When God says that He hates something,I need to dig into what He is talking about so I can learn how it speaks to me! In Amos 5:21-24,God says-“I hate your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings & grains offerings, I will not accept them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the noise of of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” God hates all things that do not reflect true sincerity in our relationship w HIM, & lack of transparency before Him! God is so concerned about this that he “paints a picture” of what it looks like..what God Hates! Amos6:1 says,”Woe to you who are COMPLACENT....& to you who FEEL SECURE...!” The Lord boils down what He hates to a complacency & false sense of security in our lives about all things that matter for ETERNITY! Websters defines complacency this way: “Self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies. When it comes to safety, complacency can be dangerous.” Another defines it this way:”A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy. An instance of contented self-satisfaction.” It is obvious that the reason for His hatred of COMPLACENCY is God’s Great Loving Concern for us!!vHe Hates it because it is so very detrimental/DANGEROUS to our lives! This “Complacency” that God talks about leads to a false sense of security, & dangerous/detrimental pride in our lives! Complacency in the lives of the Jews made them vulnerable to false teaching & false prophets, false worship, etc., ultimately turning them from a genuine relationship with The Lord. They had became “satisfied” with going to church & listening to what others said/taught about God, & doing “religious stuff”...,without personally “digging in” to what God had instructed them through the prophets in the Old Testament. This was the root of their complacency/downfall. God doesn’t “leave us hanging” though, w/out letting us know what to do about these dangers. We are to “ let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”(Amos5:24). In other words, let His Word “roll” in and through our lives continuously, & let how we live our lives & our character(who&what we truly r)be shaped by His Word working continuously in our lives. Lord God, forgive me for allowing different forms of complacency in my life that rob me of so much. Please open the eyes of my heart to know these & be honest about them...then may Your Word & Spirit help me to address all of these with a new found strength/courage/sincerity to have my life changed by Your Love for me!

One of the purposes God has given us The Old Testament is for us to learn more & more about HIS Character! Especially what HIS Absolute Holiness&Righteousness looks like & how HIS PERFECT HOLY & RIGHTEOUS CHARACTER impacts all creation! If we don’t seek to appreciate these, we will never begin to know the full extent of the VALUE of The Mercy & Grace that Christ made possible for us to be given! In the 1st 4 chapters of Amos we see that God’s Holiness & Righteousness is absolutely perfect & pure! Because of the ABSOLUTE HOLINESS & RIGHTEOUSNESS of God and HIS OMNIPRESENCE, ALL things are seen and revealed in HIS presence, and ALL things that fall short of being Holy & Righteous must be dealt with, or they spontaneously combust in the presence of HIS HOLINESS & RIGHTEOUSNESS! When we “peel the onion” on the sins God describes in the Amos1-4, all Unrighteousness, & all Unholiness are seen by God - our actions; our words; our motives; our hearts! God does not let us know of these things in order to hammer us with guilt, but so that we will TURN to HIS Great & Awesome Mercy & Grace to be washed of all our sin so we CAN be in HIS PRESENCE. In Amos 5 God reveals HIS humongous HEART when HE pleas with the people(us!), ”Seek Me & live; do not seek Bethel(false gods/idols)...Seek The Lord &live...!” With an appreciation of the significance of God’s Character, we can begin to more fully appreciate HIS GREAT LOVE and DESIRE for us, and the freedom of Romans8:1-4,”Therefore ,there is now no condemnation 4 those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life (God’s Holiness&Righteousness) set me free from the law of sin&death (UNholiness&UNrighteousness). And So HE (The Lord)condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit (the Holy Spirit).” ONLY by trusting in Christ are we made Holy & Righteous in God’s Sight/HIS Presence! I praise YOU Lord for YOUR absolute Holiness & Righteousness being made clear for me to know just how ETERNALLY SIGNIFICANT YOUR CHARACTER TRAITS are for all of us to see…and that YOUR Character also defines YOUR Awesome Love that has provided The Mercy & Grace of Christ for me. May Your Character made known to me thru Your Word & Spirit continue to reveal what remains as UNrighteous&UNholy in my life so that The WORK of YOUR GRACE through YOUR Spirit & YOUR WORD may continue n my life!

God created every one of us to know HIS Great & Perfect Love. GOD created absolutely everything to reveal HIS Awesome Glory & Righteousness to us, so that WHO & WHAT HE is would “woo us” 2to HIM & HIS AMAZING LOVE for us! In doing so, we would know The ONLY Source of LOVE & the blessings of “being close” to THE SOURCE of ALL LIFE and ALL that is GOOD. !When we survey creation we should be awed by how perfectly all things were created, & the beautiful wonder of “purpose” n everything - too reveal GOD’s Glory; Righteousness; & Love to us! In Creation’s initial state, before sin “fractured” it’s pristine (Glorious&Righteous) state, everything was in balance with it’s perfect purpose (Genesis1:31a,”God saw all he had made, & it was very good.”). Everything was created for our benefit, so we would know what LIFE at it’s BEST is supposed to be! Life w endless abundance of knowing all the BLESSINGS GOD created us to enjoy. Especially the gift of knowing what “it is” to be loved so amazingly by GOD, and know HIS Glorious Personal Devotion for each one of us! When sin of any kind enters our lives, we are in essence lured away from God’s Loving Kindness & away from His Devotion/Promises/Blessings for us. Just as a man or woman with the perfect spouse may “allow” themselves to be “tantalized/tempted” away from a perfect spouse by what boils down to deceitful thoughts & promises, we allow the same when sin of any kind enters our lives. And just as this “marriage unfaithfulness” exposes an unfaithful spouse to physical & emotional diseases that can destroy, sin has the same effect on us n this life & for Eternity! This breaks God’s Heart, as it would break the heart of a Perfect Spouse when betrayed. God does not “give up easily” on us though! In His Great Loving Perseverance/Patience HE allows us to know the consequences of sin, so we may see the TRUTH of it’s vile deceit, & return to the FAVOR of HIS Mercy/Grace/Amazing Love. This is part of what the life & message of Hosea is about. In chapter 1, Hosea’s life is a “real world/real life awakening” for the people around him of how twisted they have allowed their unfaithfulness to become, & what this has done in their lives-> revealing the “chasm contrast” of what TRUE Love is with what “deceitful/false love” is. But, in Hosea 2:14-23 God’s Amazing Persistence/Never Ending Pursuit to “win us back” is clear! (Hos2:14-23.”Therefore I am going to allure her....& speak tenderly to her...give her back her vineyards (original blessings HE created for us)...you will call me ‘my husband’, you will no longer call me ‘my master’...I will show my love to the one I called ‘not my loved one’...they will say ‘You are my God’”.) God promises to go to All Extremes in order to win the unfaithful back...with the Ultimate Extreme being what Christ suffered to WIN us back! Dear Lord, forgive me for unfaithfulness in my life & heart. Open my eyes to YOUR ways of “wooing” me back, and help me turn from all unfaithfulness...& be faithful to YOUR Great Love for me!

1Peter ends with an APPEAL to believers that are older and those that are much younger!1 Peter5:1-3,”To the elders among you,I appeal to you....Be shepherds of God’s flock...serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being EXAMPLES to the flock.” And 1Peter5:5 calls the younger believers to humbly receive the EXAMPLES of how to live/think/respond/plan as life-lessons to be weaved into their lives. Then Peter calls both, the younger and the older to HUMILITY “under God’s mighty hand, that HE may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on HIM because HE cares for you.”( 1Peter5:6-7). When Peter says “that HE may lift you up”, he is in essence calling us all to a life that sees all worldly success; praise; comfort; accolades, as nothing compared to a life lived honoring The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ...all else is shifting sand (Matthew7:24-29,”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”). Then Peter tells us the importance of guarding these things (older->seek to be shepherds of the flock as Jesus models through scripture “because as God wants you to be..not greedy...but eager to serve...being examples to the flock”: younger->submissive to those who are older),Peter calls us to rightly protect these ways of thinking/living/responding in our life when 1Peter5:8-9 says “Be self controlled & alert.Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.Resist him,standing firm in the faith,because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same sufferings.” Our attitudes of pride,arrogance,self-serving,ego,greed,& having a worldly perspective on life instead of an ETERNAL perspective...,are all severe detriments to how God desires to bless the “olders” & the “youngers”! These attitudes will make us “olders” either back away from the mantel of being shepherds as we get older,or if we do take up this mantel we will likely lead/mentor/shepherd in the ways of worldly successes and worldly perspectives instead of Godly successes and Eternal Perspectives! This leads to the “youngers” having a paradigm of living/thinking/responding/planning that is also worldly & temporal, which tends to shape minds/hearts/lives that become far less than the “humility towards one another” that God calls us to. These attitudes also may be the cause for the “olders” having more concern for their free time being spent on themselves, & a lack of TRUE&RIGHT responsiveness to the spiritual/eternal needs of the “youngers”. And then the “youngers” become as selfish/self-serving/greedy & arrogant as the “olders” in their lives. This is NOT the way God’s Heart desires for us to be instrumental is each other’s lives! HE desires for the call HE places on the “olders” to make them humbly dependent on God’s Word & HIS Spirit for personal guidance as they step into the life purposes God calls them to as shepherds and trusted Eternal Perspective Mentors to the “youngers”. If this happens as God instructs in HIS Word, then there is an increased potential for more and more “youngers” to see the humble submission of “olders” to The Lordship of Jesus Christ, & just maybe a few more “youngers” doing the same as they become more trusting in the humble/selfless examples of “olders” sincerely seeking to follow & serve Christ with their mind/heart/life. This is one of the major ways God intends for our lives to further The Gospel of Christ. And our not sincerely taking these mantels up in our lives is likely why in the United States of America we are not experiencing a TRUE revival of true & sincere followers of Christ that take HIS Word as HIS Word! For if we “olders” truly&sincerely took HIS Word as HIS Word our lives would become the “willing shepherds” that “God wants us to be”....and as in the Church in the book of Acts, we might just see communities and even nations positively impacted by The Gospel of Christ...the same things that happened in the first New Testament Church described in Acts. Dear Jesus, forgive me for not being aware of the ways You desire for my life to be an example of the kind of shepherd YOU so desire me to have the joy of being... I pray for Your HELP in changing me from the inside out...to be a Sincere & True seeker&follower of Your’s so I may become the example YOU want me to be.

After Peter establishes a ROCK SOLID basis for trusting in Jesus Christ in 1Peter1-2, he takes the next couple chapters to encourage those who choose to trust&seek&follow Christ about the changes in our lives we need to be prepared for! Peter talks about how relationships between husbands & wives must be different, how our lives among our family, friends, & others must be different, etc. Common fibers of change through all of these include selflessness; humility; steadfastness; discipline; long suffering; &commitment. All of these are parts of the Character of Christ that should become fundamental to the character of Christians through the indwelling of The Holy Spirit. But, Peter says that these characteristics will fail to become part of who we truly are unless we PREPARE to have these characteristics expressed through the way we walk/talk/think/live through every moment of our days. If we do not take these characteristics and make them more than academic in our lives, we will probably end up walking/talking/thinking/living in ways that are not much unlike the world, and ineffective for the eternal purposes that The Lord created us to have. 1Peter3:15 says,”But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give reason for the hope that you have.”. Unless we have sought to know what God’s Word truly says about HIS Character & HIS Characteristics;HIS Ways;HIS Mercy;HIS Grace;AND ESPECIALLY HIS Gospel through Christ, we will not be prepared to internally shore up a genuine FAITH that reflects a life that stays TRUE to God’s Word; God’s Character; God’s Ways; God’s Mercy; God’s Grace; nor will we grow in our personal AWE of The Gospel of Christ. This UNpreparedness will make us eternally ineffective for God’s Desired Purposes for our life, but even more disastrous it will lead to our not having a very personal relationship w The Lord that provides for the peace/joy/strength needed to live as “aliens & strangers in the world”(1Peter2:11), & our mind/heart/life will more than likely drift back into the world’s mainstream, instead of being in the mainstream of God’s plans & purposes for our lives. Going against the world’s mainstream is going to be challenging and even painful at times...and Peter warns us about this a few times, which is part of our being prepared! Following Jesus is not necessarily going to be worldly pleasant, nor worldly successful. Because of this Peter tells us to always be prayerful & faithful (1Peter4:7,”...Therefore be clear minded & self-controlled so that you can PRAY.” &1Peter4:19, ”So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”).Prayer AND Faithfulness are not independent of each other, but integrally part of each other. And in order to know either Truly we must PREPARE ourselves by seeking to know ever increasingly more about God’s Character;God’s Ways;God’s Mercy;God’s Grace,through HIS Word and through HIS Spirit made possible only by The Gospel of Christ ->This is the “Always be prepared to give an answer” that 1Peter3:15 calls us to.Dear Lord,I admit that I fail to always be prepared, & I have experienced the personal disappointments and failures of being UNprepared in the ways that these verses call me to BE prepared. Lord, may my mind/heart/life be so sensitive to Your Spirit living within me that I respond to Your call for me to always be prepared...and may I BE prepared by Your Word and Your Spirit teaching me and giving me strength&courage to be rightly prepared, and then follow thru with the kind of FAITH that reflects an AWE for YOU and YOUR WORD.