No matter what we’ve done; God will continue to pursue us with an everlasting love
Friday, May 25, 2012, Part 3
“When the Lord began to speak to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.’ So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son” (Hosea 1:2-3).
IDEA: God commands the prophet to marry a promiscuous woman. People in our culture are not upset by her sexual looseness, but that God commanded it.
PURPOSE: To help listeners grapple with the fact that God seems to commend what we think He should condemn.
Perseverance
By Gareth Rennie, South Africa We are struggling Christians trying our best to stay pure. Constantly battling against temptation, resisting its allure. Sin seeks to plunge us back, making us more distressed. Its pull and push cannot be easily suppressed. Pleasing God I know will take more than just living by His Law. For He [...]
Coverups Stink
The smell at an overflowing garbage landfill site became a growing public concern. So workers installed high-pressured deodorant guns to counteract the smell. The cannons could spray several gallons of fragrance a minute over a distance of up to 50 yards across the mounds of putrefying garbage. However, no matter how many gallons of deodorant are sprayed to mask the odorous rubbish, the fragrance will serve only as a coverup until the source of the stench is removed.
An intriguing dialogue about the history of Israel when the prophet Hosea came on the scene
Thursday, May 24, 2012, Part 2
“When the Lord began to speak to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.’ So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son” (Hosea 1:2-3).
IDEA: God commands the prophet to marry a promiscuous woman. People in our culture are not upset by her sexual looseness, but that God commanded it.
PURPOSE: To help listeners grapple with the fact that God seems to commend what we think He should condemn.
Discover how Hosea’s life mirrored God’s message to His people
Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Part 1
“When the Lord began to speak to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.’ So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son” (Hosea 1:2-3).
IDEA: God commands the prophet to marry a promiscuous woman. People in our culture are not upset by her sexual looseness, but that God commanded it.
PURPOSE: To help listeners grapple with the fact that God seems to commend what we think He should condemn.
Taking Risks
In his book Stuntman! My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life, Hal Needham reflects on taking risks. Needham has slugged it out in fist fights, raced cars at high speed, walked on wings of airborne planes, fallen off horses, and has even been set on fire! He risked his life to entertain film audiences and to distinguish himself as a top Hollywood stuntman.
Fear and Hope
By Sunil T, Nepal I could not sleep for the entire year when I was studying in Grade 10. I was gripped with fear as I was sitting for my School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations that year. It would be a test of my years of learning. I feared I would flunk the examinations as [...]
Discover how a passage in the book of Numbers is still relevant for us today
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
“Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.’ So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.’ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” (Numbers 21:4-9)
IDEA: The bronze serpent is not “magic,” but an instrument of redemption.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand why this isn’t superstition.
Fear Not
My wife became seriously ill during her pregnancy with our second child. As the doctors struggled to find the problem, she continued to grow weaker—dangerously so.
Night Crew
Pat’s first job was working on the night crew at a grocery store. After closing time, he and the other employees stocked the shelves. Pat’s boss had instructed them to always turn the soup cans forward so that the label could be read easily. But he had gone a little further by saying, “Make sure that they’re facing forward—three cans back.” One night as Pat was arranging the shelves, his co-workers began to scoff, “Just make sure the front can is turned the right way. Who’s gonna know?”
Discover fresh insight to familiar Bible passages
Monday, May 21, 2012
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hid from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:12-16).
IDEA: The Christ who knows us also represents us in heaven.
PURPOSE: To help listeners think about Christ the Word.
Loneliness and Being Alone
By Jan Sullivan, USA Have you ever felt totally alone in a room crowded with people? Have you ever been totally alone without feeling lonely? Loneliness is different from being alone. Being alone means there is no one physically close to you. So, you can still be in relationship with people, but still be alone. [...]
Prepared For The Real Thing
Through the years, quite a few people have predicted the return of Jesus at a specific time. Just last year an American radio preacher stirred up the interest of the mainstream media with his prediction that Jesus would return on May 21, 2011.
Not What I Planned
This isn’t the way I expected my life to be. I wanted to marry at 19, have a half-dozen children, and settle into life as a wife and mother. But instead I went to work, married in my forties, and never had children. For a number of years I was hopeful that Psalm 37:4 might be for me a God-guaranteed promise: “He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
