Amos 3-5  The message of the Lord is like a roaring lion.. " The Lord God has spoken! Who can help but prophesy?" Amos preaches.  The people of Israel "do not know how to do what is right, declares the Lord, those who hoard up violence and devastation in their citadels."  Therefore.. punishment will come. 

These words could be spoken in our own country.. right now! Violence and devastation.. oppression.. greed.. drunkenness... and no regard for God or His Word. 

Our God is holy, Amos reminds us, and He gives every opportunity for people to return to Him. Five times in chapter 4 the Lord says, "Yet you have not returned to Me.."   He caused a famine.. (v6); He held back the rain.. (v7-8); He sent destruction upon their gardens (v9); He sent a plague...(v10);  He "overthrew" them.. (v11).. and they never called upon Him through it all! They seemed to have forgotten their God! So, Amos reminds them.... 

"Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I shall do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. For behold He who forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, The Lord God of hosts is His  name." (v 12-13) 

This God.. is the only one who can save them.. "Seek Me that you may live.." He calls to them.  "He who made the Pleiades and Orion and changes deep darkness into morning, who also darkens day into night, Who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, The Lord is His Name." (5:4-8)

The Lord knows every transgression, Amos reminds them.. He knows the greatness of your sins.. and He calls you to seek Him.. "Seek good  and not evil, that you may live; And thus the Lord God of hosts be with you."  Later He says, "But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."  He calls all of us to seek Him so that we can have a changed heart.. a changed life.. a changed nation.  For unless we change.. we will also be taken away. 

Father in heaven, our world needs to know Who You are.. the Creator and the Sustainer of life.. the only source of Life.. We need to know Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.. sent as the Light of the world.. to overcome the darkness.  It has felt lately.. like the darkness is spreading.. but we are so thankful that it can never overcome the Light.. for Jesus has overcome it all!  We serve a risen Savior who still calls for men and women to seek You.  We pray that today will be the day of salvation for many who are ready to seek good.. seek life.. seek Jesus.  We pray this in His powerful Name! Amen.