What I Learned This Week: Week 3/3/25

An article by

Pastor Bobby

I am a firm believer that God is constantly trying to teach us new things; God reteaching us things that we need to be doing; or things that God wants us to remember. These things could be simple but important, like how we should pray or how to get closer to God. Or it could be more advanced topics like does God like bad thing happen to good people or other tough subjects. God uses many different ways to teach me these things. He uses books, sermons, people, the Bible, my personal study time, my prayer time. So, my hope is that through these articles I can share some of the things God has taught me that given week. Some of these things that I share will sometimes go hand and hand with a Driving With Jesus and in most cases even deeper. But I think all in all it would be good to share these things in this type of format in hopes that it will bring you closer to God. My hope is also that this will be a weekly article series.

For the week of 3/3/25. There is no real common theme that really brings the things I learned all together. However, I do believe that they can all bring you closer to God. Which is the main reason I started this series, as well as the hope that you will keep your eyes open to see what God is trying to teach you weekly.

The first thing I want to share that God taught me comes from my personal study time. In which I have been reading the book of Amos. This is not a typical book that people usually read for their study time. Really none of the prophetic books really are, besides Isaiah. However, as I was reading the book of Amos. I learned something about the Day of the Lord, and God's love that I never thought about. The Day of the Lord is usually what us now believes when Jesus and defeat the Evil One. Now back in Amos time Jesus was not born yet, and He of course didn't start his earthly ministry yet. But the prophet Amos was still prophesying this day when the savor will come back and defeat the Devil for good. In Amos 5:18-20 Amos says,

"Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, and not light,

19 as if a man fled from a lion,

and a bear met him,

or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,

and a serpent bit him.

20Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?" (ESV)

I know that I have read this book and passage before. However, this is the first time that it really has stood out to me. And the reason for that is because as I said it show us the heart of the Lord and what the Day of the Lord is. The Day of the Lord will be the day that Lord's wrath and judgment will be carried out. Now some will say this is pointing to when God poured out His wrath on the people of Israel for their sins. While others will say that Amos is prophesying Jesus's return and the defeat of the Devil. Whatever it is pointing to you can still understand this. The Day of the Lord is not a joyous occasion... You can get this straight from the passage above. Of course, the defeat of the Devil and Jesus coming back will be great and awesome. But when this happens there will be many souls that don't know Jesus who will be sent with the Devil. And this is the same if the passage is talking about the destruction of Israel. Many people lost their lives then as will. And this shows us the heart of the Lord, which is that He wants everyone saved. He does want anyone to go to hell or be destroyed. But God will not force anyone to love Him or accept His son Jesus as their lord and savor. Now I always knew the heart of God, and the fact He loves all His creation. I just never knew that in God's eyes the Day of the Lord was a sad one. Which now thinking about it, I can understand why. God weeps when a soul goes to hell and does not know Him. How am I going to apply this lesson to myself? First, I am going to pray for the heart of God. I pray that it will hurt and kill me inside when I think about someone dying without knowing Jesus as their savior. Second, I am going to carry this urgency with me when I go out evangelizing and making disciples.

The second thing I learned or relearned this week comes from a pastor named Caleb Kaltenbach. I first heard Pastor Caleb's story many years ago. However, this week the memory of his story came back to me. In which he talks about being raised by three parents in same sex relationships. He had two mothers who were in an open relationship, and a dad who was in the closet. So, because of how so-called Christians treated his family. Pastor Caleb hated Christians. That was until God called Caleb to himself. Pastor Caleb talks about how he struggled with his upbringing and what the Bible said. Which he came up with this. Yes, same sex relationship is wrong. However, we as Christians must still love anyone caught in sin like Jesus does. Because we are all caught in sin. What I remembered and what stuck with me is this. Pastor Caleb said that truth without love is legalism. While love without truth is truth is universalism. As Christians and followers of Christ we must always have truth and love. This does not mean we condone sin. But it also does not mean we go out of our way to hurt those who are in sin. Now this is a very common part of being a follower of Christ. However, it is not one that we as believers really do well. And so, we should always strive to be truthful and show people the love of Christ. In Mark 12: 29-31, Jesus says,

“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (ESV)

We must make sure we are loving everyone and living out the truth of Jesus's word as well.

In closing, a lot of these thing God has shown me this week. Are things that I have known, and we should all know. But God has shown new ideas that go with it. Like as Pastor Caleb says, "Where truth and love meet up, that is where Jesus is at." And so, we must be there as well. As well as we must have a heart for the lost, because there will be a lot of lost souls that will be thrown in the depths of hell.

So, what did God teach you this week?