May 22, 2013 The Shepherd Speaks

Read Amos 1-2 The Shepherd Speaks Amos 1:1-2 The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa — what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. 2 He said: “The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.” WHAT’S your job? Are you pretty sure your job disqualifies you from being God’s messenger? Guess what? It doesn’t. Amos was a shepherd, not as in “pastor” but as in “shepherd”. But then, God called him. “Be my messenger, Amos. Speak what they must know.” So he did as the LORD commanded. I wonder if he said, “Not me, LORD.” But he surely got over it because he went to work. And we’re reading his work 3,000 years later! He begins his work with the prophecy of natural disasters. Drought will dry up the pastures and the fertile land around Carmel. Do you notice that drought is often a means of God’s judgment? It’s an appropriate picture because drought, dryness and desert correlate with emptiness and no growth. One day my wife was declaring her wonder at how the trees give us oxygen and absorb the carbon dioxide we breathe out. Our lungs give life to the trees, and the trees give life to our lungs. But then she remarked how a sand-filled desert has no such life exchange. That’s what happens when our relationship with Jesus gets dry. We do not breathe in his life. We do not breathe our lives to him. The life exchange ends. Amos prophesied God’s life exchange would end in Judah. It was only restored when Jesus came. Are you exchanging your breath of life with Jesus? It’s True! Breathe in Jesus and you will breathe out his love.