Because He Said

“The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Am 3:8 AV)

Absolutely!   The prophet, once hearing from God, cannot keep himself from sharing the word of God with others.  Perhaps this verse was Amos’ calling.  Amos was a simple shepherd.  He was a farmer.  He had no formal training.  He had no royal pedigree.  He didn’t come from a well-known family.  Amos was a nobody.  A normal guy doing a hard day’s work hardly intermingling with the world outside of necessary commerce.  He stuck to his farm, took care of his family, and loved God with his whole heart.  But then he heard God speak.  When he heard the voice of God, that changed everything.  Like the shepherds in the field to whom the host of heaven appeared, once they saw the Christ-child in a manger just as the angels had said, they could not keep silent.  One does not need ordination or a bible college degree to testify to what the LORD has done and what the LORD God said.  All one needs is integrity, love for people, and opportunity.

Silence is killing the house of God.  It is safe to stand behind a pulpit and behind stained glass windows to declare the truth of God’s word.  At least for now.  This safety has muzzled the word of God going into the world.  We do not take risks.  We speak to a friendly crowd.  But that is not good enough.  Not by a long shot.  The problem we have is the word of God is not making a huge enough impression on our minds and hearts to do something with it.  It is not the Bible’s fault.  We have filled our minds and hearts with the things of this world and the word of God cannot compete.  We have shut out reality.  Reality is not an app or a show.  Reality is what happens to the souls of men, women, and children as they pass off into eternity.  I read the local news every day.  I live in a county with 1.5 million people.  There are murders somewhere in our county almost nightly.  Just the other day, a young man of 24 was shot and killed in a parking lot not too far from where I live.  His soul is in eternity.  A few weeks ago, a police officer only two blocks from my house was required to take the life of a young man wielding a weapon.  He is in eternity, somewhere.  The people of God must get a glimpse of eternity.  We must get our minds out of our alternate reality and plug into the only one that counts.

Amos gives us his life’s verse.  God has spoken.  The world must tremble.  As a lion roars and those who hear fear, so too must the prophet preach and the people be affected.  Something has to happen.  God’s word is just as true today as it was six thousand years ago.  Nothing has changed.  We have changed.  One wonders how many more Amoses there will be before the LORD calls us home.  Will you be the one?  Again, you need not a call into full-time ministry in order to do what Amos did.  Amos’ ministry lasted only as long as his book.  He heard the voice of God and proclaimed it.  Once his message was heard, he went back to the fields.  It doesn’t matter what our life’s career is.  We do not need to be a pastor, missionary, or evangelist.  What we need to do is take what we know from the mouth of God into a lost and dying word. Why?  For the mere fact that God said it!  That should be enough.