Hosea 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: LET’S MAKE A PLAN

You can’t control the weather, you aren’t in charge of the economy, you can’t un-wreck the car, but you can do this: you can map out a strategy.  Remember, God is in this crisis.  Ask Him to give you a plan, two or three steps you can take today.  Seek counsel from someone who’s faced a similar challenge.  Ask friends to pray.  Look for resources.  Reach out to a support group.  Make a plan.

You’d prefer a miracle?  You’d rather see the bread multiplied or the stormy sea turned into glassy calm in a finger snap?  God may do this.  Then again, He may tell you, “I’m with you, and I can use this for good.  Now let’s make a plan.”  You see, God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility.  Just the opposite—it empowers it.  So trust God to do what you can’t.  Obey God and do what you can.  You’ll get through this.

Hosea 1

This is God’s Message to Hosea son of Beeri. It came to him during the royal reigns of Judah’s kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This was also the time that Jeroboam son of Joash was king over Israel.

This Whole Country Has Become a Whorehouse
2 The first time God spoke to Hosea he said:

“Find a whore and marry her.
    Make this whore the mother of your children.
And here’s why: This whole country
    has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God.”

3 Hosea did it. He picked Gomer daughter of Diblaim. She got pregnant and gave him a son.

4-5 Then God told him:

“Name him Jezreel. It won’t be long now before
    I’ll make the people of Israel pay for the massacre at Jezreel.
    I’m calling it quits on the kingdom of Israel.
Payday is coming! I’m going to chop Israel’s bows and arrows
    into kindling in the valley of Jezreel.”

6-7 Gomer got pregnant again. This time she had a daughter. God told Hosea:

“Name this one No-Mercy. I’m fed up with Israel.
    I’ve run out of mercy. There’s no more forgiveness.
Judah’s another story. I’ll continue having mercy on them.
    I’ll save them. It will be their God who saves them,
Not their armaments and armies,
    not their horsepower and manpower.”

8-9 After Gomer had weaned No-Mercy, she got pregnant yet again and had a son. God said:

“Name him Nobody. You’ve become nobodies to me,
    and I, God, am a nobody to you.

10-11 “But down the road the population of Israel is going to explode past counting, like sand on the ocean beaches. In the very place where they were once named Nobody, they will be named God’s Somebody. Everybody in Judah and everybody in Israel will be assembled as one people. They’ll choose a single leader. There’ll be no stopping them—a great day in Jezreel!”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Monday, June 22, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

2 Corinthians 4:7–18

 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”[a] Since we have that same spirit of[b] faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Footnotes:
2 Corinthians 4:13 Psalm 116:10 (see Septuagint)
2 Corinthians 4:13 Or Spirit-given

Insight
Paul was qualified to talk about struggle and hardship. He endured many things—blindness, slander, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, imprisonment, and ultimately execution for the sake of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 4:8–9, Paul uses four pairs of ideas—each linked by the phrase “but not”—to express both the difficulty we may experience when we choose to follow Jesus but also the hope of our faith. “Hard pressed . . . but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Even though we may experience difficulty or persecution, nothing can touch the eternal hope we have in Christ.

Eternal Eyes
We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 2 Corinthians 4:18

Eternal eyes, that’s what my friend Madeline prays her children and grandchildren would have. Her family has gone through a tumultuous season that ended with the death of her daughter. As the family grieves from this horrific loss, Madeline longs for them to be less and less nearsighted—consumed by the pain of this world. And to be more and more farsighted—filled with hope in our loving God.

The apostle Paul and his co-workers experienced great suffering at the hands of persecutors and even from believers who tried to discredit them. Yet, they had their eyes fixed on eternity. Paul boldly acknowledged that “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Although they were doing God’s work, they lived with the reality of being “hard pressed on every side,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” and “struck down” (vv. 8–9). Shouldn’t God have delivered them from these troubles? But instead of being disappointed, Paul built his hope on the “eternal glory” that supersedes momentary troubles (v. 17). He knew God’s power was at work in him and had complete assurance that “the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus” (v. 14).

When our world around us feels shaky, may we turn our eyes to God—the eternal Rock that will never be destroyed. By:  Estera Pirosca Escobar

Reflect & Pray
In what do you choose to hope in spite of your difficulties? How have you experienced God’s faithfulness?

I lift my eyes to You today, O God. Give me a glimpse of the security I have in You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 22, 2020
The Unchanging Law of Judgment

With what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. —Matthew 7:2

This statement is not some haphazard theory, but it is an eternal law of God. Whatever judgment you give will be the very way you are judged. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus said that the basis of life is retribution— “with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” If you have been shrewd in finding out the shortcomings of others, remember that will be exactly how you will be measured. The way you pay is the way life will pay you back. This eternal law works from God’s throne down to us (see Psalm 18:25-26).

Romans 2:1 applies it in even a more definite way by saying that the one who criticizes another is guilty of the very same thing. God looks not only at the act itself, but also at the possibility of committing it, which He sees by looking at our hearts. To begin with, we do not believe the statements of the Bible. For instance, do we really believe the statement that says we criticize in others the very things we are guilty of ourselves? The reason we see hypocrisy, deceit, and a lack of genuineness in others is that they are all in our own hearts. The greatest characteristic of a saint is humility, as evidenced by being able to say honestly and humbly, “Yes, all those, as well as other evils, would have been exhibited in me if it were not for the grace of God. Therefore, I have no right to judge.”

Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). He went on to say, in effect, “If you do judge, you will be judged in exactly the same way.” Who of us would dare to stand before God and say, “My God, judge me as I have judged others”? We have judged others as sinners— if God should judge us in the same way, we would be condemned to hell. Yet God judges us on the basis of the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern.  The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L

Bible in a Year: Esther 6-8; Acts 6

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, June 22, 2020

The Coach Who Knows What He's Doing - #8726

Our sons had always dreamed of playing high school football. When they finally got to realize that dream, they got to play for one of the winningest coaches in our area. He turned what was once a team known for losing into a team that was usually in a championship series. And because I worked with the team for several years as sort of a spiritual coach, I had an opportunity to observe one of the great secrets of his success. He was a genius at knowing what position each player could play best. A lot of times they disagreed with the coach; they saw themselves as being a star at some position they really wanted. But he could size up their capabilities like no coach I'd ever seen. And invariably, the guys who thought he was wrong about the position he gave them, well, they'd end up being all-conference and all-county in that spot.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Coach Who Knows What He's Doing."

I know a coach like that. So do you, if you belong to Jesus Christ. He knows exactly where every one of His players can play best, even if they think they should be playing somewhere else.

That's actually what Jesus is trying to tell us in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 12, beginning with verse 7. "To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." In other words, if you know Jesus, He has gifted you for a position you're supposed to play - no exceptions. "Even as the body is one" he says, "and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ." Then he goes on to point out that every part of the body, every function, is needed or the rest of the body suffers. Then this bottom line in 1 Corinthians 12:18. I like this. Listen: "God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired."

Or, God, the Head Coach, has placed each player just exactly where He wants them on His team, playing the position He created them for and gifted them for. And "Hello!," you're one of those team members. God has gifted you, He's prepared you, wired you, destined you, assigned you to play the position He knows is best for you, for His cause, for His Church, and for a hurting and dying world. Maybe it's time you stopped trying to get Him to play you somewhere else. He knows what He's doing.

It's actually an insult to your Lord to covet a position that someone else has, or to compare yourself to another player on His team, or to denigrate your position as being less important than others, or to tell Him you can't play that position (or you won't), or to sit on the sidelines or to leave the game because you don't like your position; you refuse to play your position. You are depriving Team Jesus of a contribution that they need and a contribution only you can make and you were created to make.

I know that, not because of who you are but because of who Jesus is. I love Ephesians 2:10. It's what I said to each of my grandchildren the day they were born. "We are God's workmanship..." Wait, let's make it about you. "You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works He prepared in advance for you to do." Isn't that exciting?

He produces spiritual champions because He knows where each player should play, including you. And remember, it's not the crowd you're playing for, or even for your other teammates. You play for your Coach. He's the one you play to please. So come on, put on your gear, take your position on the field, and play your God-given position with all your heart!