Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Amazed. Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship

BE AMAZED

Published by David C. Cook

4050 Lee Vance View

Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

David C. Cook Distribution Canada

55 Woodslee Avenue, Paris, Ontario, Canada N3L 3E5

David C. Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England

David C. Cook and the graphic circle C logo

are registered trademarks of Cook Communications Ministries.

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission; NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved; TLB are taken from The Living Bible, 1971, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60189. Used by permission; and NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

LCCN 2010923217

ISBN 978-1-4347-6505-5

eISBN 978-0-7814-0442-6

1996 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Amazed published by Victor Books in 1996 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 978-1-56476-541-3

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, and Karen Athen

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: Veer

Second Edition 2010

Contents

The Big Idea: An Introduction to Be Amazed by Ken Baugh

A Word from the Author

Hosea in His Time

1. You Married a What? (Hosea 13)

2. What Will I Do with You? (Hosea 410)

Joel in His Time

3. Love So Amazing (Hosea 1114)

4. Watching the Day of the Lord (Joel 12:27)

5. Expecting the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:283:21)

Jonah in His Time

6. Patience and Pardon (Jonah 12)

7. Preaching and Pouting (Jonah 34)

Nahum in His Time

8. The City Is No More (Nahum 13)

Habakkuk in His Time

9. The Prophet Worrying (Habakkuk 1)

10. The Prophet Watching and Waiting (Habakkuk 2)

11. The Prophet Worshipping (Habakkuk 3)

Malachi in His Time

12. The Sins of Gods PeoplePart I (Malachi 12:16)

13. The Sins of Gods PeoplePart II (Malachi 2:174:6)

Notes

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Amazed
by Ken Baugh

Not long ago I decided to do something that has been haunting me for years. I digitized twenty-one years of home movies. If youre a non-techie, what that means is that I copied a ton of home movies into my computer. Im not done yet, but Ive made a significant dent in the huge box of videos. And as I was importing each video into my computer, I watched the last twenty-one years of my life flash by. I cried as I watched both of my girls take their first steps, I laughed out loud as I watched clips from family vacations, fun times at Disneyland, the beach, first dance jitters, and the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat during countless dance recitals and sporting events. Right before my eyes, my two little girls grew from babies into beautiful, godly young women. I was also struck by the love I have for my wife and the incredible marriage we have shared over the years. And I noticed that I used to be a pretty handsome guy with a ripped stomach and a full head of hairoh well, some things are bound to change.

You probably have watched your own home movies and experienced similar emotions as you watched your life pass before you, but something else happened to me that I was not expecting. As I reviewed my life and that of my family, I was also reminded of the incredible faithfulness of God. There were some pretty difficult seasons over the last twenty-one years, and those were not captured on tape, yet as I watched the movies, I remembered. I remembered the long and trying years of seminary. I remembered the experience of a devastating layoff from a church position that I loved. I remembered the uncertainty of moving to Virginia from California as I accepted a new church position. And yet, as I look back on those difficult seasons many years later, I can clearly see the hand of God as He guided and provided for my family and me.

Ive often heard it said that hindsight is 20/20, and I must say that I agree. Not all of those why questions I asked of God years ago have been answered, but in hindsight I have the evidence of Gods presence. Throughout my personal history I can look back and see the fingerprints of Gods character all over my life, and I am reminded yet again that history is actually His story, where we discover His character, His attributes, and the purpose of life. As I look back on my personal history, I see Gods attributes of love, patience, mercy, and power, to name a few.

The twelve books we call the Minor Prophets (because of their length, not their importance) represent Gods story spanning 450 years as He revealed Himself to His people and the world. The commentary you hold in your hand will introduce you to six of those twelve prophets. I believe the Big Idea that runs through these books is how God reveals Himself throughout history to His people and a watching world. Let me outline three of Gods attributes that you will see over and over again through these six prophetic books.

Attribute 1: The Sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God is a running theme throughout each of the Minor Prophets as God shows Himself to be in control of all things. The important thing to remember about Gods sovereignty is that He allows all things to happen in accordance with His divine purposes. Because you and I are His children, everything that happens to us is not the result of random events that just happeneverything that happens is part of Gods ultimate plan. Now, make no mistake, God is not the author of evil. But He does allow evil things to happen to His people and works them into His divine purposes. I have discovered in my life and in the lives of countless others to whom I have ministered that what I may call bad is a tool in Gods hand that He uses for my good and His glory.

The apostle Paul reminds us, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28 NIV ). This is no glib clich or pat answer to Why do bad things happen to good people? Instead, it is the truth of Gods sovereign, omnipotent reign over my life and this world that allows Him to take any situation and use it for His glory.

Attribute 2: The Holiness of God. For God to be holy simply means that He is morally perfect in every way and as such cannot tolerate sin. To sin is to miss the mark of moral perfection. God cannot sin because He is perfectly holy, and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5 NIV ). God is literally the definition of holiness. His holiness raises a significant problem for every human being, because we are all sinners and as such are separated from a holy and righteous God. Yet God enables every person to become holy in His sight through repentance and acceptance of Christs sacrifice on the cross as the payment for sin.