“I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.”
~ Amos 9:15
Hi James and Ellen,
It is sometime between 760 B.C. and 750 B.C. You live in Tekoa. Tekoa is a small mountain village that is located south of the city of Jerusalem. You herd sheep and goats. You grow fig and sycamore trees on the land that you own. You have become one of God’s outspoken spokesmen. You have become very upset about the luxurious and careless lifestyles that Israelite people group guys and gals – who are God’s specially chosen guys and gals, have come to embrace who are living in the Northern Kingdom – which is also called Samaria, in Israel’s land area. You have witnessed Jeroboam II – who is the king who is ruling over God’s specially chosen guys and gals who are living in the Northern Kingdom in Israel’s land area, lead the Israelite people groups guys and gals going on for forty years down the slippery slope of spiritual decay. You have assumed a dogmatic position that if God’s specially chosen guys and gals who are living in the land area of Samaria do not change from doing what they are doing that defy God’s mandates that He gave them through Moses, that God will wrack horrific havoc on them. As you voice your opinions, you are accused of sedition by the idolatrous high priest – who is Amaziah, who is living in the town of Bethel. Your very frank, candid personality along with your astute, perceptive understanding of the contemporary religious and political trends, have made you a threat to guys and gals who worship inanimate gods who they have made by hand from wood, stone, clay and metal. You write a short book. Your book – the Amos Book, blatantly warns God’s specially chosen guys and gals who are living in the Northern Kingdom in Israel’s land area, what you had God – as God the Spirit, breathe on you to write. You begin your final chapter – which is Amos 9, saying that you saw the Lord. You say that you heard the Lord saying that no one among His specially chosen guys and gals who are living in the Northern Kingdom in Israel’s land area will be able to – even if they try to escape by digging holes or climbing into the heavens or going to the top of a mountain or hiding at the bottom of the sea to try to get away, escape God’s livid rage and unbinding ire against them. You know that no guy, gal or kid can ever escape the eyes of God – as God the Father. You know that the heavens were created by God. You know that the foundation of the planet Earth was formed by God. You know that the waters of the seas were called forth by God. You know that God will not continue to tolerate depravity to exist among His specially chosen guys and gals. You know that God will very soon purge from Samaria His specially chosen guys and gals who have depraved spirits among them. You are ambiguously confident in your beliefs in God – as God the Father, as God the Son and as God the Spirit.
A number of years before your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia with your dad and Aunt Lynn to join the Bolivia South American Mission field missionary team, A Bolivia South America Mission field team missionary unit – Joe and Phyllis DeYoung built in Santa Cruz, Bolivia a missionary guest house. Don Félix Pedraza’s house is about two blocks away from where Joe and Phyllis began building the missionary guest house. Your grandpaa does not know when or how don Félix became a Christ-follower. Your grandpaa was told the story several times about the day when don Félix took his family to Joe to have each member of his family make with Joe a confession of faith of accepting Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior. Don Félix told everyone in his family that they were to become Christ-followers. Raúl was one of don Felix’s kids. During the years that your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Bolivia, your grandpaa and Raúl became good friends. Your grandpaa and Raúl made several long trips together to visit churches that were associated with South America Mission that were scattered throughout eastern Bolivia’s rural areas. Raúl went a couple of times with South America Mission summer teams that were in Bolivia that your grandmaa and grandpaa led. Even though Raúl was the elected President of the Association of Evangelical Churches in Eastern Bolivia (A.I.E.O.) when your grandpaa was ready to implement in Concepcion, Nuflo de Chavez the rural resident Bible education/leadership training program and even though your grandpaa had firmed up the eight guys who were to begin the training center’s first trimester, your grandpaa made room for Raúl, his wife – Mery, and their five girls, when Raúl asked your grandpaa if he could be a Centro de Capacitación student. After Raúl graduated after two years from the rural resident Bible education center, Raúl began a church in Santa Cruz. Raúl is still a leader of A.I.E.O. Raúl’s nephew – Felix, was the first graduate from Santa Cruz Christian University with a theology degree that Martha Sheffen – a World Gospel Mission missionary, was instrumental in starting. Félix has also been a leader of A.I.E.O. over the years. The church that don Félix and his family helped to start – which was given the name of Alto San Pedro, is still the largest and most influential church among the A.I.E.O. churches.
Don Félix was an old guy when your grandmaa and grandpaa met him. Don Félix had gotten the job of taking care of South American Mission’s Bolivia’s missionary guest house’s grounds. A story that your grandpaa was told several times had don Felix during a particularly unsettled time during a coup, fearlessly standing by the missionary guest house’s gate to keep looters from trying to get inside and to . . . the servanthood that don Felix epitomized and his sincere desire that everyone in his family be faithful Christ-followers was clearly blessed. Just as verse 15 says “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.” that God will never forget His specially chosen guys and gals, God has not forgotten don Félix’s faith in Him.
Amos 9 (686)