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Amos 1:1-15
The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake (1:1).
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How To Empty A Church
In reading the story of our country, I read of the pioneer preacher, the man who converted the frontiersmen. What kind of a man was he? He was uneducated. Often he spoke in coarse grammar and unsophisticated language. His library was a Bible and a hymn book. He pressed westward, preaching under an arbor, under trees, in log cabins, anywhere people were gathered, crossing the mountains and prairies, eventually reaching the waters of the Pacific. These preachers turned the continent to Christ and established many of the churches and institutions that now bless our homes and hearts. The Holy Spirit worked in them, and God used them to turn America to Christ.
Such men would be unacceptable to our modern, cultured churches. Today many leaders in the Christian theological world are highly educated. They write learned tomes and speak in deep and recondite language. In the pulpit they snore theology, and the people listen while sound asleep. Such men have emptied the churches of Europe and are beginning to do the same with the churches of America.
I do not understand why people embrace a theology that is learned and dead, and has nothing of the moving, convicting Spirit and the saving power of God. I cannot help but compare these men with the coarse frontiersmen, preaching the message of Christ, through whom the Spirit of God witnessed so that the people who listened were saved, churches were founded, and movements were launched. Today many of their learned successors speak academically, intellectually, and theologically, but without power.
When we have no Christ, we have no message; when we have no Spirit, we have no power.
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