In the sermon 'God's Gracious Corrections,' Peter Allison explores the themes of divine judgment and repentance as described in Amos 4. The passage depicts God's impending judgment on Israel due to their transgressions and injustices, particularly against the poor and needy. Allison discusses the metaphor of the 'cows of Bashan,' interpreting it as a critique of the wealthy and powerful, whether they be men or women, who oppress others. He examines the significance of sacrifices and offerings, noting how Israel's insincere worship and disobedience contributed to their downfall. The sermon highlights various forms of divine chastening, such as famine, drought, crop failure, and war, emphasizing that these were intended as calls for repentance. Allison urges believers to be sensitive to God's chastening and to avoid justifying their actions, advocating for a heart open to repentance and humility in the face of adversity.

Please turn to Amos, chapter 4. I'd like to read this chapter of the 13 verses. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountains of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink. The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, behold, the days shall come upon you when He will take you away with fish hooks and your posterity with fish hooks. You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into harmine, says the Lord.

Come to Bethel and transgress. At Gilgal, multiply transgressions. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings.

For this you love, you children of Israel, says the Lord God. Also, I gave you cleanliness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. I also withheld rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city. I withheld rain from another city.

One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain, the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied Yet you have not returned to me says the Lord I blasted you with blight and mildew when your gardens increased your vineyards of fig trees and Your olive trees the locusts devoured them Yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. I sent a plague. I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt. Your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses.

I made the stench of your camps come up to your nostrils, yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning. Yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is His name.

May rivers of water run down from our eyes when men do not keep His law. Heavenly Father, as we continue to worship You this morning, We ask for your Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts, to give us understanding of the things that are spiritually discerned that the natural man cannot understand. We ask that you would speak to us and make us alive in Christ. And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim the gospel of your grace. In Jesus name, Amen.

The chapter 4 continues the description of what will happen when God visits Israel to punish them. In the third chapter, God said He would visit Israel for their transgressions. Punish. The New King James says He will punish, but the word is visit. And He says, I will also visit destruction on the altars of Bethel.

He would cut off the horns of the altar and destroy their winter housing and their summer houses and their houses of ivory. And this here in chapter 4 continues that message. Continues with the description of what God will do when He visits them. This isn't a visit in grace. This is a visit in judgment.

And he opens this chapter with a rather startling address. With a rather startling address. He grabs their attention with a very strong or emphatic statement. Kind of right in the middle of his message here describing what God would do when He visits them. He refers to the people that He's talking to as cows.

Cows of Bashan. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan. Now it would be seen as an insult to call somebody a cow Bashan is a fertile region across the Jordan on the east side of the Jordan River, that's near the Sea of Galilee and north of Gilead to the south. So this is a region that was controlled by the Amorites until the time of Moses when the Israelites defeated Og, king of Bashan. Remember, in their second battle before they crossed the Jordan as they were conquering Canaan.

And this og was one of these remaining giants. His bed was 13 feet long and 6 feet wide and made of iron. This is a huge, huge man. He needed an iron bed to support his weight. Six feet wide and 13 feet long.

That's massive, a massive man. This is a land of giants. And he was a very formidable soldier. You could imagine trying to fight somebody like this. But he was utterly defeated before the Lord and by Israel.

And that land of Bashan was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh as part of their inheritance. And Golan is one of those cities, became a city of refuge, and we know it today as this area around the Golan Heights. But see Bashan is mentioned here in this context because Bashan was a very fertile area for pasturing animals. It was rich in cattle. Psalm 22, that Messianic psalm speaking of Christ's crucifixion speaks of Christ being surrounded by the bulls of Bashan.

It was also rich in timber. Both Isaiah and Ezekiel speak of the oaks of Bashan. So this was a fertile area. And animals that grazed in this area would be fat and thriving and flourishing. And thriving and flourishing.

And so in describing how the Lord led Israel. Moses uses Bashan in his Song of Moses to symbolize fat and well-fed animals. He says in Deuteronomy 32, speaking of Israel, He made him draw honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock, curds from the cattle, and milk from the flock with the fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan and goats, and with the choicest wheat, and you drank wine, the blood of grapes." In other words, Moses is using this to describe a thriving, a prosperous people. And so, when Amos speaks then of the cows of Bashan, he's saying that they are fat. They are well fed.

We might use the word today fat cat. The fat cats. That's what he's calling them. But these cows of Bashan are not in Bashan. They're in Samaria.

The cows of Bashan who are on or in, sorry, on the mountains in Samaria. Samaria was this capital city of Israel and it was set on a hill and it had a commanding view of all the region around it and so Amos is saying these people in Samaria were like the fat cows of Bashan Now then this address is as blunt as it seems. But the question is who are the people that he's calling fat cows? Who in particular is he referring to here? Now most all modern commentators that I could find take the view that he is referring to rich spoiled wives And there's good reason to see it that way.

That's the way the New King James has translated it. All the subsequent whos, who oppressed the poor, who crushed the needy, who say, all those whos are in the feminine. We don't see that in English clearly, but in Hebrew it's very clear, those are feminine. It's referring to feminine gender. And in...

The word for husband is actually the word for Lord. It's the same word that's used in the next line, the Lord God, who say to your husbands, but that husband is a legitimate translation of that word Lord. Sarah called Abraham her Lord. And so some places this word does mean somebody's earthly husband. So that's a legitimate, that's possible that that could mean husbands.

And we have a similar kind of pronouncement in Isaiah the third chapter, where Isaiah very explicitly and very clearly addresses these kinds of women. And he says that all their finery and so on would be turned into ashes. Instead of sashes, they would have a belt, a rope. And instead of their finery and perfumes, they would have stenches and so on. So he's very clearly talking about women in that context.

So this fits the context of what was going on in Israel at that time, because Isaiah was bringing that prophecy against them. However, all of the Reformation commentators take the view that This is referring to men. That these are rich, powerful nobles. Here. Why do they believe that?

Well, the chapter opens with a command, hear, hear, hear this word. That command is masculine in the masculine in Hebrew. As I mentioned, this word for husbands is actually lords. It's a word for lord, adonai, adon. So that could be translated, who say to their lords.

And also, the New King James says, your husbands, but the word is actually, and I don't know why they've done this and a lot of the commentators I read didn't know why this was translated in the second person Calvin asked why it was translated in the second person, because it's actually the third person. It should be there, and it's masculine. The there is in masculine. In verse 2, the first two yous are masculine. Behold, the day shall come upon you.

That's in the masculine. When he will take you away, that's in the masculine. If he was referring to women, those would be in the feminine. But then, and your posterity is in the feminine so there's a mix throughout this passage of masculine and feminine why the mixing of masculine and feminine well I think this is like the governor of California famously calling the state legislatures girly men because they were afraid of making tough budget decisions that would displease somebody no matter what decision they made. Amos is referring, I believe here, to the very same people that he's been referring to throughout chapter 3 in verse 9 and 10 where he says, "...assemble in the mountains of Samaria and see the two malts in her midst and the oppressed within her, for they don't know how to do what's right.

They store up violence and robbery in their places. Or in verse 12, the children of Israel who dwell in Samaria. I think he's referring to these same people. But by using this feminine language and this feminine metaphor of the cows of Bashan, he's really calling these men effeminate. So in this mixture of feminine and masculine pronouns, where there's masculine, he's referring to the actual people, the real people, and when he's referring in the feminine, he's using it metaphorically.

And this is the way that all the Reformation Bibles translate this passage. They translate it as, who say to their, by that I mean the bishop's bible the geneva bible and the king james all translate this passage as that who say to their husbands sorry who say to their lords. And so they understand this passage here, this metaphor, to be referring to the same people, the same rich and oppressive nobles and princes and wealthy of the land that oppress the poor. That's a theme throughout the whole book of Amos, is this injustice that the wealthy are perpetrating against those who are poor and needy. And so I believe that I would, although I can see both ways, I believe that the Reformation commentators, in their understanding of this passage, I tend to favor that understanding of this.

I think it's consistent with the whole theme here of Amos, of dealing with this injustice and oppression of people, cultural oppression, systemic oppression that oppresses the poor and crushes the needy. So oppressing is fraud. It's defrauding people. It's taking advantage of them. And if they're poor, they don't have a way to fight back.

They don't have a way to get justice. And so you take advantage of their poverty. Or crush the needy. It refers to complete destruction of people's ability to make a living complete destruction of their ability to to earn income Taking away everything that they have and leaving them completely destitute, homeless. You know, we're seeing, many of our cities are seeing that.

These homeless populations are proliferating. More and more and more people are homeless because in many cases, yes, there is their own sin involved, but in many cases it's compounded with oppression and crushing of the needy. But he also condemns them as being drunks, who say to their lords, bring us wine, let us drink. This is their purpose in life, is to have pleasure. And if they have to crush the poor, crush the needy and oppress the poor, that's not their concern.

But they have a sense of entitlement to turn to their lords, to their princes, to the rulers, and want more from them. They want to use the power of the sword for their own personal benefit to enhance their own personal pleasures. They want to get wealthy through the power of the civil magistrate to rob from everybody else. Isaiah speaks of this exact same thing. Woe to the crown of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim.

This is the northern kingdom. Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which is at the head of the verdant valleys to those who are overcome with wine." So Isaiah is identifying this same drunkenness. Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, like a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, who will bring them down to earth with His hand. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled underfoot. But they also have erred through wine, Isaiah says, and through intoxicating drink are out of the way.

The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They are out of the way through intoxicating drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment because of their drunkenness.

For all tables are full of vomit and filth. No place is clean That's that's Isaiah's description of these people and you It's graphic, but it's very very true. Their tables are full of vomit and filth. That's very characteristic of drunken, debauched parties, such as these cows of Bashan wanted to participate in. They wanted their rulers to facilitate this for them because they had the power, the wealth, to buy these politicians, to buy these rulers.

Now, what's the result? This is here where God gets to the result again, another result of His visitation that He said would happen in the previous chapter. The Lord has sworn by His holiness. When the Lord removes people from His covenant, or when He adds them, there is an oath. There is an oath.

Swearing is very biblical. In fact, we are commanded to swear. What the New Testament forbids is not swearing by God, but by swearing by something else other than something that God created, or by swearing, making it common. But that Bible actually commands us to swear. It commands us to swear only by God's name.

And swearing is a matter that should be reserved only for great, important, and serious things. It shouldn't be a common way. Jesus said, let your yes be yes, and your no, no. But there are times when the Scripture says we ought to swear. And one of those times is the entry and exit from the covenant.

This is a serious matter. And so God swears. Remember, The New Testament says God swore in His wrath that the children of Israel wouldn't enter the Promised Land. God swears by Himself that by two immutable things, our salvation, our entrance in the covenant, might be more made sure. And so God here is swearing by His holiness.

God is not, as one person I read said, breaking His own law. No, He is keeping His own law. God never breaks His own rules because God's laws are a reflection of who He is. And so God is swearing by His holiness as we are commanded to do. We are commanded to swear by the name of God.

That's given several times in the Scriptures. And so God takes an oath regarding this excommunication of these people. And, Behold the day shall come upon you when He will take you away with fish hooks, and your prosperity with fish hooks. That day came when the king of Assyria conquered Israel, destroyed the city. And it was a terrible siege.

It lasted for three years. And just to put that in perspective, Tyre, the siege of Tyre, which was a great and mighty city, lasted not even a year. Nineveh, the siege against Nineveh herself, was much shorter. Syria, this was a terrible... Syria was a...Sumeria was a strong city and they lasted a long time in this siege.

But God said you will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her. In other words, the walls will be broken down so that wherever they were in the city, they would just be able to walk straight out of the city. They wouldn't have to go to where the gate was to get out. They could just walk straight out. You remember when Israel conquered Jericho, they did the same thing going in.

God caused the walls to collapse. And there's a lot of amazing detail in that with the double walls and all. But the children of Israel were able just to walk right up into the city. Because the whole wall all around the city just collapsed and they were able to walk right in. Well, God is not saying you're going to leave the exact same way.

The walls are going to come down and you will be taken out straight ahead. Each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into harmine, says the Lord. He said he will take you away with fish hooks. The Assyrians were notorious for their cruelty, especially with the captives that they took. And this is describing The way that they were led away a hook in their nose A little hook when you have a hook you can control a child can control a bull You know when there is a hook in that bull's nose God is saying He's going to lead them away with a fishhook, in a state of humiliation, in a way that they will not be able in any way to resist.

And this all came to pass roughly 60 years or so after Amos's prophecy. And it was a process. There were several times that they were defeated, but then there was the final destruction of Samaria and the carrying away of thousands and thousands into captivity is scattered. Essentially, these people were scattered and lost. They're called the lost tribes because there was no return of the remnant as there was with the southern kingdom.

These people were carried into captivity. The land was resettled with foreigners who didn't know anything about the Lord and they became the Samaritans with their corrupted worship. But that began actually even before these pagans were repatriated into the land of Samaria. That began with Jeroboam. And Amos alludes to this here.

There was Wicked worship. Come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal. Multiply transgressions. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven.

Proclaim and announce the free will offerings. For this you love your children of Israel." What's the problem here? Well, God commanded the children of Israel to offer their sacrifices where He put His name. And God put His name at the temple in Jerusalem. And that's where everybody was to go to worship the Lord.

That's where they were to offer their sacrifice. But when Jeroboam split away, and the kingdom was torn in two, he was concerned that if all the children of Israel continued to go back to Jerusalem like God commanded them, then they would maybe want to reunite with the Southern Kingdom. And in order to prevent that, he set up altars in Dan and Bethel. And he told the people, this is the God who delivered you out of the land of Egypt. Jeroboam had to rewrite history.

And the pagans always have to rewrite history if they want to maintain control. So he tried to rewrite history and he caused all of the people to sin because this was forbidden by the Lord to offer sacrifices on other altars. And though many at that time many of the Bible believing or God fearing people left the northern kingdom and came down into the south. Which left in the north only the people that didn't know the Lord. And so what he lists here is these are people who are not caring about how God commanded them to worship.

They've set up a whole different system, but they still pretend that they are Worshiping God according to His commandments. And so the things that are listed here are things that they were commanded to do. Bring your sacrifices every morning. There was to be morning and evening sacrifices because we are to worship the Lord morning and evening, daily. It's to be, we should be worshiping the Lord.

That's the pattern that's established for us. And so they bring their sacrifices every morning. Your tithes every three days. Now, Maybe in your Bible, you might have a margin note that says, or years. Mine does, I don't know if yours does or not.

So which is it? Three years or three days? The word here is, you probably recognize the Hebrew word is Yom, or Yom. It's the Hebrew word for day. But it can refer to a year.

Now this is exactly what the people that deny the historicity of Genesis 1, the account of creation, they say, well, Yom, there doesn't mean a day. And so I want to spend a minute to show that it can, in certain places, mean, that word can mean, a year. And that's why the margin says or year. In Exodus 13, where God is giving instructions about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was a yearly feast. God said, verse 10, you shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.

Now the Hebrew word there is Yom, day. But it's clear from the context that they were to keep this ordinance from year to year because the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a yearly feast. One of the most obvious places is Leviticus 25, 29. If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold Within a full year he may redeem it the second year is the word Yom day It has to mean day It has to mean year in that case because that's what it just said prior to that. Another example is Numbers 9 22 where Moses is relating how they were led by that cloud and pillar of fire.

Whether he says in Numbers 9 22 whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain in camp and not journey, but when it was taken up, they would journey. Whether it was two days, a month, or a year. The Hebrew word that is translated year there is yom, day. But again, it's obvious that has to mean a year. It wouldn't make sense for it to be a day.

It wouldn't be two days, a month, or a day. It's two days, a month, or a year. It fits the context much better. Another example is Samuel's mother Hannah, who made him a new coat every year. 1 Samuel 2.19, Moreover, his mother used to make him a little robe and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

In all three cases, the Hebrew word translated year is Yom, the word for day. Well we know that has to be year there because she didn't go up to the temple every day to bring him a new coat. She went up every year. So despite how strongly we argue that Yom has to mean day in Genesis 1, and I believe that it does, and there are many reasons for that. There are some situations where that word can legitimately mean a year.

And I believe this is one of them. And again, all the older translations, the Bishop's Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the King James, translate this as year. And so it reads, Bring your sacrifices every morning, your ties every three years. Now, that is... They understand it this way because the poor tithe was given every third year.

Deuteronomy 14 28 says at the end of every third year you shall bring out of the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. That's the poor tithe and it was stored up every taken every third year and saved so it's a third of a tithe and and so when when they recognize when it's talking about bringing tithes every three days or years years fits years Because that's what they were commanded to do, bring the poor tithe every three years. Now why would he focus on the poor tithe? Malachi talked about the first tithe to the priests. He's talking about the poor tithe.

Why? Because these are people who are oppressing the poor. They are claiming that they are taking care of the poor. That they're bringing their poor tithe every three years as they ought to. But Amos is saying, God's not pleased with that worship.

Because instead of helping the poor, you're oppressing the poor, despite your bringing a poor tithe every three years. And bringing your sacrifices every morning. Your worship is an abomination to the Lord. It's false worship. It's not what He has commanded.

And they offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. Now all the Old Testament sacrifices that were by fire were commanded to be offered without leaven. Because leaven represents sin. And the New Testament says purge out that old leaven. Purge out that sin.

But there was one sacrifice That was offered with leaven It wasn't a sacrifice by fire it was at Pentecost Leviticus 23 says you shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an ephah and they shall be a fine flour. They shall be baked with leaven. These are the first fruits to the Lord. Leaven. This one offering was to have leaven in it.

No offering by fire could have leaven or honey, but this one was. What does Pentecost speak about? Pentecost speaks about when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Israel so that there was no longer a dividing line between Jews and Gentiles. And the gospel, Satan was bound so the gospel could go through the whole earth by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was poured out.

In Matthew, Jesus compares this growth of the kingdom, which was seen at Pentecost. He compares it to leaven working in bread. Remember that in Matthew 13? He says, another parable, he spoke to them, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it was all leaven. That's how the kingdom would grow.

And you remember at Pentecost, there were 3, 000 people added to the church that day. And so this kingdom grows. It permeates everything. It grows from the inside. Leaven works from the inside.

It's not something on the outside of the bread making it rise. It's something inside the bread that is causing it to grow. The Holy Spirit reigns in our hearts. Remember Jesus said the kingdom is not around you, but it's within you. And so this is a picture then of the growth of God's kingdom and that's what's represented in this feast.

And so they are bringing this sacrifice with leaven as they're supposed to, but God isn't pleased with it because it's not coming out of a sincere heart that loves the Lord. These people are doing what God commanded when it suits them. When it fits in with how they want to live, then they're fine to do what God says. But they are ignoring God's commandments on worship when it doesn't suit them. And they think that because they're doing all these good things, that God is therefore somehow pleased with them.

But this is idolatry. This is will worship. Worshiping God according to how we imagine He should be worshiped instead of how He commands us to worship Him. We can't presume in our hearts to know how God would be worshiped and say that we know how God wants to be worshiped more than He does. He's told us how to worship.

And He commanded them to worship Him in Jerusalem, to bring their sacrifices to Jerusalem where the priests were, who were ordained to bring those sacrifices. And they weren't doing that. And God was not pleased with them. So God chastened them. That's what He does for His people when we stray.

And sometimes for our own sanctification, to purify us. But in this case, it was for their sin. God sent His chastening. What did He send? He sent about six things here.

He sent famine. Cleanness of teeth. That's a nice way of putting it. You don't have to brush your teeth because you didn't need any food and they're not dirty and There's nothing in them. Lack of bread.

God sent that. And yet they did not return to Him. They were insensitive to that chastening. They didn't think it was for them. They just attributed it to, well, that's just nature.

That's just not climate change or whatever is happening. You blame it on something other than the finger of God. God says, I withheld rain from you. When there were still three months to the harvest, He made it rain in one city and not in another. Now that ought to have gotten their attention.

They should have been asking, why is God not giving us rain and He's sending it to these other people. Have we strayed? Are we displeasing the Lord that He would send this upon us? But God says they didn't listen. Yet, you haven't returned to Me.

He sent crop failure. He blasted their crops with blight and mildew. And when the things did grow, then the locusts came and consumed them. But instead of asking the Lord, Lord have we, what have we done? Instead of humbling themselves before the Lord and recognizing His chastening and seeking to repent, they, God said, you didn't return to me.

You didn't return to me. So He sent a plague. He sent a pandemic in their midst. Sounds familiar? Just like He sent on Egypt.

Now while they could see God's purpose in sending it on Egypt, they totally missed God's purpose in sending it to them. He sent war. The young men I killed with a sword. He sent, yet they didn't return to the Lord. They were insensitive.

He brought military defeat. He overthrew them. Just like God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, He overthrew some of their cities. They were conquered. And He says, you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning.

But again, they remained insensitive. You haven't returned to Me, says the Lord. Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel. What's He going to do? All the things that He said He would do.

Destroy their wealth, their summer houses and their winter houses and their ivory, and lead them out by fish hooks through broken down walls. He's going to do all that. Prepare. Prepare to meet your Maker. Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind, who declares to man what His thought is and makes the morning darkness who treads the high places of the earth the Lord God of hosts. The Lord's sabioth is His name." God is God. And there is none like Him. He is just in all of His judgments, but He is merciful. He gave them many opportunities to repent.

He sent many wake-up calls to them, but they just ignored them all. They were oblivious to them. So we can ask ourselves, Do we recognize God's chastening in our lives? Do we first ask God if God is chastening us for our sin when we face adversity? If we see calamity come, is it not God who brought it?

We can ask ourselves, do we seek to justify everything we do? Or have we fired that inner lawyer that would defend everything we do, whether it's right or wrong? We had a term in the Navy for that called a sea lawyer. Somebody who could always argue why they were right. Have we fired that inner lawyer that always seeks to justify what we do?

Are we quick, we can ask ourselves, are we quick to admit where we're wrong? Or is that too painful? Too embarrassing? Too humiliating for us to acknowledge where we're wrong? Is our conscience tender toward the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

We can ask ourselves, do I apply the warnings of Scripture to myself first? Or do I think first of all the other people who those warnings could apply to? We should ask ourselves, do I excuse my fallings by assuring myself that I'm better than the others around me in some area? And seek to salve my own conscience by comparing to others? Or do we compare ourselves to God's standard?

We can ask ourselves, are we willing to listen to what others have to say when it's critical of us? Even if they don't bring their criticisms in the best way, in an appropriate way even. Maybe they're inappropriately brought. Are we willing to listen to what others have to say, especially if they're critical? Do we think that we've arrived?

Are we always pressing forward? Do we recognize that we haven't arrived where we want to be. Do we say, as Paul said to the Philippians, not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Is that what we're doing?

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your word even when it pinches our toes. We thank you Lord for your Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sins. We ask that we might have a heart that is tender toward you, that is quick to recognize where we have strayed, that can humbly repent.

Lord, we pray that we may never be insensitive to Your chastening. May we never be as the horse or the mule that need a two by four across our head before we are willing to listen. But Lord may we be led by Your Word and by Your Spirit. These things You have said, Lord, were written for our example. May we not forget them.

May we not think that they are for others, but you have written them for us, for each of us. Lord, may we be instructed out of your law, out of your word. May these lessons that were written for our benefit, may we not lose that benefit. Through our insensitivity, through our pride, through our justification of ourselves. Lord, we thank you that you know us.

We thank you for your mercy to us. We thank you that There is nothing that can separate us from your love, not even death, nor any other lesser distress or persecution or difficulty or adversity. So Lord we ask that you might make us willing and gentle children. In Jesus' name we ask, amen.