The Decay Within, Day 9 The Earth is the Lord’s. Read Amos chapter 9. As we finish this chapter, this book, and this year, we are reminded that everything in the earth is the Lord’s. He is truly over everything. It doesn’t matter what we have gone through this year, the Lord is still over everything and the world is still His. We can rest in the knowledge that there is nothing that happens that is outside of God’s control. As we come into the new year, we need to remember that God knows what this new year holds. He is not going to be surprised and we can rest…

The Decay Within, Day 8 The famine. Read Amos chapter 8. When people go through a famine, they are desperate to get food and water of any kind. Amos shares that the Lord is sending a spiritual famine. People will be hungering and thirsting for God’s words, but they will not have them. Are we desperate for the word of God? Do we long for him to move in our lives? What we are searching for in our lives may very well be God’s truth and that we have been experiencing a famine of our own. Will we turn to him?

The Decay Within, Day 7 The standard. Read Amos chapter 7. As the Lord is speaking to Amos, we see that God is setting the standard. He show Amos a plumb line. This is used in construction to help find truly straight up and down. The people have fallen away from God and the people are no longer true. When we measure ourselves against others, we are generally not too bad. However, when we are measured to God, we will find that we will never measure up. Are we repenting to God? Do we hold ourselves to his standards?

The Decay Within, Day 6 Do we grieve over our sin? Read Amos chapter 6. Looking through this chapter, we see so many of the sins of the people of Israel. Yet they were not bothered by their sin. They continued to do all of the things they were doing and had no sense of shame or remorse about any of their actions. Amos was trying to remind them of the importance of coming to God and repentance and recognizing that when we sin, we grieve God. For us, do the things that grieve God, grieve us? When we are disobedient to God, do we recognize just how terrible of…

The Decay Within, Day 5 How do you summarize God’s message to the people? Read Amos chapter 5. As God is continuing to share the message of the upcoming judgment of the people of Israel. We see that he is trying to remind them of the importance of following him. If the people will only repent and turn back to him, he would be willing to forgive them. This is a reminder of just how important it is that we followed this simplest of commands, seek the Lord and live. We are incapable of having life outside of God himself. Only as we are seeking and following after him will…

The Decay Within, Day 4 Judgment is coming, but who is the judge? Read Amos chapter 4. As we went through this chapter, we see that God is explaining his judgment to the people. He goes to tell all of the sins that the people have committed and that he is going to be judging them. However, what’s important to understand is who is the judge? To understand judgment we must understand the judge. Only a truly righteous judge is capable of leveling judgment against those who have wronged him. God is that judge. God has the authority to exact judgment. Coming to God, the difference between receiving judgment and…

The Decay Within, Day 3 Merry Christmas! God has a plan. Read Amos chapter 3. As we thinking about all the God has done for us, we understand that God has a plan. God makes it very clear in this chapter that all of the judgment that is coming upon the people, he has foretold. There was a plan. The people were given warning and they knew that what they were doing was wrong. However, they didn’t want to listen to the prophets that God sent to share that information with them. They wanted to follow their own ideas. We may get frustrated with the path that God leads us…