Day 2

December 11, 2012
Amos 4:1-6:14
This section is a strong rebuke of not just sin but complacency.  I see many of the admonitions not being out of place being directed at modern Christians.  The language includes referring to people as cows and deriding the luxury that the people enjoy as well as the time in the wilderness spent sacrificing to Pagan gods.  Although it is meant for Israel, I feel it aimed at me and my heart and my desire for comfort and the easy life over true sacrifice.  Ultimately, as a 21st century American, I know that sacrifice is frightening and that it actually costs something and that is a discomfiting thought.  However, as  a believer, a role that I hope supersedes everything else, I know that failure to yield and change course is much less desirable. This strong stern passage also contains a beautiful reminder of Grace.

"Come back to me and live", the Lord says in 5:2.   Maybe that's the part that really speaks to me right now.  Like everyone else, I've spent too much time wandering, wandering in search of something when He was there all along.  Whatever stuff I attempt to stuff into my life, it will always go sour or feel empty.  Relationships. Material goods. Success.  I've had these things and they don't always last.  I know this is cliche, but , perhaps, it's more important for me to articulate these thoughts than it is to be original.  Life is full of richness that is an inch deep without my Father's hand guiding me. It has occurred to me how silly and futile much of my life must appear to Him.  My anger and desperation at various times must seem like so much dumb show, but the miracle is that He loves me with all of my Keystone Kop-ery.  All of my wheel spinning is another opportunity for me to come home to my true Father and treat Him with the respect he truly deserves.

"Come back to me and live" is my verse that I take away from this passage today because it is the one that refocuses what a glorious Father I have and how I have taken him grossly for granted. Dave Ramsey once said, referring to people with money problems and prayer, "Your Dad is rich and he's crazy about you.  Call home." The idea that his love for me is like that weakens my knees and makes me want to live better than I have ever desired to in my life.

Revelation 2:18-3:6

This is a reminder to wake up and live intentionally.  I have for years lived as one who sleeps.  That's a pretty clunky way to put it, but it is so apt.  I feel like I squandered a portion of my life on things that don't and never did matter.  In truth, I should regret much of this and I do.  However, the version of me that would bemoan that lost time has no place in my life now.  My life now has to be focused on as someone once put it my "daily bread".  I have to focused on the job at hand for my Lord.  I have no idea what that job is, but I am seeking it.  Sometimes more fervently than others.  I also cannot spend my time looking back at what is dead and gone.

Psalm 130:1-8

To say that I love a Psalm seems like saying I like air.  It's a statement that should be understood by anyone who truly has read the Word.  I feel like I am coming at these fresh and so, if I have a child's joy at the obvious, forgive me.  This is about putting hope in the Lord.  I love the line about longing for Him as a sentry longs for dawn because it encapsulates the weariness everyone feels in their life. The bone-weariness we get from life that can only be cured by our Father.


Proverbs 29:21-22

A very true Proverb about the dangers of letting your temper own you.  The slavery of anger, hate and fear is an all encompassing one.