Digging in Deeper: Hosea 6:1-2

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“Come, let us return to the Lord. For he has torn us, and he will heal us; he has wounded us, and he will bind up our wounds. He will revive us after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up so we can live in his presence.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

If you’ve been working through Hosea with me over the past couple of weeks, think about what we have seen in the last few chapters. God has been blasting the people for their faithlessness. They had turned from Him over and over again. In spite of everything He had promised them, they still went looking for help in other places. And they were going to pay for it. After all His anger and rage, what should we expect next? Not this. 

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Love Like Jesus

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This week we finally wrapped up our series, Being Useful. In the final analysis, how can we be the most useful to Jesus? The answer is found in getting ourselves on board with His most central mission: To love one another into the kingdom of God. To find out more about this incredibly freeing truth, keep reading.

Love Like Jesus

By the time I reached my senior year of college, I was so deep into my chemistry major there was no turning back from that.  I say that, because by that time I had already agreed to pursue God’s call to ministry and realized that most of what I had spent the previous three years learning was going to gradually leak out of the back of my head from disuse.  Always a fun realization when you still have the four hardest courses of your major yet ahead of you.  Speaking of that, one of those courses was Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry, or DINC for short.  The professor for the class was Dr. John O’Brien. 

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Morning Musing: Hosea 5:13

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“When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria and sent a delegation to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

Where do you go when trouble comes? If you’re like me, you go to someone or something you believe can solve your problem. You go somewhere you think will be able to provide refuge until the trouble passes. Wherever or whomever this is says a lot about you. It says a lot about who you trust. It says a lot about what it is that has captured your heart. For Israel, what it said wasn’t good. 

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Digging in Deeper: Hosea 5:6

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“They go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord but do not find him; he has withdrawn from them.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

Have you ever been in one place while your mind and heart were someplace else? You may be physically existing wherever you are, but you aren’t really there. It’s hard to get much of significance done like that. The odds are that whatever it is you are looking to accomplish there either isn’t going to happen at all, or at least isn’t going to happen well. This is true physically, but it’s also true spiritually and relationally. Let’s talk about how. 

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Morning Musing: Hosea 4:10

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“They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned their devotion to the Lord.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Did you know there is a whole industry dedicated to creating the food you see in television commercials? It’s all fake. Well, most of it is anyway. It’s all plastic and wax. But wow does it look good on the screen! It looks good enough to eat to be sure. If you made your own version, the TV version would look better. But if you ate it, you would find it to be remarkably unsatisfying. In fact, you would find it to be decidedly bad for your health. What Hosea says here is that sin is kind of like that too. 

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