The News is Good

Most people struggle to hear bad news, especially when things seem to be going well for them. When we’re outwardly successful, its difficult to see our need for change. In the midst of affluence, we tend to believe life will always be this way.  When we’re comfortable, complacency seems to worm its way into our lives.  And when life is stable, we easily forget our need for God. And who wants to be told these things? Who wants to have their “successful” lives questioned? Who wants to have their faithfulness scrutinized? Who wants to listen to preachers that threaten our lifestyles and call into question our virtue?  After all, who wants a downer?

That was the kind of response the people of Israel had to the prophet Amos. Amos was a simple shepherd with no religious pedigree or social sophistication. Yet he was sent by God to warn the people of Israel of God’s impending judgment on the nation.  What made his message seem so preposterous was that Israel was experiencing a time of great prosperity.  The kingdom was at peace and expanding, the military was strong, and the money was pouring in. Many people were participating in and enjoying the good life.  Amos’ predictions of impending  destruction seemed not just improbable, but ludicrously delirious.

Amos prophesied, “The archer will not stand his ground,”  and the “fleet-footed soldier will not get away,” and “the most courageous fighting men will drop their weapons and run for their lives,” (Amos 2:15-16). Amos was announcing complete military failure and defeat at the hands of an invader. What utter nonsense this sounded like! But the climax of his impetuous denunciations came when he declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs and a piece of an ear. So it will be when the Israelites in Samaria are rescued with only a broken chair and a tattered pillow,” (Amos 3:12). This was treasonous talk! The idea of powerful Israel being compared to a helpless sheep being devoured was preposterous.

Despite Israel’s lack of receptivity, Amos faithfully delivered the Lord’s message. To Judah he declared, “You’ve rejected the laws of the LORD and refused to obey him,” (Amos 1:4). To Israel the message was, “You’ve perverted justice by selling honest people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals. You’ve trampled helpless people in the dust and denied justice to those who are oppressed. Both father and son sleep with the same woman, corrupting my holy name. At your religious festivals, you lounge around in clothing stolen from your debtors. In the house of your god, you present offerings of wine purchased with stolen money,” (Amos 1:6-8).  “My people have forgotten what it means to do right,” says the Lord. “Therefore an enemy is coming who will destroy you.” (Amos 3:10-11).

In less than 50 years, Amos’ prediction came to pass. Israel was destroyed. Their prosperity and pride were gone.  They were just like the picture Amos painted of the sheep devoured by a lion with only ripped body parts remaining.  Such is God’s abhorrence of sin.

Sin is always the downfall of powerful nations and once-strong people.  When we choose to flout God’s ways despite his warnings, the end is always destruction.  Yet we need never face his judgment.  For those who follow Him, the news is good!  There is one who has born the full brunt of the judgment of God. Indeed, a Lamb who was slain for the sin and pride of the world.  If we will If we will turn to Christ and daily trust in his care and provision for us, we need never face judgment in this life or the next.

When the Friendship Grows Cold

There are few things more painful in this life than broken relationships or friendships that have grown cold. The loss feels cavernous and crushing. The void in the heart is astounding.  The mental anguish is dizzying. In such times, it’s not unusual to wonder, “What could I have done differently?” And when you’re the cause of the broken relationship, it’s natural to ask, “How can I fix this?”

Usually, humility, confession, and a sincere apology are the keys to rebuilding a lost friendship. Admitting your faults and being willing to change your hurtful behaviors are always necessary for a restored relationship.

As with human relationships, even more so with God.

Today we are in the book of Joel.  Joel was one of the earliest prophets and gave his message to the people of Judah. He was speaking to people who had allowed their relationship with God to grow cold.  They had lost sight of God in the midst of their affluence.  Abundance had caused them to take God for granted and to forget the One who had provided for them from the beginning.  They became “ME” focused and “good life” focused and it deeply damaged their relationship with the God who loved them.

As Joel spoke, it was on the heels of a terrible plague of locusts that had devoured every green thing, leaving only desolation. This led to a famine that was followed by an awful drought. People and animals were dying for lack of food and water. He described the devastation graphically, calling the old men to confirm that there had never been one like it before (Joel 1:2). Even those who would typically be numbed out to calamity, the drunkards, felt the effect of it, for the wine producing vines had been destroyed (1:5). Priests could not perform their religious duties because there was no meat offerings or drink offerings of wine to offer in sacrifice (1:9). Cattle and sheep cried out in the fields (1:13).

Joel called the people to see the cause of the calamity as being of their own doing. Joel realized that these natural disasters suffered by the people of Judah were God’s way of getting their attention.  Many centuries earlier Moses had warned that disobedience to God’s plan would lead to such catastrophes (Deuteronomy 28:38-39). God’s intention was to show the people their true helplessness and lack of control so that they might turn back to him. Only in a healthy relationship with God is there any real security in this life.  But this always requires us to lose our self-sufficiency.

Joel sought to bring the people to real life-changing repentance. He knew that God wanted the people to come with torn and broken hearts and not shallow, external, religious posturing. “The Lord says, ‘Turn to me now, while there is time! Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping and mourning. Don’t tear you clothing in your grief, tear you hearts.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you. Who knows? Perhaps even yet he will give you a reprise, sending you a blessing instead of this terrible curse. Perhaps he will give you so much that you will be able to offer grain and wine to the LORD your God as before!” (Joel 2:12-14).

Many of us have suffered through our own life’s “plagues.” Because of our negligence in our relationship with God or through our own foolish actions, we suffer painful consequences and overwhelming circumstances. This experience of helplessness is designed to cause us to seek God anew.  When the friendship has grown cold, God says, “Come back to me! Commit yourself to me. Look at your heart to see what has gotten in the way of us. Be willing to remove whatever it might be and allow Me to help you to change.  I want to change your pain into joy by giving you my Spirit anew!”

Big Daddy Love

As a precocious, bright and self-reliant 4-year-old, my daughter often found the confines of our home overwhelming.  She just knew there was more to life than our simple rules and routines.  She  wanted to see the world.  As such, one day she ran away from home.  She didn’t get far; really just down the street.  I remember watching her through the window as she defiantly set out on her journey of no return with her little backpack filled with meager but necessary supplies: her doll, her juice cup and a small morsel to eat.  (Note: we lived on a secluded street in a safe neighborhood with little traffic so I wasn’t fearful for her safety. And though I didn’t let her see me, I followed her and never allowed her out of my sight).

She made it to the end of the street before she sat down on the corner and had a hard cry.  I think the realization of her impulsive decision and the prospect of her utter aloneness in a vast world had caught up to her.  Something in me resisted swooping in to  rescue her too soon.  My heart broke as I watched her wrestle with her anger and defiance regarding the rules; this is what sent her fleeing in the first place, and the enormity of her decision to leave. It wasn’t long before she decided to turn back for home and it was then that I emerged from where I was watching over her. When she saw me, she ran into my arms in tears.  I held her for a long time and assured her of my love. As we slowly walked home together, she said, “Daddy, I’m sorry I ran away. Do you still love me?”

During her flight from me, neither her defiance, rebellion, nor departure ever changed my love and concern for her.  Her behavior didn’t affect my heart toward her.  My love for and commitment to her never changed. Our relationship as parent and child was still in tact, perhaps even strengthened by her decision to run away.  I would follow her!  I would never let her go.

Such was God’s heart toward Israel when they abandoned him.  He compared himself to a father who loves and provides for his child. “When Israel was a child, I loved him as a son and I called my son out of Egypt…. It was I who taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand… I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck and I myself stooped to feed him,” (Hosea 11:1-4). Despite God’s fatherly care for his people, “they rebelled… no matter how much He called out to them,” by running off to follow the ways of the world (v 1-2). They forgot that God had provided for and protected them. “But Israel doesn’t know or even care that it was I who took care of him,” (v 3).  Though they left him and would suffer the consequences of their decisions, God’s Father heart was filled with an unceasing love.  Though he was angry with them,  his judgment would not completely destroy them. “No I will not punish you as much as my burning anger tells me to. I will not completely destroy Israel,” (v 9).  God knew that when the people finally grew sick of their independence and entanglement with evil, and when they clearly understood through experience just how futile and destructive it was to forsake Him,  they would remember God’s care and return to him again. “For someday the people will follow the LORD. I will roar like a lion, and my people will return from the west. Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt. Flying like doves, they will return from Assyria. And I will bring them home again,” says the LORD,” (v 10-11).

When we have run away from God and the pain and consequences of our decisions have caught up to us, we may wonder how God could still love us.  But God asks, “Oh, how can I give you up…? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you…? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows… For I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you and I will not come to destroy,” (v 8-9). St. Paul describes God’s unshakeable love this way: “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39 NLT).

Steps for Spiritual Restoration

When you need spiritual recovery and when it’s time for your heart to return to God, Hosea 6 provides an outline for the process. It shows the steps for spiritual restoration that we need so that our lives can be lived in harmony with God, with ourselves and with others.

God takes sin very seriously; much more seriously than most of us do. Sin is not just the negative or ungodly behaviors in our lives, but also includes our tendency to avoid doing the right things. It includes what we do and what we leave undone. Because sin separates us from him, God desires that sin be removed from our lives. He loves us and wants relationship with us no matter how far we have run away from him. He wants to live in loving communion with us and therefore, he desires that all things that interrupt that relationship and everything that pulls us away from him, be removed from our lives.  He’s no killjoy; he seeks to give us abundant life and so he shows us how to make that happen.

When it’s time to return to him, look to the steps of restoration found in Hosea 6:1-3 (NLT):

• Admit that you are “torn” and “injured” (v 1).  Honestly admit that you have need and that your relationship with God has been severed.
• Decide to “return to the Lord” (v 1) by committing yourself to God’s care.
• Allow God to “heal” you and “bandage your wounds” (v 1) by asking him to show you how and what you need for your spiritual recovery. He will show you what must stop, what must change, and how to live in friendship with him.  God will change you as you respond to his leading.
• Be intentional about “knowing the Lord” by “pressing on to know him” (v 3). Grow in relationship to God by learning his ways and understanding his will as revealed through the bible.
• Live life with him “in his presence” (v 2) by allowing him to guide and teach you and to use your life for his purpose.
• Seek to encourage and help others in their process of returning to the Lord. “Let us press on to know him!” (v 3). Recognize that you will grow strong in God as you turn and help others who are struggling toward spiritual restoration.

A gateway of hope

“I will transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope,” (Hosea 2:15)

The book of Hosea is a remarkable book because it graphically portrays the heart of God and His great love for wayward people.  God called the prophet Hosea to be a living, breathing, walking-about demonstration of God’s patient, sacrificial, and costly love for His people.  God commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer, whom He knew would be unfaithful to Hosea. God said, “Go and marry a prostitute so some of her children will be born to you from other men. This will illustrate the way my people have been untrue to me, openly committing adultery against the LORD by worshipping other gods,” (Hosea 1:2). Hosea and Gomer were a living picture of God and Israel.  Despite their great sinfulness and their wandering hearts, God loved his people, remained faithful to them and wanted relationship with them.

But Gomer, like Israel, was unfaithful. As soon as her children were born, Gomer chose to prostitute herself again and soon became enslaved. Despite this betrayal, God commanded Hosea to redeem her.   God wanted Hosea to buy her back from slavery to demonstrate his extraordinary love for her and so to illustrate God’s long-suffering commitment to his people. “The Lord said, ‘Go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the LORD still loves Israel even though the people have turned to other gods…So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and about five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.” (Hosea 3:1-2).

Through Hosea, God was showing that He is the one who makes the first move. God makes the second move. God makes all the moves when it comes to relationship with Him. Like Gomer, we have all prostituted ourselves by becoming enamored with other “loves.” We are routinely unfaithful to God because of our sin and inordinate desires.  But God, because he is rich in mercy came after us. Though our sin had landed us in the “Valley of Trouble,” He transformed that trouble into a “gateway of hope,” (Hosea 2:15).   He himself paid the great price of our redemption through the cross of Jesus Christ. In the book of Romans we hear: “While we were still sinners, God sent his Son, Jesus, who gave his life for us,” (Romans 5:8). Despite the “other loves” in your life that receive more affection from you than God himself, he continues to pursue you.  He is calling you to leave the “Valley of Trouble” and enter into his “gateway of hope.”

Allow yourself to rest in the reality of God’s love for you. Know that even when you have chosen unfaithfulness to God, he is still pursuing you. You can never be “worthy” of his love, but he comes after you anyway. It is always His desire to restore you to relationship with him.