LOVED: Goodbook 06-22-12

DISCLAIMER: This message might be a difficult one to read, but it's worth it!

In the Advanced Track, we just read the book of Hosea.  Hosea was a prophet for the people of Israel.  He delivered God's message to the people.  Sometimes, he embodied God's message for the people.

For example, Hosea married an adulterous woman.  She loved other men and gave herself to other men.  This is a hard thing to read about because many of us have been in relationships and families where this has happened.  If you've experienced this, you know how hurtful and painful this can be.

Then God drops a double bomb.  One bomb is the reality bomb.  The other is the grace bomb.  Listen to what God says to Hosea: "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes," (3:1).  Did the reality and grace explode into your life? 

Here's the reality bomb: We are like adulterers and adultresses toward God.  God, as our creator and savior, should be the top love and the top priority in our life.  We should love God and give ourselves to God above all else.  Yet so often, we love other things more than God.  We allow our attention and our focus to shift elsewhere.  We give ourselves and our time to so many other things besides God.  This is adultery to God and it hurts God just as bad.

Here's the grace bomb: God offers us love again ... and again ... and again.  God loves you and wants to be in a relationship with you.  God knows we need him and are most satisfied and complete when we are with him.  So, even though we do not deserve it, even though we could never earn God's trust and God's love back, God offers us love again.  God pursues us, forgives us, restores, us welcomes us back.  BOOM!

1) Let's stop our adulterous ways.  If we are loving anything more than God, if anything else has a higher priority than God, if we are giving ourselves away to things not of God, then it's time to reorient our lives toward loving God and giving ourselves to God.

2) Receive God's grace.  Let the depth of God's love for you wash over you and change you from the inside out.  Receive the chance to begin anew with God and rebuild your relationship.

Share your comments and ideas about how to apply this passage in our lives...