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Thoughts on Amos 4:11 Elder Philip N. Conley

By nature, we should have remained in the fire of sin forever, thereby experiencing
its properties and consequences for as long as that fire burned. By grace, we do expe-
rience the fire of God's love forever, thereby eventually rejoicing in its fulness world

without end. One might now inquire, "So what does any of this have to do with orga-
nized, public worship of God in spirit and in truth?" The last phrase of the study verse
shows, by the mouth of Amos, that despite God's marvelous mercy to pull them from
the fire, they had not shown or returned the same "in kind." While their lack of

respect for God did not change their position that He had placed them in, their condi-
tion was eventually going to greatly suffer (captivity) for not returning unto God.
Notice that Amos says "returned" showing that even though God has plucked us by
His grace we have labour to put forth serving Him. By putting forth the labour, we

have the rich treasure here in this life to enjoy the "grace fire" with temporal blessings
and enjoyments with other "firebrands" that have been plucked from the fire of
depravity. Going back to Ephesians 4:8, God did not just lead us captive by His love
and grace away from the fire of sin and hell. Rather, He also laid rich gifts and trea-

sures in men to expound upon this grace as a comfort to the church here in this life.
God gave these gifts specifically to build up and edify the church while we sojourn
and traverse through this world. In this sense, we enjoy the "earnest of our inheri-
tance" (Ephesians 1:13-14), thereby experiencing some of the enjoyment of over-

whelming and engulfing fire from the power of God.

Again, being known by the company that we keep, we might associate with the fire-
brands of sin in this world, thereby experiencing the evils of the fire of sin. No, we

will not throw ourselves back into the eternal misery that we have been plucked from,
but we might experience quite a lot of heartache, death, and pain from that multitude
of sins. (James 5:19-20) Or we might be known from the company of other firebrands
that attempt to enter into the embers of "grace fire" as it descends from heaven during

meeting times within the pavilions of God's church. By worshipping Him according
to His precepts and dictates (John 4:24), we experience that fire of assurance and
peace that we are His and someday will see Him face to face.

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