Monday, July 28, 2008

...and tell.

This continues a discussion from youth last night about the song "Instead of a Show" by Jon Foreman. Click on his name to link to his myspace, scroll down a bit and find click on "Instead of a Show" to hear the song.

In this song, Jon uses a passage from Amos 5 to make a firm stance on how we should live as Christians. Amos spoke God's voice in saying that God hates and despises our religious gatherings. Instead, Foreman echoes the words of the Old Testament prophet, God desires us to live righteously by loving and helping others.

This song is one that should cause you to examine yourself: how you live, how you worship, and if those match up. Amos relayed God's message of dissatisfaction thousands of years ago, and we still have problems of people living church lives, instead of living a Christ-centered lives.

Last night, we were only able to look examine the passage in Amos, but there are passages in the New Testament that deal with the same problems... After all, serving others and doing good is what we are called to do. So, I promised that I would share a few more passages with everyone, here they are (click the link):

Matthew 6: 1-8 Titus 3: 3-8
After reading these, do you think there might be some more similarities between the messages of the Old Testament and New Testament?

What can you do in your life to live righteously, do good, avoid fighting?... And do it all in humility; not needing the approval of men and women, but constantly seeking God's approval.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Jon Foreman's music. I gave a man at my church a copy of that song last night because he referenced the Amos passage in small group previously. I like Equally Skilled (Micah 7-8 I believe) and White as Snow (Psalm 51?) too.

Russ Bowlin said...

A correction, the song is actually based on Isaiah 1:11-18. The Amos passage sounds a lot like it...which simply demonstrates that the people of God continue to struggle with the problem of showing their faith better than they live it.