<TITLE>02. Par 14-23</TITLE>L-14 Not always prosperity is a sign of a spiritual blessings, but sometimes on the contrary. People think maybe you have to own a lot of worldly goods, and shows that God is a blessing you. That's not true. Sometimes it's the other way.

L-15   But we find, him, we don't know much about this little fellow. He, we have no history, where he come from. We know he, according to the Scripture here, he's a herdsman, but God had raised him up.

L-16 I can imagine seeing, on one hot day in Samaria there, the one of the great tourist cities of the world at that day. Is something on the order of, we'd say, Miami, or--or Hollywood, Los Angeles, some of them places like that, some great place for tourists. And we can just imagine seeing him. He had never been in such a city. But, he had the Word of the Lord, he was coming to this great city where sin was heaped on every side. The ministers had all got away from the Word of God, and they hadn't had a prophet in long years.

L-17   And so this little fellow, as he topped the hill, just kind of north of Samaria, I can imagine seeing him, the hot sun shining down, and his gray whiskers over his face, and his little eyes narrowed, and his little, bald head shined, as he looked down upon that city. And his eyes narrowed. He wasn't looking at what tourists usually see, to go to a city and see all of its enchantments of beauty. He looked and seen what a sight that that city had become, a city that once was the city of God, and had got in such a morally decay as that. No wonder...

L-18   This little, unknown fellow was Amos the prophet. And now we don't know very much about him. We don't know where he come from. Prophets usually come on the scene, unknown, leave the same way. We don't know where they come from, where they go, don't know about their backgrounds. God just raises them up. He wasn't much to look at, but he had THUS SAITH THE LORD. That's the main thing I see. Of course, he come to Samaria to begin his campaign. I'm sure he had no co-operation from nobody. He had no fellowship card from any denomination. He had no credentials to show what group he come from. And, but, he had one thing, he had the Word of the Lord for that city.

L-19 And I wonder, if we could transport Amos, today, down to our time, I wonder if he would be welcome in our city today. I wonder if we would receive him, or would we do just like they did. We find our cities in the same decay. And we find that sin is just great among the people, as it was then. And I wonder, if this little, unknown man, how is he going to start this campaign? How, where is he going to begin at? What church is he going to, or who is going to co-operate with him? He had nothing to show where he come from, he had nothing at all but THUS SAITH THE LORD for the city.

L-20   He found them so decayed and so morally corrupted, it was a great time. The women in that city had become almost like they are in the United States. They had become corrupt. Everything that God had expected out of them, they had went right the other way. And--and we find that it was a great place where they had dancings on the street, the women immorally stripping their clothes, and so forth, like strip tease. Course, that was a public amusement in them days, now it's every day. Just let the weather get hot, and you don't have to go to any show. They're all on the street, anywhere, anyhow. Shame on you women, to do a thing like that! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

L-21   And then--and then I said that to a woman here, not long ago, and she said, "Why," she said, "Brother Branham," said, "that, that's--that's just like the rest of the women."

L-22 I said, "But we're not supposed to act like the rest of the people. We are different. We are a--a different character."

L-23 Reminds me of a woman, said, "Well, Brother Branham," another one said, "I--I--I don't wear those shorts." Said, "I wear slacks."


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