December 31 – The Lord God of Hosts

“For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is His name.” – Amos 4:13 (NASB)

Before Amos began prophesying, he had been one of the “shepherds” of Tekoa, a town in the hill country of Judah about. It was the Northern Kingdom of Israel, to whom Amos’ message was directed. Amos, was called to prophesy in Israel and the message God gave him was primarily one of judgment, though it ended with words of hope. Like Israel in In the middle of the 8^th century B.C., we must meet our God in judgment; but if we try to face God upon our good deeds, we shall not be able to stand before Him. If we would prepare to meet our God, we must now meet him in Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, who came to save lost sinners. We must seek Him while he is to be found. Our verse reveals the God whom we must be prepared to face. He is the Lord God Almighty. Our Sovereign God who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17), who created the mountains and the winds and who can turn the dawn back to darkness, this eternal omnipotent God is who only Jesus can prepare us to stand before Him (Jude 1:24-25).

 

197

 

February 18 – Seek and Live

“For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba;” Amos 5:4-5a (ESV)

An interesting message from God through His prophet Amos. God is giving direction to His people to avoid three significant places in their land.  These three places had once been places where God had been worshiped in the early history of the people of Israel. By the time of the prophet Amos they had become places where idolatry was practiced. In our verse God is calling His people to worship Him again. This is a wonderful call from God when He says “seek me and live.” This is a reminder to us too that true life comes from knowing God. So let that be our main concern today, to seek after God where He is and make Him our goal in all that we do. We should not seek God where others worship idols. When we seek God truly, we will find Him and to find Him means to find true life and live.