Sunday, April 19, 2020

An Easter Poem



Easter
By
B Howard Coffey

He prayed in Gethsemane
Alone while others slept
He died to set me free
His promises for me is kept

One of His own denied Him
Another His betrayal wished
One brought a band to fetch him
And betrayed him with a kiss

His cross with two of disgrace
I must be one of there
He died and took my place
He with no sin died I’m set free

Darkness lived between you and me
He cried in desperate pain
Father why the sin on me
My Son the church you gain

Once he said I thirst
They gave him vinegar to drink
He hang between heaven and earth
Dying for sin to shrink

He said, “Father forgive
They know not what they do.”
Had they ever any idea
Would never crucify you

They nailed him to a cross
pierced were His feet and hands
He traded heaven for dross
And welcomed angel bands

He cried out it is finished
and Satan thought he won
He sounded loud and fiendish
till the Temple veil was torn

He should have seen the warning
His world was torn asunder
He would know loss and mourning
When Jesus comes in thunder

Sunday He was seen alive
grave and death over come
Jesus won though crucified
His kingdom finished and done


Saturday, April 18, 2020

Warning Before Destruction: Amos Chapter 7 Explained



In this chapter God gives Amos visions that should serve as warnings to those who listen. The visions are sent before the destruction of the Ten Northern Tribes. The prophet's personal life becomes in danger because of his ministry. However, he continues to follow God rather than man's.

Vv. 1 – 9 Warning Through Visions
V 1 “Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing.”
God bears long with people, but he will not bear always. The swarm of locust would come when the poor would get to reap a crop. The king’s cutting had occurred already.
This would indicate that there would be little to no bread for them. However, the rich would have their share.
God has waited long with these arrogant peoples, but he shows Amos that he isn’t going to continue. Remember from 3:7, God reveals his secrets through his prophets.
Can you see God’s mercies in this. He didn’t send the locust when the best of the crop was ripe, the first in early spring, was ripe. The people gathered in the first mowing. The last crop to grow was less and of little value compared to the first. So God is merciful. We should never complain about the things God gives us.
The caterpillar army of Assyria comes on Israel and lays it waste as mentioned above from Hamath to the plains, or all the territory that Jeroboam had taken (2 Kings 14:25;  6:14 above).
V 2 “And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord God, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?”
Amos intercedes for Israel. The devastation of the crops could do him in. What is one devastation of war, famine. That’s what is indicated by the locust eating all the vegetation. The poor will be hard pressed to find food.
One job of the prophet was to pray for those to whom he brought prophesies. However, we see Jeremiah praying that the Lord would hurry and bring about his promises to destroy Judah.
V 3 “The Lord changed His mind about this. “It shall not be,” said the Lord.”
There are a few instances in the Bible where a human intervenes and God does or does not carry out the thing God has proposed to do.
1.       Abraham trying to defend Sodom and Gomorrah 
2.    Moses asking the Lord not to destroy the entire nation and making a nation of him
3.    Here when Amos asks the Lord not to destroy all of Israel
4.   Jesus in the Garden
There are others, but these will suffice for now.
V 4 “Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land.”
Amos, then, has another vision. He sees a fire destroying all the farm land. Again, how can they survive without their crops?
V 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?” 
Once again, Amos offers intercessory prayer for Israel. He prays because Jacob is God’s people. Jacob is supposed to be a worshiper of God. When we get to Habakkuk, you will discover that the prophet tells God nearly the same thing. Will you bring bad things on your good people?
V 6 The Lord changed His mind about this. “This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.”
Once again, God changes his mind and does not destroy or burn their farmland. Do you think the Lord really changes his mind, or is he testing Amos? Could it be that Amos could be thinking since he is from Judah, They deserve everything they get. They have left God to worship idols. They have separated themselves from us to do their own thing. They should be punished!
Vv. 7 -- 8 Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer.” 
What does a plumb line do? It tells you if something is vertically straight – up and down plane that is straight. God is saying that Israel needs to get its vertical alliance with God correct.
Israel’s church says of itself, “I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. This wall was made by a plumb-line,” (Song of Solomon 8:10). Now, God is standing on the wall. Most likely when he plumbs it, the wall is bowed. He is standing on it not to straighten it, but rather to tread the wall down. When you place the standards of an almighty God on any wall, you will find it bowed in comparison.
V 9 “The high places of Isaac will be desolated and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
The protective walls, high places, and safe hiding places and places of worship, sanctuaries, will be destroyed. Or, it could be that the places where they worship their gods will be destroyed. A play on Isaac’s name, “laughter.” Israel would become the laughing stock of the area. One of God’s chosen  thrown down by him.

Vv. 10 – 17 Amos Accused, Answers 

V 10 “Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. V 11 For thus Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’” V 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! V 13 But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.”
Amos was warned to flee from Samaria. We have talked much about how they felt about a foreigner coming to their cities to tell them that their country would be destroyed. Now you see why I have been talking about it.
Here they warn Amos that he had better get back where he came from. Here you can do normal, daily things like eat and perform your ministry.
Then the priest warns Amos not to continue to do ministry inside their borders nor in their royal city where the king lives.
14 “Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.”
God never made me a prophet. I’m a farmer. I tend sheep and goats, and I raise sycamore figs.
V 15 “But the Lord took me from [n]following the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’
However, God took me from following the herds and farming. He gave me a direct command. I couldn’t refuse him. He said go prophesy to my people Israel. That’s why I’m here!
V 16 “Now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.”
Since I am here, hear what the Lord has to say. You’re telling me that I can’t prophesy here against Israel. You are telling me that I can’t prophesy in the holy city of Samaria. Nor the house of Isaac.
V 17 “Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”
Hear this now! Because you have told me these things, your wife will become a harlot in the city. Your sons and daughters will be slain by the sword. Your land will be given out, measured to someone else, and you will die in a foreign land.
Besides, Israel will go into another land. She will be exiled from here.


Amos Chapter 7
Questions


Can you think of another place where someone prays that God will change his mind? _________________________________________.  Jesus in the garden. Moses when God told him he would make a great nation of him.
God is going to send what against Israel? ________________________________________.
What’s so important about the King’s mowing? ___________________________________________.
What’s the mercy shown by God in sending the locusts later? _________________________________.
Amos’ second vision is of what? __________________.
What does the plumb line indicate? _______________________________________________________.
How safe are their protective walls? ____________________________________________________.
The wall represents who? _______________________. When God plumbs Israel, what will he find?
_________________________________________________.
What did Amos prophesy against Jeroboam II? ___________________________________________.
Who told Jeroboam II what Amos said? __________________________.
Who warned Amos to flee? _____________________________.
What did Amos say would happen? ____________________________________________________
_________________________________________.


  



Blessings,


Howard


PS: A complete study on your freedom through rest can be had from B. C. Ministries, Inc. Email us  at bcministries1@gmail.com for your free copy.

PSS: Our first novel, The Red-Haired Master Shepherd, has been published. The novel is fiction about a little known Biblical character who meets Jesus. Check it out 
here. Or you can email us for your copy.



Who You Are Isn't Based on Performance with God. Who You Are Should Have A Direct Bearing on How You Perform.







Wednesday, April 15, 2020

How Does a Lack of Trust Destroy Your House: Amos Chapter 6



From this chapter, you learn that lack of trust in God and pride can cause your house to be destroyed. Do you wonder why bad things happen to good people? Could it be that they place their security in the things they have? God wants you to walk in complete trust with Him. You may have all the power and riches the world can give, but without your holding God's hand, you can never be secure.
By now you have studied the five previous chapters of Amos. In this chapter, God through the Prophet Amos addresses those living in Israel who lack trust in the One True God. First Amos addresses the rich, and those living in luxury. He addresses the arrogant and prideful, too. The things which they trust in for personal security and safety will be smashed and destroyed.

Vv 1 – 3 Those at Ease in Zion 

V 1 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria,
The distinguished men of the foremost of nations, to whom the house of Israel comes
.”
Those in Zion would be living in the house of David. Those secure in the mountain of Samaria would be the ten northern tribes.
Notice how vainly and conceited they are in their sin. They feel secure; yet, it is a false sense of security.
Shouldn’t it be “Happy are those who are at ease in Zion and feel secure?” It should be, but because of their sin, idol worship and robbing of the poor, they need to be on the lookout for danger to come.
Remember, these two countries are very prosperous. They feel that God is pouring out blessing after blessing on them. Both were well fortified. We read of Zion’s strongholds and her bulwarks—a wall or rampart raised as a means of protection.
Then too, Zion was the Holy City. God would never allow anything to happen to her. Wasn’t the temple located there? The people there knew that God’s sanctuary sheltered them there, and God would never allow anything to happen to their sanctuary.
Jeremiah tried to warn them, “Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” (7:4). Also Zephaniah also said, “On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from you your arrogant boasters. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill” (3:11). They were haughty because of the Holy Mountain.
Many in Zion are puffed up with pride. They feel secure because of their church privileges. Also, their station in life adds to their false sense of security. Remember, Amos is addressing the elite of their society.
Both of the cities valued themselves as the chosen of God; therefore, nothing could touch them. Salvation came from these hills. Although Samaria wasn’t thought of a holy place as was Zion. Yet the hill of Shemer was a good hill as well. To those in Samaria at this time, the hill served nearly as well as did the Holy Hill of Zion.
They operated from a false sense of security because they thought Zion would protect them. They thought they could do anything they wanted, and because they were children of God’s living in Israel, no harm would ever come. The importance of the mountain addressed in the text here can be seen in the words of the Woman at the Well of John 4:20.
V 2 “Go over to Calneh and look, and go from there to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than yours?”
Calneh was an ancient city built by Nimrod, Genesis 10:10. The idea is to see what has happened to it. Hamath was one of the chief cities of Syria, and it has already been destroyed as well.
Look and see if they are better than your hill. Was their territory better and greater than yours?
Gath of the Philistines was also destroyed by Hazel, 2 Kings 12:17. Go check the city out. I’m about to bring the same on you.
These cities were better fortified than Judah and Israel. Their borders were greater and harder to penetrate than was Israel’s.
V 3 “Do you put off the day of calamity, and would you bring near the seat of violence?”
Because you feel secure, you think the day of calamity won’t come for a long time. You put it so far away that it makes no real and present danger to you.
In reality, your acts of injustice and oppression brings the day closer and closer. You actually have fellowship with the throne of iniquity (Psalm 94:20).
Men take sin near themselves whenever they think judgment is far away.

Vv. 4 – 7 They Lived in Luxury

V 4 “Those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall.” V 5 “Who improvise to the sound of the harp, and like David have composed songs for themselves
Here you see how they indulged themselves in all manner of pleasures and delights. Instead of indulgence in riches, they should have been in real self-denial instead of pretending that they truly were denying themselves. In other words they justified their sensuality.
They could be saying, “I worked for all that I have. I deserve to live a little.”
Could the songs they composed for themselves justify their actions?
V 6 “Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls  while they anoint themselves with the finest of oils, yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.”
They have not grieved for their country because they are too busy doing the things they want to do. They are getting their own way. They trust in their prosperity rather than God. They are selfish and care only for themselves.
The golden bowls set aside for sacrifice they are using to drink wine from.
V 7 “Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head of the exiles, and the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away.”
Can you only imagine how they felt going from indulgencies of all kinds to poverty? How hard it was for them to go from days of never working to days filled with the tasks of daily chores for other rich people?
What do you make of “the sprawlers’ banqueting?” What happens when you sprawl? Do you see the picture of drunk men and women lying all around after a big party? That’s what I see here.

Vv 8 – 14 Pride and Lack of Trust Destroys

V 8 “The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared: “I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, and detest his citadels; therefore I will deliver up the city and all it contains.”
The Jews have brought on themselves the wrath of God. If God speaks, are his words true? Does the fact that he swears by himself make the words heavier?
Notice that he doesn’t hate Jacob or the offspring of him. He hates their acts of sin! God detests their attitude of arrogance.
V 9 “And it will be, if ten men are left in one house, they will die.”
Above God through Amos tells them that if 1000 were in a house 100 or 10% would be saved. If 100 men were left in a house, 10 of them would be saved or 10%. Now he changes to if 10 are in a house, all of them will be destroyed.
Then too, the idea could be that 100 could protect themselves enough that some would live. When there is only 10 men in a house, no one can survive.
V 10 “Then one’s uncle, or his undertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” And that one will say, “No one.” Then he will answer, “Keep quiet. For the name of the Lord is not to be mentioned.”
Someone will carry out the dead. As they remove the dead from the house, they check to see if anyone is left. If there is someone hiding in a secret place of the house, the one taking out the dead will warn this person not to mention God. It could identify them as a Jew.
Another thought on the subject comes in the next verse.
V 11 “For behold, the Lord is going to command that the great house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments.”
If the house belongs to one who claims to be a God fearing person, his house will be destroyed.
V 12 “Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,”
The idea is that horses can’t climb on the rocks of the mountains as say the mountain goat can. Further, you can’t take a team of oxen and plow these same rocks. Yet Israel is defying the very thing that she can do. She is indeed plowing the mountains and riding on the rocks.
Her deeds are contrary to the Living God. She does opposite of her defined purpose.
V 13 “You who rejoice in Lodebar, and say, “Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?”
Remember, at this time Israel is prosperous and have increased its borders. Here they are telling God that he wasn’t involved with their prosperity or their victories in battle.
V 14 “For behold, I am going to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord God of hosts, “And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.” 
 The Assyrians will take the country from the north to the south. However, at this time, God spares the city of Jerusalem because of Hezekiah’s faith and prayer to God.
2 Kings 14:25 where Jeroboam II had restored their boundaries from Hamath to the plains.



Amos Chapter 6
Questions

Where is Zion? ______________________. Give another name for this city? ______________________.
Who would those “secure in the mountain of Samaria” be? ____________________________________.
Why will danger come upon them in Zion? ________________________________________________.
Why did the Jews believe that nothing would happen to Zion? _________________________________.
What’s the purpose in mentioning the three Gentile cities of V 2? ______________________________
_________________________________________.
Why does God swear by himself? _______________________________________________________.
What do you make of “the sprawlers’ banqueting?” ________________________________________.
What is it that God hates? _________________________________________.
One’s close relatives won’t carry his body out of the house. Why? _____________________________.
Why not mention the name of the Lord v 10? _______________________________________________.
What’s the meaning, “Do horses run on rocks?” __________________________________________.
How much of the country will God destroy? _____________________________________________.


Amos points out clearly that your trust is God keeps you safe in spite of danger from outside forces. Walk with God! Only he can provide shelter from your storms.


Blessings,


Howard


PS: A complete study on your freedom through rest can be had from B. C. Ministries, Inc. Email us at bcministries1@gmail.com  for your free copy.

PSS: Our first novel, The Red-Haired Master Shepherd, has been published. The novel is fiction about a little known Biblical character who meets Jesus. Check it out 
here. Or you can email us for your copy.



Who You Are Isn't Based on Performance with God. Who You Are Should Have A Direct Bearing on How You Perform.