More Amos

(notes from the men’s Thursday morning group, September 10, 2020)

We remember nineteen years ago when the morning broke a great fall day.  Those first shots of the New York City world were back-dropped by a beautiful blue sky – AND then fire, followed by billows of smoke and then a massive cloud of dust as the twin towers collapsed.  In the days that followed there was a call and some movement toward God.  We had been violently attacked by outsiders on our soil for the first time (Pearl Harbor somewhat).  Where was God?  And, oh, how we needed God!  There was even a great national “prayer service” at Yankee Stadium on 9/23.

Now today we are beset by a host of problems.  There are terrible fires in the west, the horrific aftermath of a hurricane in the south, drought in some areas, economic struggles, a COVID pandemic, threats from China, a caustic political climate, and fear (wear a face covering!).  What is going on?

Possibly, and most likely, it is God!  For some decades we boasted of being “one nation under God” and “in God we trust” yet we have systematically pushed God out of the public square, out of our schools, out of our homes and – in far too many cases – out of our churches (we don’t tremble at His word, Isaiah 66:2).  And God is indifferent?  Or God says, “Oh, kids will be kids.”  Or God is “Angry”?  Consider God’s words through Amos to a country that claimed to be “one nation under God” and “in God we trust”:

4:6 “Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.

Famine – crop failure – insufficient food.  God can blow down 11 million acres of corn in a flash!

4:7-8 “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.

You need water?  How about a flood of it – Hurricane Laura.  A man was in this morning talking about their well going out and how dependent we are on tap water.  And what about no significant rain in Omaha for about 3 months?  James 5:7, “waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.”  My Grandfather saw no measurable precipitation from the fall of ’36 ‘til the spring of ’38 (Elijah for 3 yrs).

4:9 “I blasted you with blight and mildew.  When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees – the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.

Disease and bugs!  Have you seen the pictures of the swarms of locusts in Kenya?  Yikes!

4:10 “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.

Death on our streets, in our homes, and to our troops.   The stench of riots rises as a result of deaths.

4:11 “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.

Consuming fires.  Ask CA or OR about fire!

4:12 “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

You have heard before – and often:  PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD!  God allows and sends troubles and catastrophes into our lives to get us to turn to Him.  We’d best pay attention.

4:13 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.

And Who is this God that calls us to return to Him?  He is the great I Am (LORD) who sent plagues into Egypt, Who is also God – the Creator – and the God of hosts – of armies!  Armies of water molecules, locusts, and men.  He is not One to trifle with.

To the USA – to each of us – RETURN!