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Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost November 17, 2024

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Can't get to Church?

Can't get to Church? You can listen to an abbreviated service at 8:30 am cst on www.krmsradio.com or you can join us live at 10 am cst here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClwQMjDeHKXtW_2kGcY0spQ Be sure to click like and subscribe to be notified when we go live. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion The LORD Hates Perverted Justice

#DailyDevotion The LORD Hates Perverted Justice Amos 5 10You hate anyone who corrects others at the gate and loathe anyone who tells the truth. 11You trample on the poor and take part of his wheat away from him; so when you build houses of hand-cut stones, you won’t live in them; and when you plant pleasant vineyards, you won’t drink the wine from them. 12I know your wrongs are many and your sins are big — oppressing the righteous, taking bribes, and taking away the rights of the poor at the gate. The gates of the cities and towns were where justice was had. There the elders held court and judged the people. The verses here describe what was going on at these gates of the Israelites, whom the LORD, by the Torah, was to demonstrate to the world how wise and just they were, were instead demonstrating the opposite. You may see some parallels to today. Those who corrected others at the gate and spoke the truth were hated and loathed. In today's parlance, these are the same people telling others to “not judge,” and adding “phobe” to whatever sin is currently in vogue at the moment. They call evil good and good evil. It was happening in a similar fashion in Amos' day in Israel. Would be the LORD spare us from what He inflicted upon Israel in his day. Further, they trampled on the rights of the poor and stole their wheat in one fashion or another, no doubt with whatever “laws” they made up or were perverting of the LORD's. Those who had were taking advantage of the poor and lowly. Certainly we have this going on in our country today. You might remember the great transfer of wealth that occurred during covid, where the big stores and online stores were permitted to do business while many small businesses were driven out of business by unfair laws, rules and regulations. And that is just the tip of the iceberg we can see. Because of their sins the LORD was going to inflict upon them what He threatened in the Torah. Deut. 28, “30You will be engaged to a woman, and someone else will violate her; you will build a home and not live in it. You will plant a vineyard and not eat its grapes. . .39You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you will drink no wine nor gather grapes, because the worms will eat them.” This is what the LORD is threatening to do to Israel because of their hatred of justice and everything good. In Deut. 16 it is written, “19Don't be unjust or show favoritism toward certain persons. Don't take a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of wise men and twists what righteous men say.” In Ex. 23 it is written, “6Don't pervert justice when your poor man comes with a complaint.” Yet the Israelites did not do this. They were oppressing the righteous, taking bribes to get away with crimes, and taking away the rights of the poor. Have we seen injustice in our own land? Will the LORD treat our country better than Israel? I recall the judgment against Babylon in Revelation 18. It represents the religious/business world power of the world. It will be destroyed in one hour and all the merchants of the world who made their wealth off of her will mourn. Let us make sure we are not part of that system but rather tell the truth, demand justice, be merciful to the poor and see to it fair business practices are being done—instead of excusing evil by saying, “It's just business.” The LORD has been merciful to us in Jesus. Let us do likewise. Heavenly Father, You will judge all those who pervert truth, pervert justice and oppress the poor and lowly. Give us courage to tell the truth, demand justice, and be merciful to the poor of the land. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion Do We Repent In The Midst Of Disaster?

#DailyDevotion Do We Repent In The Midst Of Disaster? Amos 5 7You are twisting justice to make it a bitter experience and throwing fairness on the ground. 8He Who made the Pleiades and Orion, Who turns the darkest night into morning and darkens the day into night, Who calls the water of the sea to pour it on the ground — He is called the LORD. 9In a flash, He brings destruction on the strong and so destroys a fortress. In the previous verses the LORD was bringing destruction upon the Israelites. Now we have a ground of reason for Him doing so. They were messing around with the justice and righteousness the LORD had established in the Torah. They turned justice into bitterness (wormwood-a very bitter herb). Righteousness and fairness were cast to the ground. I think it is fair to say this probably means whoever had the money to pay off the judges and elders at the gate were getting their way. They weren't being prosecuted for their crimes and were setting up innocent people as the criminals. They were using the law to take advantage of the lowly and the meek of the land. The LORD's justice can be swift and terrible, but it is always fair and just. The Israelites were called to replicate this through the precepts and statutes the LORD had given them. Our country, state, county and cities run by their own laws, not the laws given by the LORD. We might want to ask ourselves, are our laws fair and just? When the poor and lowly are taken to court by the rich and powerful are they getting fair treatment? If they are not, will the LORD not punish our country along with all its inhabitants who allow this to happen? If we see this, perhaps we should use what political power we have to change the laws or justices. The LORD then gives them a reason to pay attention. Who is He? What can He do? What does He do? He made the Pleiades and Orion. You may not be familiar with the Pleiades. They are not as bright as they used to be. It's hard to miss Orion, particularly in the fall and winter with its bright companion star(s) Sirius. It spans across the night sky. The LORD made that, as well as all the rest of the lights in the night sky. Do you really want to mess with Him? Some commentators note that the “darkest night into morning and darkens the day into night,” is not talking about the natural occurrences but is being used metaphorically. The darkness is when times are at their worst and death seems eminent. The light is when things are going well. Well the LORD can turn your darkness into light. He can also bring your bright day into deepest darkness just by thinking about it. Is this the person you really want to oppose with your life? He brings forth the remembrance of the deluge He brought upon the earth. But there are many such times where the LORD had brought sea upon the land in deluges. Being from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast areas, hurricanes and tropical storms do this very thing—and we do not repent.We may even curse God for allowing these things, protesting our innocence. We are not as innocent as we make ourselves. There is no one who is good, no, not one. The only contribution man makes to these ecological disasters is our sin which calls out for God's punishment. The LORD is the one in control of all such things. Do we recognize it? The One who calls forth these waters is the LORD. His destruction is swift and can take down the strongest buildings. Like the Israelites, we are all called to examine ourselves, confess our sins, and look to Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. Don't be like those who refuse to repent. Judgment is coming. O just and merciful LORD, grant us repentance in the midst of our troubles our sins have brought upon us so we may escape them in the world to come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion Seek The LORD And Live!

#DailyDevotion Seek The LORD And Live! Amos 5 Listen to what I say in a funeral song about you people of Israel: “The virgin Israel will fall never to rise again. 2 She will be thrown down on her ground, and there will be no one to raise her.” 3 The Lord GOD says this: “The town that will go to war with 1,000 will have 100 left, and she who will go with 100 will have 10 left —of the people of Israel.” So the LORD sings a funeral dirge for His people Israel. Keil & Delitzsch note that virgin here means Israel had not been conquered before. Well her day is coming. The LORD is sending the Assyrians to throw her to the ground never to rise again. There is going to be no one there to help her out, not even the LORD. Only a remnant of the people will remain. One tenth of whatever population there was in any place. The rest will be killed. And this remnant will be exiled to the northwest corner of the Assyrian empire never to be seen or heard of again-hence never to rise again. There was another remnant that fled to Jerusalem who settled outside the city. This remnant would survive the Babylonian empire that follows even unto Jesus' day as we see Anna the prophetess when Jesus was dedicated. But the rest. . . they are gone. This should be a warning to those in the Church to remain vigilant in their repentance and faith, lest on the last day they are swept away with the unbelievers outside the Church. 4 The LORD tells the people of Israel: “Search for Me and live. 5 But don’t search at Bethel or go to Gilgal or all the way to Beersheba. Gilgal will go into exile, and Bethel will deceive you.” 6Search for the LORD and live. Or He’ll break out among the people of Joseph like a fire that consumes, and there will be no one at Bethel to put it out. Here we see the mercy of our God. When the LORD threatens and punishes, until the Last Day, it is to call us to repentance—even if there is no promise of redemption. But here a promise is given, “Search for Me and live.” They are not being called to search for the LORD wherever and however they want. The LORD had given the place where He could be found. It was at the temple in Jerusalem. Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba were centers of idolatrous worship. The LORD had told them in the Torah to seek Him where He had placed His name. That place ended up being the temple in Jerusalem. As noted above, some listened and found refuge in Jerusalem. But these other places of worship would deceive them. They were part of the problem in the first place. So sincere is the LORD's plea to Israel, He repeats it. He tells them of the threat. If they do not repent and turn to Him, fire, i.e. war is going to break out and consume them, their families, and their possessions. We too are called to seek the LORD where He may be found. There is not just one place. But where His people are gathered in the name of Jesus there we are to seek Him. Normally, we recognize these places as churches. We also have a responsibility to make sure these places aren't another Bethel, Gilgal or Beersheba. Such places affirm you in your sins and do not call you to repent of them. It's unfortunate that this is the case. Make sure it is a congregation that confesses the Nicene Creed, so you know, the True and Living God is being worshiped and preached there. The forgiveness of sins should be free and flowing throughout the worship. Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer should be the focus if God's name is there. Merciful God and Father, You have sent the prophets, apostles, evangelists, and pastors to preach repentance from our sins and faith in Jesus Christ so we may seek and find You where You have promised to be. Grant us such repentance and faith that we seek and find You and Your gracious and merciful redemption in Christ Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion Don't Be One Of Those People Who Will Say, "I Could Have Been Saved!"

#DailyDevotion Don't Be One Of Those People Who Will Say, "I Could Have Been Saved!" Amos 4 6 “And so I also gave you —nothing for your teeth to bite in all your cities and no food in all your places. But you didn’t return to Me,” says the LORD. 7 “Yes, I stopped the rain from falling on you three months before the harvest. And I made it rain on one town and one field got rain, and another field got none and dried up. 8 And so two or three towns staggered to another to drink water and couldn’t get enough. But you didn’t return to Me,” says the LORD. 9 “I struck you down with a scorching wind and mildew. The gnawing grasshopper consumed your many gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees. But you didn’t return to Me,” says the LORD.  10 “I sent plagues among you, like those in Egypt. I killed your young men with a sword and captured your horses. And so I made the stench of your camps come up to your nostrils. But you didn’t return to Me,” says the LORD. 11 “I laid you waste as God laid waste Sodom and Gomorrah. And you were like a brand snatched from fire. But you didn’t return to Me,” says the LORD. 12 “That is why I do this to you, Israel. Because I do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God!” 13 Remember, He formed the hills and made the wind: He tells man what He’s thinking; He makes the dawn dark and walks on the high places of the earth — the LORD, the God of armies, is His name. I really think we need to pay attention to this. I don't think a lot of commentary on each of the details is necessary. What do we have here? We have what we might dismiss in verses 6-10 as just acts of nature. The insurance companies know better. They are acts of God. But that is seemingly too much for us to handle. If it happens to those people over there, then we may think and say, “Well those people are so bad, they deserve this punishment from God.” If it happens to us, we may either try to dismiss it as Mother Nature or we may think God is being unjust because we are really not all that bad. We don't deserve to be treated this way. We might think those around us deserve it, but not us. We see this similar trend in Revelation 16, “9When they were badly burned, they blasphemed the name of God, Who controlled these plagues, and they did not repent to give Him glory.” All the disasters, the wars, etc., are given to us so that we repent of our sins and return to the LORD of Armies, Jesus Christ. This means you, no matter how good you may think you are, no matter how much faith you may think you have, God brings these things into our lives so we may examine ourselves, confess our sins, repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation. Jesus says as much in Luke 13, “2Do you think, because this happened to them, those Galileans must have been worse sinners than all the other Galileans? 3I tell you, no. And if you don't repent, you will all perish as they did.” He tells the Israelites to prepare to meet their God. This is not going to be pretty. He has let them know and us know He is the Almighty and the Creator. He can even make the dawn dark. He knows what we are thinking. He is Omnipotent and Omniscient. Are you prepared to meet your God? You have been warned by God through nature and through war judgment is coming. He has called you to meet Him in repentance and faith so you may meet Him with joy. If you will not turn from your sins and embrace Jesus, you will meet Him in fear and terror. Almighty God, merciful Father, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so we may recognize our sins, repent of them and embrace Jesus as our Savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion Are We Worshiping As The LORD Gave Us?

#DailyDevotion Are We Worshiping As The LORD Gave Us? Amos 4 4 “Come to Bethel and do wrong, to Gilgal and pile up your wrongs. Bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every three days. 5 Burn a thanksgiving offering of bread with yeast. Call for freewill offerings and announce who gave them, since that is what you love, you people of Israel,” says the Lord GOD. Bethel was one of two places, Dan being the second, which Jeroboam I set up for the Israelites to worship the LORD, where he also made golden calves to be worshiped as the LORD. He made these sites, no doubt, to keep the Israelites from going to Jerusalem to worship the LORD at the Temple there. He was afraid if they went there to worship all the time, they would change their loyalties. In doing this, he despised the promise the LORD made to him when He promised the ten tribes to Jeroboam. The LORD often punishes sin with more sin. We see this in Romans 1, “24And so God, letting them follow the lusts of their hearts, gave them up to live immorally and dishonor their bodies,” when they gave up worshiping God to worshiping idols. So too, the LORD here gives up the Israelites to their idols and tells them to multiply their sins all the more so their sin becomes extremely gross, so He can punish them all the more. He encourages them in their zeal for false worship. What they were doing they were doing with much fervor, but it would do them no good in the end because it wasn't what the LORD commanded them to do. Who brings a tithe every three days? The tithe was once a year. They were offering bread with yeasts to be burned which was forbidden by the Law. Freewill offerings were to be spontaneous offerings of the people. They were not to be called for. Much like the Pharisees in the Gospels who wanted credit from their fellow Jews for their “good works,” there was an announcement as to who made them. They apparently were very zealous about their worship, as He says it is what they love to do. We can see here, when the people worshiped the LORD they did in some form given from the Law but it was not in accordance with what the LORD told them to do. Everyone was doing their own thing. So we should take note as New Testament worshipers of the LORD Jesus Christ. On one hand, Jesus has given us considerable freedom in how we worship. He desires us to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, which means using His words as He has given them. He desires our worship be from the heart and not hypocritically. Jesus wants our worship to be freely given. He wants the Scriptures read to us in worship. Jesus wants that word to be taught to us for “teaching, showing what is wrong, correcting and training in right living 17so that a man of God is ready and equipped for every good work.”(2 Tim. 3). Christ wants us to pray in worship and to encourage one another in worship. He also wants us to use the sacraments as He instituted them. Baptism must use water and the Triune name He gave us in Matt. 28. The LORD's Supper should be given with bread (a baked flour product using grains) and wine (not grape juice). He did not give us other elements like cookies and milk, orange juice and whatever else. Of course we should use the words He gave us in our celebration of it. In our worship we are to seek reconciliation with those we have harmed and forgive those who harmed us. Heavenly Father, give us Your Holy Spirit so we may worship You in Spirit and in Truth, from the heart, as You have given us to worship in Your holy Scriptures. Turn us away from all our idols and draw us only to Jesus Christ our LORD, in who name we pray. Amen Read the full article

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Himemade Jiro Ramen, made the broth and the noodles from scratch as well are the rare. Its characteristic is being loaded with toppings.

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#DailyDevotion Don't Give The LORD A Reason To Call You A Fat Cow

#DailyDevotion Don't Give The LORD A Reason To Call You A Fat Cow Amos 4 Listen to this, you cows of Bashan on the hill of Samaria, oppressing the poor and crushing the needy and telling your husbands, “Bring it and let’s drink.” 2The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Certainly the days will come on you when you will be taken away with hooks, and the last of you with fishhooks. 3Each of you will go out straight ahead through the break in the wall, and you will be sent away to Harmon,” says the LORD. The LORD our God certainly has a way with words. The land of Bashan was given to the tribes of Israel who mainly raised cattle. The land was very rich and so the cattle ate quite well. They were the wagyu beef of the day. The LORD is calling the women of Samaria, particularly the wealthy ones fat cows. They are particularly fat at the expense of the widow, the fatherless, the foreigners, the priests and the rest of the poor. They tell their husbands, “Bring it and let's drink.” Oh my! As Cindy Lauper once said, “Girls just want to have fun.” Their happiness is all that matters to them no matter the cost or harm done to others. The LORD accuses them of oppressing the poor and the needy. We conservative Christians really need to take note of this. We who don't want the government involved in welfare programs, mainly because we know their systems are abused and are full of waste, must be liberal in our own lives and in and with the Church—particularly our congregations. The LORD our God has not given us more than we need for the day to hoard it to ourselves. While the Israelites had laws concerning the poor, compelling the Israelites to gather funds for them, we in all Christian freedom, who have been freed from the constraints of the Law, should feel the joy the LORD wants to give us by acting like Him as He is toward us—grace, mercy, peace, steadfast love, and forgiveness (the name of Jesus Ex. 34:6). When we withhold our hands from giving to those in need, who beg and the like, we are oppressing those people. We might not be able to help every person we meet, particularly in the cities where there are 10, 20, sometime 30 or more sitting there begging. But you can extend your hand to one and make sure s/he eats that day. You can make sure homeless kitchens are financed. There of course are numerous groups that buy kids shoes, coats, and provide weekend backpacks for kids who have nothing over the weekend because their parents spend all their money on drugs. If your church doesn't have a benevolence fund for the pastor to help people who come to the church, start one. He hates having to turn people away. Rarely do any of these people ever have a nice car. And don't forget the people especially in your own congregation. Remember, it was mostly fellow Israelites whom these women were getting fat on. There should not be one single member of your congregation who lacks adequate food, proper clothing, and shelter for the day. There are some people who have long periods of need. Perhaps it is some inadequacy of intelligence, education, or who knows, the congregation, and that means you individually, are called to help that person or family. Hear the judgment of the LORD towards these fat cows! He swears by Himself since there is nothing higher. He is going to rip them from their comfortable positions and be carried off by the Assyrians. We should take heed lest our LORD Jesus Christ rips us from our comfortable positions because we are not personally liberal to those in need. God has shown His liberalness to us in His Son Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the world. Go and do likewise. Heavenly Father, You have bestowed upon us such great grace and mercy in Christ Jesus. Grant us a graceful and merciful heart to those in need. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion All Bad Things Must Come To An End

#DailyDevotion All Bad Things Must Come To An End Amos 3 12 The LORD says: “As a shepherd snatches from a lion’s mouth two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so the people of Israel living in Samaria will get away with a corner of a bed or a couch from Damascus. 13 “Listen and testify against the people of Jacob,” says the Lord GOD, the God of armies: 14 “On the day I punish Israel for its wrongs, I will punish the altars at Bethel, and the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. 15 I will strike the winter house and the summer house, and the ivory houses will perish, and the big palaces will come to an end,” says the LORD. This is not good. The curses the LORD had the Israelites speak at Mt. Ebal which were perscribed by the LORD in the last chapters of Deuteronomy are coming to pass and that right quickly. The Israelites have become worse than their pagan neighbors and the people they displaced because they had the word of the LORD and rejected it. The threat is large and looming. The people of Israel are about to lose almost everything. The Assyrians, the hand of the LORD, were coming for their destruction. The Assyrians are going to devour the wealth and the people of the country. Only a remnant will remain and they will be absorbed into the nations they are sent only to be heard of in distant memory. They will never be recognized as the people of God any longer or have an identity of their own. The LORD will use the Assyrians to punish Israel for all their wrongs. They will tear down the altars at Bethel, where the idolatry of making the LORD into a golden calf was instituted by Jeroboam to keep the Israelites from worshiping at the temple in Jerusalem. The horns of the altar (they represent power) would be cut off and fall to the ground. This would demonstrate the God they worship isn't coming to help them out. The Assyrians would be thinking their god was greater not realizing it was the LORD the God of the Israelites empowering them. All the wealth, the mammon, the Israelites, particularly the upper classes amassed at the expense of the people who were the apple of His eye, the poor, the widow, the fatherless, and the foreigners, was now going to be taken away. Like the most expensives homes in the resort county I live in, they had summer and winter houses (the summer houses are here), these all would be destroyed by Assyrians. Can you imagine a home with inlaid ivory? It would be something like the palace at Versailles, France or the homes of the rich in Newport Rhode Island. The LORD has even taken these away from those who worship Mammon in the not too distant past. You can see the rubble of these places today mainly because archaeologists have dug them up and restored them to some extent. The LORD's word came to pass. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 10:11, “These things happened to them to make them a lesson to others and were written down to warn us who are living when the world is coming to an end. 12 So if you think you stand, be careful that you don’t fall.” We too have been given God's Word. The LORD has rescued us from sin, death and the power of the devil and given us eternal life. We have His instructions on how He wants us to live. He has given us His Holy Spirit that we may conform our lives to His will. What will happen to us if we despise all these things like the Israelites despised what the LORD had done for them? Let us live in daily repentance. Merciful God and Father, You have given us all good things. Let us learn from the Israelites how we are not to act and rather live our Your life in our daily lives to Your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion How Bad Do You Have To Be To Be God's Bad Example?

#DailyDevotion How Bad Do You Have To Be To Be God's Bad Example? Amos 3 9 Announce it on the palaces in Ashdod and on the palaces in Egypt, and say: “Get together on the hills of Samaria, and see what great confusion is there, what oppression is there. 10 They don’t know how to do what is right,” says the LORD; “what they get by crime and plunder they hoard in their palaces.” 11 That is why the Lord GOD says: “An enemy! He will surround the country, strip you of your strength, and rob your palaces.” How bad do you have to be to have God invite Ashdod (a Philistine capital) and Egypt come and see. Israel, who was to be a light shining on a hill in the world, who had the LORD's testimonies and the wisdom of God, utterly failed in her mission to witness the greatness of the LORD to the nations. They lived contrary to the ways of the LORD in every instance. It would seem they were living even further apart from the ways of the LORD than even these two heathen nations. What is this like? This would be as if the LORD called the strip club, the gay bar, and bordello to come and see how horrible the local church down the street was living apart from the will of God, i.e. they would be worshiping other gods rather than Christ, fornincating, being drunk, committing incest, robbing people-especially the widow, the orphan, the pastor, and the poor among them. They would be oppressing those to whom they should have been showing mercy. It would be a marketplace for drugs and the members would be prostituting their own sons and daughters. Well that is what Israel was like at this time. So there was great confusion because they did not worship the LORD alone and when they did, they worshiped an idol of Him at Dan and Bethel. They worshiped other gods in the high places and the groves. Their idolatry led to oppression. They cheated the poor with false weights. The widow, the orphan and the foreigner were taken advantage of through “legal” means. Whatever the LORD had told them to do in the Torah, they did the opposite. Instead of making sure there were no poor in the land, they hoarded their wealth in their palaces, when they should have been distributing it to the widow, the orphan, the priests, the foreigners and the poor in the land. Because of these great sins, the LORD was sending an enemy to rid the earth of these people, just as He rid the land of the Canaanites with the hands of the Israelites. The LORD was sending the Assyrians to run over the land, take all their wealth, kill most of the populace, and whoever survived that was worth any value was going to be exiled to foreign lands never to be a people again. What should we make of this as the Church, God's holy people today? Do we condemn others of their sins and not condemn our own? Do we struggle against temptations or do we live like the world and say it only natural? Do we believe and trust in Jesus Christ alone for our life in this age and the next or do we trust wealth, Mammon, politics, and power for this life and give lip service to trusting in Christ for the age to come? Do we hoard our wealth or do we distribute it freely to the poor, the widows, the fatherless, the foreigners and our pastors? Wherever we have fallen flat in discipleship to Jesus Christ, let us then confess our sins, come to the throne of God grace in Jesus Christ to receive mercy, and then turn from our sins and live lives trusting in Jesus' promises for this life and the world to come. Merciful God and Father, You have promised to take care of us in this life and to give us eternal life in Jesus. Give us faith to live out Your life in our daily lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion You've Been Warned. Repent & Believe The Good News!

#DailyDevotion You've Been Warned. Repent & Believe The Good News! Amos 3 3 Do two men walk together if they aren’t agreed? 4 Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den if he hasn’t caught anything? 5 Does a bird fall into a snare on the ground when there is no bait? Does a snare spring up from the ground without catching something? 6 Is a horn blown in a city without people being afraid? Does any disaster happen in a city if the LORD doesn’t do it? 7 But the Lord GOD doesn’t do anything without telling His secret plan to His servants, the prophets. 8 The lion roars — is there anyone who isn’t afraid? The Lord GOD speaks — is there anyone who will not prophesy? With all these questions and understanding what the answer to them is going to be I can't but think of the song Nobody But Me, by The Human Benz starting off with, “No-no, no, no, no, no-no-no, no, no-no, no, no-no Na-no, no, na-no, no-no, na-no, no-no, no, no-no, no.” If you're feeling nostalgic or want to listen to it you can go here: https://youtu.be/f3HpZNE1Z9k?si=yRevVaoFeNDDsFiw But now we get to verse seven. On the one hand, this is very comforting. The LORD does not do anything in secret. Before He acts He sends forth the prophets to tell the people. We see this in Noah who proclaimed the name of the LORD to the people destroyed by the flood. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob proclaimed the name of the LORD to the Caananites calling them to repentance.They doubled down on their sins and the LORD destroyed them with the Israelites. Now one prophet after another is foretelling Israel's and Judah's upcoming doom. He is even warning the neighboring countries. Had they repented they may have averted their destruction like the Ninevites did. Jesus prophesied to us in these Last Days. He told us of wars and rumors of wars. He told us the natural disasters to fall upon us. He warned us of the spiritual plagues that would come upon humanity. And as the refrain in Revelations goes, “and they did not repent.” Before the great and terrible day of the LORD, even though Jesus has warned us already in the Gospels, through the letters of Paul and John's Revelation, it's possible before that last and terrible day He may open the mouths of His people and prophesy again. That may be the meaning of the two prophets in Revelation. The nations do indeed greatly fear the LORD and His judgments. It's why the mantra on their mouths to God's people is, “Don't judge.” Their consciences cannot bear the fact they are indeed answerable to the LORD God Almighty. They despise even His forgiveness because it also indicts their souls that they need forgiveness. Well judgment day is coming just as it fell upon the Judites, Israelites, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Phoenicians, Tyrites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and even upon the USA. But more importantly, you are appointed once to die and then the judgment. You have been warned. Will you confess your sin? Will you turn from your sin? Will you turn to Jesus Christ and find in Him the Father's mercy, love, kindness, steadfast love and forgiveness? It is there for the taking. Do not spurn the grace offered to you. Believe Jesus saved you and receive His righteousness, His eternal life now and on the day of judgment. Heavenly Father, You have warned us through the prophets of the coming judgment. Help us to take it to heart, repent and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost November 10, 2024 10 am

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#DailyDevotion When You Treat God's Grace Cheaply

#DailyDevotion When You Treat God's Grace Cheaply Amos 3 Listen, people of Israel, to what the LORD says against you, against all the people I brought out of Egypt: 2 “Of all the people on earth I have chosen only you, and so I will punish you for all your wrongs.” Having accosted both Judah and Israel the LORD returns to Israel. Again He reminds them of the special relationship He has with Israel. He had brought them out of Egypt. This is the beginning of the Ten Words (Ten Commandments) in Ex. 20:2. Although Judah may still be addressed here as, “Hey, if you don't pay attention to what I'm going to do to the northern tribes, you're next.” Our translation of verse two is more of an interpretation. The word being translated “chosen” in the Hebrew is Yada which has the meaning of known. Keil and Delitzsch write, “Acknowledgment on the part of God is not merely taking notice, but is energetic, embracing man in his inmost being, embracing and penetrating with divine love; so that "yada not only includes the idea of love and care, as in Hos_13:5, but expresses generally the gracious fellowship of the Lord with Israel,. . .” From this understanding election is understood. K&D also note that this election should not be taken for granted, as the Israelites and the Judites were doing. For it was a national election not an individual one. If we use election as an excuse to sin, can we really claim we have a claim to this? Election is only a doctrine of grace. It is to be used to upbuild, edify, and strengthen the faith in those who have weak faith, but faith nonetheless. It is not a doctrine to make us comfortable in our sins. When we find ourselves in sins, repentance is what is called for. The LORD had called them out of Egypt. He had given them His word, His will for their lives in the Torah aka Law. He had sent the priests and the prophets to them to educate them to what His will for them was and to call them to repentance and greater faith in Him. They were not ignorant. They knew what the LORD wanted of them. Because of their knowledge, great was their sin. To the one much is given, much is expected. 2 Peter tells us the judgment will be far worse for those who had known the path of salvation and rejected it. So the LORD had known the Israelites, intimately, like a husband knows his wife, well better than that. He had made Himself known to them, out of all the families on the earth. Because they have rejected Him and knowledge of Him, He was now going to punish them for all their sins. Do we abuse the grace of God and use it as an excuse to sin? Do we instead of confessing our sin and turning away from them because we are God's people in baptism, just ignore our trampling on the blood of Christ by sinning because we'll just confess it later and think we'll be just fine? May it never be so! May we always hate our sin and our inclination to sin. May we never take it lightly because of the One who we sin against. Most importantly, may we always turn quickly to our Father in heaven, thanking Him for the mercy, grace, love and forgiveness He has shown us in Christ Jesus and then may those same gifts be then manifested in our lives towards all people but especially our fellow Christians. Almighty God and Father, may we never treat Your grace towards us cheaply, but rather hate our sins and evil all the more because of it. Give us Your Holy Spirit so we may trust You and bear the fruits of Your love for us in our daily lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

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#DailyDevotion The LORD Judges His People

#DailyDevotion The LORD Judges His People Amos 2 4 The LORD says this: “For three and four wrongs of Judah I will not change it. Because they have rejected the LORD’s law and haven’t done what He ordered, and because their false gods that their fathers followed led them astray, 5 I will send a fire into Judah, and it will burn down Jerusalem’s palaces.” 6 The LORD says this: “For three and four wrongs of Israel I will not change it. They sell a righteous man for money and a poor man for a pair of shoes. 7 They pant even for the dust on the heads of the poor; they wrong lowly persons; a man and his father go to the same girl to soil My holy name; 8 beside every altar they stretch out on clothes taken as pledges, and in the temples of their gods they drink the wine of those they have fined. The nations aren't the only ones in dutch with the LORD. Here He turns to His attention to His people. Both Judah and Israel's sins are overflowing like the nations surrounding them. He starts with Judah, where His temple is. They have the temple, the priests, the prophets. Yet the LORD has a number of things against them. First and foremost, they have rejected the Law, the Torah, the LORD had given them through Moses. They are not living according to the laws, precepts, statutes, testimonies and words the LORD told them to live by. Secondly, they have not only broken the second table of the Law but they have rejected the LORD as their only God. They have taken up the practice of worshiping false gods which their fathers worshiped. That's really sticking in the LORD's face. They will suffer the burning of their palaces. It is not clear if this will happen with the Assyrians or just the Babylonians. Israel, the northern kingdom, is also in the sights of the LORD. They also are in trouble because they are not following the Law, the Torah, the LORD had given them. They are not practicing justice by favoring the guilty in disputes and the poor righteous person is found in the wrong. They are abusing the poor by not restoring their pledges. They're even after the dust which resides on the heads of the poor. Those who cannot provide a defense, the lowly are taken advantage of. They are sexually immoral. They are even putting the clothes taken in pledge, which were to be restored in the evening on the altars of pagan gods. Finally, they too are worshiping false gods. It is written, “17It is time for the judgment to start in God’s temple. But if it is starting with us, how will it end for those who refuse to listen to God’s good news? 18 If it is hard for a righteous person to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?”(1 Pet. 4) We as the Church, the children of God, like Israel, are held to our LORD Jesus Christ's standards. While we are free from all the rules, regulations, statutes, etc. of the Mosaic law because we are under the Gospel in the New Testament, that doesn't mean He doesn't have standards for us to live by. We can easily go to the Sermon on the Mount and see what Jesus expects of us who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. We have been freed from sin (Rom. 8). We can look to all of Paul's letters and see the moral standards or rather, the fruits of faith expected to be seen in God's New Testament people. Mostly, I believe, if we take Jesus' words seriously, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” (Matt. 9:13, 12:7; Is. 1:17; Hos. 6:6, Mic. 6:8) then mercy would be the hallmark of all our actions. Will our LORD commend us for being merciful or condemn us for not acting towards others as He has toward us? Merciful God and Father, grant that we turn aside all that is harmful to our neighbor and grant us Your Spirit that we be merciful as You are merciful. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article