Oct 03 2016
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Devos

I gotta tell you… I’m blown away by God”s great redemptive love!

Oh, the mercy and grace of the Lord!  His redemptive love is beyond our imagination!

God’s people, Israel, redeemed by His grace from slavery, had behaved like a common prostitute! More than being tempted and seduced by false Gods, they had run after evil, pagan gods! No longer the seduced, they had become the seducer! They were worthy of rejection and judgment! In Hosea, in your Bible, a prophetic drama is played out… Hosea, the prophet, is commanded to take Gomer, the prostitute, and have children by her… His relationship with her dramatizes God’s great redemptive love!
At the end of Hosea 2, the Lord declares: “In that day declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband!’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals [the pagan gods] from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more… And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord… I will have mercy on ‘No mercy’ and I will say to ‘Not My People,’ [symbolic names given to the children born to Hosea through Gomer] ‘You are my people!’ and you shall say, ‘You are my God!’” (From Hosea 2:16-23)
Perhaps, after experiencing the Lord’s great redemptive love, you slipped away, and returned to sinful living and served false gods! You not only were seduced by sin and temptation… you pursued it, practiced it, and promoted it. The Lord wants you back! He forgives and restores! His love and grace are beyond imagination! God’s message to Israel through Hosea is His message to you! It is his message to all of us “who like sheep have gone astray!” (Isaiah 53:6) Gotta tell you… His redemptive love blows me away!
Oct 01 2016
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Devos

A suggestion: Follow warnings with expressed confidence

I’m sure you’ve experienced it sometime in your life… Someone gives you a warning or a rebuke and follows it up with, “but I am confident you’ll do what is right and won’t let that happen to you!” There it is – A warning or rebuke followed up by expressed confidence and yet a word of caution.
In my Bible reading this morning I came across a passage in Hebrews that does just that… The writer of Hebrews gives a serious, straightforward, even severe warning to those he is writing to (and contrary to some interpreters of Scripture, it is NOT simply rhetorical!)…
He warned them, “It is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” The point? You turn your back on Jesus and there is no hope for you!
But then he expresses confidence in them, but adds just a word of caution…
“Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (From Hebrews 6:9-12)
Two things came to mind as I read that passage this morning…
First, whenever I have to deal with a person or situation in a direct manner as a leader (or parent), I want to follow the example of the writer of Hebrews – follow it up with a sincere expression of confidence (but also with just a word of caution).
But secondly, in my walk with the Lord, I never want to presume on my salvation! The writer of Hebrews warning is to be taken seriously! But also the confidence that he expressed in these believers (with just an added word of caution). Hey, in this Christian journey, I want to be “all in – all the way!”
Sep 30 2016
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Devos

Becoming “a man (or woman) of God!”

elisha

This morning my Bible reading included II Kings 4… One miraculous event after another in quick succession through the ministry of Elisha!  And it starts in the chapters preceding chapter 4 and continues in the chapters following!  Bam!  Bam! Bam!  Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!  One incredible miracle after another!  Wow!!!

But what really caught my eye this morning – beyond simply the miracles – was how the Bible refers to Elisha…  He’s called “the man of God.”  In chapter 4 alone he’s referred to in that way eleven times (and then there are the chapters before and after where he is referred to that way)!  Now, my Roman Catholic friends would refer to a guy like that as a “saint!”  We Pentecostals would talk of him in terms of “signs and wonders”… The Bible’s terminology is better, I think:  “Man of God!”

I gotta tell you, I want to be “a man of God!”  So I jotted down a few characteristics of the “man of God” – Elisha, in my journal.  Here they are…

  • He knew God personally
  • He heard from God
  • He was God’s agent with a unique, special anointing
  • He acted along with – in cooperation with – God
  • He spoke God’s will

I’ve gotta tell you, I don’t believe it’s gender specific either!  It’s possible to be “a woman of God!” Here’s what the Bible says…

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.  Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit!”  (Joel 2:28-29)

Shall I say it one more time?  OH, I WANT TO BE KNOWN AS “A MAN OF GOD!”

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