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Friday, February 13, 2004 BSF in PerthWent to the Perth Evening Men's bible study last Monday night. It was interesting. Within walking distance of where I was staying (now, what was the lesson again from Jonah re favourable circumstances?). And the night we went, all the power was off and so the first part of the evening was done in twilight (which made trying to read answers off the notes an interesting exercise). Maybe that balanced the circumstances thing!?This is for you primarily, Gary & Dave (which means you better post something here soon, 'cos you owe me!) The group is small (about one-third the size of ours) which makes the dynamics very different. Not the same zip. And the hymns suffered by not having a pianist (they are desperately searching for a volunteer pianist). Time has got away, but I'll add to this soon... BTW, the group discussion was slow and lacking in vibrancy compared with yours, Gary - but the lecture by John Hayes was very good - Amos only came alive for me in the lecture (which I'll summarise shortly). OK, the lecture. In ch's 1&2, Amos was speaking powerfully against social injustice and religiosity (a good word!). Israel was enjoying a time of wealth, prosperity and lots of leisure - they would have readily believed that "all's well with the world". Even "God is blessing us richly!" Now Amos was an ordinary, poor hard-working man. But he was called by God! Check out 1Cor1:26-29 (God uses ordinary, insignificant people - and then we see more easily that the glory is all to God!). [John had a good analogy for how Amos's prophesies started with Israel's furthest neighbours, and then got gradually closer to home. He said if some preacher rocked up to Sydney and told them all that they were bad, and in danger of God's wrath if they didn't change their ways, how all of us in Perth would probably applaud. And then if he moved on to Adelaide with the same message, we'd also readily believe that the gentle folks of Adelaide were deserving of what they were about to cop (I think he left Melbourne out because I was there!). But then if he started to say the same things in Perth, we'd probably think he'd gone too far, and send him packing] Anyway disaster was looming (ch's 3-6). I think the references were Deut8:19,20 and Is45:7, which show that disasters are God's doing. The temple was being used for purposes other than the worship of God (shrine prostitutes, etc). We can take the perspective that God graciously sent disasters to encourage the people to return to him. The BSF application was that destruction is inevitable for those who spurn God's grace. Finally, in ch's 7-9, every sin will eventually be punished - whether in Christ or else by us personally. But God witholds his judgement to give time of opportunity. Amaziah the corrupt priest measured Amos by worldly standards. But the book finishes on a high note - beyond the day of judgement will be a time of great blessing. A final take-home thought. God always acts in accordance with his character - he judges sin but restores his people. Now, I'm off for a week in Vienna tomorrow. So I will appreciate the contact through this blog - if there's any of our friends awake out there... (but I don't plan to be at 6.30 am tomorrow morning, Gary & Dave!!!) # posted by geoff @ 5:27 pm 0 comments
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