Category: Devotions

Hosea 7

I long to redeem, v13

Posted on a lamp post was a lost dog sign. There was a big cash reward for whoever found the lost dog, and a description of the dog. It said:
“He’s only got three legs, he’s blind in the left eye, he’s missing a right ear, his tail has been broken off, he was neutered accidentally by a fence—ouch!—he’s almost deaf, and he answers by the name ‘Lucky.'”

That dog isn’t lucky, he’s a walking disaster dog, one thing after another, bumps and scrapes, accidents and attacks.
The dog isn’t lucky but it is loved for there is an owner who wants him back.

You’ve been through some scrapes, battered, bruised, messed up a bit. You are are duct of your past. Sinner and sinned against. But Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so ….
He wants you back. He loves you and He loves to redeem.

Hosea 6

I desire mercy … I desire acknowledgment of me …
More than performance. v6

In an interview with a long-time friend, U2’s Bono, responded to the sometimes-stained reputation of the church throughout history:
“Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship”.
(Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas)

Performance will never lead to true discipleship.
The church has rules. Christians have rules. Things we have learnt over the years that if we do them prove we are good.
We step into performance the moment we behave as if Christianity brings man to God.
Even that sentence may cause some of us to have to read it again as it appears correct!
But central to Christianity is the truth that it is the story of God coming to man, every other religion has it the other way round. Sadly the church sometimes follows suit. For we all like a good performance.

Hosea 5

God is a lion, v14.

A lion can tear people to pieces.
A lion can pick people up and carry them off into the lair.
Surely God wouldn’t do that would He?
John says no one will be able to stand on the great day of His wrath (Rev 6)
Who can stand?
Who will cope with the terror? (2 Corinthians 5:11)
Thank God for Jesus, thank Him for the cross!!

Hosea 4

God’s people were mixing idolatry to their worship of Him.
God speaks against them but also speaks and rejects ‘His priests’.
The priests through their preaching represented God to the people as well as representing the people to God.
They had neglected this duty of preaching, of teaching and instructing the people in the knowledge of God.
As a result there was:
No faithfulness; they did not teach the people to live with sincerity and honestly.
No love: they did not teach the people to be loving towards others, to show kindness to the many.
No knowledge: they did not encourage the people to grapple with the things of God found within the scriptures.
It’s a high calling is preaching.
There carries a high responsibility.
This week do not forget to pray for your Pastor who seeks to grapple with the truth of God’s Word.

Hosea 3

There is a wonderful word in this chapter!

Our God is an ‘again’ God v1

The most-sacred symbol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a tree: a sprawling, shade-bearing, 80-year-old American Elm. Tourists drive from miles around to see her. People pose for pictures beneath her. Arborists carefully protect her. She adorns posters and letterhead. Other trees grow larger, fuller—even greener. But not one is equally cherished. The city treasures the tree not because of her appearance, but her endurance.
She endured the Oklahoma City bombing.

Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck only yards from her. His malice killed 168 people, wounded 850, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. No one, in fact, gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped tree.

But then she began to bud.

Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of death. People noticed. The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. So they gave the elm a name: the Survivor Tree.
(Max Lucado, Facing Your Giants)

Friend, it doesn’t matter what has happened, nor how impossible it looks, you can go again because God is an again God.
Hosea loved his wife again though the circumstances were stacked against him.
Today you are that survivor tree. All around your circumstance may lay rubble but you can push through, you can begin again, you can reach out again, you can love again, you can go again.

Hosea 2

God makes all things new!

He creates a new relationship, v14-15. He will allure you taking the initiative, moving towards you. He will give back to you your fruitfulness. He will open the door of hope to you and cause you to sing again.

He announces a new relationship, v16-17. I am no longer ‘master’ but ‘husband’. It’s an alongside name. Not top down but walking side by side.

He announces a new covenant, v18-20. Coming to you in your circumstances is righteousness and justice, love and compassion and of course He is ever-faithful.

He will produce a new harvest, v21-23. There will be a time of productivity, of you seeing fruit for your labour and the prayers answered. Above all there will be a new you! The Message translates verse 23 like this:
“I’ll say to Nobody, ‘You’re my dear Somebody,’
How incredible is that?!
And we will all say …
“You’re my God!’”

Hosea 1

Going back in time before the exile, the kings of Judah, Hosea prophesies for around 38 years and shortly after the ministry of Amos.
His life like so many prophets was an image of the message God was speaking through him. The major event of his life was that he married a prostitute who was unfaithful to him, but he received her back. In the same way God is incredibly loyal to His unfaithful people.
Let’s see what God says in this fist chapter:

God can see everything.
He can see people departing from Him, v2-3
He can see the powerlessness of His people, v4-5
He can see the lack of love v6-7

However, in the same location a reversal can take place. Never say God cannot. In the most unlikeliest of places God can. And He just may! For God can see what will be.
He sees numerical growth, v10
He sees unity, v11
He sees a new style of leadership, one who will come up out of the land. Whatever situation they are in, they can be rescued from within, God can raise the rescuer from among them.
It’s a new day.
And who does God use? The man who was so negative previously (v4) but now being used positively, v11.
Leading to a new situation of joy in 2:1
Don’t write anyone off. Even the worst can be the best.
I wonder what God sees when He looks at the worst negative person in your life?! A Jezreel? Maybe He thinks He can use such a person!

Daniel 12

Daniel is now 90 years of age.
As he nears the end of this revelation of God, of the end times, what final truths are revealed?
There will be an increase of trouble, v1 the church will face an increased persecution for their faith. But they will not be lost.
There will be things you will not understand, v8 Daniel cannot grasp what he has seen. Only God knows and maybe that’s the point.
So what does God say?

1. Go your way, v9. Don’t spend time on calculating the end result, live your life, go your way. Even when you do not understand everything, go your way, don’t wait outside a closed door experience.

2. Keep on till the end, v13 the finishing line is drawing near. The time of your life is right now. This is not a rehearsal. Daniel ends his life in exile but it is not how it looks or how it feels but who you are when it ends that is important.

3. You will rise, v2. Not one of us has experienced it for ourselves, but no one doubts it. All of us have been effected by it, some have come close to it, some are very afraid of it, death casts a shadow over our lives. Jesus wants to lift the fear of death, I Am the Resurrection. Death is not the end. You will rise.

He is with you and always will be!

Daniel 11

v24 But only for a time!

You may wonder when the strain will be over.
The pressure upon you is only for a time.
5 English words translate from 2 Hebrew words, but how very important!
They bring a new theme as we approach the end of this book – a time has been appointed by God for everything.
In fact on 12 occasions in the last 2 chapters, references are used to the timing of God.
God sets the limits and establishes the times when evil will be brought to an end and good will triumph.
As Daniel sees the end times, he sees a God with perfect timing over the affairs of the world.
He is a God who says:
1. Only so far v22-24
Over your life today there is a proclamation from God “Only so far, only so much, only for a time” How amazing is this?!
2. To no avail v27
No value. No advantage. No profit. No effect. No benefit. No weapon forged against you will prevail and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
The enemy will not be able to have his whole way with you because God is in control of the end.
3. I appoint v29
He allowed it, assigned it, chose it, selected it, prescribed it, established it. Do you only have a God who gives you what you want? No, you have a much bigger God than that. He appoints everything and everything will work for His will and power in your life.

God is in charge of time and His timing is perfect!

Daniel 10

The Message translation of v9 says “Everything is going to be all right.”
Daniel in Babylon should have been in Israel. But he is with a people who have lost their way. Some of them have been released under the new ruler, Cyrus, but most stay as Daniel does. For the majority, life will never be the same again. As they look back, their failures and disappointments outweigh their successes and joys. Daniel has visions of the future that frighten him. It seems that life is going to get worse than better. He has visions that traumatise him of a world at war with itself. He has visions of Christ that break him like a shaking leaf. He has angelic experiences.
Then the words … Everything is going to be all right.
Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son.
At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Britain. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family’s ship had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived.

With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words,
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

These same words can be proclaimed over your life … Everything is going to be all right.