Read: Amos 7:1-9:15; Revelation 3:7-22; Psalm 131:1-3: Proverbs 29:23
God showed his plan to destroy Judah by locusts and by fire. Each time Amos interceded with God for Judah and God relented. Then God showed Amos how he was going to bring down the high places of Isaac and the sanctuaries of Israel with the sword. Their land would be measured out and divided and the people would die in a pagan land. Worse than that, there would be a famine of the hearing of the word of the Lord. But, the time would come when God would bring his exiled back and rebuild the ruined cities and restore them.
In Revelation we have the last two churches: Philadelphia and Laodicea. Philadelphia was located in the center of Greek civilization and means “brotherly love”. It lasted from 1750-1900. The leaders of the organized church were appointed by the monarch and not usually spiritual men. God began to open the door to other nations and send missionaries to unreached nations like Africa China, Japan, India, North and South America, to name a few. Jonathan Edwards was one of America”s great awakeners. The invention of the printing press and the fact that people started taking the Word of God literally led to America’s Great Awakening to the spirit of God.
The last church was Laodicea which was The Apostate Church or The People’s Church. It started in 1900 and will go through the Tribulation. Laodicea was a wealthy city about 40 miles from Ephesus, a striving center of Greek culture commerce and industry. The apostate church was the Roman Catholic Church and the pope blamed all their trouble on the Protestant Reformation. Liberal theology was gaining momentum in Europe focussing on the present and man, instead of God and eternity. In the meantime, the Charismatic Movement began in California and swept across the nation in America. World War One broke out and many Catholic nations were decimated like Belgium, France, and Italy. Russia became a socialist state and became the USSR. Communism was the most anti-Christian anti-Jewish programs in history inspired by Marx and Engels. W.W.I led to W.W.II. Laodicea is about the prostate church - the world’s religion. It is the spirit behind gay rights, the feminist movements and the left agenda. It is Satan’s agenda which is anything that opposes God’s heart. It is alive and well on planet earth, but it is not close to being as powerful as the Church of Jesus Christ.
God counsels us to buy from him gold refined in the fire, clothes of white, and and salve for our eyes. These are pictures of the wisdom we get from going through trials, a holy lifestyle that we put on every day and spiritual eyes to see from God’s perspective.
Lord, may we walk in wisdom, holiness, and revelation.
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