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Speaker 1: Hey friends, Jennifer Slattery here thanking you for a wonderful year.

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Speaker 1: Your support means the world to us. I also wanted

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Speaker 1: to let you know that my team and I will

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Speaker 1: be taking a two week break in January to regroup

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Speaker 1: and refuel spiritually. During that time, will we air some

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Speaker 1: of our most popular episodes if you've already listened to them.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps consider this an opportunity to prayerfully reflect on the

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Speaker 1: truce anew. May you encounter the Lord in a personal

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Speaker 1: and fulfilling way each time you listen God Bless Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, the

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Speaker 2: podcast that examines one verse each day to learn more

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Speaker 2: about God and his will for our lives. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Kyle Lorman, and after a brief message from one of

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Speaker 2: our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. You know,

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Speaker 2: we all struggle in our faith from time to time.

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Speaker 2: Psalm twenty three talks about the valley of darkness, and

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Speaker 2: ancient writers would talk about the dark knight of the soul.

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Speaker 2: We might struggle in prayer or fear that we are

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Speaker 2: not forgiven, But what if in the place where we

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Speaker 2: feel most discouraged in faith lies an invitation to meet

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Speaker 2: Jesus in a new way if you need to be

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Speaker 2: encouraged in your faith and pick up alive, loved and free,

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Speaker 2: Finding Jesus when faith is hard, Available on Amazon dot Com.

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Speaker 2: Amos Chapter eight, verse four reads, hear this, you who

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Speaker 2: trample the needy and do away with the poor of

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Speaker 2: the land. When is the last time that you took

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Speaker 2: a journey through the prophet Amos? Well, if you're like me,

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Speaker 2: has probably been a while. We don't spend much time

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Speaker 2: reading the words of Old Testament prophets. Dewey. We tend

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Speaker 2: to favor the messages of Matthew and Luke, Peter and Paul.

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Speaker 2: But if we never listen to the Old Testament prophets,

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Speaker 2: we might easily develop a mistaken belief that they have

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Speaker 2: nothing to say to us. We might even have a

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Speaker 2: skewed picture of God, one where the God of the

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Speaker 2: Old Testament is angry and wrathful, but the God of

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Speaker 2: the New Testament is nice and forgiving. We might think

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Speaker 2: something like, I don't believe in the Old Testament God.

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Speaker 2: I believe in the New Testament God. But who is

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Speaker 2: Jesus if not the incarnation of the very God revealed

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Speaker 2: in the Old Testament through prophets like Amos. Given that,

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Speaker 2: might Amos have something to say to us today? Amos

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Speaker 2: writes in the eighth century, from the eighth century before Christ,

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Speaker 2: Amos as sent to the Northern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel,

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Speaker 2: with a word of rebuke. Now Amos is extreme in

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Speaker 2: his imagery, and he is scathing in his denunciations. While

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Speaker 2: the Northern Kingdom enjoy times of immense economic prosperity, God

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Speaker 2: presents them with the fact that they had grown spiritually bankrupt.

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Speaker 2: The kingdom had moved away from God's call to care

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Speaker 2: for the most needy and vulnerable people in their midst

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Speaker 2: And so Amos says to the people, hear this, you

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Speaker 2: who trample the needy, You who do away with the

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Speaker 2: poor of the land. He goes on to describe how

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Speaker 2: Israel would sell wheat with dishonest scales, and they would

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Speaker 2: boost the price for that which had little value. Amos says,

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Speaker 2: they buy the poor with silver, and the needy for

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Speaker 2: a pair of sandals. They would even sell at an

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Speaker 2: exorbitant price half of the wheat the chaff, which was

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Speaker 2: mixed with dirt and rock. Such dishonest commerce doesn't happen today,

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Speaker 2: does it? Of course, all of this would happen while

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Speaker 2: the people would still go to the temple and sing

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Speaker 2: their praise songs and hymns, believing that they were the

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Speaker 2: blessed and honored people of God. But from God's standpoint,

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Speaker 2: Amos is clear Israel was a people who cared not

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Speaker 2: for God or for God's people. Well, no wonder everyone

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Speaker 2: asked Amos to prophesy somewhere else. Amos presents us with

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Speaker 2: an important truth, one that we at times need to

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Speaker 2: be reminded of. God cares about how we live. God

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Speaker 2: cares about how we treat the people around us, particularly

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Speaker 2: the vulnerable and the needy. Throughout the scriptures, God is

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Speaker 2: continually shown to have concern for the or, the widow,

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Speaker 2: the foreigner, and the orphan. These four classes of people

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Speaker 2: in need always hold God's attention and care. So is

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Speaker 2: it that much of a stretch to think that Amos

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Speaker 2: speaks needed words to political leaders who serve themselves and

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Speaker 2: their lobbyists rather than the needy of their community. Might

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Speaker 2: Amos have a needed word for business leaders who make

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Speaker 2: their riches off underpaid and overworked laborers, refusing the basic

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Speaker 2: rights and dignity of their workers. And because Amos speaks

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Speaker 2: to religious people of the day, does he not have

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Speaker 2: a critique for churches or dioceses that save their cash

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Speaker 2: for their own glory rather than seeing their resources as

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Speaker 2: God given means to bless the needy is hard truth,

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Speaker 2: and it should make us squirm just a little bit,

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Speaker 2: because in such an economically focused and materialistic world today,

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Speaker 2: we can never forget God's call to be a people

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Speaker 2: of righteousness and justice. We are to pursue not just

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Speaker 2: our comfort or our luxury, but the goodness and livelihood

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Speaker 2: of those who experience the deepest needs in life. This

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Speaker 2: is what it means to live out God's love in

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Speaker 2: radical and transformative ways. This is what it truly means

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Speaker 2: to be a light to the nations and a hope

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Speaker 2: for all people. Where do these words touch your life?

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Speaker 2: Where does a miss speak to you? Where are you

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Speaker 2: called to give to the needy? Could you buy a

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Speaker 2: meal for the homeless person on the corner? Might you

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Speaker 2: give some time to a charity that seeks to help

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Speaker 2: the poor disenfranchised. Could you write to your provincial or

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Speaker 2: state leader asking them to seek justice for those who

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Speaker 2: are in need? Of course, None of us can do everything,

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Speaker 2: though we are called to do something. So where might

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Speaker 2: God be calling you? Now? God's words of correction calling

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Speaker 2: us to better witness, and doesn't discount God's love for us.

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Speaker 2: Amos is clear that even during the harsh words of rebuke,

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Speaker 2: God is still ultimately a God of redemption. And even

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Speaker 2: in waywardness, Israel was never abandoned by God. Even in

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Speaker 2: exile that would come upon Israel, God never walked away

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Speaker 2: from the Covenant. The fact is, no matter how bad

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Speaker 2: things are, no matter how aggressively we may at times

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Speaker 2: rebuke or reject God's ways, we never work our way

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Speaker 2: out of God's redemption, and God is always able to

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Speaker 2: breathe new life into what has been broken previously. Ultimately,

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Speaker 2: the satisfaction of our lives isn't found in our own comfort.

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Speaker 2: It is found in the willingness to be the people

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Speaker 2: of God, always loved and always loving. May each of

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Speaker 2: us radically and boldly heed God's call to serve the

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Speaker 2: needy Amen,