July 21, 2019
Julie and I are trying to eat a healthier diet. This is not the first time I have introduced a sermon with this concept. It is a discipline that seems to come and go. But recently we've made fruit a bigger part of our healthier diet. We love a mix of fruit; fresh raspberries, strawberries, blueberries with canned pineapple and oranges. It is a healthier snack than I would normally choose as you all know. She buys the fruit in plastic cartons, ripe fruit that is ready to eat. But sometimes we buy the fruit and it sits in the refrigerator a couple days and even refrigerated, it can start to mold and decay.
In the Old Testament book of Amos, God gives a vision of “summer fruit” to the prophet. This is ripe fruit and the inference is that ripe fruit does not have a very long shelf-life, it decays rapidly and needs to be destroyed. God shows Amos this ripe fruit then tells him what it represents, “The end has come upon my people Israel.”