Joined at the hip

Amos 3:3 Do two walk together , unless they have agreed to meet?

My kids love to come to my office. I love them to come too, sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love being around my family and playing with my children. The problem occurs when the kids hit the scene with a totally different agenda than what is going on at the office. We have a very lax culture, but even the laxest business cultures have their limits when kids run around loudly playing and having fun. The kid's agenda is to have as much fun as they can with as many people in as many places as possible. The main agenda at the office is Glorifying God with our work product, and that requires diligence and good stewardship of our time. So when the kids enforce their agenda into the existing agenda at the office, there is a clash of agendas and in turn a lot of disruption. Two separate agendas can not exist in peace for very long before they either must separate or yield to a mutual agenda.

When you look at the context of what God is saying through His prophet Amos, He is very clearly telling the Israelites of His steadfast love and mercy. Through His prophets He is heralding the opportunity to walk with Him, instead of straying away form Him in the human led path of sin. God is saying to His people, " I have made this clear to you. Fear me, love me and walk with me, or judgement will be last stop on the path you walk. I have great depths of mercy and perseverance, but I allow you to choose to walk with me or rebel against me and blaze your own trail".

Now when you look at that in the context of the Gospel of Christ, it mirrors Jesus invitation to "Follow ME". That is what is so incredible about the bible and our God. Through millenniums of time, and myriads of cultures and languages, the Heart and principles of God do not change, even though the way he revealed His love certainly changed on the Cross . We need to walk this out in our lives (no pun intended). Ask yourself this question: The things that I plan on doing today, tomorrow and next year, will a Holy God walk down that path?

If the road that we intend to walk down is filled with sin, we are fools to think that Jesus will come with us. Why? He has already finished that battle on the Cross. He will not accept an invitation from us to "follow ME". It just does not work that way.

Now as we choose to follow Him, on His road and by His plans, sin will still be a battle until we shuffle off of this planet, but there will unquestionably be victories over sin as we walk that path. That is what Jesus does: puts sin and death to death.

So analyze the mental road that lies ahead for you in your life. Whose path is it and who is leading the way? It is either us following Christ down a path that leads to life, or us wandering down a path to darkness....

It is amazing how patient Jesus is with me, as he has pulled me back from a "Godless path" countless times in my life. What a savior we have in Jesus Christ.