The Transforming God

Jan 20, 2008 By: Pastor Joseph LoSardo Series: Amos (The Oracles) Scripture: Amos 5:8-15
Amos 5:8-9 speaks of a God who changes the seasons, the days, the seas and land, and human history. An encounter with such a God leaves that which He encounters completely and utterly changed. And where there is no change, it is implicit that there has been no genuine encounter. It was the sad experience of the Israelites in Amos’ time that they came to and left from Bethel unchanged. They went, they sang their songs, they gave their tithes, made their offerings, took comfort in covenant promises, but they left unaffected. The fault for the failure of the religion of Bethel lied not in the place, nor its promise, nor its God, but in the stubborn willfulness of the people who came week after week, unwilling to lay down their lawless transgression and unbelief. 2 Corinthians 5:17 speaks emphatically and absolutely that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. True Christianity has no middle ground. In saving His children, God literally delivered us from one kingdom into another, so that all things have become new. The old has died! The new man loves Christ and has an affection for His Word; he desires to be governed by truth. The evidence of a genuine encounter with this transforming God, is that the new man desires to have his life changed according to the precepts and principles of His Word. Nevertheless, it is the testimony of so many professing Christians that they go to church, yet continue to live unchanged lives, as if the old has not passed away.