As Amos, a street-corner prophet, warns, God's people cannot forever push God into a small corner of their lives to be brought out like a magic charm whenever they need him.
What parallels do you see between Amos's time and our own?
I'm so glad you're here. It's a pleasure to study with you.
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As Amos, a street-corner prophet, warns, God's people cannot forever push God into a small corner of their lives to be brought out like a magic charm whenever they need him.
What parallels do you see between Amos's time and our own?
I'm so glad you're here. It's a pleasure to study with you.
Subscribe To the newsletter!!
www.blessed2bs.com
Instagram: @Bleesed2bs/ @Legion_love
Facebook: Boujeebiblestudies
Let's talk about let's talk about money. Let's talk about sex. Let's talk about drugs. Let's talk about you. Let's talk about me. Let's talk about let's talk about we talk about you, let's talk about me, let's talk about us. Let's talk about the let's talk about wealth. Let's talk about green. Let's talk being broke living in poverty. Let's talk about black. Let's talk about why let's talk about how we still fight for our rights. Let's talk about sex games and drugs. And let's talk about God. Let's
Juantrell Lovette:talk about love. Let's discuss our felons. Hey, y'all, welcome to blessed to be S. I'm your cousin and Christ one trial a bit. And this is bougie Bible studies. If you are new here, I'd like to welcome you to the number one Bible study class that you will ever come across. And if you are not new here, you already know how we get down as I dive into the Bible and read a chapter a week as we get inside the ancient stories of the Bible and hear the stories that took place back then that still apply. And that is relevant for our lives today. So that we can walk in relationship with God, the Holy Spirit and honor Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior who came and died for our sins, you guys. So it is such an honor to be here and represent my Lord who has who just continues to do abundantly amazing things in my life. And I'm just glad that I'm able that He came to save me, and it's an honor to be here. I know I keep saying that. But it's really a pleasure to go into the Bible and be ever to read it just so that I can understand and see what God is trying to talk to me about. Now the message may relate different for you. And so I just ask that you open up your heart and your ears and let God speak to you because of course, the message will be different unless we hear the same thing. You know, I'm saying because it can happen like that. But yeah, just being related to you guys through Christ is a pleasure of mine. And I really appreciate God being able to step into my life and show me his miraculous works and how he keep removing skills from my eyes. I know he's doing it for other people around me. And it's just such a pleasure to be able to connect with people on this level. So you guys today we are in our last week of our series is actually of our 14 weeks of being in the Old Testament. And our episode for today is Amos four. So that's Amos chapter four. And our title is a prophet's stern morning. Now morning, I have never dived into the book of Amos. I've never probably really even heard stories about Amos, unless certain scriptures were we were being said in church through preaching, but I've never got the opportunity to go into Amos. So, to me, I'm excited to be able to read a miss. And as I slightly went over it just a few minutes ago, I'm very like, intrigued to see how God is speaking to me about amens, because I know there's a place in life that I'm trying to get a result in luxury, and I don't ever want to remove the luxury of having God and Jesus Christ into my life with material things. So let's dive into the book of Amos. Grab your Bibles, you can read out at any version you choose to I read out of the NIV version, that's my business but I have a Bible guide here that's guiding me through the Bible and I'm so excited to say that next week we'll be going visual and I am not prepared and I'm not ready but I haven't written here and my Bible that I am ready so I'm gonna let God because he used to use me and prepare me because I'm really nervous about one visual, but I'm excited at the same time so you guys this is our last week into the Old Testament right now and then starting next week we will be going into becoming a Christian and we will be diving into certain chapters even though we've already covered them. I'm thinking about removing the chapters that we've already covered in I don't know yet so just kind of work with me so just grab your Bible okay just get ready because we want to go into the story chapter today is Amos chapter four in our class let me get my sticky notes in front of me Okay, so we are in last 42 last ones class 42 You guys you ready? I am ready to buy let's go Amish Chapter Four is a real has not return to God profit stern warning is the title here this word you cows of Bashan on mouths the Mariah you women who oppressed the poor and crushed and needy and say to your husband's bring us some drinks the Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness that time will surely come When you will be taken away with hooks the last of you with fish hooks you will each go straight out to breaches in the wall and you will be cast out towards Harmon declares the Lord. Go to Bethel insane go to Gil Gao and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning you're tired every three years burn lemon bread as a thanks offering and brag about your free will offerings boast about them you Israelites for this is what you love to do, declares the Sovereign Lord, I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord. I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another one field had rain another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink and yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord. Many times I struck your gardens and buying yards destroying them with blight and mildew, locusts devoured your fig and olive trees you have not returned to me declare the Lord, I stand place among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young man with a sward along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stitch of your camps and yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord. I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, you were like a burning sticks snatch from the fire yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord. Therefore, this is what I will do to you is around and because I will do this to you is a real prepared to meet your God He who forms the mountains who creates the wind and who reveals his thoughts to mankind who turns down to darkness and tread on the heights of the earth. The Lord God Almighty is his name Vanessa and of our chat. But let us go over some key points because colonies women a cow in the beginning I was just wrong. So with the searing score and fullness Amos paints a picture of women live in in sheer luxury. These cows thought only of their pleasure not of the oppressed poor who made their life of luxury possible. Amos paints their punishment just as vividly the brutal assassin armies who later captured Israel and took his people into exile left monuments portraying their captors being dragged off with hooks in their mouth boom, the submarine Lord has sworn by His Holiness the time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks. The last of you with fish hooks, that's a picture to see chapter four verse six, Amos was a street corner Prophet now all of you guys know about them street corner prophets we see all the time. And sometimes we confuse with standing on the street given the Word of God out to people. Sometimes we confuse that with people wanting attention. And we also confuse that with different verses of the Bible where certain chapters will say you know, don't stand on a street corner to be seen because that is the pleasure that you will that is the only reward that you will receive. But in this case, Amos was a street corner prophet and he was not of a wealthy being but he was a prophet who hear from the Lord. So chapter four verse six, I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town yet you have not returned to me declare the Lord. Although biblical prophets reflect a wide spectrum of social backgrounds and personality types. Modern day cartoonists tend to depict a single stereotype image in truth, Amos fits that stereotype. He is the kind of Prophet who stands on street corners with a signboard and rails against the whole miserable world. Now we know we've seen him okay, ironically, Amos appears on a scene when Israel the northern kingdom is booming. The government is stable for change and people are too busy enjoying the good life to listen to the rants of a prophet for precisely this reason. Amos speaks in its Halex and exclamation points. Unlike some of the other prophets, Amos comes from the peasant Class A migrant to Israel from the south he speaks with a rural accent and is probably the butt of many jokes by the city sophisticates a miss the peasant cannot get over the luxury he finds in another city in the northern cities, gorgeous couches, beds of carved ivory summer homes, top great meats and find why Amon says that this extravagance is built on a foundation of injustice, which he decries people who consider themselves properly religious can't wait for the Sabbath to end in order to dash back to work and cheat someone else load into security by their strong army the Israelites think themselves safe for generations false security. As Amos warns God's people cannot forever push God into a small corner of their lives to be brought out like a magic charm whenever they need Him. God is a lion, not a pet. Okay, in the Book of Amos, God roars Israel prepared to meet your God. Verse 12, Amos shouts from the street corners words which have about as much impact on his day as they do in ours. Nevertheless, the prophets warnings proved true. In a remarkable short time, Israel falls apart a mere 30 years after Amis the northern kingdom of Israel cease to exist. Amos is not a comfortable book to read it messages hit too close to our own time, when nation judge success by the size of their gross national product in our military military forces. For that reason alone, it deserves a close. So the question is, what parallels Do you see between Amis time and are time and I'm gonna answer that and say, oh, I need to go into Amos a little bit deeper, because this was my first time reading the book of Amos and just reading a chapter. So I need to start from the very beginning of chapter one, and really read the book of Amos to really understand the parallel that you may have with that time in our time. But what I can't say and what I do see is I understand the prophets that stand on street corners, I get that I never ever was the type to judge people who wanted to declare God's words, because I never knew what God was doing in their lives to make them speak about God the way they do. Okay? Now, when I do come across people, when I meet them, just so happens sometimes I don't know where I get to speaking about God and talking about God. And and for me, that's just like, you know, God is just, he just works. He's just a miraculous God. Right? So from reading this chapter, the luxury that Amos was witnessing in Israel, it probably like shocked him and blew him away. And he just couldn't believe how yet everybody was just in a luxury state, and nobody ever yet returned back to God. So God is like, go send some more like to what you do, because this is what I love to do. And get you guys have never returned back to me. I didn't match on Thursday on a Kvr Sabbath item plus, fathom, I did all of this took bread from your mouths, and you guys have never returned back to me. Now. That is what's happening today. So I could see the comparison and that no matter what you may have, no matter what you may see, you know, people sometimes don't feel like God is the one in control. But upon having a conversation today what it was complete stranger, I realized that God is not that I just realized that today. But I just realized no matter what background you come from, whether you Christian Catholic, or whatever the case may be. And I always say this, we all share the same creator, it is so amazing to see when God people actually could come together despite of what society and the world got going on. Now, I've never been a big luxury girl never been into super name brands, even though I like nice things. I really come from poverty. So to see how Amos was a peasant among the people that he was trying to preach to like it says in the Bible, he was the butt of what he was actually he was like the joke of the town, like probably people were looking at him, like, Look at this guy. He's crazy. He has nothing and he's talking about a God, you know what I mean? So it reminds me of society today, people really think that by the material things that they have, or certain things or how they live that that's the thing like that's, that's the way to go. But in all reality is like God is the way to go. God is the all of everything. And if there's just one opportunity for you to be able to give some of that back, just having a one on one time with God and just letting God use you. So he can guide you to share with other people. I think that is what people is missing and a lack of wanting material things and all these things and all this money and all this stuff. Because when I look at people and I look at all this luxury and all this stuff that they have, my question always goes into my mind you know, like what are you giving back to the people you know, are you share information, are you it because it doesn't necessarily have to be your wealth that you're giving away to somebody. I wouldn't recommend working hard for everything that you want and just giving away like no, I don't recommend that. But I do recommend sharing some wealthy things that you do have and wealth can come in different ways. It can come in knowledge, it can come in protection, it can come in things that you know longer need, you know, it doesn't have to necessarily just be money, but you can actually share the wealth and the knowledge of having a relationship with God or just, you know, sharing the wealth of knowledge that you may come from the same place as somebody else, and that they're not on their own. So for me, it's really a big deal to see luxury in this chapter. Because I know that I want to put myself in a better position to be able to have a luxury lifestyle, and I don't want the luxury lifestyle to over consume me enough, or I'm forgetting that God provided for me, or to be able to share the luxury wealth of the lifestyle that I have with other people. And again, it just doesn't have to be material things or it doesn't have to be money. But knowledge for me is a huge wealth benefit that somebody could share with somebody that they can, you know, take that knowledge and make something of himself and I talk and I'm talking to experience, because I see a lot of people who want to sell things, especially information, people want to sell information, but too much information can be misinformation, and too much information can be misguided information as well. So you can definitely be misguided by all the information that you're receiving to try to sell information to people is, oh, no, sometimes it can be low class, depending on the level of people in this. There's a lot that goes with that. And I'm just speaking more on experience again. So I always ask God, you know, when I get to certain places in life, and better positions in life, allow me to be able to share certain things, whether it's money, whether it's time, whether it's knowledge, whether it's you know, just a shoulder to listen a year to listen or just encouraging words whatever it is, maybe I'm always asking God to make sure I never looked too far into luxury material things and he is the luxury of my life. And I'm very glad that I'm not really a big luxury person like no offense to anybody that that is please please no judgment, Honey, be all of luxury of all you want to that has nothing to do with me. But I think the luxury for me comes in it's just knowing that God really do got my back like really is with me really talks with me really listened really conference me. And I know like, even taken on this next journey, how fearful I could be and just feeling a little bit of comfort from God and just feeling like the love and the warmth from God wrap his arms around me and just remind me that I'm going to be okay, that is such a beautiful day for me. And it is just, it's a great thing. And I had a preacher, pray for me who was on a corner. And the people that walk around or go door to door when they hand you a pamphlet or they hand you something about God for some reason. I've always like wow, these people are very bold to do this like to be talking about God, it was so much judgment around you with so much criticism around you for people to stand here or you know, really declare their love for God and really try to get people to hear what God is saying and the words of the Bible and how powerful they are like it really means something and so I can't wait when God gave me the opportunity to share my voice and my story and the words of the Bible with people on big stages and things like that and not just for My glory to know what God is doing with me but for the glory of others who know what God can do for other people. And if you just give him the opportunity if you just give yourself the opportunity to get to know him then man life is just so so beautiful in it and it's really a reward you guys so yes, you guys that was the end of our chapter I am looking forward but not looking forward to next week visuals we will be back on YouTube and I will be putting things in place in order even though I'm not ready at all. I know that I serve a mighty God, okay because the end of this verse that is said at all he who forms the mountains who creates the wind and who reveals his thoughts to mankind who turns down to darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord God Almighty is his name and that's the one that I serve. And so until next week, you guys, I am your cousin and Christ mantra LaVette don't forget to check us out on social media on Facebook bougie Bible studies on Instagram bliss to the s a good also follow my personal page is Legion. Underscore love and share this message with somebody who you feel could benefit from it. It could be family members, friends or anybody who just wants to listen to the Bible but don't know how to let me read the Bible to them and share my insight and words of encouragement to say Hey you guys, we're all related through Christ and there is no escaping that and I love you and God loves you too. Until next time, you guys I will see you next week. I