{"id":29209,"date":"2023-12-22T22:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hosea-1_1-11-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-12T18:04:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T01:04:49","slug":"hosea-2_1-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hosea-2_1-13\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Clues That You Might Be Worshiping An Idol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hosea 2:1-13 <\/strong>\u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is\u00a0Hosea\u00a02:1-13.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Hosea<\/strong>\u00a02:1\u00a0(NIV)<\/strong>
\n1<\/sup>\u00a0“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse\u00a01: \u00a0This verse fits in more with the contents of chapter\u00a01\u00a0than with chapter\u00a02.\u00a0 At the end of chapter\u00a01\u00a0Hosea\u00a0describes how God will show His people amazing grace and mercy and restore them after they have cheated on Him.\u00a0 Verse\u00a01\u00a0here is part of that restoration.\u00a0 Hosea\u2019s message is that, just like the names of\u00a0Hosea’s daughter and second son, God should have called the Israelites “not my people” (“Lo-Ruhamah”) and “not my loved one” (Lo-Ammi) because of their unfaithfulness.\u00a0 But because of God’s grace and mercy, the Israelites once again became “My people” and “My loved one” in God’s eyes.<\/p>\n

Similarly,\u00a0as sinners we had no right to be called God’s people or God’s beloved.\u00a0 Yet that is what we are now, all because of the mercy and grace God showed us through Jesus Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hosea 2:2-4 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,\u00a0for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband.\u00a0Let her remove the adulterous look from her face\u00a0and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Otherwise I will strip her naked\u00a0and make her as bare as on the day she was born;\u00a0I will make her like a desert,\u00a0turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will not show my love to her children,\u00a0because they are the children of adultery.<\/em><\/p>\n

Verses\u00a02-4: \u00a0Here\u00a0Hosea\u00a0describes how angry God gets when His people are unfaithful to Him.\u00a0 Like a husband who has been cheated on, God feels a sense of betrayal, a desire to disown His loved one, to abandon that person and to reject anything that has to do with that person.\u00a0 What can we learn from this? \u00a0God’s wrath against our sin is not just philosophical, but very personal.\u00a0 It hurts God greatly when we are unfaithful to Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hosea 2:5-13 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their mother has been unfaithful\u00a0and has conceived them in disgrace.\u00a0She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,\u00a0who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;\u00a0I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;\u00a0she will look for them but not find them.\u00a0Then she will say,\u00a0‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0She has not acknowledged that I was the one\u00a0who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,\u00a0who lavished on her the silver and gold–\u00a0which they used for Baal.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,\u00a0and my new wine when it is ready.\u00a0I will take back my wool and my linen,\u00a0intended to cover her nakedness.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So now I will expose her lewdness\u00a0before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will stop all her celebrations:\u00a0her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days–all her appointed feasts.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,\u00a0which she said were her pay from her lovers;\u00a0I will make them a thicket,\u00a0and wild animals will devour them.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will punish her for the days\u00a0she burned incense to the Baals;\u00a0she decked herself with rings and jewelry,\u00a0and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the\u00a0LORD.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-13: \u00a0Here\u00a0Hosea\u00a0describes how the Lord wants to punish the Israelites for their unfaithfulness to Him.\u00a0 At the same time, these verses I believe describe what our lives look like when we chase something other than God as our number one priority.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are 10 clues from verses 5-13 that you might be worshiping an idol:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0You chase after people or things as if they are the source of your life and happiness.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0(v5 – “I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.”)<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0You often feel lost, directionless and frustrated with life.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0It’s as if your path is constantly blocked with obstacles such that you have lost all vision. (v6 – “I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.”)<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0The people or things you chase — these idols in your life — don’t satisfy you no matter how hard you chase them.<\/strong>\u00a0(v7 – “She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.'”)<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0You often fail to acknowledge that it is God who provides you with the blessings you have in life.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Then you take what God has given you and use it to worship something other than God.\u00a0<\/strong>(v8 – “She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold– which they used for Baal.”)<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0You miss a lot of the blessings and protection God intended for you because you’re so focused on something other than God.<\/strong>\u00a0(v9 – “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness.”)<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0You often carry shame when you’re around people.<\/strong>\u00a0(v10 \u2013 \u201cSo now I will expose her lewdness\u00a0before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.\u201d)<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0True joy and celebration have ceased in your life.<\/strong>\u00a0(v11 \u2013\u00a0\u201cI will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days–all her appointed feasts.\u201d)<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0You often feel like you never have enough in terms of time, money and resources.\u00a0<\/strong>(v12 – “wild animals will devour your vines and fig trees”).<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Instead of genuine, loving relationships, you find yourself settling for relationships where people only want to use you and get things from you<\/strong>\u00a0(v12 – “I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers”)<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0God is an afterthought in your life.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0You go out of your way to chase after things other than God, but you can hardly get out of bed to be with God. (v13 – “she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot”)<\/p>\n

If a number of the above 10 clues are present in our lives, it may be a signal that we have left God behind and are worshiping an idol.\u00a0 It’s time to let God reclaim the centre of our lives.<\/p>\n

Father, life sucks when You’re not at the centre of it.\u00a0 But life is full when You are the centre.\u00a0 So come and be the One my life revolves around.\u00a0 Be the One I chase harder than anything else in my life.\u00a0 Come Holy Spirit and fill me today.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is\u00a0Hosea\u00a02:1-13.\u00a0 Let’s go!
\n\u00a0
\nHosea\u00a02:1\u00a0(NIV)
\n1\u00a0“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nVerse\u00a01: \u00a0This verse fits in more with the contents of chapter\u00a01\u00a0than with chapter\u00a02.\u00a0 At the end of chapter\u00a01\u00a0Hosea\u00a0describes how God will show His people amazing grace and mercy and restore them after they have cheated on Him.\u00a0 Verse\u00a01\u00a0here is part of that restoration.\u00a0 Hosea\u2019s message is that, just like the names of\u00a0Hosea’s daughter and second son, God should have called the Israelites “not my people” (“Lo-Ruhamah”) and “not my loved one” (Lo-Ammi) because of their unfaithfulness.\u00a0 But because of God’s grace and mercy, the Israelites once again became “My people” and “My loved one” in God’s eyes. \u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nSimilarly,\u00a0as sinners we had no right to be called God’s people or God’s beloved.\u00a0 Yet that is what we are now, all because of the mercy and grace God showed us through Jesus Christ.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29209","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\/29209","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=29209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29212,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29209\/revisions\/29212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}