OUR DAILY BREAD : A MIGHTY STREAM

[cimi]

March 3
Wednesday


A MIGHTY
STREAM

READ:
Amos 5:21-27
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Let justice run down
like water, and
righteousness like a
mighty stream.
__Amos 5:24
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When I was a young teenager, my dad, uncles, cousins, and I went trout fishing at the head waters of the Sacramento River in California. The source of of the river is melted snow, so the water was swift, clear, cold, and refreshing. My cousins and I couldn't resist stepping into the cool current while angling for rainbow trout.

On the way home, we stopped fro a dip in a pond that was far different. The pond water was warm, and it smelled stagnant. It contrasted greatly with that swiftly flowing, invigorating stream.

The prophet Amos used the metaphor of a stream to illustrate the transforming power of righteousness. Appalled at Israel's dead religious ritual and their exploitation of the poor (Amos 2:6-8; 5:21-27), he called for justice and righteousness to prevail. He saw that God's people were stuck in the stagnant pond of injustice toward others when what they needed was a life marked by "righteousness like a mighty stream."

Likewise, God desires for us to allow justice to "run down like water" from our lives. One way that can happen is to strive for just laws and to champion loving care for the poor. May we seek to be part of God's mighty stream of His righteousness until Christ returns. __Dennis Fisher
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````````````````Justice is the clarion call for Christians--````````````
``````````````We cannot step aside from what God said;````````````
```````````````He has told us how to treat our neighbor,````````````
```````````And we must follow on the path He's led. __Hess`````````
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Righteousness follows when truth springs into action

**************Today's Bible Reading __ Amos 5:21-27*************

21 "I hate, I despise your
feast days, and I do not
savor your sacred
assemblies. 22 Though you
offer Me burnt offerings
and your grain offerings, I
will not accept them, nor
will I regard your fattened
peace offerings. 23 Take
away from Me the noise of
your songs, for I will not
hear the melody of your
stringed instruments. 24 But
let justice run down like
water, and righteousness
like a mighty stream.

25 "Did you offer Me
sacrifices and offerings in
the wilderness forty years,
O house of Israel? 26 You
also carried Sikkuth your
king and Chiun, your idols,
the star of your gods, which
you made for yourselves.

27 Therefore I will send you
into captivity beyond
Damascus," says the LORD,
whose name is the God of
hosts.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Amos, whose name means "borne," or "burden," was one of
Israel's "minor" prophets. Easton's Bible Dictionary says this of
Amos: "He was a native of Tekoa, the modern Tekua, a town about
12 miles southeast of Bethlehem. He was a man of humble birth,
neither a 'prophet nor a prohet's son,' but 'an herdman and a
dresser of sycamore trees'....He prophesied in the days of
Uzziah, king of Judah, and was contemporary with Isaiah and
Hosea....Under Jeroboam 2, the kingdom of Israel rose to the
zenith of its prosperity; but that was followed by the prevalence of
luxury and vice and idolatry. At this period Amos was called from
his obscurity to remind the people of the law of God's retributive
justice, and to call them to repentance." __BILL CROWDER