We Love God!

God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

Education about God precedes and serves exultation in God. Learning truth precedes loving truth. Right reflection on God precedes right affection for God. Seeing the glory of Christ precedes savoring the glory of Christ. Good theology is the foundation of great doxology. Knowledge is utterly crucial. But it is not an end in itself. It serves faith and love. And if it doesn't, it only puffs up, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:1. Where education does not produce heartfelt exultation in God, it degenerates into proud intellectualism. And where exultation is not sustained and shaped by solid Biblical education, it degenerates into proud emotionalism. God means to be known and loved. Seen and savored. Pondered and praised.
John Piper

From a heart overflowing with gratitude, we will want to honor and glorify God by gratefully offering back to Him the many good gifts He has bestowed on us. We will not go to church to be entertained, to see "what we can get out of it" for our own private gratification, but rather to praise and worship the triune God of grace and glory
Unknown Author

Bible – English_World – Micah Chapter 1:1-16.

Index: World English Bible

 

Micah 1

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1:1 The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

1:2 Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: And let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, The Lord from his holy temple.

1:3 For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place, And will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

1:4 The mountains melt under him, And the valleys split apart, Like wax before the fire, Like waters that are poured down a steep place.

1:5 “All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, And for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem?

1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, Like places for planting vineyards; And I will pour down its stones into the valley, And I will uncover its foundations.

1:7 All her idols will be beaten to pieces, And all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, And all her images I will destroy; For of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, And to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.”

1:8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, And moan like the daughters of owls.

1:9 For her wounds are incurable; For it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, Even to Jerusalem.

1:10 Don’t tell it in Gath, Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah{Beth Ophrah means literally “House of Dust.”} I have rolled myself in the dust.

1:11 Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection.

1:12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, Because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.

1:13 Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

1:14 Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.

1:15 I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah, He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

1:16 Shave your heads, And cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; For they have gone into captivity from you!