Express to Others the Consequences of Their Sin

Photo by Brian Kong

Scripture: Hosea 3:4

For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols.

Insights: In the verse today we learn about the consequences of our actions.  Israel is being informed by the Lord that He is going to remove their kings and destroy their houses of worship.  These two actions were punishments of the Lord on Israel for their sins.  When we play the harlot with the Lord regarding our choices of sin, then there will be consequences.  Punishment is the right and proper response from a just and holy God as a result of our rebellion.  It is important for us to understand the distinction between consequences and grace.  At any point we can turn to the Lord and authentically repent from our sins.  When we make this request of contrition, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.  Forgiveness does not equate to no consequences.  Look at it like this: I get caught speeding by a highway patrolman.  As we talk I tell him I am sorry for speeding.  He replies, I forgive you for speeding, but here is the ticket you will have to pay for your disobedience to the law.  We are able to experience forgiveness and natural consequences at the same time.  The Lord is trying to help Israel understand that if they continue to walk the path of a harlot, then there will be the natural consequence of their national destruction.  Beloved, hear the promptings of the Spirit now.  Do not walk into sin knowing there will be consequences for your rebellion.  Pursue Him with all of your heart and walk in His paths of righteousness and holiness.

Questions:

1. What have been some of the consequences to your choices?

2. Have you recognized how God has used those consequences as a way of pointing you to the right path?

Prayer: Father, my choices have consequences and I am aware of this reality.  These often point me to Your grace.  Help me to see your drawing hand of grace on my life in the midst of my rebellion from Your grace.  Amen.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  I would also appreciate if you would tell your friends to read this blog.  As always, if you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.  Thank you.

Teach Others the Right Path

Photo by Tito Balangue

Scripture: Hosea 3:3

Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.”

Insights: The third truth we discover this week from our passage of Scripture is that we need to teach people the right path.  Notice that Hosea tells Gomer she will no longer play the harlot, but will have only one man and that man is him.  In other words, he is instructing her on the proper way to live life.  Israel has forgotten, because of their choice of harlotry, the goodness of God.  He is going to instruct Israel through their punishment the proper way to respond to an almighty God.  We too have to be instructed in the proper way to live as well.  After we have been instructed, we need to instruct others in the proper way to live.  All instruction really falls into two categories.  Holiness, which means to be set apart, is the first category.  Holiness deals with the disdain for sin and the things of sin.  We must have an intense hatred toward sin.  It ought to sicken our stomach when we are exposed to our sinful condition.  God’s holy standard will not accept any aspect of sin.  He requires absolute purity.  It is for this reason we must understand that both our holiness and our righteousness are imputed by the Lord Jesus into our lives.  We are not capable of being holy and righteous.  Jesus’ work on Calvary makes us holy and righteous.  When the Father looks onto us, He looks through the lens of His Son.  It is Jesus’ holiness and righteousness He sees in us.  Righteousness is the other category.  Sin is what we ought not to do and righteousness is what we rightly should do.  Once again, we are not capable of making right decisions apart from Christ’s mercy and grace.  He enables us through His Spirit’s work in our lives to do what is right and acceptable before God the Father.  Beloved, let me encourage you to take your instruction from Jesus.  Let Him use godly men and women in your life to help guide you down His path and learn to be holy and righteous in Him.

Questions:

1. Are you instructing or being instructed about the ways of holiness?

2. Are you instructing or being instructed about the ways of righteousness?

Prayer: Father, I sincerely wish to grow and walk in the ways of Your path.  Guide and instruct me in Your holiness and righteousness.  May my life bring You glory and honor.  Amen.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  I would also appreciate if you would tell your friends to read this blog.  As always, if you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.  Thank you.

Intercede on Behalf of Others

Photo by Elliott Brown

Scripture: Hosea 3:2

So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

Insights: We find in today’s verse the extent to which Gomer found herself trapped by her choices.  To fully grasp we need to go back to chapter two.  In the second chapter we find Hosea is taking provisions to Gomer, but her false lovers are opening the door.  They take the provisions and go back to Gomer and take credit for all Hosea has given.  When the false lover has gotten tired of Gomer he takes her and sells her on the slave market.  Then we get to this chapter and we find the Lord instructing Hosea to go and purchase her back.  It is for this reason, again back in chapter two, that Hosea tells her that she will no longer call him master, but rather husband.  He is her master because he has purchased her from these slave owners as indicated here in the second verse.  Hosea, however, does not want to be her master, but her husband.  He intercedes on her behalf with his payment of her slave price.  Jesus does the very same thing for us.  He paid our slave price of sin on the Cross of Calvary.  All we have to do is receive His gift of sacrifice and we will receive eternal life in Him.  After we belong to Him, however, we are to be minsters of reconciliation.  We are to tell the world about Jesus because we have been commissioned by Him.  Ezekiel calls us watchmen on the wall.  If we see the enemy coming and do not warn the citizens, then their blood is on our hands.  If, however, we tell them, and they refuse to listen to our warning, then their blood is on their own hands.  We are to warn the people Jesus is coming again.  He is going to take His bride, the church, home.  Those left will experience His wrath and will eventually spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.  If you will ask Him, He will give you the courage and the boldness to intercede on behalf of others.  He will show you and prompt you to the individuals He wants you to speak.  Listen to Him and obey.  Intercede on behalf of others just like Hosea did for Gomer.

Questions:

1. Do you understand your responsibility as a watchman for the Lord?

2. For whom are you interceding?

Prayer: Father, help me to see the world with Your eyes.  Help me to intercede on behalf of those who need to be introduced to Your Son, Jesus.  Amen.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  I would also appreciate if you would tell your friends to read this blog.  As always, if you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.  Thank you.

Recognize the Situation

Photo by drburtoni

Scripture: Hosea 3:1

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

Insights: In this first verse of chapter three we find the current situation of both Gomer and Israel.  Both have played the part of a harlot.  It is absolutely vital we take a clear assessment of our condition and diagnose the problem properly.  One of Satan’s methods of attacks is to distract us so much with the things of this world that we forget we are truly in a spiritual battle.  We see this played out all the way back in the Garden with Adam and Eve.  Satan gets Eve to question the goodness of God and His faithful provision.  Because she gets side tracked from the truth, she stumbles and falls into sin.  Granted her fall is a willful and intentional fall, but it was because she took her eyes off of the prize, which is the Lord God.  All too often I find myself playing the part of the harlot in regards to my relationship with the Lord.  As soon as I am confronted with my sin, I repent and turn back to Him.  This pattern is what the Lord requires of us all.  The better pattern would be to not get our eyes off of Jesus from the beginning.  How much better would our lives truly be if we authentically kept Christ on the throne of our hearts?  The answer would be immensely better.  My fear for the modern day church is that we are just like Israel.  We attend church and give God our head nod, but then we go to the gods of this world and give them our raisin cakes.  We give our jobs first priority over the Lord.  We give our recreation first priority over the Lord.  We give our children first priority over the Lord.  We give our desire for toys and luxuries over the Lord.  It is my prayer we would truly recognize our situation and keep our hearts tenderly knit to the Lord our God.

Questions:

1. As you examine your life, what is your current situation?

2. Have you made the connecting points that all of life is a mask for the spiritual battle with which we are participants?

Prayer: Father, I have so often played the part of the harlot.  Please Lord, protect me from myself and let my life truly be a tribute to You and Your glory.  Amen.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  I would also appreciate if you would tell your friends to read this blog.  As always, if you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.  Thank you.

The Final Key to Effective Training

Photo by Katie Walker

Scripture: Proverbs 10:9

He who walks in integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

Insights: The final key to effective training has three parts.  The key is reinforce the training by doing the following three things.  Firstly, affirm your children.  When your child comes home with a report card with four A’s and one C, on which grade do most parents focus?  The answer is the C.  Ought we not have praised and affirmed them for the four A’s.  We need to be intentional about finding areas to praise our kids so that they know the behavior of integrity we desire for them to perform.  Secondly, we need to attend to our children.  This concept means to be present when you are present.  Unfortunately, all too often in my life when I am with my kids I am thinking about work and vice-versa.  Whatever the activity is in which you find yourself engaged, be all in on that activity.  Make the necessary arrangement to remove all distractions and give all of yourself to the work or play at hand.  Spend the appropriate amount of actual time with them and make certain that the time is rich and full of quality.  Thirdly, we must discipline our children.  I really do not care what our liberal agenda government says.  We need to discipline our children.  One of the reasons we have an integrity problem in our society is because we have a discipline problem.  When a child does wrong, they need to be corrected.  Correction is as equally important as catching them doing the right thing and praising them for it.  Are their people that take both of those options to the extremes?  The answer is obviously yes.  I don’t think we need to affirm every kid that plays a sport with a participation trophy.  At the same time, we do need to praise our children for the good jobs they do while participating in those activities.  On the other end of the spectrum is the parent who flies off the handle at every turn and the child is always afraid of the wrath of the parent.  This extreme is equally as wrong.  We need to model both properly and then watch and be amazed at what the Lord will do.

Questions:

1. Are you your kids and spending time with them?

2. In what ways are you disciplining your children?

Prayer: Father, help me to be fully engaged with my children as I spend time with them.  Help me to find things to enforce their good decisions and let me discipline calmly and not in wrath.  By Your grace, let this be true of me.  Amen.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  I would also appreciate if you would tell your friends to read this blog.  As always, if you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.  Thank you.

First Three Keys to Effective Training

Photo by Charles Wiriawan

Scripture: Proverbs 10:9

He who walks in integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

Insights: So far this week we have evaluated the three sources where integrity is taught.  We have also learned the four principles of one who lives a life of integrity.  Over the next two days we will look at the four keys to effective training.  The first key is we set a godly example personally.  In other words, how can we pass on to another generation of Christ-followers what integrity looks like if we ourselves are not men and women of integrity?  We can not.  Let us live this example out as we model it for those watching our every move.  The second key is that we teach spiritual truths.  Especially as Fathers we are to be the head of our households.  We are responsible for biblical truth being taught on a daily basis to our family.  We are responsible for this biblical mandate.  Let us not take this charge lightly.  Let us not be dependent on our Sunday School teachers and pastors to be the ones to share truth with our family.  Let us raise the standard high and share the truth of the Scriptures at home.  The third key is to share stories.  Unfortunately, for far too many people the only stories they have to share regarding God and His faithfulness happened twenty and thirty years ago.  We need stories of God’s activity right here and right now.  We need to have our spiritual eyes open so we can recognize the Lord and then be bold enough to share these stories with others.  People need to know God is still alive and active today.  Let me challenge you to be courageous as you set the godly example, teach spiritual truths and share stories of God’s faithfulness.  May He be brought praise because of this activity of faith.

Questions:

1. Are you personally setting a godly example as you teach spiritual truths?

2. Do you share current stories of God’s faithfulness and power in your life or has it been twenty years since you have seen God move in your life?

Prayer: Father, I honestly desire to live a godly life for you Lord.  I want to pass on truth to my family and those with whom I come in contact.  Grant me the grace to recognize Your activity and to tell others of Your amazing faithfulness to me.  Amen.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  I would also appreciate if you would tell your friends to read this blog.  As always, if you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.  Thank you.

Last Two Principles of Integrity

Photo by Helen K

Scripture: Proverbs 10:9

He who walks in integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

Insights: There were four principles regarding integrity we looked at this week.  The first principle of integrity was that a Christ-follower rejects passivity.  The second principle was that a Christ-follower accepts responsibility.  The third principle of integrity is a Christ-follower leads courageously.  The kingdom of God is supposed to take ground.  We are to be advancing the gospel.  We are to be boldly going and telling others about the grace and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are not to be hiding in the safety and comfort of our church pews.  We are not to be content with 93% of church plateaued or declining.  FBCBG is in a present negative growth pattern and people are saying, “Why are people leaving the church?”  I will tell you the reason people are leaving the church is because we have stopped living with integrity.  We have stopped being men and women of courage.  We have stopped sharing the gospel.  God forgive us and then let us have true biblical repentance and start telling others about Jesus.  The last principle of integrity we discussed was the fact Christ-followers ought to live a life expecting a greater reward.  I challenge you to go read through Paul’s epistles.  You will find one of Paul’s greatest motivators for being a man of integrity and courageously sharing Jesus with others was his deep held belief that one day he would be rewarded for his work.  Beloved, if we are truly faithful to the Lord, then we will receive a reward.  I can honestly say I do not understand the economy of the Lord.  I know there are five crowns mentioned in the New Testament.  I understand that what truly makes eternity joyous is the Lord Himself and all who are born again experience Him.  Yet I also know He gives some greater rewards than others.  How that impacts eternity I do not know, but what I do know is I want to be rewarded for being a faithful man of God.  I pray that prayer for you as well. 

Questions:

1. Would others say of you that you are a person of courage?

2. Do you long for the motivation of God’s greater reward in your life?

Prayer: Father, forgive me for being all too focused on the here and now.  Help me to live life with an eternal view.  As I do I will be more courageous and more concerned about Your approval than that of man.  Bless my life and reward me with Your grace as I faithfully follow You.  Amen.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  I would also appreciate if you would tell your friends to read this blog.  As always, if you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.  Thank you.