The book of Hosea and its outcome challenges us today to consider how we are treating God. We are his beloved and he is our God. How are we treating Him? ‘with carelessness? With contempt? With a double life? a long back sliding? It will also warn us to beware the wrath of a betrayed and trampled love.’
I read recently that God’s divine love described as ‘In his general goodness God bestows various gifts upon the creature; in His love He gives Himself and holds nothing back.’ A God who gives of Himself and holds nothing back, blows my mind and yet that is who He is.
‘God is the God who bears the sins of the world and the sins of his people; Gods love is taken for granted and he is abused and rejected by thousands.’ And yet he comes to woo and to entice with a love so great and overwhelming that it can’t be denied. With a passion so great he would do what ever it takes...even send his own son to die a terrible death...that his beloved may be drawn back to him; into the covenant relationship, of joy, grace and peace but most especially love.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
God the Great Lover – Part 2
And so the story continues ‘Yahweh had been a husband to Israel but he had known more pain than pleasure in the relationship. His holy love had been violated and betrayed times without number.’ So why not start over, be done with Israel and find another, a nation who would stay true and would love like no other? Because then God would be letting down his side of the covenant and like a person heartbroken, love is not easily forgotten or let go of.
In describing the love of God for Israel this is said ‘It is the character of the divine love that it is neither bland, universal benevolence nor a fickle, short-lived passion, but an altogether gracious and extraordinary love that chooses one out of a thousand and holds on to what it has chosen at all costs. And at Calvary, the divine love incarnate will pay all the costs. As with Amos so with Hosea, God has the last word, and the last word is grace.’
There are three themes repeated through the book of Hosea; ‘the seriousness of sin, the reality of judgment and the certainty of love triumphing in the end.’ Love triumphs because God loves with a ‘transcendent love which does not allow human sin and failure to have the last word.’
I find the concept of ‘God humiliated’ too hard to comprehend. It grieves me to think of it and yet there it is in the example of Hosea and his wife. You see, played out in front of Israel is their relationship with God, through the lives of Hosea and Gomer, he (Hosea) lives the history of Israel and the suffering of God. And yes God is humiliated; ‘the words ‘So I bought her’ (3:2) are filled with humiliation, pain and the priceless nobility of love.’ The prophet had to scrape together all he had to buy back his wife and as is shown many years later God himself gave his most precious possession his only son to buy back his beloved. God suffers pain and sorrow just like we do and here in Hosea we see it for ‘love makes us vulnerable and no body of people can grieve God like the church, the people of God, whenever they are worldly, callous or hurtful to one another.’
I find it interesting that Israel again and again turned from God. After all they had been through and witnessed. They walked with Him, they had such a close connection and yet they still turned. This confirms now our need for faith. If Israel saw God and His great works and could still turn from Him surely our need of faith without seeing should be of greater importance to us and therefore clung to.
‘Nothing less than such reverent awe is appropriate for Israel, who has learned in deprivation both who Yahweh is and who Baal is not, both the importance of covenant loyalty and the terror of its absence.’ And yet they struggled...
In describing the love of God for Israel this is said ‘It is the character of the divine love that it is neither bland, universal benevolence nor a fickle, short-lived passion, but an altogether gracious and extraordinary love that chooses one out of a thousand and holds on to what it has chosen at all costs. And at Calvary, the divine love incarnate will pay all the costs. As with Amos so with Hosea, God has the last word, and the last word is grace.’
There are three themes repeated through the book of Hosea; ‘the seriousness of sin, the reality of judgment and the certainty of love triumphing in the end.’ Love triumphs because God loves with a ‘transcendent love which does not allow human sin and failure to have the last word.’
I find the concept of ‘God humiliated’ too hard to comprehend. It grieves me to think of it and yet there it is in the example of Hosea and his wife. You see, played out in front of Israel is their relationship with God, through the lives of Hosea and Gomer, he (Hosea) lives the history of Israel and the suffering of God. And yes God is humiliated; ‘the words ‘So I bought her’ (3:2) are filled with humiliation, pain and the priceless nobility of love.’ The prophet had to scrape together all he had to buy back his wife and as is shown many years later God himself gave his most precious possession his only son to buy back his beloved. God suffers pain and sorrow just like we do and here in Hosea we see it for ‘love makes us vulnerable and no body of people can grieve God like the church, the people of God, whenever they are worldly, callous or hurtful to one another.’
I find it interesting that Israel again and again turned from God. After all they had been through and witnessed. They walked with Him, they had such a close connection and yet they still turned. This confirms now our need for faith. If Israel saw God and His great works and could still turn from Him surely our need of faith without seeing should be of greater importance to us and therefore clung to.
‘Nothing less than such reverent awe is appropriate for Israel, who has learned in deprivation both who Yahweh is and who Baal is not, both the importance of covenant loyalty and the terror of its absence.’ And yet they struggled...
God the Great Lover – Part 1
I love the Prophets; I admire them as great men of God and see their personal sacrifices as they lived their lives as a great example of Godly living. None of these is truer than Hosea. He not only spoke the word of God to a wayward nation, he lived out the nation’s adultery in his own marriage.
I have long held that the Bible from beginning to end is the greatest love story ever written, with God at the centre of it all. Yes God is in my opinion the ultimate romantic. In the book of Hosea we see this in painfully stark reality. Through the prophesies and life of Hosea we discover ‘the secret heart of God; his innermost feelings, his profound sorrow and his sovereign grace.’
We see a God who is tender and vulnerable. WHY? Because love makes us tender and puts us in a place of profound vulnerability. Lewis describes the following ‘He is God of the cosmic drama and God of the domestic tragedy; he rides on the wings of the wind and he weeps with the heart of a rejected lover; he is catastrophic in judgment and tender in tears. ‘I am God and not man’ he cries and yet we find he is more like us than we had dared to imagine.’
God is a God of covenant, of jealous love and of judgment. The book of Hosea is written in ‘entreaty and warning, tender pathos and scalding indignation.’ I never really understood why the people of God were exiled. Intellectually I could tell you why from the bible. Because they were spiritually adulterous. But that is the cause not the reason. It just occurred to me that they had entered into covenant. So much focus is on God and Covenant and that God never breaks His Covenant. The reason for judgment and exile is simply that the people of God broke the sworn oath they had with God. And this is where the tragedy of the love story unfolds. Gods beloved, his bride, his chosen above all else, turned her back on him and adulterated herself on the alters of manmade gods.
I have long held that the Bible from beginning to end is the greatest love story ever written, with God at the centre of it all. Yes God is in my opinion the ultimate romantic. In the book of Hosea we see this in painfully stark reality. Through the prophesies and life of Hosea we discover ‘the secret heart of God; his innermost feelings, his profound sorrow and his sovereign grace.’
We see a God who is tender and vulnerable. WHY? Because love makes us tender and puts us in a place of profound vulnerability. Lewis describes the following ‘He is God of the cosmic drama and God of the domestic tragedy; he rides on the wings of the wind and he weeps with the heart of a rejected lover; he is catastrophic in judgment and tender in tears. ‘I am God and not man’ he cries and yet we find he is more like us than we had dared to imagine.’
God is a God of covenant, of jealous love and of judgment. The book of Hosea is written in ‘entreaty and warning, tender pathos and scalding indignation.’ I never really understood why the people of God were exiled. Intellectually I could tell you why from the bible. Because they were spiritually adulterous. But that is the cause not the reason. It just occurred to me that they had entered into covenant. So much focus is on God and Covenant and that God never breaks His Covenant. The reason for judgment and exile is simply that the people of God broke the sworn oath they had with God. And this is where the tragedy of the love story unfolds. Gods beloved, his bride, his chosen above all else, turned her back on him and adulterated herself on the alters of manmade gods.
Monday, September 8, 2008
How To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity!
At lunchtime, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.
Insist that your email address is: Xena_Warrior_Princess@companyname.com or Elvis_the_King@companyname.com
Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
Put your garbage can on your desk and label it "IN."
Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
In the memo field of all your checks, write 'for sexual favors.'
Reply to everything someone says with, "That's what you think."
Finish all your sentences with "In accordance with the prophet Jimmy."
Adjust the tint on your monitor so that the brightness level lights up the entire work area. Insist to others that you like it that way.
Don't use any punctuation.
As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.
Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."
Sing along at the opera.
Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme.
Find out where your boss shops and buy exactly the same outfits. Wear them one day after your boss does. This is especially effective if your boss is of the opposite gender.
Send email to the rest of the company to tell them what you're doing. For example, "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the bathroom, in stall 3."
Put mosquito netting around your cubicle. Play a tape of jungle sounds all day.
Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you're not in the mood.
Call 911 and ask if 911 is for emergencies.
Call the psychic hotline and don't say anything.
Have your coworkers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Hard.
When the money comes out of the ATM, scream "I Won! I Won! 3rd time this week!"
When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot yelling, "Run for your lives, they're loose!"
Tell your boss, "It's not the voices in my head that bother me, it's the voices in your head that do."
Tell your children over dinner, "Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
Every time you see a broom yell, "Honey, your mother is here!"
Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.
Insist that your email address is: Xena_Warrior_Princess@companyname.com or Elvis_the_King@companyname.com
Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
Put your garbage can on your desk and label it "IN."
Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
In the memo field of all your checks, write 'for sexual favors.'
Reply to everything someone says with, "That's what you think."
Finish all your sentences with "In accordance with the prophet Jimmy."
Adjust the tint on your monitor so that the brightness level lights up the entire work area. Insist to others that you like it that way.
Don't use any punctuation.
As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.
Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."
Sing along at the opera.
Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme.
Find out where your boss shops and buy exactly the same outfits. Wear them one day after your boss does. This is especially effective if your boss is of the opposite gender.
Send email to the rest of the company to tell them what you're doing. For example, "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the bathroom, in stall 3."
Put mosquito netting around your cubicle. Play a tape of jungle sounds all day.
Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you're not in the mood.
Call 911 and ask if 911 is for emergencies.
Call the psychic hotline and don't say anything.
Have your coworkers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Hard.
When the money comes out of the ATM, scream "I Won! I Won! 3rd time this week!"
When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot yelling, "Run for your lives, they're loose!"
Tell your boss, "It's not the voices in my head that bother me, it's the voices in your head that do."
Tell your children over dinner, "Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
Every time you see a broom yell, "Honey, your mother is here!"
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
To my sister Ruth,
My beautiful, brave sister, you inspire me...
Your wisdom and grace are amazing...
When you followed me to Brisbane I was so proud...
When I left you there I worried...
When I see the women you have blossomed into I rejoice...
I know you have your struggles but what inspires me most is your strength in the face of those struggles...
God bless your path as you finish at college
May His joy and strength always be yours
Thank You my precious, blessed sister
My beautiful, brave sister, you inspire me...
Your wisdom and grace are amazing...
When you followed me to Brisbane I was so proud...
When I left you there I worried...
When I see the women you have blossomed into I rejoice...
I know you have your struggles but what inspires me most is your strength in the face of those struggles...
God bless your path as you finish at college
May His joy and strength always be yours
Thank You my precious, blessed sister
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