Hosea 14
Repentance to Bring Blessing 1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. [a]
3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion."
4 "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;
6 his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what more have I [b] to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me."
9 Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
Isaiah 42:1-9 (New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
Isaiah 42The Servant of the Lord 1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. 2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope."
5 This is what God the LORD says— he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
6 "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
8 "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."
December 21, 2007
God’s Surprising Answer
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READ: Isaiah 42:1-9
Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! —Isaiah 64:1 About this cover Rend the heavens!” and “come down!” pleaded the prophet Isaiah. Make Your name known by making the mountains shake and the nations tremble, he advised the Lord (Isa. 64:1-3).
Isaiah wanted God to behave as He had in the past. Recalling the Scripture about God’s visit with Moses on Mt. Sinai, Isaiah longed for a repeat performance.
But God had already told Isaiah that He would be doing something new. “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (42:9).
The “something new” was Jesus! God did indeed come down. But not in Isaiah’s lifetime. And not in the dramatic fashion he longed for. “He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street” (42:2). He came in the unassuming form of an infant.
Many of us can remember a situation when God was amazingly timely in His response to our need. Like Isaiah, we want God to do the same thing again. But perhaps He has something else in mind. As you celebrate God’s humble descent to earth, be aware that He came to change our hearts, not just our circumstances. —Julie Ackerman Link
God’s answer wasn’t detectedWhen Jesus came to earth,For no one had expectedA Child of lowly birth. —D. De Haan
God’s answers to our prayers may exceed our expectations.
December 21, 2007
Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?LISTEN: READ:
We have received . . . the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God —1 Corinthians 2:12 About this cover My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.
If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, "I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!"
Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.
An E. R. Christmas - #5465 Friday, December 21, 2007
If you made a list of places you might like to be for Christmas, the hospital emergency room probably wouldn't be on your list. Mine either. But that's what happened the Christmas that our sons got a new football. It was this extraordinary 60-degree Christmas day, so we had to go out and play with that new ball, of course. I went deep for a pass. I caught it on the end of my finger! And the next thing I knew, I was spending a painful Christmas in the emergency room getting a broken finger repaired. Nice way to spend Christmas, huh? I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "An E. R. Christmas." Take it from me it is no fun dealing with something broken at Christmas. But too many folks are doing just that this season - maybe you. It's not a broken limb that puts a cloud over so many Christmases - it's a broken heart, a broken relationship, a broken dream. This season amplifies so many emotions. It amplifies the loves of your life, the joys of your life, and the pain. As we approach this Christmas, maybe you're feeling very deeply some personal loss, some grief, some guilt or regret, hurt, some loneliness. Broken is hard anytime. It's especially hard at Christmas. Which brings us to one of the main reasons Jesus came that first Christmas. Our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 61:1, the Son of God says, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me ... He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." God saw our brokenness and He sent His one and only Son to give us hope. But He didn't just bring a band-aid for the symptom. He went right to the central cause of most human pain - this deadly soul-cancer called sin. Most of the broken things in our life are either because we have been sinned against or because we have sinned. In other words, we have done it our way instead of God's way. We were designed to live for the One who gave us our life, but in the words of the Bible, "everyone has gone his own way." That choice has made us the victims of other people's "me first" living and made other people the victims of our sin. And a lot has been broken. But the promise of Jesus' coming was given to His earthly father before He was born. "He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). The coming of Jesus was a rescue mission that took Him all the way to a brutal death on a cross. In the words of the Bible, Jesus was "crushed for our sins" (Isaiah 53:5). By paying our death penalty, He broke the power of sin to kill us and enslave us. Jesus has made it possible for you to reach out to God for the forgiveness that your heart needs so much; for the healing no one else can give you. And Christmas is a wonderful time to open your heart to One who said He came "to bind up the brokenhearted." You don't ever have to be alone again or carry your burden alone again. You can't buy this gift of life from Jesus; you can't earn it. Like any Christmas gift, you can only reach out and receive it. That happens when you come to Jesus and say, "Lord, I'm putting my total trust in You to be my personal Savior from my personal sin." If you want to begin this unloseable relationship, and what better time to do it. If you want to know you belong to the Christ of Christmas, tell Him that right now, right where you are. And I would be happy to send you my little booklet called Yours For Life to help you understand better how to belong to Him and to be sure that you do. There's a toll free number you can call and ask for it - 877-741-1200. Or maybe you'd like to go to our website. That same information is right there to walk you through the beginning of a relationship with Jesus Christ. The website is yoursforlife.net. Why don't you make this your first Christmas with Christ in your heart? To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: yoursforlife.net or call 1-888-966-7325.
