[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]
Today: Proverbs 17:15-24; Romans 5:12-21; Amos 8 & 9
Proverbs 17 – WISDOM
Proverbs 17 doesn’t just describe King Solomon’s world. It describes TODAY. Today the guilty are acquitted and the innocent are condemned — “the LORD detests them both.” (v.15) “Fools have money in hand to buy wisdom” but “they are not able to understand it.” (v.16) People love quarrel, their hearts are corrupt and their tongues are perverse. “The wicked accept bribes in secret to pervert the course of justice.” (v.23)
Could there be any more appropriate description of TODAY? Solomon’s words actually describe ALL of human history. We live in a cursed, evil world. What are we to do? How are we to respond? “A discerning person keeps wisdom in view…”(v.24) We should respond by seeking wisdom. Seek God who is the foundation of wisdom. Seek Jesus Christ who is our wisdom. Seek wisdom!
Romans 5 – TRUTH
TRUTH will always be a divine balance between GOOD and EVIL — the gift vs. the trespass, life vs. death, Christ vs. Adam. But the GOOD is greater.
I know if often feels like it isn’t, like the evil is much more powerful, like wickedness is winning. We are so surrounded by it. We feel as if we are drowning in it.
Amos 9 – HEALING
For four days of readings, Amos has prophesied destruction on Israel. He ends with hope and restoration. Judgment IS coming. But afterwards God will HEAL. He will “restore David’s fallen shelter…repair its broken walls and restore its ruins — and will rebuild it as it used to be.” (v.11)
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘When the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,’ says the LORD your God.” Amos 9:13-15
Judgment is certainly coming, church. God is speaking through His prophets all over the world. Only God knows His timing. But it is reaching crescendo. It WILL happen. Get ready. Hang onto Jesus because His blood will be the only sure footing as we travel through the coming fire. All else is going to get burned up. But for His remnant that comes through that fire… HE HEALS. Hang on for the healing. Pray for the healing.
