Amos

The following is what I believe God has to say to the Church. I am using the analogies and examples mentioned by the prophet Amos because I see similarities today although much of what the prophet talks about has been fulfilled.

Our Injustice
The Lord is not pleased with those who have sold the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. He is not pleased with those who have trampled on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground. He is not pleased with those who have denied justice to the oppressed. As God says,

…I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed…. (Amos 2:6,7 NIV)
God will send, and is sending, judgment to those who are doing these things, to those who are oppressing the poor and needy. This includes those who preach the gospel for financial gain, rather than for the sake of bringing His people closer to Himself.
Again Amos reminds us,
You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground… You hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the truth. For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins.
You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts…. (Amos 5:7,10,12,14,15 NIV)
We need to repent of these things. We need to repent of despising him who tells the truth and start believing the truth. We need to pay wages appropriate for those who are working. We need to stop polluting and destroying the neighborhoods of the poor.
Instead we need to encourage and help those who are in poor circumstances. We need to stop oppressing the poor for the sake of our greed. Those of us who are in prosperous situations need to assist those who are in difficult circumstances. Too often those with wealth get what they want even if at the expense of the poor. If the wealthy do not want a landfill on their part of town because of their money and prestige they generally don't get it. But who defends the poor when the landfill is put in their part of town instead and they don't want it?
Unless we repent of our injustices and sin, the Lord will pass through us with judgment. This will be very grievous.
Many of us who are complacent have been feeding away on the wealth and abundance that we have been given and do not grieve over the sin in the Church. In fact, we ignore it. Some of us participate in it and God is not pleased with that. God will judge and send us to exile before the others, because we have had all His blessings and yet have turned our backs to Him. We have not repented and turned away from our sin, nor have we been grieved over the sin of other members of the Church, but have allowed it to continue on and on. We have done nothing about it. We have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness. (Amos 6:12) We "lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on” our “couches." We "dine on choice lambs and fattened calves." We "strum away on" our "harps like David and improvise on musical instruments." We "drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but" we "do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore" we "will be among the first to go into exile;" our "feasting and lounging will end." (Amos 6:4-7 NIV)
Our Church
Many of God's people are complacent. As the prophet Amos says, "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure…" (Amos 6:1 NIV) We think that we are fine because we go to religious assemblies once a week, or are members of a particular church or denomination, or have a place of leadership on the deacon board or a committee, or that we minister to the poor in some way. We think that we are safe, but yet we are complacent. We have been put to sleep by our religious activity. We think that we are satisfying and pleasing to God. But because of the sins that have been exposed to us, we are realizing that we are not okay and we are starting to wake up. God wants us to Wake up! Prepare the oil in our lamps for He is coming soon for a Church that is spotless, without blemish and without blame.
Many of us in the Church go to our idol of worship - which is our church - and sin. We continue going to our fellowship meetings and yet sin even more. For we are in compromise. We perform religious activities. We give our tithes. We even brag about our offerings, whether financial or activity oriented. We love to do these things. We love to boast about our religious activity; yet our heart is far from the Lord. This statement from Amos applies to us:
'Go to Bethel [Bethel means “house of God”] and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering, and brag about your freewill offerings - boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,' declares the Sovereign Lord. (Amos 4:4,5 NIV)
But instead,
This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: 'Seek Me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.' (Amos 5:4-6 NIV)
Bethel, Gilgal and Beersheba were all places where God met with a man and as a result an altar was erected to the Lord. Originally, these places were holy because God revealed Himself. Sacrifices were offered to the Lord in gratitude. But as time passed the people went to these altars and made them places of idol worship and idolatry. In similar manner the Lord has revealed Himself to the Church historically. Shortly after the Church was formed, heresies entered in. There was much wickedness, especially during the Dark Ages. Roman Catholicism ruled the world. There was much torture, murder and persecution of Christians and others. (I recommend reading Foxes Book of Martyrs for details.) After this time, God moved in the lives of the founding fathers of the Protestant denominations. Luther was used of God to restore the Church. One of his key tenets was that we are justified by faith in God and what Jesus did on the cross rather than by our works. John Wesley was used to bring revival to England. John Knox and others were used to restore to the Church what was lost during the Dark Ages.
God met with these men to bring restoration and life to the Church. At the time of these restorations, men were worshipping and praising God for their newfound freedom. Shortly thereafter altars were made to symbolize these truths. We have the Lutheran churches, the Wesleyan and Methodist churches and all the other Protestant denominational churches. The latest denomination formed was a result of the restoration of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the earlier part of this century. Shortly thereafter an altar was built called the Assembly of God.
The doctrines and teachings restored to the Church are good and will last forever but God wants the entire Church as one to worship Him. He does not want us to worship these altars that have become idols to many of us. He does not want us to seek these places, or seek denominations. He does not want us to seek the religious structure of the church, nor to seek the religious form anymore. Seek the Lord and live, because these things will be destroyed. There will be no Assembly of God in heaven; there will be no Wesleyan, Methodist, nor Lutheran Church in heaven. There will only be the Body of Christ in Jesus and all the angels and seraphim praising God. His people will be in heaven; none of the institutions will be there.
God spoke in Amos' day,
I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings [peace offerings], I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5:21-24 NIV)
Many are going to their church services today but God is saying, "I despise your religious feasts, I cannot stand your assemblies, your fellowshipping or what you call fellowshipping. You bring sacrifices to Me; you sing songs to Me, but I don't even listen to you because you have forsaken Me. You do not attend to the matters of justice; you do not attend to righteousness. You hate your brother and thus, you hate Me. And yet you dare come to Me and say that you are doing an offering and a sacrifice to Me by going to your church services and singing your praises and hymns to Me. I am not hearing them, and I despise your gatherings together. So until you repent and follow after the words that I have been telling you, until you make your heart right and make restitution with your brother, do not go to another church service; do not sing another song of praise to Me. For I despise them and I am not hearing them anyway. Repent of the gods that you have made for yourselves, thinking that they are Me, when they are not. I want you to repent and turn to Me with your whole heart. Then I will hear your song. Then your praise will be true to Me. Then I will be pleased when you fellowship together with other saints, because you will have turned your heart and your life to Me."
Our Consequence
God is not pleased with those who have rejected His commands. God is not pleased with those who have been lead astray by their lies. As a result, His judgment is being poured upon us. "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept His commandments. Their lies lead them astray…" (Amos 2:4)
Many Christians have said, "It seems so dry; I'm not getting fed." The Lord has caused this lack of spiritual bread to exist because we have turned our hearts from Him. We have refused the truth and have substituted a lie for the truth. No wonder we are spiritually starving. As in Amos day,
'I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,' declares the Lord.
'I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,' declares the Lord. (Amos 4:6-8 NIV)
Since the late 1980s the Lord has particularly been pouring an abundance of rain in one area and a lack of rain in another. There has been severe drought and severe overabundance. Excerpts from resources state:
• “It isn’t the Dust bowl of the 1930s, but serious drought is afflicting nearly half the country after the hottest summer since then.” “Moderate to extreme drought affected more than 45 percent of the country…” “Weather patterns have kept moisture away from” some areas and others have “received above normal rainfall.” “The 12 months that ended with August were the driest on record for North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. They were the second-driest 12 months in South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware and Wyoming.”
• “…A fifth of the United States remains in a drought with some Plains and Western states facing the worst conditions in a century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said…. the extent of last summer’s serious drought conditions…has not been seen since the mini-dust bowl drought of the mid-1950s.”
• From a list of notable floods beginning from 1889, one-third of the floods in the United States were recorded from 1980 through 2001 wherein half of the worldwide floods were recorded during this time.
From my own experience, I remember 1986 as being the worst year of drought I ever observed. In the state of Michigan where water abounds, I remember seeing dry grass and browning leaves on trees and stunted corn stalks. On the side of over-abundance, I remember the flooding of the Midwest in 1993. I drove by some of the areas and even crossed the Mississippi River. I was awed by what I saw.
God is trying to show us that we need to repent. He is trying to wake us up with some physical experiences so that we will recognize He is God and that we need repentance.
Spiritually, there is not enough to drink because we have polluted our own water. Our acceptance and promotion of false teachings, along with turning our ears away from the Lord, have polluted the waters that we drink. As a result, we cannot seem to get enough water. We are thirsty because we have turned away from the true, pure water to that which is polluted.
In view of what is happening and what God wants to happen, we need to recognize His sovereignty in our affairs and our lives. We need to respect Him, reverence Him and submit ourselves to His Sovereignty. God is the One who formed the mountains, creates the winds and reveals His thoughts to man. He is the One who turns down the darkness and treads the high places of the earth. He is the Lord God Almighty. (Amos 4:13)
Consider this: "Then the Lord said, 'Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword, I will rise….'" (Amos 7:8b,9 NIV)
He who has the ear, hear what the Lord is saying to the churches.
Because of our wickedness, the Lord has already sent a famine through the land, not a famine of food nor a thirst for water (yet) but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger and wander searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. The reason is because we have turned our hearts from the Lord and our ears from the truth.
The Lord has begun to sift His people. Those who repent of their sin will be spared. Those who refuse to repent shall die. The Lord will no longer tolerate sin in His camp, in His people!
'For surely I will command, and will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, who say, 'The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.' (Amos 9:9,10)
However, God will revive and restore those of us who are willing to repent. The true Church will no longer look like the world. We will be holy and truly set apart for this Lord. We will be a bride waiting for her Lord when He returns. As in Amos, "In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be…' declares the Lord, who will do these things." (Amos 9:11,12b NIV)

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William Byron Forbush ed., Fox’s Book of Martyrs (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967)
Randolph E. Schmid, “Summer Really was a Scorcher,” Detroit Free Press, 14 September 2002.
“One-fifth of Nation is Still in a Drought,” Detroit Free Press, 12 February 2003.
The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2002 (New York: World Almanac Education Group, Inc., 2002), 187.
Since this chapter was originally written during the 1990s, more tragedy has come upon us. During 2005, a devastating hurricane flooded and destroyed the city of New Orleans. A verse found in Amos 3:6 says, “If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?” Hopefully this (and other the physical experiences) will awaken us and lead us to repentance soon!