12.28.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 8:55 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 14 Theme: Walking in God’s ways keeps us from stumbling. Key verses: “Return, O Israel, your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. (v. 1-2) We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion. I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.” (v. 3b-4) ”Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right. The righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.” (v. 9) What God said to me: Dwayne, this is my plan for my people: to bring them to full maturity, to present them faultless before my presence with exceeding joy, to conform them into the image of my dear Son. I have made the formula very simple to understand: You sin, you fall. You obey me, you walk upright and whole. It’s truly that simple. No further analysis is necessary, and no self-help theories and counselors can substitute. Come to me with humble words from your broken hearts. Confess you sins. Let your ultimate aim be to praise me with your lips and with your life. Turn away from your self-contrived gods. Wise up. Pray for discernment to fully grasp this simple but profound truth: My ways are the only ways that are right, and nobody finds another way and then lives to tell about it. What I said to God: El Elyon, I confess that my sins have been my downfall in the past. We fall under the weight of Your majesty and perfection. Great Jehovah, we appeal to Your mercy and love and Your obvious desire to lift us up out of our sin and help us walk again in joy and holiness. I’ve been on the stumbling side before. I’ve acted like a drunk man, inebriated by my own rebellion, selfishness and pride. Thank you, El Shaddai, for making Yourself known to me and my family and for teaching us how to walk in faith and righteousness. And even if we do fall, we won’t utterly be cast down, for Your right hand upholds us! Hallelujah! Please keep ordering our steps and directing our path.
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12.27.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 10:45 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 13 Theme: When we sin, God our Father feels the inner struggle between His mercy and justice. Key verses: “Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver…” (v. 2) “But I am the Lord you God…You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me. I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied they became proud; then they forgot me. So I will come to them like a lion…I will attack them and rip them open.” (v. 4-8) ”I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.” (v. 14a) ”The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground…” (v. 16) What God said to me: Son, notice the most striking thing about this chapter is the apparent eradic writing style, spontaneous and somewhat disorganized. For example, the chapter opens saying Ephraim died, but now “they sin more and more.” Where’s the logic in that? Moments later, in mid-sentence I go from saying “you” to saying “them,” yet I’m speaking of the same people. Perhaps most bizarre is how I switch from anger mode and speaking of destruction to speaking of ransoming and redeeming my people. Then without any conjuctions or changes in inflection I pick right back up with my judgment theme. What can you learn from this less-than-reasonable prose? I am pulling back the curtain, so to speak, and allowing you to see my deepest emotions. When it comes to my people - the children I love so dearly - I am torn inside. My thoughts run rampant and my very character is caught between my mercy and my justice. One moment I am ready to tear them to shreds; the next I think of saving them from the very death they deserve. For those who will seek me and seek for hidden treasures in my Word here in Hosea, I will show them a very intimate view of me. I am revealing that to you even at this moment. Be careful not to assume that I am in turmoil, mixed up and confused like you humans become so often. Keep in mind that my ways and thoughts are always above yours. However, I do feel deeply for those I love, and when they rebel, I do feel the terrible strain chatisement brings to a father. What I said to God: Holy Father, I admit I didn’t see such intimate insights coming today when I first read this passage. Thank You so very much for entrusting me with this amazing peek into Your nature and character. Because I too am a father, I understand now more than ever how You must feel every time I fail You - and Your people turn their back on You. Oh God, give us clean hands and pure hearts!
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12.26.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 11:29 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 12 Theme: God’s love for his children will triumph in the end. Key verses: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called Israel the further they went from me.” (v. 1-2) “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms.” (v. 3a) “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.” (v. 4) “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?…My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger…” (v.8 ) “For I am God, and not man…” (v. 9b) “They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling…” (v. 10) “I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord.” (v. 11b) What God said to me: Dwayne, do you see now why I told you earlier to stay with this study of Hosea? It was necessary to trudge through chapter after chapter of my wrath because of Israel’s transgressions. It was imperative that you understand the depth of my people’s sin and disobedience. I wanted you to see how much they deserved judgment. All of that laid the foundation for what you have read today, for in the midst of my anger, I am still their Father and they are my children. I am not like you humans who can disown your offspring, turning your back on them as though they never existed. I remember how I nurtured you and carried you. I remember that I am your Father. I love you forever. This chapter does not negate all you have already read. It does not undermine my justice. I am still a holy God - but, a holy God who is also a loving and caring heavenly Father to my children. I know that you are but dust, and I have loved you with an everlasting love. Even when I roar and cause you to tremble, my purpose is to settle you into your peaceful home with me. What I said to God: O Lord, I am amazed by Your love. I cannot fathom how You must love and care for us. Thank You, thank You for calling us Your children; thank You for calling me Your child. Arouse your compassion once again. Hold back your wrath against us. Woo us with Your love and mercy. Guide us by Your hand. As for me and my house, we will serve You, Lord.
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12.22.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 9:36 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 10 Theme: We have plenty of reasons to seek after God. Key verses: “Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars…” (v. 2) “They make many promises, take false oaths…” (v. 4) “The people…fear for the calf-idol…” (v. 5) “Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.” (v. 6) “The high places of wickedness will be destroyed - it is the sin of Israel…Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’ and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’” (v. 8 ) “Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained.” (v. 9) “When I please, I will punish them.” (v. 10) “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” (v. 12) What God said to me: Dwayne, you must concentrate. I would have said this to you yesterday, but you were too distracted to make time to seek me and listen. What you did actually capsulates what Israel did for months and years at a time. And the more they turned to other activities other than listening to me, the more corrupt they became. Look at some of the reasons they should have sought me: 1. They had wicked hearts. 2. Their guilt was upon them. 3. I demolished all they had put their trust in. 4. They became liars and oath-breakers, which caused them distress with their neighbors. 5. Their infatuation with idols brought them fear and mourning. 6. They became so desparate they cried out for death. 7. They remained in their cess-pool of sin despite impending judgement. What I said to God: Lord and Savior, mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, I praise You today. I adore You and fall at Your feet in repentance and surrender. Forgive me for not making appropriate time yesterday to listen to You. I became impatient. When I didn’t hear quickly from You, I vacated and went on with my day. I see now I should have stayed and waited patiently in Your presence until I was sure You were done with me. Thank You for reminding me of the many reasons we all have to seek You. The ball is in our court to break up our unplowed, hardened ground and plant seeds of righteousness. We yield our lives to You today in humility and thanksgiving.
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12.20.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 11:32 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 9 Theme: Our sin can bring God’s hatred against us Key verses: “You have played the harlot against your God.” (v. 1) “”The days of punishment have come. The days of recompense have come.” (v. 7) “They are deeply corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.” (v. 9) “All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from my house; I will love them no more.” (v. 15) “My God will cast them away, because they did not obey Him…” (v. 17) What God said to me: Son, take my wrath very seriously. True, I am a God of love. Ultimately, it is not my will that any perish but that all turn away from their sin and turn toward my Son. However, my love is defined by my justice. Think about it: I hate sin so much that I drove Adam and Eve out of the very garden I made for them. How much did I really love them? Was it measured by the beauty of that garden? No, what showed the depth of my love was my willingness to send my very own Son to buy them back from their sins. Even as I judged them I promised a coming Savior. After years of sin and rebellion against me, I had all I could stand from Israel. They stooped to such lows that I literally felt hatred toward them. Sorry if that goes against your Sunday School theology you have been taught. But you’re a big boy now. You can handle the other side of my truth, the apparent contradiction to my character. Yes, I can hate. But that hatred is caused by sin in my people and in those I created. Sin destroys. And I cannot be in the presence of sin. Fortunately for you, my Son’s blood has covered your sins so I don’t see them; rather, I see Jesus and His righteousness. That’s why you are going to heaven. Nonetheless, turn your back on my Son and my wrath will abide on you as well. I will not tolerate constant sin without repentance in my people - period. Out of my immense love for you I can be forced to hate if you choose to reject me and live in sin. What I said to God: Awesome Lord, I struggle to grasp these words to me today. I know You must love us to be willing to cleanse us from so much sin. Clearly Your love is beyond comprehension since You sent your own Son to die in our place. Yet, according to this, You can feel hatred toward us as well. Please help me wrap my mind and heart around this. I know it is not a contradiction. Truly Your ways are above our ways and Your thoughts above our thoughts. We trust You anyway and fall on your unending mercy.
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12.18.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 9:39 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 8 Theme: Idols and altars can both be contemptable to God Key verses: “Throw out your calf-idol…My anger burns against them.” (v. 5) “This calf - a craftsman has made it; it is not God.” (v. 6) “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” (v. 7) “Though Ephraim has many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning.” (v. 11) “They offer sacrifices given to me and they eat the meat, but the Lord is not pleased with them.” (v. 13) What God said to me: Dwayne, be careful with good intentions and sincere motives. These can be deceptive. Some blatantly reject me and turn to other gods. Their intentions and motives are neither good nor sincere. However, many of my people really mean well. They sincerely think that what they are doing is ok in my sight. They come to their churches and bring their offerings to my altar. But their hearts are far from me. Holiness is an outward, occasional exercise for them. They ignore my law or look at it as something old and foreign. Somehow they feel they can make up their own belief system and decree their own standards, and I will accept it - or at least tolerate it. They are sowing into the wind. My wrath will stir up against them like a tornado. Warn my people. Blow the trumpet of alarm. I am coming soon. What I said to God: Thank you, holy God, for your Word. It is clear and concise. We can make no mistake about what you expect of your people. Forgive me when I want to ignore your laws. I know my offerings make you sick if my heart and life is not offered to you as well. Restore the altars of our lives and our churches. May they not be altars for sinning against you anymore. We humble ourselves before you today. Cleanse us. Use us in your Kingdom and in this world.
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12.13.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 9:13 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 7:8-16 Theme: Our arrogance frustrates and disappoints God Key verses: “Foreignors sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice. Israel’s arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this, he does not turn to the Lord his God or search for him.” (v. 9-10) “Woe to them, because they have strayed from me…because they have rebelled againsty me! I long to redeem them but they speak lies against me.” (v. 13) “I trained them and strengthened them, but they plot evil against me. They do not turn the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words.” (v. 16) What God said to me: Dwayne, I know you are growing tired of hearing about judgment and negative things everyday. Hosea is a book primarily of judgment. Just think of this: If you grow weary of reading about it for a few days, how do you think I felt watching my people turn away from me for hundreds of years? Endure these devotion times. Sense my frustrations even as you sense your own. If it seems repetitive, so be it. Learn from it, or don’t. Either way, read it and weep - not for me, but for you, for your family, for my people and for the world around you. I will not always strive with man. The end is coming. And I will bring judgment just like I have promised. Like a great craftsmen shapes a bow, I have shaped you. If you cannot hit the mark, I will consider you as faulty and at fault. You have been created for a specific purpose - to glorify me. See you to it. What I said to God: Lord, praise You for speaking to me this morning. I admit I am struggling with this constant, seemingly redundant theme of judgment. But if you don’t think it’s overstated, who am I to question? Forgive me. I will continue to search these passages to gain your heart about sin and selfishness. Help me be frustrated as well - not with people but with our constant sin and rebellion. Protect my family today. I commit this day to you. I love you!
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12.12.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 9:38 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 6:8 - 7:7 Theme: Evil causes us to forget God Key verses: “Whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit…” (7:1) “but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me.” (v. 2) “They delight the king with their wickedness…” (v. 3a) “All of them are hot as an oven; they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them calls on me.” (v. 7) What God said to me: Dwayne, that old saying, ‘Sin will take you farther than you want to go,’ is absolutely true. Sin will blind you from my light. Sin will numb you from my conviction. Sin will so enamor you with its attractive silvery lining that you no longer notice the dark, forboding cloud of my retribution. Sinful rebellion and deceit will cause you to forget that I remember, that I always see your sin before me. You will convince yourself that I don’t really notice or particularly care that you are breaking my commandments and treading over my son’s blood. Your sins will literally engulf you even as a slow rising tide engulfs sandcastles on the beach. Your world will end in ruin and your castles will all fade away. Sure, you’ll be “hot” for a while, maybe even burn throughout the night. But at the peak of your desire and denegration, your kings will fall. And yet you still won’t call…on me. Such is the legacy of sin. (Now do you see why I won’t tolerate even one in your life?) What I said to God: Your Holiness, Your majesty, I confess that I have sinned many times. I have willfully turned my back on you and your precepts. I acknowledge that, as your people, we have turned and gone our own way. We are deceived because we practice deceit. Please forgive us. Wake us from our sleep, O Lord! We know your number. Please help us call it by falling on our knees in repentance and fixing our gaze upward once again. Thank you for speaking so clearly and strongly to my soul today. Today may I resist temptation to sin against my God.
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12.11.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 8:33 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 6:4-7 Theme: God’s measure of true love is faithfulness Key verses: “Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.” (v. 4b) “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. Like Adam, they have broken the covenant - they were unfaithful to me there.” (v. 6-7) What God said to me: Son, people can talk a good game, but the proof is in the proverbial pudding. Real love lasts the test of time and comes from the heart. Evidence of real, lasting love is showing mercy and looking to me in both the prosperous and the difficult times. These demonstrate your love and commitment to a relationship with me. Anyone can throw up a prayer, show up at church, burn up a sacrifice. The faithful ones do all those things and more, but they do it today, tomorrow and for the rest of their lives. And they do those things from hearts that are passionately -not fleetingly - in love with their Creator and God. Dwayne, do not break your covenant with me - the one you made when you gave me your all. My love waters the earth like rain. So don’t settle for evaporating dewdrops. Let my gushing love flow through you, a love that remains, refreshes, and waters all those around. What I said to God: Lord, praise You today for Your fantastic show of love in this world and in my life. Your are incredibly faithful all the time. Coming before You is like jumping into a huge pool of cool, refreshing water! I love dwelling in Your presence. Forgive me when I want to break my covenant with You. O God, give us love that lasts - no matter how hot the rays of tempatation try to fade it away.
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12.09.06
Posted in Thoughts on Hosea at 10:59 am by Administrator
Text: Hosea 6:1-3 Theme: If we seek Him, He will certainly come and restore us. Key Verses: “…He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us.” (v. 1) “After two days He will revive us; on the third day he will restore us…” (v. 2) “Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” What God said to me: Here is the moment of hope. Here is the gentle reprieve from the otherwise raging storm of my judgement in this book. Even when I am most angry and resolved to retribution, I still include a repentance clause. All is not lost, all is not hopeless because I am a God of love and restoration. It is not my will that any perish but that all come to repentance. Your job is to return, to repent, to press on to acknowledge and know me. And know this for sure: I’ve got my job down. What I said to God: Thank you, Father, for including this amazing passage. Thank You for being a God of hope and help. We choose to press on at all costs and know You more and more. Rise on us, precious Lord. Restore and refresh Your people once again.
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