Tag: God’s grace

Morning Musing: Jonah 2:2

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“I called to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me. I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; you heard my voice.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Are you the kind of person who calls for help before you break something or after it’s already shattered into pieces? It’s not just a matter of pride that determines how far you go into something you can’t do before you wave the help flag. Sometimes it’s a matter of information. For Jonah here, it was a simple matter of the fact that he didn’t have any other options. The question is, though, did he really mean it?

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Digging in Deeper: Hosea 11:8

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“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart; my compassion is stirred!”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the world of philosophy, the branch dealing with the making and analyzing of arguments is called logic. We make jokes about whether or not something is logical, but the study of logic is a detailed and complex one. Logicians have explored it at a depth and breadth that will leave your head spinning if you aren’t formally trained. It is a philosophical discipline with which I have admittedly struggled (I can already hear the jabs coming…). But, even I can recognize that what God says here represents a formal logical fallacy. Let’s talk about why.

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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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Digging in Deeper: Isaiah 55:8

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“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

Context is king when it comes to understanding the Scriptures well. This morning we started talking about a popular bumper-sticker verse out of Isaiah and then talked about the different contexts we need to take into account when examining a particular verse. Let’s put all of that into practice.

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Digging in Deeper: Revelation 20:15

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“And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

This morning we started wrestling through what we are supposed to do with a passage like this one and its disturbing images of the final fate of those who reject God as Lord. We started with the basics: The doctrine of Hell is hard, but it’s also necessary. With those two truths in place, let’s deal with the emotional hard of the idea of Hell being a place of eternal death and fiery torment. Are those both true pictures of Hell? Because, if we’re honest, those are the ideas that drive so many away from the doctrine. 

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