December 26, 2007 12:03 PM
Rich wrote:
Hosea 14: 2a. "Take words with you and return to the Lord." I think it is important that we actually speak about our sins with God. We need to tell him in words (in prayer), not just feel sorry. I think there is something in us that when we speak it, we really understand and feel it. It is one thing to "feel" sorry. It is another to express it in words. This is the same with us with one another. It is important to "say" to our wives that we are sorry, that we messed up. It is important that we "say" to our kids that we are sorry. It is important that we "say" to one another (friends) that we goofed, that we did or said things to one another that were wrong. Likewise, it is also important that we tell each other when we "feel" hurt so that the other can say "I am sorry." We all get our feelings hurt. Sometimes we need to see our own sin in hurt personal feelings - sometimes this is just our way of covering for our guilt. But sometimes we do really feel hurt and when that happens we need to express that to the other person. If we don't, sin lingers and festers and we can become like what is described in the book of Hosea. I know that I do not want God to describe me like what we have been reading for the past many days! How about you?
Hosea 14: 2b-3. "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion." WOW!!! What an awesome way way to repent to the Lord. I love these verses. I am so much like Israel. Sin, sin, sin. These are verses that we should all memorize and recite when we wake up from our sin. What an awesome God we serve who forgives us of our sins again and again. Hosea is basically a book about sin upon sin.
Hosea 14: 4 = God's response to repentance. "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them." This is totally incredible. God will HEAL us of our waywardness. Heal as in fix. Heal as in help us not to do that again. It is awesome to think of sin in these terms. I am just beginning to learn how to let my teenager make his own mistakes. I am seeing that he learns much more from making his own mistakes than from me telling him how to "not mess up." (This is hard for me to do, but I am slowly but surely learning - I think). Perhaps same with God. As we sin and repent, maybe we actually learn a little. Maybe God uses these times to teach us to not do that again. As we stay close to God and feel his love and know that he has turned his anger from us, we learn. We get better at avoiding sin. Maybe that is what maturity is all about - learning how to not do that again. But learning through love is so much better than learning through punishment. A lesson we all need to first feel from God and then we need to do to others.
Hosea 14 is an awesome chapter - one we should read again and again. Reply to this
December 26, 2007 12:08 PM
Rich wrote:
I just found one of the more interesting Bible study sites on the internet. Please look at the following address:
Both audio and written commentaries on it looks like every book in the bible. I just read through a couple on Hosea and they are great. Much detail, verse by verse. These can be a great aid to deeper bible study. Let me know what you think. Reply to this
December 26, 2007 1:15 PM
Sam wrote:
Good afternoon, Rich. what great insight you have. When I read this chapter this morning, I was blown away at the 180 degree shift from the other 13! All through this book, chapters and verses which I will never understand, I saw God 'giving' up on Israel. I saw Him always saying how he was going to punish them, and how bad they were, and so forth. THEN, out of the blue, comes God's love shining through. We are all struggling in sin much like these Israelites. We have pride (of which I have the corner market on, by the way), and envy and anger and lustful thoughts and greed and all the other 'nasty' stuff which make up our souls; just like the Israelites which God continued to 'yell' at through Hosea. Last Sunday, Socorro and I went to a church in Douglasville as we could not find a 'church of Christ' open for service. It was definitely not the same...people kinda of lethargic, even though most of them were about half my age. The preacher was less than impressive in his presentation, however, the message he taught was great. Much like the message of the first 13 chapters of Hosea. What he was saying, in a nutshell, was that we, as Christians, are Bad People Who Sometimes Do Good Things, instead of Good People Who Sometimes Do Bad Things. Using the book of Romans, basically chapters, 6, 7 and 8, he explained this philosophy in great detail. Sin is in us all, just like it was in Israel as Hosea relayed to us. And everyone falls short of God's wishes to be perfect, hence we are all bad...we all have sin in us, and always will while we are in this body. But God loves us as much as He loved the people of Israel back then. He forgives us of our sins when we reach out to Him (NOT when we simply keep sinning with no repentance). Although we are basically bad, we CAN have period of goodness....I just wish more of those 'goodness' times would shine out from me than they do.
I checked out some of those links on that website. I was very impressed in that the author steered away from opinions, I thought, on subjects like baptism, belief, and falling away. Instead, he seemed to present Biblical FACTS, from which we can form our OWN opinions. I like that type of ministering, instead of being told 'this is the way it is'. Thanks for the site. Also, I had tears down my cheeks yesterday when you told the story of what happened in your family. VERY impressive the way the Holy Spirit works.
Hosea 14: 2a. "Take words with you and return to the Lord." I think it is important that we actually speak about our sins with God. We need to tell him in words (in prayer), not just feel sorry. I think there is something in us that when we speak it, we really understand and feel it. It is one thing to "feel" sorry. It is another to express it in words. This is the same with us with one another. It is important to "say" to our wives that we are sorry, that we messed up. It is important that we "say" to our kids that we are sorry. It is important that we "say" to one another (friends) that we goofed, that we did or said things to one another that were wrong. Likewise, it is also important that we tell each other when we "feel" hurt so that the other can say "I am sorry." We all get our feelings hurt. Sometimes we need to see our own sin in hurt personal feelings - sometimes this is just our way of covering for our guilt. But sometimes we do really feel hurt and when that happens we need to express that to the other person. If we don't, sin lingers and festers and we can become like what is described in the book of Hosea. I know that I do not want God to describe me like what we have been reading for the past many days! How about you?
Hosea 14: 2b-3. "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion." WOW!!! What an awesome way way to repent to the Lord. I love these verses. I am so much like Israel. Sin, sin, sin. These are verses that we should all memorize and recite when we wake up from our sin. What an awesome God we serve who forgives us of our sins again and again. Hosea is basically a book about sin upon sin.
Hosea 14: 4 = God's response to repentance. "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them." This is totally incredible. God will HEAL us of our waywardness. Heal as in fix. Heal as in help us not to do that again. It is awesome to think of sin in these terms. I am just beginning to learn how to let my teenager make his own mistakes. I am seeing that he learns much more from making his own mistakes than from me telling him how to "not mess up." (This is hard for me to do, but I am slowly but surely learning - I think). Perhaps same with God. As we sin and repent, maybe we actually learn a little. Maybe God uses these times to teach us to not do that again. As we stay close to God and feel his love and know that he has turned his anger from us, we learn. We get better at avoiding sin. Maybe that is what maturity is all about - learning how to not do that again. But learning through love is so much better than learning through punishment. A lesson we all need to first feel from God and then we need to do to others.
Hosea 14 is an awesome chapter - one we should read again and again.
Reply to this
I just found one of the more interesting Bible study sites on the internet. Please look at the following address:
http://www.enduringword.com/library_commentaries.html
Both audio and written commentaries on it looks like every book in the bible. I just read through a couple on Hosea and they are great. Much detail, verse by verse. These can be a great aid to deeper bible study. Let me know what you think.
Reply to this
Good afternoon, Rich. what great insight you have. When I read this chapter this morning, I was blown away at the 180 degree shift from the other 13! All through this book, chapters and verses which I will never understand, I saw God 'giving' up on Israel. I saw Him always saying how he was going to punish them, and how bad they were, and so forth. THEN, out of the blue, comes God's love shining through. We are all struggling in sin much like these Israelites. We have pride (of which I have the corner market on, by the way), and envy and anger and lustful thoughts and greed and all the other 'nasty' stuff which make up our souls; just like the Israelites which God continued to 'yell' at through Hosea. Last Sunday, Socorro and I went to a church in Douglasville as we could not find a 'church of Christ' open for service. It was definitely not the same...people kinda of lethargic, even though most of them were about half my age. The preacher was less than impressive in his presentation, however, the message he taught was great. Much like the message of the first 13 chapters of Hosea. What he was saying, in a nutshell, was that we, as Christians, are Bad People Who Sometimes Do Good Things, instead of Good People Who Sometimes Do Bad Things. Using the book of Romans, basically chapters, 6, 7 and 8, he explained this philosophy in great detail. Sin is in us all, just like it was in Israel as Hosea relayed to us. And everyone falls short of God's wishes to be perfect, hence we are all bad...we all have sin in us, and always will while we are in this body. But God loves us as much as He loved the people of Israel back then. He forgives us of our sins when we reach out to Him (NOT when we simply keep sinning with no repentance). Although we are basically bad, we CAN have period of goodness....I just wish more of those 'goodness' times would shine out from me than they do.
I checked out some of those links on that website. I was very impressed in that the author steered away from opinions, I thought, on subjects like baptism, belief, and falling away. Instead, he seemed to present Biblical FACTS, from which we can form our OWN opinions. I like that type of ministering, instead of being told 'this is the way it is'. Thanks for the site. Also, I had tears down my cheeks yesterday when you told the story of what happened in your family. VERY impressive the way the Holy Spirit works.
Mac
Reply to this