many in our society today.
When I read this proverb I thought about controversial stories that have been in the news the last few years. When trying to judge what happened with limited information, we can know that the person with the history of poor anger management is more likely to be the one who started the fight. Those who have trouble controlling their temper are generally guilty of many other sins as well.
No matter how deep our despair, nor how terrible our sins, God will listen to our prayers when we cry out to Him. God does not keep a record of our sins. It is we ourselves who do that. We could not survive if God made us pay the price of each and every one of our sins. God offers us forgiveness so that we can learn to serve Him. Will you serve Him today?
Next John delivers a message for the church in Thyatira. He commends them for their deeds. They are doing the opposite of what he condemned the church in Ephesus for doing. Rather than lose their enthusiasm, the church in Thyatira was becoming more enthusiastic and loving. They were doing even more than they had done when they first came to know the Lord. However, they had a woman in their church who was teaching believers to commit sexual sins and eat food sacrificed to idols. This went beyond teaching tolerance of sinful behavior. In Thyatira they had someone in the church encouraging believers to sin. Those who followed such teaching would suffer the consequences of such behavior, but those who remained faithful will see that God is faithful in turn.
Then comes the message for the church in Sardis. This is the message that should frighten us the most. The church in Sardis has a reputation for being a vibrant congregation, but the message John has for them says that they are dead. In how many of our churches are we gathering on Sunday to sing songs about how wonderful God is, but come Monday He has no role in our lives? God would rather see us bring glory to Him by what we do during the week, than see us “filled with the spirit” on Sunday morning.
Amos condemns those who brag about their charitable giving while oppressing the poor and crushing the needy. God brings hard times in order to remind us to turn to Him, but all too often we only dedicate ourselves even more thoroughly to the idols we serve. When hard times come, do we realize that we all need to pull together, or do we use our power and position to make sure that it is someone else who suffers. When hard times came upon the people of Israel, rather than aid the oppressed and seek justice, the people crushed the oppressed and sought special favors.
God is calling us once more to do what is good and to run from what is evil. Too many people say that they hate evil and love good, but then they seek to overturn justice. All too often I see what Amos describes here, where people hate honest judges and despise those who speak the truth. Let that not be us.
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Amos speaks of those who oppress the poor and crush the needy while living in the lap of luxury. They offer sacrifices to idols, then make offerings to the Lord. They brag about all of the various volunteer offerings they make to God, but do nothing to help those in need. God has brought trouble and misfortune upon them, but they refuse to turn to Him and follow His will. They twist justice, hating honest judges and despising those who tell the truth. They claim to desire to help the poor while at the same time trampling them and stealing their food with taxes and unfair rents. They oppress good people by taking bribes and prevent the poor from receiving justice in the courts. Because of all of this God is preparing to send His judgment upon them, but there is still time to turn to God by doing what is good and running from evil.
I read this today and thought of our society. There are many today who proclaim all of the great things they are doing, yet if one looks closely one sees that all they are truly doing is satisfying their own desires at the expense of the poor and powerless. This passage is an indictment of many who claim to be Christian as well as others. Let us turn to God and seek justice for the poor. Rather than sacrifices for show, let us provide for those in need. God’s judgment will fall on those who continue to do evil.
Today’s passage has the message to two more of the Churches, representing two more categories of Christian group. The next category is that of the Church in Thyatira. They have love and faith. They persevere in giving service. Not only have they maintained their love of the Lord and energy serving Him, they are doing even more than when they first believed. However, they tolerate teacher(s) who encourage sexual immorality and discrete worshiping of idols. Those who reject such teachings are commended and encouraged to hold onto what they have received. There is no secret teachings we need to learn, or hidden secrets of God to be revealed to us by special leaders. God’s Spirit is open and reveals God’s word to all who wish to see. Let us maintain our faith and reject those who seek “secret” knowledge and attempt to reveal to us things “never known” before.
The fifth category of Christian group (or group of Christians is perhaps a better way to phrase it) is that of the Church in Sardis. This is a group that has a reputation for being active and alive, but is not truly so. They have lost their love for Christ and the life which comes from the Spirit. They are going on on past accomplishments. They once did the things which God desired, but now they think that they have done enough. They must repent and return to God, return to doing the things they had done to serve God in the past. Despite their lack of life and vibrancy in serving God there remain among them a few who still love and serve Him. Every time I read this passage I think of my congregation. I look back over its history and wonder if we are like the Church in Sardis. The congregation was founded as an outreach to the children in the community who had no other exposure to Christian teaching, yet now I see little in the way of ministry to children (other than to the children of those who regularly attend). I do not know that my perception is accurate, there are aspects of the congregation’s ministry with which I am unfamiliar.
From the deepest depths of my despair I will cry to the Lord. I will wait for Him and put my hope in Him. My hope so placed will not be placed in vain. He will redeem me and save me from my troubles.
Those who are pampered in their youth will become insolent when asked to serve others. Those who cannot control their temper start fights and let their anger lead them into all kinds of sin. I will learn to control my temper and serve the Lord as He desires.
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
The prophet began today’s passage by condemning rich women who used their position of power and influence to oppress the poor. Women who are demanding more stuff from their husbands. He goes on to condemn those who are self-righteous, who make regular offerings and brag about their offerings over and above the “default”. I do not think the first part is necessarily just about women. I think it applies to anyone who thinks that they are deserving of being treated well because they have wealth that was acquired for them by someone else. This passage is about those who think that because they follow religious rituals they are holy, better than others and therefore can abuse those others who are clearly less holy than themselves. This is a condemnation of those who think they are righteous because they give thousands of dollars to charity, yet have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on themselves. Someone recently said that God does not measure our giving by how much we give, rather he measures it by how much we spend on ourselves. I think that that can be abused as well, but it is a good starting point to think about giving.
Amos tells us that God had sent disasters, natural and otherwise, against Israel to call them back to Him, but they had ignored them and refused to repent of their sins. God showed the people the results of their sins and they still refused to turn to Him. Reading this passage reminds me of what I have seen in my lifetime and how for the most part people are continuing to turn away from God despite what should be warnings and calls to return to Him. We have had Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. We have had the Columbine shootings, the Aurora movie theater shootings, the 911 attacks. We have had SARS, Mad Cow disease and AIDS. After each of these hits the news, there has been a short upswing in interest in God, but it quickly fades away and people return to their sinful lifestyles with a vengeance, laughing off anyone who makes a connection between these tragedies and sin (even when as in AIDS the correlation is pretty direct).
The prophet tells us that now is the time to repent and turn back to God, away from our sinful and unjust behaviors. God does not want our hymns of praise and assemblies of worship, he wants us to seek justice and to care for the poor. Now is the time for us to pray and fast, to seek to serve the Lord in whatever way that He calls us. We need to turn away from religious behaviors that are just for show and seek to take those righteous actions which help those in need. Let us seek the Lord with all of our hearts. We need to fast and pray, not for our country, but for people. How may the Lord’s will be best accomplished in this world? We should pray neither for the continued strength of the U.S. (or any other nation), nor for its downfall (or that of any other nation). Rather we should pray that the people of the U.S., and of every nation, turn to God and repent of their sins. Jesus said that His Kingdom is not of this world and we should always remember that no nation on this earth is God’s Kingdom.
Today, I read the messages to the next two of the seven churches. The church in Thyatira was commended for its love, faith, service and patient endurance. It was, however, reprimanded for permitting a woman who called herself a prophet to lead some believers astray with her teachings of sexual immorality and participation in pagan rituals. A severe judgment is declared against those who follow her teachings and fail to repent. The message continues by praising those who have not followed these teachings of “deeper truths” and asking nothing more of them than that they continue to hold tightly to the truths of the Gospel. There is a clue in this passage about how to recognize false teachings. The false teaching being condemned here claimed to be a “deeper truth”, something that was not known to the common believer. This is a common theme in many false teachings, they provide “secret” knowledge, or some other means by which those who follow them are separated out as special from others. But the message of the Gospel is that we are all the children of God and loved by Him. Anyone who turns to Him and seeks fellowship with Him will not be turned away.
Next is the message to the church in Sardis. It has a reputation for being a strong and vibrant congregation, but the message tells us that it has died. Too many of its members are just going through the motions without any real commitment to doing God’s will. They are told to return to what they believed and did when they first believed. They need to wake up and follow God’s righteous path. Even so, there are a few among them who have remained faithful and whom God commends. This is a warning to us today that we cannot rest on what we did in the past, God calls us to righteous behavior today and tomorrow and every day until the Lord returns. We don’t get to retire from serving the Lord (and some of us don’t wait until we retire to attempt to retire from the Lord’s service).
Yes, let us call on the Lord for help. If we call on Him, He will rescue us from our troubles, not because we deserve it, but because He loves us. We do not deserve God’s love. We deserve misery and trouble for all of the sins we have committed, for the harm and trouble we have caused others, but God will forgive us our sins. All we have to do is turn to Him and strive to allow Him to replace our sin with righteousness. How I strive to put my faith in nothing but the Lord, for only He can be relied on.
Failure to control ones temper will lead on into all kinds of sin. I am usually very good at controlling my anger. Sometimes however I let that fool me into thinking it is ok to lose control of my temper. There are times when it is right to feel anger, and even occasionally to act on that anger. However, it is never right to let anger control our actions.
