Repent O'Israel : Hosea 5-9

It is amazing continuing to read through Hosea. What a book for modern times. Not only have we committed adultery through our lives with God (thank you Battle Buddy Craig for that one), but we have a hard time not separating ourselves from our continued paths of destruction.

In this reading, God is speaking to Israel about their blindness to their actions and reveals their hearts position, their idols, their "moon festivals". God is planning a wake up call....

Hosea 5:4 ...."A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord".

I know in my life, I have had times where I was idoling money or fast cars, or focused on bad girls, sex, drinking ,etc....blind to the love of God....not acknowledging him for who he is...OUR MAKER.....

Hosea 5:14 - 15 ...."I will tear them into pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them"......"Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt; And they will seek my face in their misery they will earnestly seek me"

Repent!!!

God's grace is everlasting...he promises he will not leave us...he will allow or even craft things in our lives to make us stumble, or "tear us into pieces"....but he will Love us...and Grow us...if we seek his face...and Repent. This is important to note.....

What have you and I repented for lately....do we need to add a bumper sticker to our cars.........

" GOT REPENTANCE ?"

Hosea 1 - 4

Favorite Verses

Hosea 1:2; 

the Lord said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulturous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord".

Hosea 2:16;

"In that day," declares the Lord,

    "you will call me 'my husband';

     you will no longer call me 'my master"

Hosea 2:19;

I will betroth you to me forever....

...in love and compassion

Hosea 4:4-5;

"But let no man bring a charge,

   let no man accuse another,

for your people are like those

  who bring charges against a priest.

You stumble day and night,

  and the prophets stumble with you.

I felt like this was a scene from 'Pretty Woman'.  I mean, really, how hard would it be to marry a woman who was known as an adulterer?  Would she do it again, most likely, but God spoke!  So Hosea takes this woman, knowing full well that she was a high risk.  But God wanted to show how he was going to love his people, and wanted Hosea to live it.  How hard!  But God also commanded Hosea to reconcile with his wife after she lay with another man.  

Sometimes we see couples divorce because of adultery, infrequently, you see some Christian couples stay together.  I personally wasn't mature to understand this........but now I get it......Sure SIN has ramifications, and a marriage would be shattered...but could it be reconciled...of course...but not on the two partners strength...but that of the Lord.  With God, as we see in these verses....We are all SINFUL, and we need to lessen the JUDGING and look for the Truth and Grace (Love and Compassion).  Understanding full well, a spouse cheating is not an easy thing to get through, but PRAISE GOD, MARRIAGES can be RESTORED.

Personally, I have always told myself I couldn't forgive my wife if she cheated on me.  With God in the marriage it is possible for people to forgive each other through all SINS....it's not easy....but it is possible.

Interesting and Taboo'd topic, but I am glad that God puts everything in his book!

Dec 8th thru 12th Bible Reading Plan

This week, we are in the fantastic book of Hosea:

Monday Dec 8th Hosea 1-4

Tuesday Dec 9th Hosea 5-9

Wed Dec 10th Hosea 10-14

Thurs Dec 11th Joel 1-3

Friday  Dec 12th Amos 1-4

Have a great week!

Been Gone A Long Time....

Ok - After a long Thanksgiving Holiday, I am back.  I am over being sick, and after going to The Singing Christmas Tree at Keller Auditorium....I am "Inspired".....

Time to get back into the groove.  This last week, we had an awesome God filled couples care group, we discussed Daniel...and man....it was great.  I am not going to catch up with Daniel in the blog, but if anyone wants to add to it, please feel free too.

This week.....HOSEA!  Praise God for the the KIDTROPOLIS kids and their choir performance at Church today!

Standing In Awe - What Can We Say!!

I was so overwhelmed by the magnitude and detail in Ezekiel 1.  How can one imagine the magnificent creatures described in the vision Ezekiel saw.  God and his Angels.  Jesus at the Throne.  A Rainbow significantly representing Gods covenant.  I wanted to paint this, what would it look like to you? Awesome.  

God will speak to us, when we stand ready to do what he commands us.  He will work in us through the Holy Spirit.  I don't ask God to fill me with the Holy Spirit enough.  I want to please God, but is my will hardened at times...do I really want the Holy Spirit to transform the way I work with coworkers, with my wife, with my children.....I mean...does that mean I dont have free will when I invite the Holy Spirit in?  What would a day look like constantly allowing God to work through us...to change us...to alter the world, our relationships, to set aside selfishness and wants/desires of worldly things.  

Dont get me wrong, God wants us to enjoy life, and the beauty around us.  Its just he wants to be with us, within us, part of us.......Let me ask you this, will you commit to including him in your life?  

Ezekiel 3:1 " And he said to me, Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat"

...."So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey".

Prayer: Lord, I am amazed by the visions that Ezekiel witnessed.  Lord, I cant imagine the intangible.  I am so thankful that I beleive in you and have faith.  I praise you.  I lift you up.  I want the Holy Spirit alongside my meetings at work.  I am a sinner, and I repent Lord of my bitterness towards some people in my life.  Please help me grow and mature.  Again, I give thanks to your plan in my life, and know that you are indeed Holy and good, growing my spirituality and disciplining me when necessary.  You are my Father.   I yearn for your scrolls (passages in the Bible) to taste as sweet as honey and I become more fervent than ever for your word.

This Weeks Bible Reading Plan

Mon Nov 10, Ezekiel 1-4
Tues Nov 11, Ezekiel 5-9
Wed Nov 12, Ezekiel 10-13
Thu Nov 13, Ezekiel 14-16
Frid Nov 14, Ezekiel 17-19

Have A Great Week!!!

Cant Forget Lamentations!!!

I was a little behind this last week.  It was a long week with a drained body.  A cold hit me hard and lasted Thursday through Sunday night.  Even as I type now, I am coughing...but encouraged that if I get to bed by 11pm tonight,  I will have a near 7.5 hrs of sleep! Hallelujah!

First, I am very excited to say, my wife and I have been married 4 years! What a blessing! 

Lamentations is interesting.  I don't know the whole picture, but we are roughly reading passages written in 586 BC.   My favorite verses:

Lamentation 3:25 " The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him"

Lamentation 3:27 " It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young"

Lamentation 3:39 " Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins"

I read a comment on a CNN post the other day about Christians and something to do with the California Prop 8 passage, and how Christians/Mormons (the Mormon church funded $20Million in ads,etc) should be ashamed of themselves.  A blogger wrote "How can you be for this, it prevents gay couples from being married"...another blogger wrote "one word...BIBLE",  well that previous blogger wrote back "  $%#^ (it was actually a bad word) the bible...it is worthless trash....etc etc etc".....

I was shocked....sad...and I saw more comments from many more bloggers also proclaiming their hate for Christians and the Bible.

My friends, it is going to become more difficult to live as a Christian in this country.  We are going to be targetted and we will be tested.  We must have faith and hope that our God has a marvelous plan.  We must seek him.  One of these verses also reminded me how important it is as a father to be the spiritual leader in the home and instill the proper love for Christ in my children.  Am I doing that?  

PRAISE: Thank you Lord for such a beautiful loving and God seeking WIFE! I am so happy to be married to Suzi.....She is the cheese to my macaroni...(I took that line from the movie Juno).

PRAYER: I pray that parenting time with Ethan increase.  Erika (Ethans mom) has been adamant that Ethan not spend more time with us.  It has been 3 years since we last increased time, and we have asked her many times to go to mediation, counseling, etc.  She basically told me that I need to talk to my lawyer if I wanted any more time.  I pray that the Lord will help soften Erika's heart and see the yearning of Ethan to spend more time with his brother and with his Dad (me).  I also pray that God can help me be patient and still shine the light during conflict and disagreement.