AMOS 7:1-9:15
REVELATION 3:7-22
PSALM 131:1-3
PROVERBS 29:23
AMOS 7:1-9:15
The Sovereign LORD showed me a vision. I [Amos] saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land. This was after the king's share had been harvested from the fields and as the main crop was coming up. 2 In my vision the locusts ate everything in sight that was green. Then I said, " O Sovereign LORD, please forgive your people! Unless you relent, Israel will not survive, for we are only a small nation." 3 So the LORD relented and did not fulfill the vision. " I won't do it," he said. 4 Then the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land. 5 Then I said, " O Sovereign LORD, please don't do it. Unless you relent, Israel will not survive, for we are only a small nation." 6 Then the LORD turned from this plan, too. " I won't do that either," said the Sovereign LORD.7 Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was checking it with a plumb line to see if it was straight. 8 And the LORD said to me, " Amos, what do you see?" I answered, " A plumb line." And the Lord replied, " I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. 9 The pagan shrines of your ancestors and the temples of Israel will be destroyed, and I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end." 10 But when Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, heard what Amos was saying, he rushed a message to King Jeroboam: " Amos is hatching a plot against you right here on your very doorstep! What he is saying is intolerable. It will lead to rebellion all across the land. 11 He is saying, ` Jeroboam will soon be killed and the people of Israel will be sent away into exile.' " 12 Then Amaziah sent orders to Amos: " Get out of here, you seer! Go on back to the land of Judah and do your preaching there! 13 Don't bother us here in Bethel with your prophecies, especially not here where the royal sanctuary is!" 14 But Amos replied, " I'm not one of your professional prophets. I certainly never trained to be one. I'm just a shepherd, and I take care of fig trees. 15 But the LORD called me away from my flock and told me, ` Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.'16 " Now then, listen to this message from the LORD! You say, ` Don't prophesy against Israel. Stop preaching against my people.' 17 But this is what the LORD says: Because you have refused to listen, your wife will become a prostitute in this city, and your sons and daughters will be killed. Your land will be divided up, and you yourself will die in a foreign land. And the people of Israel will certainly become captives in exile, far from their homeland." 8:1 THEN the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit. 2 " What do you see, Amos?" he asked. I replied, " A basket full of ripe fruit." Then the LORD said, " This fruit represents my people of Israel--ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. 3 In that day the riotous sounds of singing in the Temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!"4 Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample the needy! 5 You can't wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out your grain in false measures and weigh it out on dishonest scales. 6 And you mix the wheat you sell with chaff swept from the floor! Then you enslave poor people for a debt of one piece of silver or a pair of sandals. 7 Now the LORD has sworn this oath by his own name, the Pride of Israel: " I will never forget the wicked things you have done! 8 The earth will tremble for your deeds, and everyone will mourn. The land will rise up like the Nile River at floodtime, toss about, and sink again. 9 At that time," says the Sovereign LORD, " I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth while it is still day. 10 I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning, and your songs of joy will be turned to weeping. You will wear funeral clothes and shave your heads as signs of sorrow, as if your only son had died. How very bitter that day will be!11 " The time is surely coming," says the Sovereign LORD, " when I will send a famine on the land--not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 People will stagger everywhere from sea to sea, searching for the word of the LORD, running here and going there, but they will not find it. 13 Beautiful girls and fine young men will grow faint and weary, thirsting for the LORD's word. 14 And those who worship and swear by the idols of Samaria, Dan, and Beersheba will fall down, never to rise again." 9:1 THEN I saw a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar. He said, " Strike the tops of the Temple columns so hard that the foundation will shake. Smash the columns so the roof will crash down on the people below. Then those who survive will be slaughtered in battle. No one will escape! 2 " Even if they dig down to the place of the dead, I will reach down and pull them up. Even if they climb up into the heavens, I will bring them down. 3 Even if they hide at the very top of Mount Carmel, I will search them out and capture them. Even if they hide at the bottom of the ocean, I will send the great sea serpent after them to bite and destroy them. 4 Even if they are driven into exile, I will command the sword to kill them there. I am determined to bring disaster upon them and not to help them." 5 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, touches the land and it melts, and all its people mourn. The ground rises like the Nile River at floodtime, and then it sinks again. 6 The upper stories of the LORD's home are in the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The LORD is his name! 7 " Do you Israelites think you are more important to me than the Ethiopians?" asks the LORD. " I brought you out of Egypt, but have I not done as much for other nations, too? I brought the Philistines from Crete and led the Arameans out of Kir. 8 " I, the Sovereign LORD, am watching this sinful nation of Israel, and I will uproot it and scatter its people across the earth. Yet I have promised that I will never completely destroy the family of Israel," says the LORD. 9 " For I have commanded that Israel be persecuted by the other nations as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost. 10 But all the sinners will die by the sword--all those who say, ` Nothing bad will happen to us.' 11 " In that day I will restore the fallen kingdom of David. It is now like a house in ruins, but I will rebuild its walls and restore its former glory. 12 And Israel will possess what is left of Edom and all the nations I have called to be mine. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do these things. 13 " The time will come," says the LORD, " when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine! 14 I will bring my exiled people of Israel back from distant lands, and they will rebuild their ruined cities and live in them again. They will plant vineyards and gardens; they will eat their crops and drink their wine. 15 I will firmly plant them there in the land I have given them," says the LORD your God. " Then they will never be uprooted again."
REVELATION 3:7-22
" Write this letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the one who is holy and true. He is the one who has the key of David. He opens doors, and no one can shut them; he shuts doors, and no one can open them. 8 " I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. 9 Look! I will force those who belong to Satan--those liars who say they are Jews but are not--to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love. 10 " Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. 11 Look, I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. 12 All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write my God's name on them, and they will be citizens in the city of my God--the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And they will have my new name inscribed upon them. 13 Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.14 " Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen--the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation: 15 " I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ` I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!' And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. 18 I advise you to buy gold from me--gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. And also buy white garments so you will not be shamed by your nakedness. And buy ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19 I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference. 20 " Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends. 21 I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. 22 Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches."
PSALM 131:1-3
A song for the ascent to Jerusalem. A psalm of David.
1 LORD, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don't concern myself with matters too great
or awesome for me.
2 But I have stilled and quieted myself,
just as a small child is quiet with its mother.
Yes, like a small child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD--
now and always.
PROVERBS 29:23
Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.
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