Amos 5 vs 21-24 tips my heart out of my chest and forces me to humble myself begging God to help me do more for Him.
The tears come automatically as I feel God mourn the apathy of some who claim to be Followers of Jesus Christ.
James 2 vs 14-17, is echoed in Amos 5 vs 21-24, “My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you? So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead.”
Let’s break it down……
Amos 5 vs 24 is the lighthouse light steering faith in the direction God wants faith to be about, “Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.”
If, in our lives, we have virtue-signalling-faith that looks good on the outside, but IS NOT followed by living a life that stands and fights for JUSTICE as God defines it, lives pursuing RIGHTEOUSNESS as God declares righteousness, then we have to dig down into, “WHY IS FAITH AN ACT OF PERFORMANCE ART?”
Amos 5 vs 21-23, points out how God views dead faith that performs rituals as an order to follow but that doesn’t translate into ‘nuts and bolts’ that extends mercy to the poor, cares for victims, helps the widows and orphans, fights legal injustice and corruption, deals firmly with lawlessness, and doesn’t facilitate rehabilitation.
If, you and I, live lives of ‘heavenly divine, but earthly no good’, and quiet contemplation without rolling up our sleeves to get into the dirty water of lives destroyed by sin-consciousness, we are lying to ourselves.
AND GOD SEES IT!!!
We can write all the most beautiful songs, preach all the right Biblically accurate sermons, say Hallelujah on queue, but if we aren’t dying to self so that we have more to offer others who cannot return the favour, we must ask, “Do I even have Jesus in my life?”
It is, literally, impossible to truly be a Christian, and not be dying to self, and NOT burn with pain to help others who genuinely need it.
1 Corinthians 13 vs 1:
“If I speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
IF OUR WORSHIP OF GOD ISN’T LIVED BY RESISTING A WORLD THAT KEEPS THE POOR POOR, OR BOLSTERS ITS ELITISM, OR SEEKS PERSONAL COMFORT THEN, I AM SORRY TO SAY, WE ARE NOTHING BUT NOISE TO GOD!!!
But, Jesus…..
Jesus says, “I have not come for those who think they are righteous, but for those who know they are sinners.”
If, we have been living a life of comfortable faith, we are fully able to shame-free turn to God asking:
DAD,
Forgive me for making faith about me and my needs. Help me to be willing to let You expose the dead faith in me, allowing You to transform my heart and mind to focus on Your Mission to save lives and turn them to YOUR TRUTH, YOUR JUSTICE, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Help me die to self so that I can simplify my life so that I have more to give to Your Work so that others may simply live too.
Forgive me my performance-art-Christianity.
Messiah King Jesus, if I have been conning myself thinking I have You in my heart, but don’t truly do, please put your Holy Spirit in me so that I can be deprogrammed from my conditioned false identities, beliefs, pseudo-Christianity, and internalized god-complex, and begin living for You as You want me to.
In Your Holy Name King Jesus
AMEN
#Hayibo 