FAMINE HITS THE UNITED STATES        
Lloyd Purswell

Could this ever become the banner scrawled across the top of USA Today?
Is there any prospect that viewers might see a stream of Americans on the
CNN news coverage, with bloated stomachs, ribs exposed from days of
starvation, gapping mouths and hollow eyes fixed straight ahead as they
wander aimlessly down a road in the Midwest?  NOT LIKELY!!!

There is, however, a famine that has been running rampant for many years
in our great nation.  In fact, it is a product of our becoming the
affluent society that we are today.  There will be no headlines in USA
Today, nor will Peter Jennings or any of the other television news icons
concern themselves with this little known catastrophe.  The news media
has been extremely instrumental in its escalation.  The hunger pangs of
which I speak aren't physical, they're spiritual.  The spiritual drought
is for the hearing of the word of God.  Before you say, "What the heck
are you talking about?  We have a church on every block and there's more
religious material on television, radio, audio and video religious
cassettes, etc. than ever before in the history of man!"  Hear what's
being presented.  The key word is hearing and unless the word that's
going forth comes alive by the Holy Spirit, it's just that, words.

This problem is a recurring one that has emerged in every society;  only
the names and faces differ.  A people hear God's great spiritual truths
and follow His precepts and they prosper physically and grow spiritually.
 It's a natural progression.  The nation of Israel has been one of our
prime examples.  Over and over again they heard the prophets for a period
of time only to turn from the (revealed) word of God and follow pagan
religions.  This was the case in the prophet Amos' writings.  In Chapter
7 verses 10 through 17, the prophet's words are rejected and cast aside
by what was then a prosperous nation.  v. 12 (Amplified Version Holy
Bible)  "Also Amaziah (the priest of the golden calf shrine, see v. 10),
said to Amos, O you seer go, flee back to your own country of Judah and
you may eat your bread and live from your profession as a prophet there
(as I do).  v.13  But do not prophesy any more at Bethel for it is the
king's sanctuary and the seat of his Kingdom."  How ironic, the king's
sanctuary was in Bethel, (see Genesis 28:16,17) the very place that had
been first named "The House of God" by Jacob.  There was a time in the
history of our nation that godly men thought long and hard to set the
guidelines by which to run a republic.  These were not men who were
easily swayed by public sentiment nor did they make their decisions based
upon the likes or dislikes of special interest groups.  The government
system was grounded in biblical principles given to God's chosen people,
the Jews.  Though they represented only a handful of humanity in the
known world, the "Ten Commandments" and the Mosiac laws (Exodus 20, and
the first five books of God's word) were placed in the keeping of this
His people.

Today's critics have pointed out with great fervor the fallacies of our
forefathers in an attempt to discredit them and the God that they so
diligently served.  I don't believe any discerning American could believe
that these men were near any state of perfection, but if compared to
those who currently have charge of our nation, they appear angelic.  All
were patriots, and most had fought to secure the nation's freedom...They
were acutely aware of the awesome responsibility they had been charged
with and therefore used God's laws as the template, not willing to use
any earthly ones, knowing that they would be tainted.  All the laws hinge
on something that none of these men would have ever expected to be
attacked.  What they took for granted, and is in fact, the very basis for
all our laws, the "Ten Commandments" have been all but abolished in these
United States of America.  Our legal system has become like a building
with no foundation.

We have become a people of compromise.  As a nation we've wandered so far
away from Godly notions, that aside from an entire country repenting and
turning to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, there is not hope.  We've
become a nation that goes to the polls and votes for Dow Jones, rather
than a candidate that stands for "One nation under God".  Compromise and
humanism, the religion of "I'm okay, you're okay", have produced a
generation of Americans who've lost their way.  They've sacrificed
Christianity and all that is right upon the altar of Wall Street and the
national economy.  We can be assured that we've lost our standard of
excellence when corruption of the sort that would bring a pulsating blush
to the face of politicians and citizens alike in years past becomes the
basis for hundreds of jokes by comedians.  When a man on the sidewalk
poll yields the answer time and time again, "Who cares what the President
and his entire regime are doing,the economy hasn't been this good in
years!", we can know that the prophets of God are no longer heard.

The true prophets of God had no vested interest in Wall Street.  They're
not interested in who's politically correct, nor do they concern
themselves with hidden agendas of special interest groups.

They, like Amos are saying today, v. 12, "I was no prophet by profession
or occupation neither was I a prophet's son (and so a scholar;  but I had
my occupation) I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees and a
gatherer of sycamore figs."  Amos is saying, "I'm not interested in this
for the money, I was just doing what I was told."  v.15  "and the Lord
took me as I follow the flock, and the Lord said to me;  Go, prophesy
(preach) to my people Israel.  v. 16 "Now therefore listen to the word of
the Lord:  You say, do not prophesy against Israel and drop no statements
not complimentary to the house of Isaac."

Our pastors and preachers are being crucified today if they don't have a
"Good Word" to bring to Americans.  We as a nation want to hear a
"prosperity" message not a call to repentance and the prophet's heart's
cry to return to right living, a plea to pray, read the word and give
gladly tithes and offerings of the increase God has provided.

Perhaps you suppose that your Jeroboam, your great leaders, and the
political caretakers have you set up and there is no reason to rely on
God.  His prophets or His word.  Hear what befell King Jeroboam and his
prosperous people:

Amos 8:11, 12 (New International Version)  "The days are coming, declares
the Sovereign Lord when I will send a famine through the land--not a
famine of food nor thirst of water, but a famine for HEARING the words of
God.  Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from North to East
searching for the word of the Lord BUT THEY WILL NOT FIND IT."

We are fast approaching the time when godly men and women who are
speaking the truth that our spirits long to hear, will be discredited,
scorned and told to go about their business in the their own land.  All
that will be left are the prophets of humanism, the biggest deception
sold by Satan.  It goes like this: "Hey, I'm okay, I believe there's some
higher power taking care of us.  I'm a good man/woman and we work and
treat everybody okay.  I even go to church every Sunday morning, and I
give when I can..."  Wake up Christians, wake up prophets of the golden
calf, wake up political leaders!  There will be a time when, even though
the word is preached, no one will hear and the famine's work will be
finalized.

Matt.  13: 14, 15 (NIV)  "You will be ever hearing but never
understanding;  you will be seeing but never perceiving, For this
people's heart has become calloused;  they hardly hear with their ears
and they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they might see with their
eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I
would heal them."