Saturday, December 15, 2018

Very Bitter Day is Coming


Advent Daily Lectionary Readings
Isaiah 12:2-6
Amos 8:4-12
2 Corinthians 9:1-15

Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample down the needy! You can't wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales. And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor. Then you enslave poor people for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals. Now the LORD has sworn this oath by his own name, the Pride of Israel: "I will never forget the wicked things you have done! The earth will tremble for your deeds, and everyone will mourn. The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime; it will heave up, then sink again. "In that day," says the Sovereign LORD, "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth while it is still day. I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning and your singing into weeping. You will wear funeral clothes and shave your heads to show your sorrow--as if your only son had died. How very bitter that day will be!

"The time is surely coming," says the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine on the land--not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the LORD. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.  Amos 8:4-12

The time is surely coming.  That time is a famine for the word of God—people will be hungry for God’s word—searching for it in vain. God was displeased with the people of Israel and so He removed Himself—and His word—from their lives. They were looking for a prophet to teach them, but they did not find one. The time is coming, as Matthew Henry explained, that there won’t be any ministers to explain the word of the Lord to the people. How have you felt when you are really looking for something…maybe even something spiritual—but you just couldn’t find it? How discouraging.

What does this teach us? Be obedient to the Lord and He will not abandon us—just as He has promised. But if we neglect to obey and displease Him, then we can look forward to being discouraged as we search in vain for the Lord and His word.

Prayer ~ Lord Jesus, help us to be obedient to You and to Your commandments that we would live in a way that is pleasing to You.

Daily Bible Reading - Colossians, Philemon
Advent Random Acts of Kindness - Take someone to the movies.

Only 10 Days Until Christmas

© 2018 photo and text by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.
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