Following the contents of Amos 1, God warns the nations of their impending punishment through the mouth of Amos. Apart from the gentile nations, even the chosen people of God, the Israelites, sinned time and time again. From this, what meaningful warnings do we ought to take heed to today? The Bible has 8 instances of “for three transgressions and for four”, all of which appears in the book of Amos. God wishes to give people the chance to turn back and repent. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) However, the nations and Israel transgressed continually against God without any heart of repentance. As they sinned time and time again, their wicked deeds crossed the threshold of warranting God’s mercy and forgiveness. Thus, the Lord enacted His righteous judgment upon them. It might seem like Moab merely committed a small transgression where he burned the bones of the Edomite king to lime. Yet, this attests to their various brutal, inhumane and merciless tactics. Their end punishment is to be engulfed in flames. The palace is where the king resides, which symbolises the kingdom’s state of affairs. A palace razed to the ground therefore parallels a kingdom’s total annihilation. It is then axiomatic that the incumbent king‘s corruption led to the tragic end of the vanquished nation. As God’s chosen people, Israel should have been God’s closest and most intimate people that kept His laws. However, Amos placed the nation of Israel under their last and final warning. The totality of the sins that the Israelites have committed already exceeded the other nations’ transgressions “for three times and for four”. Their spiritual compass and morals are completely corrupted and defiled. Besides sinking deep into their own destruction, they even tried to drag God’s prophets down with them. The result of their perpetual sinning is the eradication of the kingdom. God will hold ransom the sins of each and every single person as well. What a great sorrow this is! As Christians, we are the spiritual Israelites who are immersed in God’s grace and His words daily. How then, do we carry out our lives today? If we continue to act out of our own lusts and desires like the Israelites of Amos’ era, then we, according to Galatians 5:19-21, who practise such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Salvation is not only a protective shield, but more importantly it is a commission and a responsibility. We ought to lead holy lives that are pleasing to the Lord, as we know that “the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Let us heed the lessons from the Israelites, to be diligent in self-reflection and introspection, and to be resolved in living out God’s will.

God's fierce judgment and intolerance for evil teaches us something important about His love.

We often face with ups and downs in our journey of faith. May we often rely on God to walk through the valleys, and strive to climb up the mountain.

God’s punishment might feel harsh. Brutal, even. But it’s not the end of the story. As we reflected in Why? Because punishment isn’t the point. Because God loves even the messiest of sinners. In Joel 2, this divine love continues to unfold. It begins with a warning: there will come a terrifying day of celestial chaos and enemies wielding intense destructive power, here to utterly wipe out everything in their way (Joel 2:2-3). Then comes a plot twist. God does not cut the sinners loose. Instead, He offers them a way to change this destiny: It’s a fantastic deal for anyone who takes this up and sincerely comes before God. Not only does punishment disappear, but God will restore the repentant sinner’s labour, joy, and even years spent under God’s punishment (Joel 2:19-25). More importantly, this. God opens His arms wide, promising all of humanity a restored relationship with Him when they return: In other words: Every single one of you The moral of the story? This is a love so massive we can hardly imagine all of it. God waits. When the sinner awakes from spiritual slumber, when the weight of his mistakes hits him squarely in the gut, when he returns to God, that’s when he shall see God’s great kindness (Joel 2:13). God will reach into the deepest abyss of shame. He will pull even the worst sinner into a hug. That destiny of dreadful judgment becomes a glorious welcome into God’s kingdom. The sinner’s heart becomes God’s home (John 14:23). What does God ask for? That our acts of repentance are genuine and from the heart. It’s easy to fool others into believing that we have changed. Deceit is easy. Theatrics are moving. We might even fool ourselves! But God cannot be fooled. There is no That’s the turning point in the sinner’s story.

Even when things seem bleak, God has a will for us.

Our Saviour’s love provides and restores.

V2 interesting how the Bible uses “the other disciple, whom Jesus loved’, without mentioning that disciple’s name. Why? It matters that he is loved by Jesus, as can be seen through the emphasis by using that term. Just like all of us believers who are also loved by Jesus, we are also the disciples whom Jesus loved. With Jesus’ love comes everything - God’s creation, all our blessings, our existence, eternal life. God has love for us, is love and is the source of love. 1 John 4:8 - He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. V13 Mary uses the term “my Lord”, not ‘the Lord’, but “my Lord”. Jesus is the Lord. However, Jesus is also our Lord and should also be ‘my Lord’ to each of us. This shows us that a personal relationship with God is important. We must build our relationship with God through spending time with God in prayer, reading His Word, and trusting in Him. V29 “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” We are blessed, because we have not seen Jesus, yet we still believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Through Jesus, we will have eternal life. V29-31 reading these verses shows us how true and real this faith is. V31 these records are written for us to believe in Jesus and this verse shows us to believe what we read in the Bible. Finally, these two verses tie together Jesus’ love for us and how believing we may have life in His name. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

“It is finished!” (John 19:30) John 19 is a climactic chapter, detailing the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and His death on the cross– the bitter cup Jesus was afraid of (Luke 22:42-44). The crucifixion was recorded across all four gospel books. But only in John 19 does it record Jesus crying out The bitter cup was truly bitter.  First, there was the physical pain of having His hands and feet pierced as He hung on the cross for three hours.  Next, there was the emotional pain. From the various betrayals by His disciples, Judas Iscariot and Simon Peter, to being publicly humiliated and scorned by the Jews (Matthew 27:28-31, Mark 15:17-20).  On top of it all, there was the spiritual pain. Having taken on the sins of the world from time past and time to come, Jesus felt the emptiness and sorrow of one who is separated by God (Mark 15:34). Perhaps it was the most bitter cup there was. Yet, Jesus’ final proclamation tells us that even the cruelest trial on earth was limited by time, and Jesus had successfully endured till the end.  Moreover, His proclamation wasn't one of resignation and defeat. Instead, it was a proclamation of victory! Because though He met with death, it was through His death and subsequent resurrection that God’s salvation plan was completed (1 Cor 15: 3-4, 20-22). Likewise, in our day to day, we too may find ourselves faced with a bitter cup. It may be a cup of physical bitterness like when we fall ill. It may be a cup of emotional bitterness when we are let down by people whom we trusted or when we lose our loved ones.  It may be the spiritual bitterness of sinful habits we struggle against. It may even be a cup that ends with death.  But let us endure till the end, drawing strength from the words of Jesus– that if even the bitterest cup was limited by time, one day we may victoriously say of our trials: “It is finished!”