Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Hosea predicts captivity for Israel because the more prosperous they became the more love they lavished on "idols".   How about us today?  Any connections with our prosperity and our turning away from God?
“…like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.”

Hosea uses illustrations of fields and crops.
“…break up the ground.”
Plowed fields are ready to receive seed. They are like circumcised hearts. They are no longer stony and hard, but are prepared and available.  We break up our own unplowed ground by acknowledging our sins and receive God's forgiveness and restoration. For the spiritual leader, plowed ground is ready to receive the word of God, ready to receive seeds of righteousness. Are spiritual leaders planting those seeds of righteousness and preaching and teaching the truth of God’s Word? Or are many of them like the poisonous weeds in a plowed field? If the truth of God’s Word is not taught and compromises are made, “Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars.”

Sounds a bit like the apostate church in THESE LAST DAYS.
“They will twist and distort God’s word. Many innocents will believe this distortion and be led astray by the errors of false teaching. Some people within the church will be lulled into a feeling of contentment as they listen to false teaching because that is what they want to hear. It will seem right to them because they have not been taught about the monument of truth, God’s word. They will not recognize any talk about sin and the consequences of sin. They will not understand the need for repentance. The leaders will not have taught the people the difference between good and evil. The leaders of the apostate church will place value only on feeling good about themselves as they occupy their time with worldly involvement and not about a relationship with God.”
Quote from the book THESE LAST DAYS
(Reference these verses: Matthew 24:5, Matthew 24:11, Matthew 24:24, Matthew 7:15, Jeremiah 23:25-26, I John 2:18, Hebrews 3:12, II Peter 2:1-3, II Timothy 4:3-4, I Timothy 4:1, Galatians 1:6-8, II Peter 3:17).

"But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception."
Again, this sounds like an apostate church.  People feed on the fruit of deception and false teaching instead of the fruit of righteousness.
 
"Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.  Your sins have been your downfall."  
We can substitute "church" for Israel (not that the church has replaced Israel - just that we can add church into the passage) and we can put our own names in place of Israel.  We are told to "return".  We can't return to something unless we've been there before.  We as a church and as individual believers in Jesus need to return to the Ways of the Way, return to the ways of the early believers in Jesus. When we return to Him, we come with these words, "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously that we may offer the fruit of our lips."  
Heb 13:15  
By Him, then, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, confessing His name.
While we can't demand that God will forgive our sins, we can be confident that He will!

There are many thorns, thistles and poisonous weeds in our lives and in the church today.
So what can we as believers do? According to Hosea, once we turn from our sinful ways and back to Him, we can, “…blossom like a lily, send down roots, flourish like the grain, blossom like a vine…”
We can do all this in the midst of thorns and thistles. Why? Because… “The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.”

Wouldn't it be better to walk in the ways of the Lord than to stumble in the ways of the world?

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