Faith Baptist Church of State College, Pennsylvania

Who Will Be The Speaker?
By  PastorDrew@growingatfaith.org 

God had an occasion to speak a message to men of former times. He looked for a speaker. Whom did He choose?
During my tenure on the PARBC Sports Jam Committee, it was our annual task to select and invite someone to speak a message to the participants during the morning rally of the Sports Jam. We usually looked for a “professional” speaker who would be able to deliver the message with passion, polish, and punch.

When God looked for a man to speak His message in the mid 700’s B.C., He did not invite a “professional.” He did not use the criteria that we often use in selecting the speaker. His ways are different from our ways (see Isaiah 55:8).
God looked for a man who met two criteria. He found such a man in a farmer, a farmer of sheep and figs. Who was this man? He was Amos of Tekoa.  What were these two criteria? First, he had to be a man after God’s heart. Second, he had to be a man of God’s Word.

Amos was such a man.

He was a man after God’s own heart. He was burdened with that which burdens God. God was “weighed down” with the ways of Israel—Amos 2:9-16. He looked for a man had a similar “grief,” yet found none among the Israelites—Amos 6:6. However, He did find such a man in the fields of Tekoa. Finding him, He told him to “prophesy to His people Israel”—Amos 7:15.

He was a man who knew God’s Word. Amos gives ample evidence of this in his book (e.g. Amos 2:7-Dt. 23:17, 18; Amos 4:4-Lev. 2:11; 7:13). He knew and spoke the Word of God, in spite of being rejected by those who most needed the message (Amos 7:10-17). Amos was a man who had a firm grip on the Sword of the Holy Spirit ready to proclaim, “Thus says the Lord.”

God’s ways are not our ways. When looking for a speaker, we often look for a “professional,” God, however, always looks for a man after His heart, a man who knows His Word.  Are you such a man? Regardless of your occupation, are you a man burdened with that which burdens God? Are you a man with a firm grip on the Sword of the Lord? Are you such a man that God can involve in speaking His message to the men of our time?

In Christ,
Pastor Drew