Your Servant Witness / An Original Work / March 13, 2012
Humbly I bow, Lord, before You,
Bringing my requests to You.
May I listen; hear You speaking.
May I follow You in truth.
Gently lead me in Your service.
Guide my steps and strengthen me.
Fill me with Your love and mercy.
May I live for Thee!
Let me be Your servant witness,
Telling others of Your grace.
May I always share the gospel
With those I meet face to face.
May I show the love of Jesus,
Caring for the needs of men;
Be Your servant witness always
For my Lord, Amen!
My desire to be like Jesus,
Living for Him ev’ry day.
May I obey all His teachings
Given me, so I’ll not stray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master.
You are the King of my heart;
Follow You where’er You lead me;
Not from You depart!
http://www.godcares.tv/video/1476/Your-Servant-Witness
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Amos 7 (quoting verses 1-9 in the NIV 1984):
Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line
This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
So the LORD relented.
“This will not happen,” the LORD said.
This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. Then I cried out, “Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
So the LORD relented.
“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign LORD said.
This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
“The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
The Lord’s Servant
The Lord God was preparing to judge Israel (his people) with a swarm of locusts, but Amos, the Lord’s servant, interceded for the people of Israel and pleaded to God for his mercy and forgiveness. So, God relented. Then the Lord was calling for judgment by fire. Again Amos prayed for mercy, and God relented. Then, the Lord said he was setting a plumb line among his people, and he would spare them no longer. At this, Amos did not plead for mercy or forgiveness. Amos heard God’s voice. He prayed in God’s will. And God heard him. And Amos did whatever God told him to do.
So, Amos gave out the message to the people, warning them of impending judgment of God. The message was not well received. He was accused by the priest of Bethel of raising a conspiracy against the king. The priest then told Amos to “Get out! Go back from where you came. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” Yet, Amos responded by telling the priest that he was not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but was a shepherd when the Lord took him from the flock and told him to go and prophesy to his people Israel. Amos was just an obedient servant of the Lord. And, so God used him.
A Plumb Line
A plumb line is a string or cord with a weight attached to one end of it. The cord is held at one end with the weight at the other end. It is allowed to hang vertically, with the weight at the bottom. It is used by builders to check to see if walls are straight up and down. If a wall is true to plumb, it means that it is vertically straight. Plumb lines were also used to test existing walls to see if they were still substantial or if they had settled in a bad way and needed to be reconstructed. Yet, God was using this in a spiritual context, not in the context of a literal wall or a literal building.
The Lord was standing next to a wall that had been built true to plumb, and he had a plumb line in his hand. True to plumb, spiritually speaking, would mean true to standard (God’s standard). A wall is a fortification (protection; guard; security; armor; defense). Spiritually speaking, this would symbolize God himself, his word, his gospel, his salvation, his truth, his righteousness, and the faith he provides. God sets the standard for how we are supposed to live, as followers of Christ, and he measures us against that standard, which is truly Jesus Christ and him crucified. Nonetheless, we can never measure up to that standard on our own. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we are able to be “true to plumb,” and acceptable to God. So, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are built by God according to that standard. We come to know Christ in this way:
“You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:20-24).
That is the standard, and we can only meet that standard through the power of the working of the Holy Spirit of God within us, as we cooperate with that work. Yet, it is possible for God’s people, i.e. true followers of Christ, to get out of alignment with Christ and his standard for us. It does not mean we have lost our salvation, but that we have strayed from the Lord in some way through willful sin for which we have not repented, through spiritual neglect of our relationship with the Lord, through rebellion, and/or complacency, etc. And, thus we are not living according to the standard of righteousness that God has set for us to follow, and which he made possible for us to follow through the death of his Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins so that we could be free from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternal damnation), and so we could be free from the control of sin over our daily lives.
Our Intercessor
Before Jesus Christ was crucified, rose again, ascended into heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to indwell the lives of his followers, men (and women) of God were used of God to be God’s voice to the people and to intercede for them to God the Father. Once Jesus became the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the world, he became our intermediary between us and God the Father, and he is the one who intercedes for us. Through salvation we are set free from the final judgment of eternity in hell, so Christ’s righteousness is applied to our lives so that we can have eternity with God in heaven. That is the only way we can get to heaven.
Yet, that does not mean that we are free from temporary judgments of God, i.e. his discipline, correction, rebuke, chastisement, etc. If he sees his people straying from his standard of righteousness, i.e. straying from the devotion, commitment, and obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, as a loving Father, he may institute some type of divine correction in our lives in order to get us back in line, for our own good, and for the sake of his holy name. The interactions between Amos and God set the stage for this. In other words, we see Amos, as the intercessor, pleading with God for forgiveness and mercy, and God is merciful. Yet, when God told Amos about the plumb line, Amos did not plead for mercy, but he obeyed God in doing what God told him to do.
Jesus is our Savior. In him we are “true to plumb.” Through his intercession for us, we receive God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness. Yet, a day is coming when Jesus will come to judge, and even to judge his saints (see Revelation 2-3). We will not face the final judgment of eternity in hell, but God will discipline us in order to make us his holy bride, ready for the wedding with her husband. God wants us to live according to his standard – Christ, the gospel, the word of God, salvation, etc. So, if we get out of alignment with Christ, he will do what it takes to get us back to where we are supposed to be. He will restore us to a right relationship with him and will renew our fellowship with him when we respond correctly to his divine correction, we repent of our sins, and we turn again to walk in faithful obedience to him. So, if you have gotten out of alignment, I pray you will return to Christ today.
In Truth / An Original Work / January 10, 2012
Fellowshipping with my Lord, Savior, King.
He is Lord of all; Lord of ev’rything.
He is with me through ev’ry hour of day,
List’ning to me speak, as I humbly pray.
He cares for my needs,
and He intercedes for me,
‘cause He loves me in ev’ry way.
Obey His commands, and do all He says.
Sitting at His feet, daily in His word,
Let His word speak to me in ev’ry way,
Giving comfort and healing through each day.
Oh, how Jesus loves,
And He cares for you,
Which is why He died for our sins, in truth.
Love our Lord God, Savior, and King of kings.
Worship Him in truth, for He reigns supreme.
He created us with a plan in mind
For us to be His servants, and Him mind.
Follow Him in truth;
Go where’er He leads.
Share His love with others, and their needs meet.
Others: their needs meet.
http://www.godcares.tv/video/1469/In-Truth
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