a child of god
this is the way, run in it
Lessons from Hosea today! As I was reading along in Hosea today, I came upon this verse in chapter 6, verse 2, where it says, “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him” and it caught my attention. This section is about how the people of Israel who have been turned away from the LORD God in rebellion, and have been sinning and acting foolishly, are saying to themselves, (v.1) “Come, let us return to the Lord! He has torn us (as judgement for our sins) but He will heal us. He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.”
And they are right! They had been sinning and therefore had to face the consequences of that sin – sin is no fun. It separates us from God, leads to unenjoyable, sometimes painful times, and almost always causes sadness and grief, consequences of sin, but, there is a way back. And that way lies in repentance. When we repent and turn back to God, He does heal us from sin and restore us to fellowship with Him. I’m usually just sorry it takes me a while to be willing to do that – as I’m sure the people of Israel were, too. But, back to this verse 2 in chapter 6. It was the two days, and a third day, that initially caught my eye. That, of course, is a foreshadowing and a prophetic picture of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection from the dead. And the end result for us, “that we may live before Him/God,” this is what Jesus died for! To pay the price for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God and live in His holy presence, not just now, but for eternity. We belong to God through Jesus! As I dug deeper into this verse, it led to Psalm 30:5, which says, “For His anger (and God’s anger at our sin is righteous, unlike some of our anger) is but for a moment, His favour is for a lifetime; weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy (Whoo!) comes in the morning.” Love this verse! With God, there is a shout of joy in the morning, there is a new day, there is restoration, hope and light and life. Then I looked at 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 which talks about the tension between living for God but in a sinful, fallen world. It talks about how to live in the Spirit, in the here and now, but with our eyes fixed on Jesus and what is to come. “Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying (and boy do we feel that some days!), yet/more importantly/pay attention to this! – our inner man (our spirit) is being renewed day by day.” Each day, when we spend time with God, read from His word which is alive and speaks into our lives and hearts and spirits when we give it the time and space to do so, our life in God is revitalized, renewed, we get new spiritual energy and clarity of vision. And it goes on to say, “For momentary, light affliction (it ain’t all that bad, folks, the Lord says) is producing for us (it has a purpose) an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look (and here’s where our focus needs to be) not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal (temporary, fading, will not last), but the things which are not seen are eternal (last forever).” Of course we love all that talk about glory. We’re all about the glory of God, sometimes. But, it is the day in, day out, relationship, walking with God, talking with God, knowing Him better, loving Him better, and then being obedient to live that out, loving people better, living lives of humble service – this is what the glory of God likes to break into suddenly, to bless and to encourage us. And God’s revelations of glory do serve a purpose. 2 Corinthians 3 talks about this in verse 18, “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as form the Lord the Spirit.” Here we hear again that phrase, being transformed. We are being made to look more like our Lord Jesus – by His very work within us. When we join His family, we begin to take on the characteristics of His family, we become more like the redeemed us He created to live and know Him. And here is the way to do that – back in Hosea, chapter 6, verse 3 now, “so let us know, let us press on/press in to know the LORD God.” And the result of that, “God’s going forth is as certain as the dawn (His suddenlies, when He breaks into our lives), And He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” Do any of us need that time of refreshing from the Lord today? Do we need Him to come into our lives today like a spring rain that waters the earth and causes growth and life to spring up? I do. I need God. I need Him today. And I want to press on, to press in, to know Him better today. And then to live and move and have my being in Him, today, and tomorrow. He is so worth it.
1 Comment
Alta Ada Williams hi
2/3/2018 21:36:49
Thanks for an inspiring exposition.
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