A basket of summer fruit.
By: H.K. Holland
Tags: Bible Devotional, Bible, Christianity, Preacher, Church

"Thus hath the Lord showed me: and behold a basket of summer fruit." Amos 8:1.

In reading through the prophetical books, I am struck with their singular variety.😉 On looking a little more closely, you have at once perceived that every prophet has a manner and style peculiarly his own.🤷🏿‍♂️

Although God speaks through all of them, they don't lose their individuality or originality of character.

The breath which causes the music is the same, but no two instruments give forth precisely the same sound.😊

It is true they all say the words of God, but each voice has its own special cry, so that although God is pre-eminently seen, yet the man is not lost. 😉

You do not find in searching through the prophets that Jeremiah copies the language of Isaiah. The herdsman Amos does not write like the wise counsellor Daniel. Nor does Jonah borrow the notes of Malachi.

Every man speaks after his own order.😏 Whatever he was when God called him to be a prophet, that he remains...

God consecrates what is already there, and does not recast the man into a new mould.

Before I ever dived into the Bible, I liked comedy. And I liked numbers. And I liked investigating deeply into things. And I liked brief simplistic things. I believe these things show up in my writing and that's what makes me.🤷🏿‍♂️

Let me pass on a lesson to all the ministers of Christ in these times.....

Don't you think people would be more useful if they would speak according to their own character, after their own style?🤔

But instead thereof, the young minister attaches himself to some eminent model, and copies, not only the expressions, but the very tones, the action, even the whims and absurdities of his papa or mama whom he venerates 😩😩😩😩😩.

Let me make it clear: The most boring lot of people for me are PARROTS. Sagala sagala sagala...😂😂

But picture this....

If each person, instead of seeking to be another, would be himself, if he would consecrate his powers and talents to God as they are, and bring them out in their native simplicity whether they are polished or rough, the world would be conscious that a man had arisen who was in earnest, and not a mere player, an imitator of another.😎

Don't be a Kayanja. God has already spoken through a Kayanja. Don't be Chris. God has already spoken through a Chris. Don't be Grace Lubega. God already has a one Grace Lubega! Don't be a Mboye. He already has spoken through one!😌

He only brings you to these people because he wants to CREATE YOU! If you keep parroting and defending, you delay yourself...😅

God himself, I don't doubt it, will speak more clearly through a man or a woman, who speaks out of the fullness of his or her heart, than he will through another who cannot let the stream of divine influence come through him naturally, but needs to turn it into the artificial current of some other man's form of eloquence.

Now, I make these observations, because this is the case with Amos. Amos was a herdsman, a keeper of cattle, and all through his book, you find him continually alluding to his peasant life..

He seems to have been an honest countryman. And he talks to us about 🐑 which have been rent in pieces by the lions of the line of Bashan, of the cart full of sheaves, of sifted corn, and plowmen and vine-dressers.

He does not mount to the sublimity of Isaiah.🤷🏿‍♂️ He never soars to the height of Daniel. He lacks Ezekiel's eagle wing, and the weeping eye of Jeremiah..

And yet, he dashes out before you in his first chapter like some untamed irresistible being, and begins "The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers." 😅

And then through the first two chapters he flings firebrands about him with both his hands. He has a flame for Syria, and another for Gaza. He flashes lightning upon Tyrus in a few sentences, and pours a vial of wrath upon Edom. He darts his sacred ire on Ammon, and devours the palaces of Moab.

He stabs his foes in short abrupt sentences, not aiming at eloquence, but speaking always like a herdsman.

As Shamgar slew the Philistines, not with the sword of Goliath, but with his own ox-goad, so does Amos come out against the sins of his times with no polished shaft taken out of the quiver of the noble, but with his own ox-goad, and right gloriously does he lay sin dead at his feet.🤷🏿‍♂️

And now, look at the verse at the top in light of what I have just told you...😊

And sufficient for now.....🙏

Yours truly,

H.K. 🇳🇱,

Why do most pastors shout when preaching, and then talk normally when with their children? 🤔

12/05/20