Lord, thank you that Jesus stands and knocks. I pray that those who lead our government would throw the door wide open to welcome him. Dine with us, Jesus. Let us enjoy with you the blessings you’ve given us. Amen.
Prayer Prompt from the One Year Pray for America Bible
Amos 7:1-9:15
The Sovereign Lord showed me a vision. I 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. 2In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel* is so small.”
3So the Lord relented from this plan. “I will not do it,” he said.
4Then 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. 5Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
6Then the Lord relented from this plan, too. “I will not do that either,” said the Sovereign Lord.
7Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. 8And 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. 9The pagan shrines of your ancestors* will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”
10Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Israel: “Amos is hatching a plot against you right here on your very doorstep! What he is saying is intolerable. 11He is saying, ‘Jeroboam will soon be killed, and the people of Israel will be sent away into exile.’”
12Then Amaziah sent orders to Amos: “Get out of here, you prophet! Go on back to the land of Judah, and earn your living by prophesying there! 13Don’t bother us with your prophecies here in Bethel. This is the king’s sanctuary and the national place of worship!”
14But Amos replied, “I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one.* I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. 15But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.’ 16Now then, listen to this message from the Lord:
“You say,
‘Don’t prophesy against Israel.
Stop preaching against my people.*’
17But this is what the Lord says:
‘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.’”
Chapter 8: 1Then 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, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. 3In that day the 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!”
4Listen to this, you who rob the poor
and trample down the needy!
5You 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 grain with dishonest measures
and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.*
6And you mix the grain you sell
with chaff swept from the floor.
Then you enslave poor people
for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.
7Now the Lord has sworn this oath
by his own name, the Pride of Israel*:
“I will never forget
the wicked things you have done!
8The earth will tremble for your deeds,
and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;
it will heave up, then sink again.
9“In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth while it is still day.
10I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning
and your singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothes
and shave your heads to show your 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.
12People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from border to border*
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13Beautiful girls and strong young men
will grow faint in that day,
thirsting for the Lord’s word.
14And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria—
who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan
and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba*—
they will all fall down,
never to rise again.”
Chapter 9:1Then I saw a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar. He said,
“Strike the tops of the Temple columns,
so that the foundation will shake.
Bring down the roof
on the heads of the people below.
I will kill with the sword those who survive.
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.
3Even 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 sea serpent after them to bite them.
4Even if their enemies drive them into exile,
I will command the sword to kill them there.
I am determined to bring disaster upon them
and not to help them.”
5The Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
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.
6The Lord’s home reaches up to 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“Are you Israelites more important to me
than the Ethiopians?*” asks the Lord.
“I brought Israel out of Egypt,
but I also brought the Philistines from Crete*
and led the Arameans out of Kir.
8“I, the Sovereign Lord,
am watching this sinful nation of Israel.
I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,*”
says the Lord.
9“For I will give the command
and will shake Israel along with the other nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
yet not one true kernel will be lost.
10But 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 house* of David.
I will repair its damaged walls.
From the ruins I will rebuild it
and restore its former glory.
12And Israel will possess what is left of Edom
and all the nations I have called to be mine.*”
The Lord has spoken,
and he 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!
14I 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.
15I will firmly plant them there
in their own land.
They will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
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,
the one who has the key of David.
What he opens, no one can close;
and what he closes, no one can open:*
8“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. 9Look, I will force those who belong to Satan’s synagogue—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. 11I am coming soon.* Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. 12All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name.
13“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Psalm 131:1-3
Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
2Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
now and always.
Proverbs 29:23
Pride ends in humiliation,
while humility brings honor.
The One Year
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