I find the humility of AMOS telling as opposed to those who boast of being a prophet....
Amos...I was no prophet nor the son of a prophet..........Amos 7:14
Those who boast of being a prophet are suspect in the very minimum.....
Amos...I was no prophet nor the son of a prophet..........Amos 7:14
Those who boast of being a prophet are suspect in the very minimum.....
"I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
(Jonah 1:9)
(Jonah 1:9)
the other thing about Amos is that he was rejected & told to go prophesy somewhere else because he was bothering the nobles. we need to work to not find ourselves having that attitude as well as to be humbly considering ourselves nothing but the least of servants.
at the same time, it is good and right for us to be vigilant because even in the 1st century there were 'many' false prophets, and those have only multiplied. even a true man of God can be led astray by them! (( in re: 1 Kings 13 ))
this story in 1 Kings 13 may be especially poignant, as the one that the word of the Lord really came is called a "man of God" but the liar was called "prophet." this man who prophesied truly didn't claim a title for himself; he simply spoke what the Lord had given him to say - so the scripture calls him a man of God.
it seems like a very pertinent question to ask, whether it is right for us to claim titles for ourselves, or vain. i know Paul called himself a slave and bondservant of Christ more often than anything else, but in other writings, defending those who said he wasn't called by God, he reminded them of the sign gifts he had from God that demonstrated his calling, and how that the other apostles all accepted and vouched for him. even there though, he says the ones calling themselves great made him make a fool of himself by giving him cause to boast, and calls himself "nothing"
I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the "super-apostles," even though I am nothing.
(2 Corinthians 12:11)
(2 Corinthians 12:11)
so where in the scripture can we justify calling ourselves by some title that commands authority? anywhere?
serious question.