Jesus. The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
When God wants to get our attention, He’ll do so—in astonishing ways. Check out John’s testimony.
John, like Israel in the Old Testament, had a bad habit of forgetting that God was there for him. Even when God performed an unquestionable miracle in John’s life, he continued running from God. But God’s patience and persistence typically outlasts our stubbornness, as it did in this case.
Amos, a sheepherder from the small town of Tekoa, prophesied the destruction of the mighty Israel. Read this short outline of Amos.
Amos was a seemingly insignificant sheepherder from a small town called Tekoa. After reading Amos, however, I think you’ll agree with me that nobody is insignificant! God uses the weak things of the world to bring down the powerful.
He prophesied to the mightiest nation in the Mediterranean, a nation at the peak of its power – Israel. People mocked him. Yet history proves his prophecies true, as Israel fell to the Assyrians less than 40 years later, in 722 B.C.
An overview and outline of Joel, one of the 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament.
An overview and outline of Joel. As Hosea develops the relationship of a husband and wife to portray the LORD’s interaction with Israel, thus Joel develops an invasion of locusts into a view of God’s impending destruction. Joel develops an invasion of locusts into a view of God’s impending destruction.
Psalm 12. When you’re depressed, look to God first like David did.
When I first looked at this Psalm, I thought, “Save?” What does David mean? Save him from all the evil ones? Save Israel? Save the faithful? Then I kept reading. Later, the Psalm says that God will give refuge to the poor (verse 5), then David puts himself with them (verse 7). My thought is that David prayed for safety for himself, the poor, and all the righteous in Israel. David sounds depressed, but he handled it well – he prayed.
The way he described the environment reminds me of the world today.
1 Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
2 Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.8 On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man.
David’s black mood fits mine this morning. Godliness seems invisible at my workplace. Who is faithful? Don’t you know that fundamentalism stops a thinking mind? People utter lies for their own gain; people flatter to get themselves ahead.
When we feel this way, God wants us to look to Him. While it may seem that darkness encloses us on every side, He protects those who seek Him. In the midst of the onslaught of evil we can rely upon God’s pure, holy words.
6 The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
And what does God say?
5“Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the LORD;
“I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
Nahum 1:7 (ESV)I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:11 (ESV)
Don’t let the darkness overwhelm you.
. . . no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD
and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”
Isaiah 54:17 (ESV)