Category: Uncategorized

Today’s reading is Hosea 13:1-16.

One of our constant prayers we share in our house is that we would turn to the Lord not only in times of trouble, but not lose sight & never stop rejoicing in Him even when things are good. This prayer takes inspiration from the repeated pattern of Israel’s behavior throughout the Old Testament, when things were tough and they needed deliverance, from their enemies or their hunger or other physical needs, they would pray and ask God for help. But when things were good and they were comfortable, they’d turn to idolatry, immorality, and the whole gamut of human sin. This pattern of behavior certainly continues today with many people, but reading and praying on Hosea 13 reminds me of the certain doom that awaits those who fall into this trap. I’ll let you read some of the verses from this passage yourself drawing analogies of God’s judgement on His people who have turned to sin, like verse 8 and 16. Warning: they’re brutal. Not something anyone would look forward to.

The truth that God’s wrath will be opened full force against the sinful is no hidden fact. Romans 1:18 says, “for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” And Isaiah 13:9, on the fall of Babylon: “Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.” Hosea 13:1-2 describes the sad state of those exalted, once set aside for God, in their complacency turning away from His grace and accepting these things instead. It is a trap we must all recognize awaits when not alert of temptation as 1 Peter 5:8 warns us.

But the joy in this reminder is that as mighty as the wrath of God is, even greater is His love and mercy for us. Going back Wednesday to Hosea 11, this same God who pours out such incredible devastation against His enemies also so deeply loves us and holds compassion for us, offering joy and eternity instead of damnation. That’s where our faith comes from: not for fear from His boundless reprisal, but from amazement at His love even greater than that. And when the love of God is so great compared to the fleeting comfort of idols and trivialities we can build up for ourselves, how can we possibly refuse?

Paul quotes Hosea 13:14 in 1 Corinthians 15:55 when he says this: “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” While death and misery surely await those opposed to God’s will, He has given us a golden ticket available every day of our life. It is through Jesus and His blood poured out for us that we have any hope of being spared the well-deserved wrath of God, that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God would take away our sins. As Romans 5:9 put it: “since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” I pray today for the vigilance against the temptations of the world that turn us away from the grace and glory of God; not only to have this awareness when I am tempted when weak, but to remember His deliverance from those dark times when all is well. I thank God for deliverance from the sting of death through His son Jesus Christ, and no matter what earthly destructions try to distract us from that fact, for the wisdom and discernment to recognize & pursue His truth always.

The weather is finally giving us a glimpse of warmer days and sunny skies.  Every few days we seem to get a “tease” of what is coming.  As spring arrives it is time for some spring cleaning.  Yesterday, I began with tackling a bookshelf that had been cluttered to the max over the winter.  On one shelf I found a large family photo album.  The next hour was spent looking through every page and feeling the deep love that I have for my children.  It was hard to put it down and move on.  The memories lived on in me throughout the day.

The photos were of my children when they were small.  Oh what dreams and hopes I had for them.  At young ages, the sky was the limit and I as a young mom I dreamed they would have fabulous futures in front of them.  

As children mature, mistakes are made and we as parents are humbled.  Some mistakes can have catastrophic consequences.  But a parents’ love never fails for their child.  God had the same problem.  Today’s reading, Hosea 11:1-11, is a beautiful passage of God’s love for his children.  In this passage we read of all God has done for his children, Israel.  The more God called them, the more they turned from him.  

Hosea uses his writing to try and persuade the people of Israel to reform their ways, to return to God.  In Hosea 11, he uses the language of the love of a parent for her children.  

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.  Israel called to the Egyptians even as Israel was leaving them.  They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.  It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the hand, but they never knew that I healed them.

Hosea 11:1-3

God had been with Israel from the beginning.  Loving them, providing for them, healing them, and leading them.  He was faithfully leading them as their father, but they forgot what it meant to be His child.

We can easily imagine ourselves, and our children in Israel’s shoes.  We have so much in common with these people.  We do not live as we should live.  We forget what God has done for us.  We ignore the hand who heals us.  The amazing part of this story is the faithfulness of God even though we fall short over and over again. 

Oh, how can I give you up, Israel?  How can I let you go?  How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim?  My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows.

Hosea 11:8

While we are like the Israelites and continue to wander, we are not lost.  God will never lose us.  He will roar and we will return to Him.

For someday the people will follow me.  I, the Lord, will roar like a lion.  And when I roar, my people will return trembling from the west.

Hosea 11:10

We have a divine parent who exceeds all of our parental expectations.  God has a parental love that never gives up on us, His children, no matter how much we wander.

My wife and I have reflected often about what we thought parenting would be like and what has been our real-life experience. I can honestly say be both really looked forward to being a mom and dad. You have foundations, lessons, and ideals that you want to teach your children, hoping the result will be well-adjusted, loving, and faithful adults.  You rely on your own experience, gain perspective in your own life, as well as watching, and learning from your parents. Then, you discover it’s likely the most difficult thing you will ever do.

Along come cell phones and social media, and you are now dealing with challenges that you are not prepared for. Add on the treacherous content on laptops and mobile devices, which include pornography, the glamorization of what life “should be like,” along with the pressure that kids feel to be included and popular.  Let’s not forget peer pressure which includes vaping, drinking, and sex. All that, and we are not out of the middle school years yet!

With all of that, it can be a challenge to develop a loving relationship with your children and discipline them at the same time. You are constantly counseling and advising them.  You are constantly monitoring their friends, where they go, and who they socialize with. Can you remember your parents telling you as a child, “I am only doing this because I love you…” followed by a punishment?  Wait, you love me, but I am (insert punishment here)?

The nature of humans is that we need to be disciplined.  Our nature is to sin.  Without the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in our heart, we stray from God.  We will worship worldly things more than God.  We will commit sin and stray from our commitment and faith to our God. The world will tempt us and we will struggle.

In the Old Testament, God spoke through His prophets. God was directly involved in administering punishment to the people of Israel because they worshiped idols, committed adultery, were spiritually corrupt, engaged in prostitution, and continually turned away from God. As their Father, God was continually trying to nurture and teach the Jews throughout the Bible about following His Word and worshipping Him, rather than earthly possessions.  He was not happy with the sins that pulled the Jews away from His commandments.

The Book of Hosea was written by the prophet Hosea, who prophesized the punishment God would bring upon Israel based on their transgressions.  Chapter 9, verse 7 exclaims “The days of punishment have come; The days of recompense have come. Israel knows!” In verse 9, “They are deeply corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.”

God loves us even when we are committing the worst sins.  Even though God spoke openly about the consequences that would come to the Jewish people for their sins, and He still loved them.  As a Father, He was acting, sometimes what may seem extreme to us, to discipline His children and get them right with their faith and fellowship with Him.

Even though God disciplines us, He still loves us. Scripture in the Bible tells us that continually.

1 John 4:7-8: 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:9-11 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Isaiah 54:10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Just like we love our children unconditionally, God loves us unconditionally as well, even when we are sinful.  In fact, mankind has continually defied God, our creator, and He sent His only Son to suffer and die to demonstrate His love for us. Yes, punishment is hard to accept, and even harder to administer, yet it is essential for us as humans to experience the good and bad to make the right choices in our life. Love and punishment go together.  We cannot fully understand love unless we understand that punishment and suffering is to bring us to appreciate and understand the “right path.”

Today’s Reading: Hosea 2

As a parent, why do you (or did you) punish your kids when they disobey / make choices they know are wrong?  You do it to help them see the error of their ways and turn back to what is right.  You do it because you, as their parent, generally know what is best for them more than they do.  Punishment isn’t enjoyable for either the kid or the parent, but we know it leads to a better result long-term.

B.J. introduced us to Hosea yesterday.  God asked his prophet Hosea to do something completely absurd, something that seemed contrary to God’s design for marriages, when he asked him to marry a prostitute that both God and Hosea knew would be unfaithful.  Part of God’s plan was to use the lives of Hosea and Gomer to illustrate the relationship between the Israelites and God.  The Israelites, like Gomer, had been unfaithful.  They had turned away from God and were worshipping pagan (false) gods.

Hosea chapter 2, our text for today, has two distinct themes – punishment and restoration.  The first half of the chapter outlines how God was going to punish his people for worshipping false Gods.

• I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst (Hosea 2:3).
• I will not show my love to her children… (Hosea 2:4).
• Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way (Hosea 2:6).
• Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready.  I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body (Hosea 2:9).
• So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands (Hosea 2:10).
• I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals (Hosea 2:11).
• I will ruin her vines and her fig trees…I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them (Hosea 2:12).

Just like a parent, God’s punishment was purposeful.  It was designed to help the Israelites see the error of their ways and turn back to God.  As their “parent”, God knew what was best for the Israelites more than they knew what was best for themselves.

The second half of Hosea 2 is focused on restoration.  How God would restore his relationship with the Israelites when they turned back to him.  See, despite their unfaithfulness, God was still faithful.  The Israelites turned their back on God, but he refused to give up on them.

Here is the good news.  None of us are perfect.  We all make choices we wish we wouldn’t have made.  And, none of us like punishment.  But our God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Just like he was faithful to the Israelites, he will be faithful to us.

As you find yourself in negative circumstances, consider whether God might be using challenging times to turn you back to him.  In the end, he knows what is best for us even more than we do.  Will you trust him?

I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God’ (Hosea 2:23).

Today’s Reading: Mark 16: 1- 20 

A cup of coffee. The warmth; both the feeling of warmth in your hands and the warmth that you get as you take that first sip. The taste of the coffee. The mellow notes of woody and berries of the coffee. The taste of the cream. Delight of the cream, the body of the cream, the hints of French vanilla. The body reacts to the coffee: the mind is awakening, the warmth of the body from the heat of the coffee, the stirring of the whole being. And, there’s more… As we drink this coffee we are reminded of the ones who made this coffee for us. If at a café, a barista makes the coffee for you. At home, we think of the coffee brewers and the dairy farmers and the sugar farmers. We think of their families in the process that these individuals had to bring us to this one moment in time to enjoy our coffee this morning.

In the simplest of daily tasks, we can see how just in a moment so many individuals are connected to us. This one moment in time we can see how families and generations are connected to us through this simple act. In our reading today we see the resurrection of Christ but through different lenses.

In the original text, we see the three women are coming to prepare a Jesus body on the first day of the week. Mark 16:1-3

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

And, there’s more…Next we see the women are greeted by an angel who gives instructions to go tell everyone. Mark 16: 5-7

 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 

And then there’s more… The three women are given instructions to go and tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus is risen. And, this is the last of the original text. But through recent findings we have found additional text for the Gospel of Mark.

In these additional texts we see three additional appearances of Christ to his followers. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. Mark 16:9-11

9 [[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

And there’s more… Jesus appears to two of his disciples and followers on the road.

Mark 16: 12-13

12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

And there’s more… Jesus appears to be 11 and gives him the great commission. Mark 16:14

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 

And there’s more… With the resurrection we are not at the end of our journey, but we are at the beginning of my journey. From this passage we find that even after the original text was documented there was more found that gives us even a better glimpse of Christ after the resurrection. And every day we can get more glimpses of Christ through everyday living. 

And there’s more… Christ is not finished with us. Christ is continuously remaking us and conforming us for his glory. The glory that started on the resurrection, but continues to us through this help of the spirit of God. Have a blessed Easter season.