"How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light." Verses 7-9
It's review day, so I look back at the last six devotions to see if I've learned anything.
Day 176--Plumb Line--Amos 7:1-9
God gives us many chances in our lives to "get it right." But there will come a day when he will get out the plumb line and compare us to the standard. I wonder what will happen then.
God expects us to show grace and mercy to all people, even our enemies. Perhaps even especially our enemies. At any rate, we are supposed to extend to others the same grace and mercy that he extends to us. Where does this fit into a political/patriotic philosphy?
No matter which way we run when God calls us, he will get us where he wants us to be. He's got all the time in the world, but he also has a definite time-line. And if it takes getting a big fish to swallow us and puke us up on the shore where he wants us, then that's what he will do. And that is certainly his right to do so.
I like the comments that were left on this entry. God gets the last word. Always. And, no matter how defiant, God will get someone to do his work. But he also wants us to care more about the people that he wants to save than the bloody plants! I don't have time to go down that path this morning, but I will say that there are too many people today who care more about animals and plants than they do people, and that is part of God's prophecy about our world in Romans, where he says that they will worship the creature rather than the creator. Jonah was actually guilty of this when he was more upset about the death of his little shade plant than the people of Nineveh.
God lets us know that we don't have to actually form statues out of wood, clay or metal to form idols. In the case of Israel here, all we have to do is follow after the customs of a heathen nation. How this translates to us as Christians is that when we chase after the popular culture of our world, we create idols.
This was a tough one. But I think the point is that someday, God will engulf us with his "true teachings," and there will be no more fighting. There will be peace everywhere. I'm thinking that this will be after his return, because the Bible is pretty clear that until that day, there will always be "wars and rumors of wars." But one day, all of the implements of destruction (was that a shout out to Arlo Guthrie??) will be transformed into implements of harvesting. I'm not quite wise enough to understand the timing of this yet. I guess I need more than 50 years to figure some things out.
Grace and peace, friends!