Amos 8:11
"Behold, the days come," saith The Lord God, "That I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing The Words of The Lord."
A famine is not caused by excess of a commodity, but by lack of one. A commodity is an item of value that can be traded or bought and sold between two or more people. When The Word of The Lord holds no value for the hearer of it, then God will remove not only The Word but the speaker of The Word.
Churches begin to empty and tithes into the church decrease. Eventually, even the ministers will be moved elsewhere and the buildings themselves fall into ruin and decay. Apathy kills the soul faster than anything. And to assume that churches die out because of judgment against them is wrong thinking. The days come when people are going to want to hear The Truth of God's Word and that Word will not be found or it will be extremely hard to come by. The value of God's Word will increase to those who seek it; whose hunger cannot be satisfied with replacements; whose thirst will not be slaked by substitutes.
Matthew 7:13, 14 "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be to find it."
They who preach any other word than The Word of The Lord are leading their flocks to destruction and eternal separation from God. Jesus Christ Is Lord, that is His Name. We know, through the reading of our Bible, that the name Jesus means "He saves" and that Christ means 'Anointed One, Messiah". Lord is the proper Name of The God of Israel: YHWH or JEHOVAH Is His Name.
When we say we believe that Jesus Christ Is Lord, we are declaring that He is not only God's Son, but that He Is The Lord God, the Second Person in the trinity. The Holy Spirit overshadowed (covered as by a cloud) Mary and placed The Word in her womb in the form of a baby (Luke 1:35).
John 1:1, 14 "In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God. ... And The Word was made flesh, and dwelt (lived) among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of The Father), full of grace and Truth."
Jesus tells us He is The Way, The Truth and The Life in John 14:6 and that The Truth would set us free in John 8:32. To what do you believe He is referring? The Way to reach The Father is through Jesus. The Truth of The Word of The Lord is Jesus. The Life eternal is Jesus. And how does He set us free? When we believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ Is Lord (Romans 10:9 "If you declare with your mouth that Jesus Is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
"Behold, the days come," saith The Lord God, "That I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing The Words of The Lord."
Matthew 7:13, 14 "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be to find it."
When we say we believe that Jesus Christ Is Lord, we are declaring that He is not only God's Son, but that He Is The Lord God, the Second Person in the trinity. The Holy Spirit overshadowed (covered as by a cloud) Mary and placed The Word in her womb in the form of a baby (Luke 1:35).
Jesus tells us He is The Way, The Truth and The Life in John 14:6 and that The Truth would set us free in John 8:32. To what do you believe He is referring? The Way to reach The Father is through Jesus. The Truth of The Word of The Lord is Jesus. The Life eternal is Jesus. And how does He set us free? When we believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ Is Lord (Romans 10:9 "If you declare with your mouth that Jesus Is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
When God removes the preachers and the teachers of The Word of The Lord from a people who refuse to hear it and not obey it, then the famine comes upon those lands. People rise up and declare their sins to be laws, their self-righteousness plagues their governments and their destructive ways bring about their own downfalls.
The Word of The Lord tells us that people have 'itchy ears', meaning they do not want to be reminded of their sinful ways and that what they are doing is not only wrong, but evil in God's sight. So, they move to 'greener pastures': churches who preach only a fraction of The Word of The Lord or none at all. They worship the band and not The Lord; their bodies move to the rhythm of the beat and not to the moving of The Holy Spirit of God.
They have ears that do not hear and mouths that do not speak; they who refuse to hear and obey The Word of The Lord have become their own idols. How true this is in today's world even now. False doctrines tell them they are their own god and they believe it. False prophets spin lies about personal profit and gain; such tales are seen as truth. The pulpit has been replaced by the politically correct platform and the preacher by a marionette, whose strings are regulated by the hand unseen.
God's Word tells us that today is our day of salvation. Why? Because to morrow is not promised. To morrow may not come. To morrow the preaching of The Word of The Lord may be gone and then how will they hear? To morrow the teaching of The Word of The Lord may disappear for ever and how will they learn? How will you know? How will you learn? Who will you go to when God removes His people permanently from this earth? What will you do then, if you neglect this thing we call salvation now?
