“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!”
~ Amos 6:1
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you unconcerned about your future? Are you content with your lifestyles? Are you feeling smug about all that you have? Are you complacent kids? Ask your dad and ma if they are unconcerned about their future? Ask your dad and ma if they are content with their lifestyles? Ask your dad and ma if they are feeling smug about all that they have? Is your dad and/or ma complacent? If you are unconcerned about your future, be ready for a drastic change in your lives. If you are content with your lifestyles, be ready for a drastic change in your lives. If you are feeling smug about all that you have, be ready for a drastic change in your lives. God does not put up with unconcerned, content, smug guys, gals and kids. God does not put up with complacent lives. God will shake up the life of a guy, gal or kid if the guy, gal or kid settles into a status quo, laid back, couch potato lifestyle. Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa were feeling an unsettledness with what they were being asked to do at OC International headquarters, your grandmaa and grandpaa had begun to feel complacent with living in Colorado Springs. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in a really nice place which your grandpaa called a ‘crash pad’. Your grandmaa and grandpaa liked their condominium’s coziness, fireplace and location. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were willing to do more at OC International’s headquarters but . . . your grandmaa and grandpaa were okay with doing what they were being asked to do even though what they were being asked to do did not come close to filling up a forty hour work week. Even though your grandpaa did not want to put on a shelf the years that he spent pursuing Bible education, the different kinds of training that he and your grandmaa have received and the blessed ministry experiences that he and your grandmaa have already had over the thirty years that they have been missionaries, your grandmaa and grandpaa were ready to hunker down and do what their next supervisor was asking them to do. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were not looking for a drastic change in their lives but . . . God saw your grandmaa and grandpaa becoming complacent and . . . in a matter of a few months, your grandmaa and grandpaa had God uproot them from living life in Colorado Springs to replant them in Flowery Branch, Georgia – where your grandmaa and grandpaa really are very happy to be right now. Your grandmaa and grandpaa sense that God saw the unsettledness that your grandmaa and grandpaa were experiencing and that He was not going to let them become complacent so in His providential way, He led your grandmaa and grandpaa to an intrapreneurial missions agency called Adventures in Missions where they sense that God will have them be able to apply their education, training and experiences.
Amos 6 is a dire warning from God through Amos – who was one of His minor prophet spokesmen, to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the northern kingdom of Israel – which was the land area of Israel, and living in the southern kingdom of Israel – which was the land area of Judah, that because they had become complacent that it was time for Him to shake up their lives. God was not happy at all that His specially chosen guys and gals had taken to sleeping on beds that had been inlaid with ivory, lounging away their days on couches and eating only choice lambs and fattened calves. God was not happy at all that His specially chosen guys and gals had taken to strumming away all day long on their harps and that they were using all their time every day to improvise music on music instruments. God was not happy at all that His specially chosen guys and gals had taken to drinking wine by the bowlful, using the finest lotions and were not worried, discontented and embarrassed by their lifestyles. Verse 1 begins this chapter with words that Amos had breathed on him by God – as God the Spirit, “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!” God – as the Sovereign God, would through Himself – as God the Spirit, have Amos scribe later how much He abhors or hates the smug pride that His specially chosen guys and gals have. God – as God the Spirit, communicates very clearly through Amos to His specially chosen guys and gals that He is going to smash them because of their arrogant, bigheaded lifestyles – which were an in your face front to His expectations that they live their lives totally committed and wholly dedicated to Him.
God’s hot button can just as easily be pushed by not doing something that you know that He expects you to do but you do nothing about it as doing something that you know that God does not want you to do but you do it anyway. In the dilemma that God’s specially chosen guys and gals were causing Him through their self-aggrandizing mindset, God had the Assyrian people group army capture the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. and He had Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian people group army capture the southern kingdom of Israel – the land area of Judah, in 586 B.C. In the dilemma that your grandpaa was causing Him, God used the five guys in what is called the President’s Leadership Team to decide that there was no longer a place for your grandpaa in OC International – which has enabled your grandpaa to move on with his life. The sixteen years that have passed since this missive was written have been blessing filled years.
Amos 6 (785)