June 29th, 21

What does God want to see? Does he want to see big religious festivals, big gatherings, big houses, big venues big lives? Is this what he wants to see among these people? Apparently not. Amos tells us that God wants to see something entirely different. He wants to see a heart transformed from the inside out. A heart that loves justice and mercy. A heart that's been set free, forgiven, loved. God speaking through Amos says, I hate all your religious pretense, the hypocrisy of your religious festivals in solemn assemblies, I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your choice, peace offerings, away with your noisy hymns of praise, I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a muddy flood of injustice, an endless river of righteous living. What does God want to see? He wants to see justice and righteousness. Where does the river and the flood of righteousness and justice come from? There's only one source. And it's not our own piety. It's not our nationality. It doesn't come from the arrogant headwaters of the self. The waters God is looking for come from entirely different source. They come from our Lord, the source of all living water, the source of life itself. JOHN 7:38, Jesus says, anyone who believes in me may come and drink. For the scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart. That mighty flood, that torrent of righteousness comes from him. And we must come to him. If we want to live that kind of life. Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink. Even if you have no money Come, take your choice of wine or milk, it's all free, says I see. We must come to the waters first. It's there that we are transformed by Christ Himself, living and abiding in us. Then his living water can be poured out onto this dry and thirsty world through us, it's then that he will see what he really wants to see a mighty flood of justice, a torrent of righteous living. He will see people who have been set free, setting other people free with the love and power of Christ in them. God says come back to me and live, come to the water. His living water, so that it might flow from him through you. So let's come to him and drink deep from his well. And we will be amazed at what will happen. Life and justice will happen. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so

You are loved!