Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?” The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?” “And on that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. (Amos 8:4-12 ESV)
People who are rich at the expense of others are not going to get off easy in the coming kingdom… But Amos is speaking to more than those of us who do not have the new iPhone…
God will not forget your deeds. He will remember everything you did. To the least, last, lost ,little… He will remember it all and will recount it to you at your final judgment and hold you accountable for your actions.
Do not get ahead because you have held someone else back. Do not make someone else look bad because you wan to get ahead. Anytime you hold something against a brother/sister they did not do, the Lord will remember that and will hold you accountable for it.
So do not worry about keeping up with the Jones, but worry about helping others get ahead of you, and to get what God has given us, which is nothing any of us deserve, but is a feast of rich foods that we should not even be able to smell, let alone partake of.
Go and do for your neighbor, not worrying about what you will get. Trusting in the Lord.
aSacredRebel 