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Comfortable, not callous

Amos 6:1 How horrible it will be for those who are at ease in Zion, for those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, and for the heads of the leading nations, to whom the nation of Israel comes. Thought for the day – Comfortable, not callous Jesus tells a challenging account of a poor man called Lazarus. He lives outside the gates of a wealthy man in abject poverty. He dies and goes to heaven, the rich man dies and ends up in hell being tormented. Jesus is making a point about money and what it reveals about people’s hearts. A point bought home in 2018 when a homeless person in Liverpool, woke up to find someone who had been out partying, standing over him urinating on him. An echo of an incident in New York in the 1970s, when a millionaire was photographed urinating on another homeless man. What both of these demonstrate is a callousness to the plight of those considerably worse off. I don’t think God doesn’t want us to be comfortable. And I do think we as a church ...
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A river not a tap

Amos 5:24 But let justice flow like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Thought for the day – A River, Not a Tap In 1834, six farm labourers from Tolpuddle in Dorset are sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Australia after swearing an oath to organise against falling wages. Their leader, George Loveless, was a Methodist local preacher. The public outcry was so fierce that they were pardoned and brought home. It was worship lived outside of the walls of the church that got them sent to Australia. In Amos 5, God says some of the most uncomfortable words in the Bible to those who would class ourselves as being religious or followers of Jesus. ‘I hate your festivals. I won’t listen to the music of your harps. I can’t imagine me saying that from the pulpit on a Sunday! Why would God say it? The answer is that worship that never leaves the building is just noise. But our verse today is the heart of Amos’ message to the people. Justice is a river. Righteousness is a...
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Just keeps knocking

  Amos 4:13 God forms the mountains and creates the wind. He reveals his thoughts to humans. He makes dawn and dusk ⌞ appear ⌟ . He walks on the high places of the earth. His name is the Lord God of Armies.   Thought for the day – Just keeps on knocking It's 1709 and in the country town of Epworth, the Epworth rectory is on fire, and a five-year-old John Wesley is stranded at an upstairs window. The neighbours climb on each other’s shoulders, a human ladder, and snatch him out moments before the roof caves in. John Wesley never forgot it. For the rest of his life, he called himself a brand plucked from the burning, language that echoes the flames of Amos 4:11.   Now read Amos 4 and keep an ear out for the refrain. God sends hunger. Then drought. Then blight, plague, and overthrow. After every one of them comes the same sad line: yet you did not return to me . Five wake-up calls, all unanswered. I know more than a number of people who will say that is...
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Amos 3:8 Everyone is terrified when a lion roars— and ordinary people become prophets when the Lord God speaks.   Thought for the day – Speaking up Recently we had a discussion about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, and how it seemed the Holy Spirit turned those people it came upon, into prophets. Think King Saul, David, Moses, Ballam and Bezalel. It didn’t happen in the same way we as Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit but rather it was for the empowerment of a task. And as I said, the majority of the time they prophesied.   And I find myself asking the question, if those that Spirit moved in in the OT prophesied, why don’t we who are the people of God, filled with the Holy Spirit prophesy more. I know that prophecy is a gift of the Spirit and that the Prophet is one of the ministries in the fivefold ministry Paul lists in Ephesians. And I wonder if we think that we can’t prophesy because we may not have the gift or because we don’t think we fit into ...
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When the Borders Get Too Small

Amos 1:15 Ammon's king and leaders     will be dragged away. I, the Lord, have spoken!   Thought for the day – When the Borders Get Too Small Amos 1:15 is a verse you could walk straight past. In the CEV it reads, “Ammon’s king and leaders will be dragged away.” It’s the tail end of a prophecy against a nation most of us couldn’t find on a map, so it’s easy to skim. biblehub But look at what comes just before it. In Gilead, Ammon’s soldiers cut open pregnant women to grab a bit more land. The most vulnerable people imaginable were treated as collateral damage for a bigger border. And God, through Amos, says: I saw that, and it won’t go unanswered. Then he signs his name to it. Notice who gets named. Not just the king, but the leaders too. The very people who were supposed to protect Ammon were the ones who built its cruelty, and nobody gets to hide behind their position. Isn’t that uncomfortable? Because it’s so easy to read Amos as a book about other people. John We...
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Reversed Thundar

Joel 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords     and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say,     “I am a warrior!” Thought for the day – Reversed Thunder As I was reading our chapter today I had to do a double take. I read our verse today and thought ‘hang on a sec, that’s the wrong way round.’ Isn’t the passage ‘ they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.’ Not in Joel. Joel reverses the image. It’s Isaiah and Micah that take the words Joel uses and make them peaceful. And I found myself thinking how often we do that? Think we know a passage, read it for the umpteenth time, and something different pops out at us. And if I’m honest it’s not just in our Bible readings either. God is very good at taking what we think we know and turning upside down. So the words of Jesus come to mind. The first will be last, the last first. The weak shall be made strong and the strong made weak. That sort of th...
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Evidence that demands a verdict

Joel 2:13 Rend your heart,     and not your garments; return to the Lord your God,     for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;     and He relents from punishing. Thought for the day – Evidence that demand a verdict Firstly, apologies for nicking the title of a well-known book by Josh McDowell for the title of today’s thought. But I think today’s verse is asking us a really important question about how to demonstrate that we are repenting from the sin God has highlighted in our lives. God asks the people through Joel, to tear their hearts not their clothes.  And it got me thinking about how many people say the sinners prayer, give Jesus their hearts and then carry on like nothing has ever happened. And I find myself asking the question what would I need to see that would show me someone was truly repentant and wanted to follow Jesus? What evidence can I see that demands me to make a verdict about the chan...
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