Weekly Devotion

God continued to give His detailed instructions to Moses on how the Israelites were supposed to be living. He also gave Moses detailed instructions on the building of His tabernacle. He requested the people to give offerings to Him to be used in the tabernacle. All the Israelites went away to their tents and brought their offering according to what they desired to give. Each gave as he wanted and at the end of the day, there was more than enough to complete the task of building the tabernacle.

I am certain that some gave because they felt obligated  to, but I think the majority gave out of love for God and God loves people who give cheerfully.

'You must each make up your mind as to how much you should give. Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully.' 2 Corinthians 9:7

And the Israelites didn't only give their possessions, they also gave of their talents to help and build the tabernacle of God. God needed people who were skilled as jewelers, designers, weavers, embroiderers, carvers of wood etc. God needed a lot of special skills and He gave the people the ability to do it and to do it well. He had to give them the ability as all of them were slaves from birth and didn't have the opportunity to learn these skills as a trade. God had to help them and the tabernacle at the end of the day was really something to see. I wish I could have seen it in real life, I think it must have been beautiful!

And today God needs people to work at building His church too. And by His church I don't mean a physical building, but all believers believing in Jesus, who forms part of His Body. God needs people who will give of their money to build and grow His church, but above all He needs people who are willing to give of their time and to give of themselves to build His church. Of course He doesn't expect everyone to be full time ministers/missionaries, but He expects us to do what we can right there where we are. He wants us to stand up for Him where He has placed us, to spread His Word and to encourage others and to lead more people to His Son. And if He lays it on your heart to help physically at your church and use your gifts and talents in such a manner, then you must follow His leading.

God needs people as much today as He needed those three and a half thousand years ago. Are you willing to stand up and make yourself available? God hopes that you would.

Father, please give us the discernment to know where You want us to help and where You want us to go to build up Your church. We are willing to be Your vessels. In Jesus Name. Amen

We can glow just like Moses' face did after he had spoken with God. We can glow even more, because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us and due to the fact that we are part of Jesus' Body.

Jesus glowed while He was on earth. Everyone that was not threatened by Him, loved Him and experienced God's love and peace just by being in His presence. And when He was transfigured on the mountain His appearance changed to what He was really like:

'As the men watched, Jesus' appearance changed so that His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became dazzling white.' Matthew 17:2

Paul also writes in 2 Corinthians 4:6 that Jesus' face shone:

'For God who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made us understand that this light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.'

And therefore we need to shine too, we are part of His Body. We need to reflect His glory for the world to see, due to His light and power shining within us:

'This precious treasure - this light and power that now shine within us - is held within perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.' 2 Corinthians 4:7

We have the power and the light within us and we need to show it to everyone. But why don't we glow and shine like we are supposed to? We seldom find a Christian on fire, glowing with God's love and radiance. Why? I think the answer lies back in Exodus 34:12-14

'Be careful never to make treaties with the people in the land where you are going. If you do, you soon will be following their evil ways. Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash the sacred pillars they worship, and cut down their carved images. You must worship no other gods, but only the Lord, for He is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you.'

This was the first thing God told Moses when He renewed the covenant with them. Why is it the first thing? Because God knows how quickly our hearts can turn away from Him. He knows that our hearts are intrinsically evil and will turn away from Him the moment it gets a chance. Today we might not have pagan altars standing around for all to see, but we can so easily compromise with this world and with the 'gods' of this world - money, fame, recognition, selfish time consuming interests etc. We can so easily shift God out of the way to promote our own selfish motives. We tend to rationalize away sins that we have in our lives, because we don't want to leave it and frankly rather enjoy it. We tend to buy modern day carved images like Buddha statues (I see them being sold everywhere these days), because we think it looks nice and peaceful. We tend to watch whatever we want on television and we excuse it because we just need to relax once in a while. We tend to rush around in a frenzy and when we need to spend time with God we are too tired. We tend to leave our Bibles at home when we go on holiday, because we just want to let go and be ourselves just for a little while. We tend to excuse other people's sins and try to soothe them that it is okay to do it, because we don't want to offend them. We tend to join others in doing wrong, because we feel left out if we don't. We tend to walk all over other people in the name of 'ambition'. We tend to exercise 10 hours a week, but we don't have 5 minutes to spend with God.

I can go on and on, but I think you get the point. We don't display God's glory, because we shift God's Spirit out of the way to make room for the world and its standards to enter. And when we do that, we can't expect God's glory to shine through us. His glory can only shine through us, if we make time for Him and make space for Him to occupy our lives. We cannot allow the world and its standards to enter into our lives. We need to focus on God and on His truth, and ask His forgiveness if we do notice the world creeping back in.

We have the ability to shine brightly, make sure that you do. Make it your top priority. God wants His glory to be visible for all to see, especially to a lost world.

Lord, please forgive us that we make more time and more space to this world and its standards, than for You. Please help us in our daily walk to rather focus on You and on what is good and true, than on the negativity of this world! Please Jesus, we are nothing without You. Amen

God is gracious and good. Even after the Israelites worshipped a gold calf, God forgave them and patiently wrote the Ten Commandments again on two stone tablets for them. He called Moses up to Mount Sinai and Moses spent forty days and forty nights in the presence of God. God called Moses 'His Friend'.

'…the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.' Exodus 33:11

'And the Lord replied to Moses, "I will indeed do what you have asked, for you have found favor with Me, and You are My friend." Exodus 33:17

And when Moses returned to the people after speaking to God his face glowed from being in God's presence.

'When Moses came down the mountain carrying the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn't aware that his face glowed, because he had spoken to the Lord face to face. And when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses' face, they were afraid to come near him.' Exodus 34:29, 30 'When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with the Lord, he removed the veil until he came out again. Then he will give the people whatever instructions the Lord had given him, and the people would see his face aglow. Afterward he would put the veil on again until he returned to speak with the Lord." Exodus 34:33-35

I was so jealous when I read this! How wonderful to speak to God face to face, to be called His Friend and to be aglow from His presence. But I quickly realized that all of these things are possible for us too. Jesus calls us His friends too. We are even more than that, we are His brothers and sisters, children of the Most High! We are part of His body and through Jesus, we can communicate with God face to face and by spending time with Him we can glow and radiate His goodness for the whole world to see. After all the Holy Spirit, which is God Himself, lives inside of us and wants to radiate His goodness out from within us! Paul clearly states this in 2 Corinthians 3:7,8,18

'The old system of law etched in stone led to death, yet it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn't we expect far greater glory when the Holy Spirit is giving life? All of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more.'

What an amazing statement. We can glow just like Moses did, and we can glow even more, because we have the fullness of the Holy Spirit living inside of us and we are part of Jesus' Body. So why is it that we don't see it that often? I must say I have met people who really radiated God's love and goodness, but they are very few and far between. So now I ask myself the question, because I don't see it in my life either. And I think the answer is that we love this world too much and we don't live in the reality of the heavenlies on a daily basis. But let me talk about that next week. For now, know that it is possible to glow and to shine God's glory for all to see!

Father, please forgive us that we are not the mirrors that You intend us to be. Please lead us on Your pathway and help us to shine Your love out for all to see. At the end of the day we know that that is our main purpose in life. Please help us to live up to it. In Jesus Name. Amen

Last week we saw that sins have consequences and the Israelites quickly learned that lesson after they worshipped the calf of gold. They were quite aware that they were supposed to worship God alone. Now due to this incident, God spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting and told him that He couldn't continue travelling with the Israelites as He 'would be tempted to destroy them along the way (Exodus 33:3)'. But Moses pleaded with the Lord to come with them.

'Then Moses said, "If You don't go with us personally, don't let us move a step from this place. If You don't go with us, how will anyone ever know that Your people and I have found favor with You? How else will they know we are special and distinct from all other people on the earth?" Exodus 33:15.

Moses knew that without God on their side they would be lost and not only that, they would be open prey for any nation to attack them. He knew that only with God by their side can they enter into the Promised Land. They were not strong enough to move forward on their own.

And due to Moses' request an amazing thing happened:

'And the Lord replied to Moses, "I will indeed do what you have asked, for you have found favor with Me, and you are My friend." Exodus 33:17

Wow! The prayer of the righteous has an amazing effect. God does listen and our prayers do have an effect if we pray earnestly and according to God's Will. Moses did not pray for himself and for selfish gain, no, he prayed that God be glorified in Israel through the mighty deeds He can still do through them. He prayed that God's glory be seen as other nations realize that the Almighty God was with them.

We too need to pray earnest prayers. We need to pray for God's Will to be done as we are instructed to do in the Lord's prayer too. And we need to ask God to be with us. Naturally He is with us as He is omnipresent, but we need to really seek His face and ask Him to lead us on the way He wants us to go, not where we want to go. Moses refused to move one more step without God and we too need to consult Him before we take a step into any other direction than the one God has already shown us. God has a perfect will for each one of us and we need to consult Him as to what it is. We need to keep on that path if we want to experience His joy and peace in all its fullness!

Moses and the Israelites could have gone on without God, but I can't help but wonder where they would have ended up. I am quite certain that they would never have entered the Promised Land and experienced the wonder of the land flowing with milk and honey.

Stand firm as Moses did and make sure that God is with you personally on your journey. Ask His directions and then you can be certain that you are on the right path!

Lord, we ask Your forgiveness that we sometimes go on, on our own paths without even consulting You. Please give us Your leading as we know that we can go nowhere without Your leading and Your everlasting presence. We long for Your peace and Your joy that surpasses all understanding. Lead us onto Your right path for us. Thank you. In Jesus' Name. Amen

The Israelites built their own god the moment Moses went up Mount Sinai to hear God's instructions. They sent Moses to God, because they didn't want to hear what He was saying themselves. They told Moses that God must speak to him and then they will listen and do what he tells them. Now while Moses was away hearing the Lord's instructions of behalf of the Israelites, they turned their back on God and started to worship their own golden calf made of their own jewelry.

Moses was furious when he saw what they did. He couldn't believe it. They turned their back on God the moment they were left alone. They were repeatedly warned not to worship anyone but God, but they didn't listen. They deliberately sinned. And it had grave consequences.

Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and shouted that all who were on the side of the Lord should come and join him. All the Levites came. And then Moses gave them this shocking instruction:

"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors." The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day." Exodus 32:27, 28

How awful that must have been! For the Levites themselves, killing their own friends, family and neighbors, and obviously for those being killed. It was devastating. And not only that, God also punished them Himself:

"The Lord sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshipped the calf Aaron had made." Exodus 32:35

The Israelites quickly learned that their sin had consequences. God hates sin and He cannot leave it unpunished.

Luckily for us, Jesus died for our sin and took the punishment on Himself. How wonderful that we do not have to carry around the burden of our sins anymore! Jesus took the penalty of sin, which is death, all on Himself. But we must remember our sin still has consequences. For example, if you keep on smoking, the smoking can damage your health, if you commit adultery, people will gossip about you and your children might just turn their backs on you, if you gossip and talk ill of others, people might just not want to be your friend or gossip about you behind your back, if you continue to enjoy your alcoholic drinks in an excessive manner, your liver might just not cope with it, if you have anger fits, people might just avoid you or even worse you might get into serious trouble etc. I can go on, but I think you get the point.

Our sin has consequences that we have to live with. God didn't want it that way, but we chose to continue in our sin anyway. Think carefully next time when you want to light up a cigarette or when you quickly want to spread an ugly rumor about someone else. It might just have unpleasant consequences.

Please forgive us Lord for continuing to sin. We know You still hate sin, but we also know that You love us. Please give us the strength to leave our sin behind and to rather focus on You and Your loving grace. Amen

Moses was up on Mount Sinai, in the presence of the Lord, carefully listening to His instructions regarding the Tabernacle, the priests and His covenant with Israel. And whilst Moses was gone the people complained to Aaron that Moses was gone and that they wanted to make gods for themselves to lead them. Aaron shockingly listened to them and actually followed their suggestion.

The Israelites didn't want a God they cannot see. They wanted a visible one. They wanted a god they could mould and shape as they wanted to. They wanted a god that was predictable and a god that was exactly like they desired. They wanted to be in control of the god, not a God that was in control of them.

It shocks me to my core when I read this. It really does. They were a nation who saw God's mighty works for themselves, they didn't read about it or hear about it, but they experienced it for themselves! They saw His splendor and witnessed how He miraculously saved them! Plus they saw Him every day leading them either by a cloud or a pillar of fire; they even heard Him speak from Mount Sinai. I mean what more evidence could you want of the Living God? And yet they turned from Him the moment Moses left their side. In fact if you look at Scripture they even attributed their miraculous escape from Egypt to Moses!

"Make us some gods who can lead us. This man, Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared. We don't know what has happened to him." Exodus 32:1

They wanted a god that they could manipulate. And it was easy too. They simply took their gold and made an idol from it. As easy as that. They had their god to twist and turn at their slightest whim. Terrible. But we are the same sometimes. I have discussed in a previous devotion how we make our own idols today and how we 'worship' them by the amount of time we devote to them. But despite that, we sometimes make God also into a 'manageable idol'. We reduce Him to our size in a manageable form. We pray when we have time, we read a verse a day if we have time, we go to church and listen to His Word, but we don't put it into practice. We pray before we eat and we pray before bedtime and that is it. Our God is manageable and predictable. We can handle Him that way.

The problem is the moment a crises hits our lives and we realize that God is not predictable and that His ways are not our ways that we fall to pieces. Our religion comes to nothing; it is crushed to the ground into fine powder, like Moses crushed the golden calf into fine dust.

No, God is not an idol to be managed, He is not Someone to play with and reduce to our size. We need to respect Him for Who He is and have a reverent healthy fear of Him. We should exalt Him for Who He is and praise Him as being the mighty One, infinitely wise. Because that is Who He is, totally different from us.

We exalt Your Name Father. You are above all gods, principalities and powers. You are the infinite wise One and we praise Your mighty Name. You are exalted above all and worthy of honor and praise. We love You God. Amen

Moses was up on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. There the Lord spoke to him and gave him instructions on the building of the Tabernacle, the clothing of the priests etc. God also gave him two stone tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger, signaling the signing of the covenant between Israel and God. But while Moses was gone, the people of Israel fell back into their old ways of idol worshipping. They approached Aaron who was left in charge of the people:

"Look," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. This man, Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared. We don't know what has happened to him." So Aaron said, "Tell your wives and sons and daughters to take off their gold earrings, and then bring them to me." Then all the people obeyed Aaron and brought him their gold earrings. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded and tooled it into the shape of a calf. The people exclaimed, "O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!" Exodus 32:1-4

I was so shocked when I read this, so shocked in the Israelites, but particularly in Aaron. He was left in charge with Moses gone and he fell under the group pressure. But what is so shocking to me is that he didn't even try and convince them otherwise. He didn't even try to come up for God and reminded them how amazing He was. He immediately gave in to their request without any further ado. And then he got into the swing of things and took matters even further by building an altar to this new god and suggesting that they had a feast in honor of it! And this is now after he had seen the miraculous acts of God in Egypt, after he had heard God's voice from heaven, and even after he had seen God face to face and had a meal with Him along with Moses. It is incredible! He turned his back on God at the first test that came his way. How disappointing.

Now when Moses came down he was beside himself with anger. He even threw the stone tables inscribed by God, to pieces. He immediately demanded an explanation from Aaron. And Aaron, without thinking clearly, made excuses and came up with a ridiculous lie!

"You yourself know these people and what a wicked bunch they are. They said to me, 'Make us some gods to lead us, for something happened to this man Moses, who led us out of Egypt.' So I told them, 'Bring me your gold earrings.' And when they brought them to me, I threw them into the fire and out came this calf!" Exodus 32:22-24

Incredible. He claims that the calf just magically came out of the fire. He suddenly wanted to claim innocence and forget that he actually molded the calf himself and even built an altar to it! I laughed when I heard this, but we do the same.

We tend to fall under pressure too. When we are amongst unbelievers or even lukewarm believers, we are scared to stand up for what is right. We are scared to tell them what they are talking about is against God's standards or what they are planning to do is not morally correct. We don't want to take a stand for the truth. We are scared we won't be liked; we won't be popular or scared that we will be laughed at. And when God confronts us afterwards, we tend to be like Aaron and think of ridiculous excuses of why we couldn't take a stand for Him.

Don't fall under pressure, if something is not right, it is not right. If Aaron took a stand, they would never have made the calf. They respected him too much. How do I know that? They could have built the calf without his consent, but they didn't, they asked his permission and asked him to make it for them. Plus when Moses came, they listened immediately, all two million of them.

People will respect you for taking the correct stand even if they don't show it. Deep down people inherently know what is right, and they will admire you for taking a stand, even if you never see the admiration in their eyes. But even more importantly, God will stand proud. He will be proud of you and He will reward you accordingly.

Father it is so difficult to take a stand in this evil world of ours, but thank you that You are right next to us to give us the power and the strength to do it. Amen

God instructed Moses on all the details of how the Tabernacle and all its furnishings, the Ark of the Covenant, the clothing of the priests etc should look like. Everything had to be made with precision and with detail, exactly as God commanded. And in order to be able to that, people with special craftsmanship skills were needed.

Now if I were Moses I would have been wondering the whole time who I would use to make these beautiful things for God. And when I finally found someone, I would also have been stressed that they won't be able to make it exactly as God instructed me. But God had already planned ahead:

"Look, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, intelligence, and skill in all kinds of crafts. He is able to create beautiful objects from gold, silver and bronze. He is skilled in cutting and setting gemstones and in carving wood. Yes, he is master at every craft! And I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Judah, to be his assistant. Moreover, I have given special skill to all the naturally talented craftsmen so they can make all the things I have instructed you to make." Exodus 31:2-6

There are two lessons to be learned from this I think. Firstly, God will provide the necessary skill when you need it. When He instructed you to do something, He will take your natural talent and multiply it with His Spirit to help you to achieve the goal He set before you. Also if you don't have the necessary talents in certain of the aspects He instructed you in, He will bring people along your path with the necessary skills to help you. Moses wasn't a craftsman, he was God's prophet and spokesperson, he couldn't do everything and God didn't expect it of him either, God sent people on his way to help him.

Secondly we must all realize that we are part of God's big plan. Bezalel and Oholiab are not well known Biblical characters. I am sure if I asked you who they were before today's devotion, you most probably would not have known. On the other hand you would most definitely have known who Moses was! But without them, the Tabernacle would not have been built and would not have looked as exquisitely as it did. Each one is important and each task has meaning. Don't think your task is not important because you are not a modern day Moses. In God's sight every single one of us is important. All of us. To Him no one is above another and what pleases Him most is when each one does the task given to him faithfully. No matter how big or how small in the eyes of the world. If you do your best and do what God has asked of you, He will smile broadly at you and will duly reward you accordingly in heaven.

Lord thank you that each of us can know that we have a purpose here in the bigger scheme of things. We don't always see clearly where You want to lead us, but thank you that we know that You have a bigger plan. Please help us not to feel inferior towards another's task or envy the role given to someone else, but please help us to be content with what You have given us. Thank you Lord. Amen

Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive instructions from God for forty days and forty nights. It must have been a holy and humbling experience for Moses, standing in the midst of our Glorious God! There God gave him instructions on the clothing of the priests, the dedication of the priests, the layout of the Tabernacle, the utensils and items in the Tabernacle etc. And as I was reading this and all the detailed instructions, I realized how Holy God was. How absolutely holy! Everything had to be done specifically to honor His holiness.

Nothing defiled with sin could come into His holy presence and therefore the priests, the clothes, the Tabernacle and the sacrifices had to be clean and consecrated in order to meet God. It was not a quick encounter, but it took a lot of planning and time to get ready to seek God's presence and forgiveness for their sins. Plus the high priest could only enter the Most Holy Place once a year on the Day of Atonement, to come into God's presence and ask for atonement for the sins of the whole nation. He couldn't go whenever he pleased, if he did, he would surely have died.

Today we can enter into God's presence at any time due to the wonderful work of Jesus Christ. He took away the barrier between us and God, allowing us to enter freely into God's presence. We can come just as we are without special attire and special arrangements. We don't need days' of planning and getting ready for God's presence, we can just come. And because it is so easy to do, we tend to do it very casually. We tend to lose something of the holy regard for God that the Israelites had. We rush into worship and whilst worshipping our thoughts would be on something else.

I feel that we have lost something of the holiness of God today. We talk casually of Him and when we pray, we sometimes pray the same sentences over and over again, resulting in a mindless action, as we know it off by heart.

No, we can learn something from the way God instructed the Israelites to approach Him. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, He has never changed, He is still as holy as He was in Moses' day and we should always remember that. The way of worshipping Him has just become easier, but no less holy. He is our Almighty Creator, the Sustainer of the Universe and we should approach Him with the correct reverence and respect He deserves. Remember that next time you pray and enter into His presence. I certainly need to remind myself of that too!

God, You are holy, holy, holy, today and forevermore. You deserve respect and reverence. Please forgive us if we do not treat You like that. We are frail human beings and we are sinners, but thank you that we know that You still love us. Thank you Father, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Holy Spirit. We love You too. Amen

Israel accepted God's covenant with them. Moses announced all the teachings and regulations the Lord had given him to the people and they agreed that they will do everything that the Lord had told them to do. After that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of Israel's leaders went up to Mount Sinai. And there an amazing thing happened.

"There they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire, as clear as the heavens. And though Israel's leaders saw God, He did not destroy them. In fact, they shared a meal together in God's presence!" Exodus 24:10, 11

Wow! Can you imagine how amazing that must have been? Having a meal together with the Lord. I was so jealous when I read this. I want to see Him so close too! And when I read on I became even more jealous. God summoned Moses to come higher into the cloud resting on the mountain, and there Moses was going to spend 40 days and 40 nights with God. Amazing! How wonderful that must have been, being in the presence of the Almighty living God!

But then the Holy Spirit made me realize that I shouldn't be jealous, we have His Presence with us every single day. Moses and the other leaders saw God now and again as well as His mighty works, but they didn't experience His Presence with them every single moment of every single day. We do. They didn't have the Holy Spirit inside of them either. But we do. They had to follow all the sacrificial laws and obligations that we don't have to. We have the Bible to read and to study, we've got God's living Words with us every day, they didn't have that. We are much more fortunate than they ever were.

The problem with us is just that we don't make the time to spend with God. He is always there, always ready to support us and be with us and to spend time with us, but we tend to get too busy for Him. We run around and we try and survive in this dark world of ours, and all the while God is waiting with open arms for us to come to Him. He wants to give us His living Word to 'eat' and to make our own so that we can grow spiritually, but we tend to be too busy or too tired to sit down and actually read it. God wants to be with us, but we tend to rush to Him only when a crises strikes. How sad.

God also wants to share a meal with us at communion. But mostly we tend to be in another place mentally when communion is served. Next time try and focus on God, see Him in front of you, just like the Israelite leaders did. He is truly there right next to you and He wants to share His risen life with you. All you need to be is prepared to give of your time and to listen to His tender voice speaking to you.

Lord thank you so much that You are there for us every single moment of every single day. We rejoice in that fact and we would love to spend time with You dear God. You are our best friend and You are our King. In Jesus mighty Name. Amen