Hosea 14:9 "If you want to live well,
make sure you understand all of this.
If you know what's good for you,
you'll learn this inside and out.
God's paths get you where you want to go.
Right-living people walk them easily;
wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling."
The Book of Hosea is a charge against Israel for the way it continued to turn its back on God. They would follow every movement in other directions and forsake God at every turn. They would want what they once had, want more than God would provide or would allow and they would go after another God that satisfied their desires.
Fortunately, the book ends with a promise after a harsh judgment, that returning to God will make things better for them. It's a good reminder that right living has a lot of characteristics and it doesn't simply mean being good.
Right living has at its heart love for God and love for others. It is a life of looking out for others in justice and mercy. It is living the very life Jesus taught how to live and that he lived himself. Right living is not only believing in God, but committing to God and God's ways, even if it means sacrificing the desires of the self, of the flesh.
It's very easy to fall away from God. We do it all the time. But a life that is not 100% committed to God will never fully receive the blessing God is preparing for it and will continue to slip further from God. We are either growing toward's God or growing away from Him. There is no standing still in this relationship. In other words, if we think we are good with God, but ignore our relationship, we are on a very slippery slope.
Hosea 12:6 "What are you waiting for? Return to your God!
Commit yourself in love, in justice!
Wait for your God,
and don't give up on him—ever!"
What's the secret to living well? Trusting in God's grace, not only to forgive, but to help us live. Living well is living by the grace of God every day. It's what God wants for us, not from us. And He's there to help.
Peace ><>
pc
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
LOST!
Time is short this morning as I am at the Bishop's Convocation on Evangelism in Fort Wayne. It's promised to be a busy day with keynote addresses, workshops and an evening working in one of the missions in Fort Wayne. I'll be thinking and praying how to continue our evangelism efforts at COFS and ask that you help me do the same. God is working among us and we must be ready for the people God is directing toward us and us toward them.
I find it interesting that in Psalm 78 (today's passage)the very people of God, who saw all that God had done in their history, who experienced the blessings of God, would still turn their backs on God and refused to believe or trust. Yet their story effected Egyptians to follow God and continued to draw non-Israelites to trust God. The same is true with our efforts in the church today. There are people coming to see the goodness and grace of God, experience the very love of God while many in the church look right past what God is doing and want to "go back to Egypt!"
It's disheartening when that happens especially when the goal of the church has never changed. Evangelism has always been the goal of God, to take the good news of God and share it in word and deed. God told Abraham that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Israel's job was to reveal God to the world, in how they talked about God and how they lived their holy (set apart) lives. And God is still doing the same in the church.
It's not about us, we're the sheep in the pen. We've made it. Now it's about those who don't know the dangers outside. God is trying to gather the sheep and has called us to help in this endeavor. Evangelism is going out and gathering in, helping the lost find their way.
I was found, so were you. Now it's time for us to do the finding along with God!
Peace ><>
pc
I find it interesting that in Psalm 78 (today's passage)the very people of God, who saw all that God had done in their history, who experienced the blessings of God, would still turn their backs on God and refused to believe or trust. Yet their story effected Egyptians to follow God and continued to draw non-Israelites to trust God. The same is true with our efforts in the church today. There are people coming to see the goodness and grace of God, experience the very love of God while many in the church look right past what God is doing and want to "go back to Egypt!"
It's disheartening when that happens especially when the goal of the church has never changed. Evangelism has always been the goal of God, to take the good news of God and share it in word and deed. God told Abraham that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Israel's job was to reveal God to the world, in how they talked about God and how they lived their holy (set apart) lives. And God is still doing the same in the church.
It's not about us, we're the sheep in the pen. We've made it. Now it's about those who don't know the dangers outside. God is trying to gather the sheep and has called us to help in this endeavor. Evangelism is going out and gathering in, helping the lost find their way.
I was found, so were you. Now it's time for us to do the finding along with God!
Peace ><>
pc
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Faith-Based Energy Drinks
I wish there were an energy drink for the life of faith. I mean how cool would it be to have a weak faith day and simply pick up a can of "Bolt" (think Paul's experience with Jesus and ligntning!) that will energize your faith for the day. Or maybe something like "Golden Calf" (i.e. Red Bull). That would affect your faith for sure.
But not positively!
There's nothing about such a product that would help us. In fact, if there were such a product we would depend more on it than we would on God! That's because it's been done before. Just read through the Bible and that's exactly what the idols provided, the habits and practices of the other religions that Israel experienced. From the Golden Calf to the orgies of Baal worship. And everything led away from the true God. No, we don't need a faith "rush" drink, we need diligence.
That's when we decide that we'll do what we have to do even when the going gets rough. Even when being faithful doesn't make sense. Even when it's the hardest thing to do. That's what faith is about.
The book of Hosea is a reminder of that very thing, to remember God, to trust in God and not in anything or anyone else! And for those who forsake God? Watch out!
Trusting in God takes practice, simple diligence, to get up every day and say, God help me trust you just a little bit more today.
Now that's a prayer God want's to hear!
Peace ><>
pc
But not positively!
There's nothing about such a product that would help us. In fact, if there were such a product we would depend more on it than we would on God! That's because it's been done before. Just read through the Bible and that's exactly what the idols provided, the habits and practices of the other religions that Israel experienced. From the Golden Calf to the orgies of Baal worship. And everything led away from the true God. No, we don't need a faith "rush" drink, we need diligence.
That's when we decide that we'll do what we have to do even when the going gets rough. Even when being faithful doesn't make sense. Even when it's the hardest thing to do. That's what faith is about.
The book of Hosea is a reminder of that very thing, to remember God, to trust in God and not in anything or anyone else! And for those who forsake God? Watch out!
Trusting in God takes practice, simple diligence, to get up every day and say, God help me trust you just a little bit more today.
Now that's a prayer God want's to hear!
Peace ><>
pc
Monday, October 23, 2006
Simple Prayer
I don't know always where to start my prayers. There are times when I want to pray, but I don't know exactly how to begin. And when I just begin, sometimes I feel like I'm tripping over my words, not communicating clearly to God what I want to say. But the truth is, God understands, even when we stutter and stammer and speak using words and ideas that don't always go together to describe a feeling, a circumstance that seems to defy description. God simply gets it!
That's why simple prayer is so important. It is the prayer we start with, from where we are in faith, in life. It's as simple as, "God, here I am, here's my circumstance, here's how I feel. I don't know if it's right, but it's where I. Now let's move on from here." That's what God wants from us, brutal honesty. Even if it means that you say things like, "What have you done to me God?" or "Why me?" God's loves it when we are raw and spiritually naked. That's when we are the most vulnerable, not to hurt or destruction, but for molding and shaping. For healing, and for clothing in God's way.
Simple prayer is the most important prayer. If we wait until we have prayer figured out, the faith all understood, then we might miss the relational building blocks that this type of prayer offers. God is not waiting for a great prayer, but waiting for yours and mine, as simple as they may be.
So let's pray...
God, we don't know always how to pray or what to say when we do pray. We use words wrongly, we don't even know our own language well, but you understand our cries like a parent does a child. Thank you for listening to our heartfelt whimperings and selfish groanings. Listen to our circumstances, hear our needs, answer our prayers and give us faith to trust you to move the mountains from our path.
You are our God, we pledge to be your faithful people and hear our prayers.
Amen.
Now, don't you feel better?
Peace ><>
pc
That's why simple prayer is so important. It is the prayer we start with, from where we are in faith, in life. It's as simple as, "God, here I am, here's my circumstance, here's how I feel. I don't know if it's right, but it's where I. Now let's move on from here." That's what God wants from us, brutal honesty. Even if it means that you say things like, "What have you done to me God?" or "Why me?" God's loves it when we are raw and spiritually naked. That's when we are the most vulnerable, not to hurt or destruction, but for molding and shaping. For healing, and for clothing in God's way.
Simple prayer is the most important prayer. If we wait until we have prayer figured out, the faith all understood, then we might miss the relational building blocks that this type of prayer offers. God is not waiting for a great prayer, but waiting for yours and mine, as simple as they may be.
So let's pray...
God, we don't know always how to pray or what to say when we do pray. We use words wrongly, we don't even know our own language well, but you understand our cries like a parent does a child. Thank you for listening to our heartfelt whimperings and selfish groanings. Listen to our circumstances, hear our needs, answer our prayers and give us faith to trust you to move the mountains from our path.
You are our God, we pledge to be your faithful people and hear our prayers.
Amen.
Now, don't you feel better?
Peace ><>
pc
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