Amos 8:1-6
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.[a] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
Again a challenge to how we live out our faith in reality over words. How do we respond to the needs that cross our path? We cannot solve every need but our response, our reaction, our choices impact others in more ways than we can know.
Do we practice Sabbath? We were challenged by the children on this one during lockdown. With not having the regular structure of going to church on Sundays while the one activity that has been consistent, cricket, having matches on Sunday, our Sabbath has very much blended into every other day but as they are read their Bibles and as we’ve read Eric Liddell’s biography, they want to be intentional and honour God in their days but need our leading.
Paying fair price, an easy one to justify not doing when trying to make a budget work? Yet no where in Scripture say that we can justifiably afford to neglect the needs of others. WE always need to create a space for gleaning and welcome people into that space. Needing to pray with God and ask Him to help navigate where we make the choices as we know our budget doesn’t enable us to make all the ethical choices we would like to do, how many of those things do we need to buy if we cannot actually pay fair price? Supply chains can feel distant from us but check out IJM again and others to bring that reality back home. Let us not rest in our worship, our service, our studies. Let us come before God and as with Amos be open to God, to His living word and be ready, humble and willing to change and respond as He asks.
Father as we sit with Your word to us, may we allow it to transform our hearts, minds and actions. May we respond and in so doing bring Your Kingdom here on earth that all may taste and know Your goodness. In Jesus name we pray.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 