March 4, 2007 · Amos 8:4

Amos 8 4-8

“But Amos does more than just warn us, and that's what I love about Amos. is actually giving us a vision of a different society. Amos is talking about a different community, a community which actually listens to God. See, as Christians, we can't put our hope in politics to save us. As Christians, we have to put our hope in God, and God calls us to a new way of living. Look how the possible James sums up what we're doing. Religion that God, our Father, accepts the pure and faultless is this. To look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Help the poor and the needy keep yourself being polluted by the world. Which I think includes being polluted by the world's cultural habits of pollution itself. See, if we're going to be a true religious community, we have to look out for the poor, the defenseless, and not just say that. We have to make sure that we don't live in the same harmful pattern that our culture is just blindly. Sometimes easier that way. We need to change our ways. God gives hope for those who listen to them. God gives hope. God gives hope to those who are willing to change their own personal ways.”