The Prophets were raised to TELL GOD'S WILL TO GOD'S PEOPLE, and especially in times when God's people had abandoned God's Will for their own, and were doing horrible things while claiming to be "people of God". It was not about telling the future, but rather sharing with the people of God what would happen if they continued to walk away from God in how they lived in the world.
Today, most Prophets are silent because there is no money in it - they can't sell their books to a public in America that wants to believe the Prosperity/Power/Entitlement myths that have been sold to them by false prophets over the past 30+ years. Some are silent because they do love their country and cannot bear to be called "un-American". Some are silent because they are compliant with what is happening in the country and across the world - which itself makes them false prophets.
I love this country, but I love ALL of it, and not exclusively those just like me.
I love God's Word as it reveals God's Will, and not just those parts that benefit me.
Therefore, being instructed to "speak(ing) the truth in love", I want to share the words of an Old Testament Prophet, and New Testament Prophet and some thoughts around each.
AMOS 5:10-11 God does not value those who twist the truth and silence those who do speak it, and the one whose judgments are unjust, those who get more on the backs of the poor. God promises that what they have gained by exploiting others will be taken from them.
AMOS 5:21-24 God is clear on what God wants, and it is not worship and praise by the same folks who are actively seeking to do injustice and act wrongly to hurt others around them.
AMOS 8:4-7 God will not tolerate those who look for every opportunity for personal gain on the backs of the most vulnerable and ignore the needs of the poor. God does not forget.
We keep people down in our own land with UNEQUAL education, employment and wages, healthcare, housing, corrections and transportation. Some benefit from doing it, so the system continues to be built on the inequalities that make a few richer without limit and many more poorer without hope. Some who claim to be people of God promote this with their attitudes, philosophies and behaviors. They vote for those who stand for this kind of system. They blame the victims of this systemic injustice for their own plight. They ARE those with the most power or wealth, or ASPIRE to be them in the future. This is NOT God's Will.
JAMES 4:1-10 God does not value us doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to keep power over others and gain wealth on their backs, as a nation. Not only do we abuse our own most vulnerable in the land, but we go overseas to exploit others for cheap labor and the un-restricted taking and waste of their natural resources with un-regulated pollution of their air, land and water. For the sake of cheap prices for our own people, we go across the world to perpetrate injustice on others. When we cannot dupe them through our manipulation of WTO and other international organizations, we try to buy them with our false promises of funds for their poor. We buy their leaders to allow us to exploit their own people, sometimes propping up leaders who are ruthless enough to hurt or kill their own people, while we turn a blind eye to those abuses for our own gain. When those means don't work, we use our military to get what we want, trumping up charges against them (some of the same ones we have supported to get what we wanted, until they stopped giving us what we wanted) so that other nations in the world will not so strongly object. Then, we act surprised that people across the world at best hold us in contempt, and at worst hate us. God is not pleased. What we are doing to hurt our own people and those across the world is NOT God's Will.
I am sure that any who read this will react... some strongly. It is hard to be in a position to address our own sins as a people, especially when we have so strongly adopted a perspective of American "Exceptionalism". What is exceptional in our behavior is often our ruthlessness, greed, lust for power, nationalism, bigotry and self-centeredness in our own land and across the world.
The BEST of what God's Word has to offer is found when we search out what we believe God is saying about ourselves, so that we can submit to God's will and conform our way to God's way for us in the world. The false prophets will talk about our entitlements, justifications, favored status and signs of God's blessings just for us. They will talk about our nation sinning only in things like allowing the end of "corporate prayer" in schools, acceptance of homosexuals and other nonsense. That is "smoke and mirrors" to keep us from looking at our age-old sins, even those addressed in The Word, regarding our GREED, LUST FOR POWER and OBSESSION WITH PRESTIGE/POSITION OVER OTHERS. God broke God's own nation, Israel, numerous times to bring them back to God's Way over these sins. What makes us think that God is not doing the same with us, now?
I love this nation, but I love ALL in it.
I love God's Word, and NOT just the parts that benefit me.
I ask for your prayers for this nation that I love and the living of God's Word of Grace and Agape
Love, that I love.
Pastor Jamie
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