DAY 175 Read Amos 1 through 4.
Today's reading: Amos, a citizen of Judah, bore a solemn message from the Lord to the northern kingdom, Israel. First he pronounced God's judgment on the surrounding nations as a warning to erring Israel.
Memory gem: "Because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel" (Amos 4:12).
Thought for today:
The First doctrine of the Bible is the doctrine of God. "In the beginning God" (Genesis 1:1). The Holy Scriptures reveal the doctrine of God. On it all other doctrines rest. With full faith in the doctrine of God, the future is full of hope. Without it, life itself is "a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities," in the words of one of America's great skeptics. "God is He without whom one cannot live" was Leo Tolstoy's definition of God.
But what does the Holy Scripture say? We turn to the prophet Amos. "Lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name" (Amos 4:13).
The existence of God is proved by the existence of the universe. Every effect must have an adequate cause. There is design in the world, so there must have been a designer. There is a mathematical plan in the universe, so there must have been a great mathematician. All things must have had an origin, a beginning, a creation. Either they created themselves or they came into existence by mere chance or they were made by a creator. Self-creation is a contradiction, for it supposes that a being can act before it exists. Creation by chance is absurd, for to say that a thing is caused with no cause for its production, is to say that a thing is effected when it is effected by nothing. All things, then, that do appear must have been created by some being. That being is God.
NOTE: The earthquake (Amos 1:1) is undated; but Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that it occurred when Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the temple.
Today's reading: Amos, a citizen of Judah, bore a solemn message from the Lord to the northern kingdom, Israel. First he pronounced God's judgment on the surrounding nations as a warning to erring Israel.
Memory gem: "Because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel" (Amos 4:12).
Thought for today:
The First doctrine of the Bible is the doctrine of God. "In the beginning God" (Genesis 1:1). The Holy Scriptures reveal the doctrine of God. On it all other doctrines rest. With full faith in the doctrine of God, the future is full of hope. Without it, life itself is "a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities," in the words of one of America's great skeptics. "God is He without whom one cannot live" was Leo Tolstoy's definition of God.
But what does the Holy Scripture say? We turn to the prophet Amos. "Lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name" (Amos 4:13).
The existence of God is proved by the existence of the universe. Every effect must have an adequate cause. There is design in the world, so there must have been a designer. There is a mathematical plan in the universe, so there must have been a great mathematician. All things must have had an origin, a beginning, a creation. Either they created themselves or they came into existence by mere chance or they were made by a creator. Self-creation is a contradiction, for it supposes that a being can act before it exists. Creation by chance is absurd, for to say that a thing is caused with no cause for its production, is to say that a thing is effected when it is effected by nothing. All things, then, that do appear must have been created by some being. That being is God.
NOTE: The earthquake (Amos 1:1) is undated; but Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that it occurred when Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the temple.
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