Daily Devotional Writing from Pastor Scott

Road trip!
Genesis 12: God told Abram, “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
When I was younger there was nothing I liked better than taking a trip and our young family often hopped in the car to go and see something new. Then, I ended up traveling for a living, sometimes being gone weeks at a time. That, for me, cured my wander-lust and when that period of my life ended I emotionally overcompensated and became a homebody for several years. These days, I like to think I’ve found the middle ground in this, but I confess that I still like to be comfortably at home. Not long ago we took a 2900 mile road trip, and while it was fun to go, it was sure nice to get home: my bed, my chair, my patio – yep, it is good to be home. I’ve come to realize that it’s possible to be too comfortable. Sometimes, God has things he wants to do in my life: transitions he wants to take me through. He has something better for me, yet I hesitate. “Lord, it isn’t all that bad right here – if it is all the same to you, I think I’ll just settle down here in this place of comfort.” It makes perfect sense to me – but to fail here is to miss something much better he has for me. When Abraham obeys the Lord in the call to begin a journey into the unknown, he’s about to leave the comfort of home and set out on a decades-long journey. There are going to be some big bumps in the road but the destination the Lord has in mind for him is going to make it all worthwhile. What’s true for this, the first Patriarch, is true for you and me too: God initiated trips are always worth taking.

God warns that a famine is coming to the nation of Israel. This time, it won’t be a famine of food or water, but a famine of God’s Word. Now, Amos isn’t talking about a lack of leather bound Bibles. He’s talking about a time when God, Himself, goes silent. When that happens, the prophet says, people will roam the land seeking a message from the Lord. Amos ties this to the Judgment, a time when the God who has been available to them, reaching out to them, calling them to return withdraws the invitation. Many have abused the prophets even murdering them in an attempt to silence their voices. Now, one of those prophets warns that they are going to get their wish and that they won’t like it when they do. I’m reminded today that there’s a measure of God-hunger in every human being. There are times when people long for the touch of God on their lives. In their ignorance, they will substitute something else but whatever it is will fail to satisfy. Realistically, why settle for a poor substitute when the Real Thing is available? Happily, we aren’t living in the day Amos describes. Right this moment God is speaking, reaching out to all who will come. This isn’t an invitation to join a church; it’s an invitation to respond to the call of God to fellowship with himself.

Amos starts out as an unknown, coming out of the fields of a small town to proclaim God’s message. His sermons are rough and tumble, filled with condemnation. They are also specific: Amos names names. Now, he’s gotten the attention of some people who they don’t like what they’re hearing. In fact, they see his warning that a pagan army will “make hash of you” to be a threat to national security. One of the important priests, Amaziah, sends word to king Jeroboam that there’s a traitor in their midst who is sowing seeds of fear. Amaziah then confronts Amos. He wants this farmer to go back to where he came from and do his preaching in that backwater place. The context of this confrontation is that Amaziah thinks Amos is just in it for the money and notoriety he’s getting and that he’s come to Bethel with his preaching show for more of the same. Amos stands up to the powerful priest and declares that he had no desire to preach in the first place. Unlike Amaziah, Amos has no family tree of ancestors who are clergy. He’s a mere farmer who has heard from God and has been told to proclaim God’s message. To this day the Lord is still sending people into the ministry. Some of us heard that call while we were still young children. Others battled with it as teens, and still others, like Amos, were established in their lives and, in response to the call embarked on a whole new career. Amos is a poster child for all who are called by God, but he’s especially an example of how God sometimes calls adults who must walk away from one life and obey God in another.

Hosea’s people have many reasons to trust in the Lord. Their story would have ended in Egypt centuries earlier had it not been for him. Countless nations have come and gone, yet they have remained. And it isn’t as though the Lord has done all this in secret. Instead, he has been very active, openly blessing them and speaking to them through prophets and priests and kings. Hosea’s people have every reason to know God and to worship him alone. Through Hosea the Lord says, “I write out my revelation for them in detail and they pretend they can’t read it.” Like a child who puts his hands over his ears and sings “La, la, la — I can’t hear you” these rebellious people have quite intentionally turned from God, ignoring his call to them. However, it isn’t going to work. Its one thing to be unintentionally ignorant; mixed up and confused. It’s another to know that the message is there but to refuse to hear it. I think there are many people in my country today who are honestly confused and that, to a great extent we Christians are responsible because we have failed to clearly reflect Christ to them. However, we aren’t so far from the reach of God that everyone is in that situation. Many are covering their ears so they can’t hear what he is saying. That, my friend, is not a smart thing to do.

Jeremiah isn’t being falsely humble when he hesitates to accept the role of prophet. Frankly, he doesn’t think he is up to it. After all, what will he say? He feels inadequate for the task. The Lord understands. In fact, the Lord probably agrees that Jeremiah is an unlikely prophet. However, the Lord isn’t necessarily looking for the most capable person anyway. For reasons known only to him, the Lord chose an unlikely person for a very important job. To encourage Jeremiah, the Lord puts words in his mouth, a demonstration of how it will work. Today, I very much identify with Jeremiah. As a young person I felt God’s call on my life. Growing up in a small, wonderfully supportive church I marched forward with the confidence of youth. It was during my first year in college that I realized I’m, at best, a very average person. One day, as I faced my inadequacies the Lord took mercy on me as he did for Jeremiah in this passage. As I read Matthew 10 these words became a personal promise to me: “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” It seemed to me that the Lord said to me, “If I could give words to the disciples even when they were being abused, I can help you as a preacher to say things I want you to say.” That day was a “Jeremiah 1″ day for me. It wasn’t that I now understood all there was to know, but I grasped this promise of God to me. If he called me to the ministry, he would help me do ministry. Almost 40 years later, I can report that the Lord has been faithful to keep that promise.

It would be easy for me to make this into a pro-life passage. In fact, I am tempted to do just that. However, I find myself thinking more about God’s call on lives. How does God pick people to speak on his behalf? What criteria does he use? Apparently, at least sometimes, he picks people to represent him who have no credentials at all! In this case Jeremiah looks back on his call to be a prophet and remembers that it was God who picked him, not he who picked God. Before he had any “credentials,” in fact, before he could make any decisions at all, God laid his hand on him, calling him to be his servant. Clearly, the Almighty has his own agenda and makes decisions based on things totally beyond us. Now, I have to add that that doesn’t mean that Jeremiah had no say in the matter. God’s call came: that was God’s role alone. Jeremiah had to cooperate: that was his role. In theory at least, Jeremiah could have refused God and walked away and another person’s ministry would appear in place of this book of the Bible. Since God called and Jeremiah (howbeit reluctantly) said “yes” we have his story here. I’m reminded today that when God calls we can’t always understand why. We just have to “trust and obey.”