Have you ever been hiking at night? If the woods are dense enough, almost no moonlight or starlight penetrates the thick canvas of the forest roof. When you turn your headlamp on, the immediate area in front of you lights up, and everything else is draped in blackness. You can see clearly for maybe thirty feet, then after that it tapers quickly back into pitch black. There’s a certain amount of faith that you have to walk in when you are night hiking. You have to trust that the trail will take you where it is supposed to go. You have to have faith that the trail itself is safe, even if it runs alongside a step cliff or next to a rushing river. You trust that the noises you hear are really just big squirrels and not hungry bears looking for tasty, out of shape and slightly plump, stray hikers. So you hike in faith, knowing for sure only what lies 30 feet in front of you and hoping that you’ll reach your campsite before Roscoe the Mountain Man jumps from the shadows to demonstrate to you his deep knowledge of the movie “Deliverance.” It really is exciting. Believe me. Try it sometime. Well, I am on a night hike of sorts right now, figuratively speaking. All of us that have entered into this amazing adventure that is following Christ are on night hikes. Our destination is certain: the Kingdom of God. Our trail is firm: the Path of Righteousness and the Way of the Cross. Our light, The Holy Spirit, illuminates all that we need to know in order to navigate through the world that is shrouded in the darkness of sin. The path that I am currently on is not one that I ever thought that I would take. It is a crazy trail that already has seen miracles, struggles, leaps of faith, and mighty acts of God. And we're only at the beginning. My hiking companions are my wife Brandie, and my three sons, Sam, Jack and Luke. It is a journey that we would love to share with all of you, if you want to read along.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Lessons from Amos

Here’s a little ditty from the sheep farmer turned prophet Amos. Speaking words directly from The LORD, he says:

21 “I hate all your show and pretense—
the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living. (Amos 5:21-24)

In Amos’ day, God’s chosen people were divided into two kingdoms: Judah in the south and Israel in the north. At times, both kingdoms had their problems of idolatry and unrighteousness, but at this time Judah was living under a king named Uzziah. According to Scripture, Uzziah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” The northern kingdom however was not living righteously, despite having a king who was a brilliant general and expanded the boarders of Israel. He allowed the people to live in luxury, but Scripture says that he did not depart from the sin of his father. The books of Hosea, Amos, and Joel all harshly criticize the sin in the land.

One of the sins mentioned repeatedly is the lack of justice for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned. While the wealthy lived their lives, others were horrendously oppressed. Although they attempted to have some sort of worship to YHWH, His response was rejection and a call for repentance.

I look around at the attitude of many churches in America and I wonder if these words could be spoken over us? Does God look at our Sunday morning activities and say, “I hate all your performances. It is just noise without meaning. Show me that you are about justice. Show me that you will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned. When you show me righteous living, then will your worship be genuine” ?

This is the kind of Church that I want to pastor. I want to see “a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.” And when that happens, the worship that we will experience will be sincere, boundless, extravagant, and irresistible!

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