God is There For You!

"He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.

From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry."

- Jonah 2:2

What I really liked about this verse was how God answered Jonah's cry for help. God was there for Jonah when he was inside the great fish, even though this entire situation was Jonah's fault for turning his back on God, even though he was getting what he deserved, God was there for him to strengthen and help him. If God was there for Jonah then that means that he will be there for you as well, no matter what happens, whose fault it is, or how badly it seems to be going. God is there with you always and he will answer your call!

Feast on God's Word!

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

- Amos 8:11

This verse reminded me of how lucky we are to have the Bible in our language as well as being so easily accessible to us. In the past the Bible was in Latin so only people who could read Latin were able to understand it, or they kept the Bible chained to the pulpit and locked behind a gate so that only certain people could read it. Job says this: "I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread." (Job 23:12) God's word is priceless! It sustains us, it strengthens us anew every single day. There are people in other nations who only have access to a single page of the Bible and they treasure it more than anything. Those of us who do have a bunch of Bibles in easily accessible places are so blessed, we have a feast at our disposal! This is a feast where we don't have to worry about eating too much, we don't have to diet God's word- in fact it is just the opposite, we need to take in as much as we can! We need to dig in to God's word, to let it fill us and let it transform our hearts. Feast on God's word today!

Christ Can Rebuild You!

"This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer."

- Amos 7:7-8

A plumb line consisted of a heavy object suspended from a rope that people in Biblical times would use to measure up against their walls and make sure that they were all straight and wouldn't collapse. God was telling the people of Israelites that they weren't measuring up to the standards that he had set for them. When it came to building a house, how much were you willing to risk when it came to your families lives? Those ancient people wouldn't tolerate a home that wasn't up to plumb and those unfitting houses would be torn down. That is were the Israelites were and that is where we all were as well. Have you ever tried straightening something by sight? It may just be me but when I try, it never seems to be perfectly straight. No matter how hard we try, no matter how pretty we try to make those crooked houses look, they are still crooked and still deserve to be destroyed. That is why Christ needed to come! He lived his life perfectly to God's standards and was then able to sacrifice himself for us and take our punishment upon himself. When we die to sin, and begin to live in him we can be confident that Christ will rebuild us and transform us from the inside out. "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." (Col 3:3) So let Christ rebuild you!

Give God the Credit!

"Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness— you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debarand say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?”

- Amos 6:12-13

These verses had several aspects that really jumped out at me. The first part talks about how the people of Israel had turned Justice into poison and righteousness into bitterness. It was amazing to me how much of those phrases applied to our nation. The courts really have become a place of poison and corruption, I remember hearing court cases where people tried to defend the actions of murderers by saying that they were a "product of our modern society" while at the same time there are Christians who have to fight certain things in the courts. "righteousness into bitterness" I am seeing this in the way that society is trying to shed a positive light on things that are wrong such as abortion, homosexuality, and premarital sex. Those who say anything negative against such behavior are deemed "uptight" or "judgmental" or in some cases even "intolerant". The last part of the verse is what really has stuck with me, not only for it's personal application but also for it's place as the root cause of all this evil. At the end of the verse, the Israelites are taking credit for how they took Karnaim "by our own strength". I think this was the source of their problems- and ours. We often forget to give God the credit for the good things that have happened in our life, including the small ones. The Bible tells us that: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17) This means that if anything good has been given to you today, God is the one who deserves to be recognized and praised. Our society has so abandoned God that instead of "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Phil 4:13) people are now thinking "I can do anything if I set my mind to it" or "I can do everything if I just believe in myself". This leads to pride, something which God hates strongly when we are supposed to be committing ourselves to him and to his plan: "Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed. The Lord has made everything [to accommodate itself and contribute] to its own end and His own purpose--even the wicked [are fitted for their role] for the day of calamity and evil. Everyone proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful, and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured [I pledge it] they will not go unpunished." (Prov 16:3-5 AMP) We need to remember that God is the one who has given us strength for every single moment, he has chosen us specifically to place us where we are and to guide us where we walk, he is the one who deserves the credit for our greatest victories! So give God the credit, not yourself!