I just concluded a most enjoyable teaching session at the Union Point Worship Center. Union Point is where my Dad was pastor many years ago and where I spent the greater part of my youth. I purposely left early for each of my teaching appointments so I could ride around the area and reminisce. In one of my sessions, I mentioned how stores used to close early on Wednesday so people could go home, eat a good meal, rest, and get ready for church. I don’t remember any stores being open on Sunday. It was a day of worship and rest.

The world has changed since then. Stores stay open every day of the year, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s all about commercialism nowadays. There is a scripture in Amos chapter 8 that accurately describes our day. Verse 5 says, “When will the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat, skimping on the measure, boosting the price, and cheating with dishonest scales?” Of course, this was happening in Amos’s day, which bears out another Bible truth, “There is nothing new under the sun.” But it used to be different, at least in the mill village I grew up in as a boy.

The merchants referred to in Amos’s day despised God’s day of rest and the practice of treating people honestly. For them, it was an unwelcome intrusion into their crooked business practices. They were saying, “When will this day be over so we can overcharge for wheat, and use faulty scales to cheat the people? We will drive them into poverty so we can buy them as our servants and slaves for the price of a pair of shoes! And in the meantime, we will pretend we are good, God-fearing, law-abiding citizens.”

Their sin was a violation of nearly every law God had given to the people before they entered the promised land. God’s judgment to them was: “I will expel you from My kingdom. Not because I want to, but because you choose to live unjust, unforgiven, and God-forsaking lives.” It’s in this same chapter that God warned of a coming famine, not of bread or water, but of hearing the Word of the Lord. We are sadly living in such a day.

I pray that we will examine our hearts and minds to see if we are living the way God calls us to. That we will be guided by the values of God’s kingdom rather than by the ways of this world.