Pass it On
Read: Joel 1:1-4 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. (v. 3) My father loves to share stories from his younger days. Sometimes the stories are funny, but many times they have a bigger message. Hearing his experiences often teaches me something that can […]
Three Strikes
Read: Hosea 11:8-11 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? . . . for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. (vv. 8-9) “Three strikes and you’re out!” While this rule applies to baseball, this principal also applies to our world […]
Short-Term Memory
Read: Hosea 11:1-7 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. (v. 3) It is often a parent’s joy to help their children as they grow—to teach them to walk, to pick them up when they fall, and […]
Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
Read: Hosea 6:4-6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (v. 6) I love bookstores. I enjoy wandering the aisles, perusing book covers in search of one that looks like it would be a great story. Unfortunately, sometimes I find that while the cover was appealing, […]
God’s Patient Love
Read: Hosea 2:14-20 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. (v. 14) When I was in second grade, a boy in my class swore he would hold his breath until the girl he liked said she liked him back. Fearfully watching as his face turned […]
Passionate Love
Read: Hosea 2:14-20 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. (v. 14) When I was in second grade, a boy in my class swore he would hold his breath until the girl he liked said she liked him back. Fearfully watching as his face turned […]
What’s in a Name?
Read: Hosea 1:6-10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” (v. 10) Did you […]
Trust and Obey
Read: Hosea 1:1-3 “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.” (v. 2 NIV) The four most frustrating words I heard as a teenager were, “Because I said so.” From my perspective, some commands my parents gave me made […]
Your Will Be Done, Lord
Read: Mark 14:32-41 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (v. 36) Jesus would have loved to bypass the cross. He knew it would be painful and lonely. Though he didn’t want to hang on that cross, […]