September 23 ... Amos 6 - 8 "Unaware & Untroubled by our Relational Sin"

Amos 6:4  Woe to those who live in luxury and expect everyone else to serve them! Woe to those who live only for today, indifferent to the fate of others! Woe to the playboys, the playgirls, who think life is a party held just for them! Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain!  those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin.
Amos 7:7 - God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.  "Read Amos and tremble.  God has dropped a plumbline to expose our wickedness---which is in all of our hearts, our relational sin.  Read Amos and tremble with the consciousness of your relational sin.  Worship that leaves UNCHANGED the way you relate to Me and to others is false worship.  I will not cooperate with any pursuit of spiritual maturity that leaves unrecognized and undisturbed your hidden energy of self-protection and self-enhancement.  You are wrongly conscious only of your unsatisfied desires in the Presence of My seeming indifference.  When you remain blind to your guilt, you seek Me for your purposes."  66 LL.

Amos 8: You give little and take much and never do an honest day's work. You exploit the poor, using them, and then, when they're used up, you discard them.  

RELATIONAL SINS:  * treating people as things to be used for personal advantage - the sin of Damascus 1:3     *valuing financial gain for self over well-being of others - the sin of Gaza 1:6     *regarding one's word as breakable when self-interest is served - the sin of Tyre 1:9     *seeing nothing wrong with nourishing hatred against people who hurt you deeply - the sin of Edom 1:11     *justifying harming others to increase personal satisfaction - the sin of Ammon 1:13     *presuming vengeance is a legitimate personal right - the sin of Moab 2:1     *disregarding the absolutes I reveal as the standard for all relating - the sin of Judah 2:4     *pursuing satisfaction by following a plan for life that is self-serving and not God-glorifying - the sin of Israel 2:6

"Without deep consciousness of relational sin, My people then and now feel falsely complacent in My Presence, unaware, and therefore, untroubled by how far short their style of relating falls below Mine" 6:1.  That is a very telling statement.  Complacent in God's Presence, unaware and untroubled by how far short our relating falls before a Holy God.   How have I changed in the past year, months, weeks, days? Worship that leaves unchanged the ways I relate to my husband, my kids, my friends, (and for me, especially to those who have hurt me deeply) is f.a.l.s.e.