Why?

Amos 3:1-8

Have you ever ask the question; “Why did God allow that to happen?”  And then in only moments these thoughts came into your mind, if only I would have listened to my parents, my pastor, my mentor, my employer, who warned me, and now I’m experiencing hell on earth.  C.S. Lewis once wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."   [C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain]

Have you ever given thought to why you and I often, and I mean often, have impaired hearing when it comes to hearing God when He is blessing us, or when an issue of integrity or morality comes to our mind?  Could it be that we are listening to Channel One, the deceptive channel, that tells us we are wonderful, gifted, and the world is blessed that we are in it?  Often at a time of personal success this message come into your thoughts; you deserve, and no one will ever find out, that is Channel One, and it has been the downfall of many, and that includes this writer.

So listen to the words of the Lord, who loves you, your Creator, for in the same way as He spoke to Israel, He is speaking to us in 2013.  “Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.  “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?  Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?  Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?  Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it?  Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?  Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid?  Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?  “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.  The lion has roared; who will not fear?  The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?”

In the last days, and I’m not talking about the end of time, but I am referring to the end of the Church age and the return of Jesus Christ, who will come back to reign on the earth for a thousand years.  Has God not spoken in His written word, and by the prophets and then through His Son, His only Son, the Christ, of such a time?  And if you answer correctly, are you listening, are you studying the Bible, are you warning those who you live with and around that God has spoken?  Or must you have tragedy before you run to the source of all knowledge?  I observed that the most dangerous time for a follower of Christ is when we are being blessed.  It is in that time of blessing that it is easy to become proud and have impaired hearing.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice