12.15.13

Hosea 7:13a They look everywhere except to the Most High.


My Thoughts

How often do we do this? We do this all the time. We pop a pill for a headache, first thing, instead of sending up a prayer...then if it doesn't go away we send up a prayer. We open up a book for a good story, instead of opening up the Bible. We run to our friends when we have a problem then if the problem doesn't go away we beg God to help us. We grumble and complain to each other instead of telling God our troubles so that He can guide us to a solution. We shop to fill those empty places instead of spending time with God to fill those empty spaces. We spend money on things we don't really need then worry about money we don't have to cover our needs, instead of giving God back His ten percent so that He can give us what He promises, blessings shaken together, pressed down and running over. We make God our safety net without spending time to mend any places we have torn apart, instead of spending time with God and making Him our first line of defense so that we don't need a safety net.

We tend to look to the world, get so easily distracted by the world and take our eyes off of God. We forget that God holds all the answers. God gives us the answers along with a quiet in the storm of life.  We just have to stay focused on Him.  We tend to be like Peter and look at what we are doing instead of keeping our eyes on God.  We all look at Peter and know that he sank the minute he took His eyes off of Jesus, yet we do that all the time.  If our stories were written in God's word people would shake their heads at us too. 

The wonderful thing is this, when we find ourselves looking to the world we can call down God's grace to help us stay focused on God. 

12.8.13

Hosea 10:1 How prosperous Israel is-- a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit. But the richer the people get, the more pagan altars they build. The more bountiful their harvest, the more beautiful their sacred pillars.



My Thoughts
I read this and thought of our country... of the huge difference in our lives just since I was a little girl. The even bigger difference in our lives since my parents were little. There was a time in America where mortgage had to be paid off in just 7 years. So you worked up to a larger house you didn't start with one. Or you lived most of your life in a paid for house. Look at the size of an average American home and how it has grown. Just look at the size of a closet when you were a child compared to the size of a closet today!! We keep thinking more is better.

I read this and my mind went to our trip to Auburn when John-Robert graduated this past year... we walked past statues of famous football players! Big statues. Yet our church buildings get simpler and simpler.
The more God gives us the more we think we deserve just for being! The more God gives us the more we pay for and idolize entertainment and it's figures.
If my house was as simple as the house I grew up in it would cost less to heat and cool...less to furnish...less to keep up. And I would have to own less because I would have less place to put what I owned. I would have more to give to others!
I believe that all that I have is a blessing from God! I do. But I also believe that when God blesses me with much, He expects much of me in return. I need to find that balance in life. We are getting better...but we have room for improvement. A change in our country begins with each one of us doing our part in loving God. Doing our part in putting God above all else in our lives. The richer we become the more humble we need to become. I fear that instead we have become like Israel, proud and fickle building pagan alters, forgetting God.
I imagine that if we were to fill up our churches just one week the way we fill up football stadiums..that we would see a difference in our nation. God would bless our effort...then if we did it yet again...the change would be even bigger. We need a revival...and those start in the hearts of each one of us. What we do, what we say, what we spend time doing, what we put first in our lives matters. Our one life does make a difference. I think that maybe the biggest lie that Satan tells each one of us is that what "we" do does no matter, because it matters so much!!
We can treat what we have as what it is, a gift from God. Or we can treat it as something we deserve just because. Which makes more sense? When I look around at all that I have.. it must be a gift! Now I need to treat it as such!

12.8.13

Hosea 8:4 The people have appointed kings without my consent, and princes without my knowledge.  By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold they have brought about their own destruction.

My Thoughts

This really stood out to me today!!  I thought of all the people we put in charge with our votes.  How often do we listen to the news media, the person running, our friends, social media to influence who that we vote for?  How often do we rely on our own "ability" to access a person's character... by the ads that they run.  How often do we do online research and just believe the first few things that we read?  We don't have to depend on any of that!  We shouldn't depend on any of that.  We each truly don't have a true way of knowing the people we put in office, well at least most of us don't. We just tend to believe what we hear and access the person through that point of view. And when we go about putting people into high positions in our country this way it must make God frown!  All we really need to do is go to God in prayer, then listen! Listen to what He tells us. We don't need to decide on which party we are for... or if somebody believes what we believe... we just need to ask God, then God will take care of our country.

We make it so complicated!  Satan gets involved and stirs the pot and stirs up the confusion!  But really it is simple, God knows!!  God always knows! And if we go to God in our decision making then God will take care of the rest! 

12.7.12

Hosea 6:6 I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.  I want you to know me more that I want burnt offerings.

My Thoughts

God gave the Israelites a way to be forgiven for their sins. He gave them burnt offerings and sacrifices. They began to use these sacrifices and rituals as a way to live like they wanted to and then ask forgiveness.  They didn't even take time to know God.  They only took time to make themselves right after they did what they wanted. God said I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. 

 

This same thing often plays out in marriages... a husband doesn't time time with his wife... he knows life so little that he can't tell you what she has done that week or what she has said.  Then he brings flowers and wants to make it all better.  One day the flowers no longer work..one day she sees the flowers not as love for her but as a way to make sure that she loves him.  This often happens in reverse too... the wife is too, too busy to even hear her husbands worries.. or his accomplishments... she senses he is upset so she cooks his favorite dinner.  Eventually that favorite dinner is his least favorite dinner because it screams to him, "She has  not been listening."

 

God says here, "I want to know you love me...I don't what your sacrifices because I am an afterthought.. I want to be your first thought!!"  "I want you to know me enough to know what pleases me... I want you to know me enough to talk to me about everything in your lives. I don't want you to pretend to care with your burnt offerings." 

 

Another words we can't be Sunday Christians.  We must be Christians every day.  Sunday can't be about making all our wrongs from the week before okay.  The wrongs we did knowing even before we did them that we would just ask forgiveness for on Sunday. Our Sundays can't be about being forgiven for the things we didn't know were wrong because we didn't take time to learn.  Our Sundays need to be a beginning to our week.. a way to start the week off with God.  A promise to Him that we will love Him with our actions...that we will make Him a part of each day, a part of each decision we make. 

 

We need to love God, not because we love ourselves and don't want to go to hell, but because we love God. Love him because He first loved us. Because we know Him, truly know Him.  We need to love God because He is God... because He is love.  God doesn't want our love because we are suppose to love Him. He wants us to love Him because we just do love Him.  To love Him that way we must spend time knowing Him.  When we love God like that, that love will, WILL change our lives in amazing ways!! 

 

12.6.12

Hosea 4:1-3
Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,
because the Lord has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.² There is only cursing, lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.³ Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the fish in the sea are swept away.


My Thoughts

Psalm 6:34 Let the heavens and the earth praise Him, the seas and all that move in them.  When I read the first three verses in Hosea 4 my mind went straight to this verse in Psalms.  I though if the earth can praise God it can also morn our actions toward God.  When we are in our deepest morning we don't function right and we feel like giving up. We are not productive...and often we act out in anger. 

 

We had a preacher once that talked earthquakes in another country and how that country mistreated it women... he referenced a Bible verse about the land.  I can't remember the verse.  But basically he said that the earthquakes were caused by the mistreatment of the women of that land.  I was amazed and it made such sense.

 

Here it talks about the people committing such sin...it talks about blood shed following bloodshed.  I read these verses and think about gangs that take a life for a life.  I think about how cursing is not shocking any more, like it was when I was a child.  I think about how we have become people who steal from people or our government on paper and think that that is ok....everyday people that seem to do most thing right will cheat on their taxes. My mother put it best one day when she said, "There has always been sin, but now people just seem so proud of their sins."  TV teaches us that sex is expected on the third date if you are a dating adult. 

 

These verses go on to tell us that because of sin the lad dries up...the beast of the field and the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea are swept away.  Only mighty winds could do that.  And look at all the mighty winds we are seeing in our land.  Winds that bring on fierce storms that cause such damage and distruction.  Hot dry summers where crops don't grow...and stormy, stormy falls. 

 

The scientist say there will be so much more of this to come.  They blame it on global warming. God's word says that it is our sins.  If our land, our seas can praise God... our land and our seas can morn our treatment of God.  If morning causes us to be angry and act out.. if it causes us not to be productive and to give up, wouldn't it do the same the the wind and the seas? 

 

We have control over all of this... God put us in control of the land and the animals in Genesis. To gain power over the land we must love God and put God first. We must turn from sin and put God first in our lives. I believe with all my heart that if we do that the ice will quilt melting and causing the earth to cry.  I believe the winds will calm down and the rain will come without storms.  If we love God our earth will rejoice and produce in abundance. But we have to love God. 

 

We each play a part... we can't play the blame game.  When we blame others we don't fix ourselves.  We can't say, "If he didn't sin and she didn't sin." We have to each take responsibility for ourselves and say, "Where am I sinning, how am I letting God down? What is my part in making the earth morn?" 

12.8.11

Hosea 10:12 I said, "Plant the good seeds of righteousness and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you."

My Thoughts

This is saying to me... Do what is right, do what I ask you to do and I will make sure that you know how much I love you!!... I will make sure that people love you and that you love people. Soften your heart to doing good... seek after me and I will make you right... I will make your life right...I will make your relationships right... I will make your life good.  If you go about doing good...I will take care of the rest.

When we are going about our day making decisions... instead of saying to ourselves "what should I do?" We should say to God... "God, what would you have me do?"... then listen...and let God take care of the rest!!

12.7.11

Hosea 6:3 Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in the early spring.

My Thoughts

Press on.... I looked that up... it means to move forward.... it means to advance, to march on, to press.  Another words keep at it!! ... work at it.. do it even when it is hard.... make every effort to know God.  That means if we have to get up a little early to make time... or if we have to get books on CD to listen to in the car or if we have to stay up a little late...it is our responsibility to make an effort, to advance our knowledge of God. The more we seek after God the more God give us,  so making the time for God is well worth the effort. There is no better dividend on our time. It says right here in Hosea that God will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring!!  These are two wonderful word pictures.... the sun rising in the morning filling the darkness with so much light...it's brilliant and amazing... it is full of hope and something new.... it fills your heart if you are awake and see the dawn. And spring rains...oh wow.... they pour down... and fill the ground overflowing...the cause new things to grow beautiful and healthy.... they make make things grow that fill the earth with color, and happiness...even the birds sing the most beautiful songs after a spring rain. 

When we seek after God, God responds to us! He responds in amazing ways...giving us hope and a newness of life... God pours out his blessings on us... He makes our life new and bright... when we press on and get to know God better and better we become like the birds in spring...we have songs to sing!!! Our part... and we always have a part... is to press on to know God.  What will you do today to know God better? Do something.. at least one thing... so the darkness will fade away... so that God can pour out his blessings and make your life new...do at least one thing today to know God better!!!

Me holding your face in my hands...looking into your eyes... right into your eyes with great love!!... "Take time for God... God loves you so, so, so much!... God has so much to give you! Please promise me that you will not pass that up! Promise me!!  God can do amazing thing!"