Seek the Lord and live.
Amos speaks for the Lord concerning the lack of justice and
righteousness in the land. He is calling
the nation to repent at a time when it enjoys great prosperity, what looks like
God’s blessing. The judgment of the Lord
is prepared against them, they will lose all they have if they do not turn to
the Lord in repentance. They are being
given a chance to turn around before judgment comes, the word has gone out,
they have been told the truth. When all
is well we have a difficult time hearing such a word as Amos’. The call to repentance, the call to observe
Lent, a solemn fast, is a call out of the worldly definitions of our
lives. Lent is important for Christians
as a way of taking stock of our lives, listening to the Lord speak. Lent gives us an opportunity to get closer to
the Lord by denying ourselves some of the pleasures of the world. We, too, are called to hear the Lord speak to
us in conviction of sin so that we might indeed enjoy the blessing of His
presence.
What does it mean to be justified? The tax collector went home justified because
he made a right judgment of himself and asked for the most important thing,
mercy. In the historic liturgies of
Anglicanism the most prominent attribute of God is clearly that He is
merciful. The confession includes this
petition, “Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us most merciful Father.” Again and again that word is used to describe
God because it is mercy that we most desperately need from Him. The reality is that we are sinners and try as
we might we cannot rid our lives of selfish motives and vanity so our standing
before Him is sinner in need of mercy from a holy God. Justified means we have been given more than
justice, we have not received what we deserve, we have received what Jesus
deserved. We are accounted as righteous
by our belief in Him. We are justified
by our faith in Him. The tax collector
is justified by his faith in God’s mercy.
We can have confidence in that mercy the tax collector could never have
dreamed of this day, prior to Jesus’ resurrection.
Endurance is to be our characteristic as we run the
race. It will be necessary. Implied is that the race won’t be easy, we
will need to persevere in difficulty.
The difficulties, however, are not always there because of an enemy,
some of these will be by the design of the Father so that we might grow in our
walk with Him. Discipline is a word most
of us don’t particularly care for but the truth is that in order to progress in
anything we need discipline. Golfers his
thousands of shots on the practice range for every one shot they hit in a
tournament. We would spend hours
learning a language before we ever attempted to speak it intelligibly in
context. We are being trained for
righteousness, for the life to come, and that requires a discipline we can’t
adequately impose on ourselves. We live
in a fallen world as fallen people and we honestly don’t fully know what we are
being trained for so we need someone who understands what we are trying to
become to come alongside (or inside as the Holy Spirit) and impose discipline
necessary to shape us the right way. In
this case, it is from love as a father that this discipline is imposed. We need always ask about difficulty in our
lives, what are you doing, how does this work for my sanctification and how can
You be glorified.
Blessed is the one
whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Teach me to do your
will,
for you are my God!
Let your good Spirit lead me
on level ground!
for you are my God!
Let your good Spirit lead me
on level ground!
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