DECEMBER 16, 2023

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” 

― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

AMOS 7-9

I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, "Go prophesy to my people Israel."(7:14-16)

REVELATION 7

17For the Lamb at the center of the throne

will be their shepherd;

‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’^b

‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’^c 

JOURNAL 

Hope and vision...without it we will simply be consumed by despair. While the Bible is full of heartache and warnings and punishments...it is always countered with hope and vision of a better future. While we are not to live in tomorrow it is the trust and hope that God will provide and give us all we need that allows us to focus on today.

The Reality is that the future has not yet existed and we all are in the midst of that creation...while God is leading us into this creation...it still has yet to be created. We are part of that creation. How amazing that we get that honor. More importantly God promises that although that future does not exist yet...it will be good and we will play a part.

13“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman

and the planter by the one treading grapes.

New wine will drip from the mountains

and flow from all the hills,

14and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.^f

AMOS 9:14-14