Prepare To Meet Your God

As Pastor Rich takes this week off from writing his blog to enjoy this Christmas Season with his family, I wanted to let you know about his book that was released last week.

The book, Prepare to Meet Your God, contains his nine expository sermons of the Old Testament book of Amos. These sermons will not only help you understand the message that Amos was delivering to Israel but they will challenge your heart to live life unto Him and obey His law.

Amos? Why Amos? Pastor Rich has already heard your question, and he writes,

Why in the world are you preaching from the book of Amos written almost 3,000 years ago, about the sins of Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab?  With the exception of Syria, those people groups and nations don’t even exist anymore.

From page 13 he tells us why,

“… why we are going to spend nine sermons laboring through a prophecy of judgment. Isn’t there something happier we can discuss?” I suppose there is, but because the Bible spends a great deal of time on the subjects Amos is going to be discussing (Israel’s sins), there is great value for us, as believers, to hear what is in Amos, too—and hear it we shall. The question is, however, will we heed it?

It always seems to come back to whether we are going to obey God’s Word, doesn’t it? I’ll give you a clue to whether the nation of Israel heeded the words of Amos—read what Pastor Rich writes,

The prophet’s message was ignored. But it’s not Amos who was ignored; God was. Amos simply spoke God’s Word. Later, in chapter 7, an angry priest in Israel, who didn’t like what Amos was saying, will say to Amos: “Get out, you seer!  Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there…” And Amos will respond: “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” (7:12, 14-15) Amos is saying that he had to speak; and when he did, he spoke for God—dispensing God’s Word. To reject the prophet’s words, then, was to reject God’s.

You guessed it—Amos was ignored by Israel. But there is no reason we should reject the prophet’s words! There is a lot more to Amos than what you read here. I suggest you buy the book, which is available on Amazon.com here, for $12.99.

I would be reluctant if I did not mention that this book would be an excellent gift for the unbeliever. The book is easy to read, is God glorifying, Christ-centered, and evangelistic in it message.

Chris Nyland
December 14, 2011