Continuing our look at Amos, let’s review our starting passage from yesterday: The Lord addresses Judah: “…I will not turn back My wrath. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed, I will send fire upon Judah…” (Amos 2:4b-5a).
Why is the Lord angry with His people? (1) “They have rejected the law of the Lord.” (2) They “have not kept His decrees.” (3) “They have been led astray by false gods.” (4) He’s been patient; this has been going on a long time – “the gods their ancestors followed.”
People were furious with President Obama for his statement about America no longer being “a Christian nation.” But his actual statement was that “we’re no longer JUST a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation and a nation of nonbelievers.” What he said was and is true.
Countless wars have been fought and are being fought over religion. Countless lives have been snuffed out in the name of religion, including Christianity, and by the hands of both Catholics and Protestants. Over and over people have risen to power who said, “Either you believe like I do or you die.”
But how did Jesus say we’re to reach people for His kingdom? Just like He did. In love.
So why are all these other religions growing by leaps and bounds in our nation? In the world? Because God’s people aren’t living like God’s people should live. And because God’s people aren’t loving like we should love. If we aren’t exemplifying Jesus, it’s impossible for us to show anyone a better way than any other religion offers – because if we aren’t exemplifying Jesus, we aren’t showing The Way!
Let me give you some statistics from a U.S. study by the Barna Group ( www.Barna.org). I pray this will wake us all from apathy:
“An estimated 73 million adults are presently unchurched. When teens and children are added, the total swells to roughly 100 million Americans. To put that figure in context, if the unchurched population of the United States were a nation of its own, that group would be the twelfth most populated nation on earth (trailing only China, India, the churched portion of the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan and Mexico). Included among the unchurched is an estimated 13 to 15 million [professing] born-again adults and children.”
Believers in Jesus Christ are rapidly becoming a minority. Why? We’re not reproducing. How many people have come to faith in Jesus Christ through your witness?
“Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while He was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him. [Jesus said to them:] ‘…I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit’” (Matthew 21:23, 43).
We have our assignment. What are you doing with it?
Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture is from the New International Version (NIV).
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