Thursday, September 24, 2015

Seek the Lord PT-1 (Amos 5:4-6)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/24/2015 11:10 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Seek the Lord PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Amos 5:4-6

            Message of the verses:  “4  For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel, "Seek Me that you may live. 5 “But do not resort to Bethel And do not come to Gilgal, Nor cross over to Beersheba; For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity And Bethel will come to trouble. 6 “Seek the LORD that you may live, Or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph, And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel.”

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that this phrase is found more than thirty times in the Word of God, and it not only applied to Israel, but also to the church today.  There were times when the Lord would have used few people like when He was ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but not enough were found, at least Abraham stopped asking the Lord to lower the number necessary to have those cities saved from His wrath.  “Then he said, "Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?" And He said, "I will not destroy it on account of the ten.’”  This is where Abraham stopped and it is found in Genesis 18:32.

            God can work through the many or He can work through the few “Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the LORD will work for us, for the LORD is not restrained to save by many or by few’ (1 Samuel 14:6).” 

            What Does it Mean to “seek the Lord?”  Let us look at Isaiah 55:6-7 “6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”   

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “To seek the Lord means first of all to change our thinking and abandon the vain thoughts that are directing our wayward lives.  Disobedient children of God are thinking wrongly about God sin, and life.  They think God will always be there for them to turn to, but they forget that sinners reap what they sow.  To walk ‘in the counsel of the ungodly’ is folly indeed (Ps. 1:1, NKJV), for it leads to a fruitless and joyless life.”

            If a person who has walked away from the Lord wants to return he must realize that the sin or sins he is holding on to is hideous, very hideous before a holy God.  Seeking the Lord does not mean that we simply run to God for help when our sins get us into trouble, although God will receive us if we’re sincere, but that is what we must be, sincere.  David writes in Psalm 51:17 the following after he was sincerely looking for repentance and turning back to the Lord:  “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

9/24/2015 11:27 PM

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