26C22.   Amos 6:1a, 4-7.   Amos condemns the rich who are lost enjoying their wealth while they have no regard for the moral collapse of Israel.  The rich will be taken as the most prized captives by the Assyrians who are soon to invade them.  Their wanton revelry shall be their destruction.

Luke 16:19-31.  The wantonly rich man dined sumptuously while ignoring the abysmal poverty of Lazarus.  The rich man died, ending in torment in the netherworld while Lazarus “was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.”  In torment the rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to relieve his sufferings but “Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad.’”   Abraham rejects the rich man’s request, noting that no one can pass from one afterlife realm to another.  Then the rich man requests that Abraham send Lazarus from the dead to warn his five brothers of the torment that lay ahead if they do not repent.  “Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”  Only by living in the power of God can we be freed from the grip of the temptations of this world.  This world has the power to engulf us in it.  Only God can release us from that power.

1 Timothy 6:11-16.  “Compete well for the faith.  Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.”  Paul is telling Timothy and us to challenge the ways of this world by striving to live our faith in Jesus. This world mightily attracts us to live for earthly life and so forgo eternal life.  Instead possess eternal life by living ‘in Christ’ daily.