Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Sep 23rd, 2011 Spiritual Famine

Amos 6 – Obadiah; Proverbs 23

(Second Milers also read – Revelation 1 – 4; Memorize – Philippians 3:10)

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:” (Amos 8:11)

It seems that we reading a lot about drought and famine these days in our Bible reading. This is the third post in a week that dealt with this theme. I mentioned in one of those posts that in many of the southern states there is a serious water shotage, which is causing tremendous financial losses. The famine of physical water is certainly serious, but it pales in comparison to the spiritual deadness that is prevalent in our nation today. However, like in Amos’ day, the spiritual drought was not caused by God. He could and would turn on the spicket any time the people were thirsty. They just weren’t thirsty. Are you thirsty for God?

Amos is writing concerning Israel about a time where there will be an absence of the Word of God among the people. But this famine of Bible instruction and principle comes as a result of the lack of desire among the people of Israel for hearing the Word of God. The people of Judah and Israel had their fill of God. They no longer desired to hear what He had to say; they no longer desired to live in in His precepts. They simply felt that they no longer needed God or His instruction.

I feel that America today is in the same boat. There is no shortage of truth here, yet there is a famine. There may be preachers out there who water down the Word of God; and there may be a lot of compromise out there; but there is certainly available to nearly every person in America a copy of the Word of God, and a church where the Bible is being preached and taught on a regular basis. The problem is not the availability of the Word of God. Rather, the problem is a lack of desire among most Americans for instruction from God. We have loosed from the moorings of our Biblical heritage and are floating in the sea of secular humanism. We are shouting to God from our culture, “Get Out!”. We don’t need you and we certainly don’t want you. I don’t think it is too far fetched to think about a day in the near future when our authorities try to stop the distribution of the Word of God altogether. What a tragedy it is that we are spitting in the face of the One who gave us all that we have in this country.

God will not stay where he is not wanted. In fact, the only thing holding back the judgment of God is a remnant of people in America who love the Word and the God who wrote it. So what is the solution? Can this tide of apathy and antagonism toward God be stopped, or even slowed? I am not sure. But my instructions are still to “preach the Word”, even when it is out of season. Christian, it matters not what the world thinks about our God and our Bible. We need to keep obeying God by sowing the seed of His word to the world around us. Some day soon, our job will be done; but for now it is still our responsibility to reach who we can with the glorious gospel of Christ. There are still people out there that hunger and thirst after righteousness.