Sunday, August 7, 2011

THINK ON THESE THINGS - SUNDAY MORNING MESSAGE

COME, LET US RETURN TO THE LORD....


Check this out. This man is told to go find a prostitute! If that does not sound bad enough, he is told to MARRY her and have children. Then not only is he told she will run away and go back to her “oldest profession”, but then this poor guy has to go find her and BUY her back as if he were one of her vile customers.

Then after purchasing her, he has to bring her back into his home and forgive her adultery and love her! If this sounds like something you and I will never do – hold on! We will – if the God of Heaven and earth not only told us to do it, but then gave us the spiritual strength to accomplish it.

This is the story of the great Old Testament prophet Hosea, who lived around the time of Isaiah, who himself went through his own trials and tribulations. Isaiah would later be sawed in half by the corrupt priesthood of that day! My study of Hosea in the past couple weeks provided many insights and truths about our wonderful, forgiving and compassionate God. It is possible to admire and love Him even more!

The prostitute Hosea loved and married, under assignment from God, is Gomer.  Gomer is representative of the 10 Northern Tribes (out of the 12 tribes of Israel) which had not only turned against God but worshiped every vile thing from the very pit of hell! This northern kingdom was called Israel or Samaria and the southern kingdom, with two tribes (Judah and Levi) was called Judah (capitol, Jerusalem).

Israel had NO good king and Judah only had a man of God as a king, less than 50% of the time. All of this happened because King Solomon himself, married pagan women and worshiped their idols! Hosea was sent by God to prophesy about the coming judgment He was about to send to them.

Gomer, Hosea’s philandering wife, was Israel. She left our great God, Who had brought her to freedom, given her the Promised Land, and sold her soul to the devil. She took the bountiful goodness of God’s Grace and Favor, and poured it out in sexual debauchery, bowing down to statues; drunkenness and more. Then this same “woman” Israel, would send delegations of its priests to present themselves occasionally, to mouth “worship” to the real God and perform the ritual sacrifices before Him!

This infuriated Holy God, my Abba! This time of thing is not unlike how America and some in the modern church treat the Word of God, the Wonder of God and the Worship of Holy God!

We have church leaders and congregations, where the rate of divorce – because of adultery and increasing homosexual conduct – is HIGHER than the secular, unbelieving world!

We have entire church leadership who has prostituted themselves to marketing gurus, in order to build up their turfs and personal kingdoms. They call them “programs” but they are more about building up godless self-help “ministries” than advancing the Kingdom of God!

We have seminaries and “Christian colleges” where evolution – promoting professors end up teaching the Bible, as if it were some kind of fairy tale. They treat it as an ‘a la carte’ menu of ‘good stories’. Some professors  in Christian colleges where recently in a debate and rebuked by Dr. Ken Ham (Creator, Answers in Genesis) for teaching pseudo-evolution, by rejecting the literal Truth of the Word of God!

I can go on and on showing the similarities between the demolished northern Kingdom of Israel and modern church/society in America.  However, we already know this.
What we should realize, as well, is just How Loving and Merciful God is! He Himself showed the about-to-be-destroyed Israel the way back to Him and His Favor – if they would only trust and believe and obey! Of course they did NOT, as many in the “church” of America aren’t either! But God’s direction and Promise to take us back, as a people, still stands RIGHT NOW- if we worship and bow down – TO HIM.

Here is the amazing call from Holy God to all who have strayed from Him. While He will judge, He will judge with love and compassion if we follow His Commands here:

Hosea 6:1-3a (NKJV) is a call for Repentance

 1 Come, and let us return to the LORD;
      For He has torn, but He will heal us;
      He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
       
2 After two days He will revive us;
      On the third day He will raise us up,
      That we may live in His sight.
       
3 Let us know,
      Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. 
a 6:1-3a (NKJV):


(Image-courtesy stockxchng vi)
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