{"id":1553,"date":"2019-01-13T17:16:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T00:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2019-01-13T17:16:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T00:16:26","slug":"hosea6_1-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hosea6_1-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Press On to Acknowledge the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ufeff<\/span>

Hosea 6:1-11 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Hosea 6:1-11.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Hosea 6:1-2 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0 For the rest of our lives on earth, we can be sure that whenever God allows us to go through difficulties or defeats, it\u2019s not because He is cruel or indifferent.\u00a0 It\u2019s because His ultimate purpose is to revive us, to restore us, to make us stronger than we were before, and to know Him more intimately, \u201cthat we may live in His presence\u201d (v2).<\/p>\n

Hosea 6:3 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 3:\u00a0 Like Hosea, let\u2019s have the attitude that no matter what happened yesterday, no matter what victory or defeat we experienced yesterday, we will press on to acknowledge Him today.\u00a0 Instead of living in the past, let\u2019s press on to live for Jesus today.\u00a0 And let\u2019s do so with the confidence that as we acknowledge Him and seek His face, God will meet us.\u00a0 As James says, \u201cCome near to God, and He will come near to you.\u201d (James 4:8).<\/p>\n

By the way, a great song that\u2019s based on this verse is \u201cYou\u2019ll Come\u201d.\u00a0 Listen to it\u00a0HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hosea 6:4-5 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 4-5:\u00a0 Sometimes our love for God can be inconsistent and up-and-down, here for a while and then gone like a morning mist (v4).\u00a0 That’s why we need the Word of God, like a sword, to cut into our lives, to speak into our situations and to shed light on our wrong attitudes and inconsistencies.<\/p>\n

It’s no wonder God\u2019s Word is called the \u201csword of the Spirit\u201d (Ephesians\u00a06:17), \u201csharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.\u201d (Hebrews\u00a04:12) \u00a0Thank God for His Word that cuts into our lives like a knife. I need God’s Word every day!<\/p>\n

Hosea 6:6 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 6: Your attitude toward others (“mercy”, the horizontal aspect of Christianity) and your attitude toward God (“acknowledgment of God”, the vertical aspect of Christianity) are even more important than any offering of money or any sacrifice of time that you give.\u00a0 If you want to know what is the true quality of your worship, look at how you treat others and how you treat God.<\/p>\n

On verses 7-11: \u00a0These verses show us that God is aware of all the sin that happens in this world and He hates it.\u00a0 Yet in verse 6 we see that God is nonetheless a lover of mercy, who calls us to love mercy too.\u00a0 So taken together, verses 6 to 11 show us both the holiness of God and the mercy of God.<\/p>\n

Like I\u2019ve been telling our people at Thrive often these days, at the cross of Jesus Christ we see God’s justice and God’s mercy.\u00a0 The cross is an intersection where God\u2019s holiness and God\u2019s mercy meet.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be sure to cross that intersection every day.\u00a0 Let\u2019s stay close to God\u2019s justice and His mercy.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that today is a day for me to press on to acknowledge You.\u00a0 No matter how hard or easy, victorious or disappointing yesterday was, may I press on to acknowledge You today, remembering both Your justice and Your mercy.\u00a0 Thank You for Your Word which, like a sword, cuts deep into my heart and life, sometimes destroying me first so that I can experience true life after.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Hosea 6:1-11.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Hosea 6:1-2 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
\n2\u00a0After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0 For the rest of our lives on earth, we can be sure that whenever God allows us to go through difficulties or defeats, it\u2019s not because He is cruel or indifferent.\u00a0 It\u2019s because His ultimate purpose is to revive us, to restore us, to make us stronger than we were before, and to know Him more intimately, \u201cthat we may live in His presence\u201d (v2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1553","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\/1553","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=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1556,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/1556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}