Amos 5:18–20; 8:9–10 – "Called to Wage Peace" – J. P. Kang
Discussion Questions:
1. How do you handle disappointments and the strong emotions that usually accompany them (e.g., sadness, anger, frustration)? Who are you able to trust enough to honestly share such experiences, and how has sharing helped you cope?
2. Throughout history, God’s people, including Jesus when he was crucified, suffered at times the sense that they were not seen by, or worse, had been outright rejected by God. Yet God delivered the Israelites after centuries of slavery in Egypt, God brought the Israelites back home after generations of exile in faraway places, and God raised Jesus from the dead. What do these examples suggest about the ultimate outcome of our own sufferings?
3. Read and reflect on Psalm 30, especially verse 4: "For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning." How do the harsh words of Amos to an entire people complement the individual address of the Psalmist? And how do they provide reassurance in a world where so much wrongdoing occurs?
Presby 