{"id":1389,"date":"2019-01-09T20:00:20","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T03:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2019-01-06T01:26:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T08:26:17","slug":"hosea3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hosea3\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Truths about God\u2019s Love for You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hosea 3:1-5<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nToday’s passage is\u00a0Hosea 3:1-5<\/span>.\u00a0 It contains a powerful lesson for us as we begin our\u00a0fast<\/span>\u00a0together.\u00a0 Open your Bible, click on the above Scripture link or check out your GAME booklet to read today’s passage.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

First, God\u2019s love for you is unconditional (v1).\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0We see God\u2019s unconditional love in verse 1 where it says \u201cthe Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes\u201d (v1).<\/em><\/p>\n

To illustrate His unconditional love, God tells the prophet Hosea to love his wife, though she had cheated on him, with that same unconditional love: \u201cGo, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.\u00a0 Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites\u201d (v1).<\/p>\n

Today , remember that there\u2019s nothing you can do to make God love you more, and there\u2019s nothing you can do to make God love you less.\u00a0 That\u2019s the unconditional love of God for you.<\/p>\n

Second, God\u2019s love for you is redemptive (v2).\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0What does it mean to redeem something?\u00a0 It means to buy something back, to regain possession of something you lost by paying a price for it.\u00a0 We see that in verse 2.\u00a0 Hosea\u2019s wife had run away and become a prostitute, but Hosea finds her and pays 15 shekels of silver and about 330 litres of barley to buy her back.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the same way, when we had run away from God, made a mess of our lives and become slaves to sin, God paid the highest price to redeem us, to regain possession of us.\u00a0 God paid far more than silver and barley to redeem us.\u00a0 The redemption price God paid for your life was the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So when we sing songs like \u201cMy Redeemer Lives\u201d, we\u2019re recognizing that God paid the highest price to save us and get us back.<\/p>\n

Finally, God\u2019s love casts a new vision for your life (v3-5).\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>In verse 3, Hosea casts a new vision for his wife\u2019s future.\u00a0 He basically says, \u201cNo longer will you be a prostitute, or give yourself to someone else.\u00a0 Instead you will live with me many days and I will be faithful to you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Similarly, in verses 4-5, God casts a new vision for His people: instead of being unfaithful idol-worshipers (v4), He says they will \u201creturn and seek the Lord their God and\u00a0<\/em>David their king<\/em>\u201d (v5).\u00a0 (By the way, King David had died centuries before Hosea wrote down this prophecy, so who is Hosea referring to when he says, \u201cDavid their king\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s a reference to the Messiah who would be born to David\u2019s line and who would be their king one day \u2013 i.e. Jesus Christ the Son of David.\u00a0 As God\u2019s people we were made to return and to seek God and His Son Jesus Christ.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Just as Hosea\u2019s love gave him a new vision for his wife, just as God\u2019s love gave God a new vision for the Israelites, God has a new vision for your life too.\u00a0 No longer will you be an idol-worshiper; rather God made you to be someone who returns to God, who seeks Him, who fears (i.e. respects and reveres) God and who experiences His blessings.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s love for you is unconditional, but God doesn\u2019t want you to stay the same.\u00a0 He\u2019s here to give you a new, God-centered vision for your life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that there\u2019s nothing I could ever do to make You love me more or make You love me less.\u00a0 Your love for me is unconditional! Thank You that Your love for me inspires me to pursue a greater, God-centered vision for my life, and empowers me to live out that vision.\u00a0 Thank You for the unconditional, redemptive, empowering love of Christ in my life.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s passage is\u00a0Hosea 3:1-5.\u00a0 It contains a powerful lesson for us as we begin our\u00a0fast\u00a0together.\u00a0 Open your Bible, click on the above Scripture link or check out your GAME booklet to read today’s passage.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

First, God\u2019s love for you is unconditional (v1).\u00a0\u00a0We see God\u2019s unconditional love in verse 1 where it says \u201cthe Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes\u201d (v1).<\/p>\n

To illustrate His unconditional love, God tells the prophet Hosea to love his wife, though she had cheated on him, with that same unconditional love: \u201cGo, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.\u00a0 Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites\u201d (v1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}