Ok, that may sound a little bit weird… It ay be better to say, ‘We are all LIKE Hoseas wife…’

I have been listening to Brooke Frasers album Albertine a lot lately, and one of the songs is called ‘Hosea’s Wife’ and it has really been speaking to me. So I decided to read the book of Hosea to get a better overall picture.

The book of Hosea is one of my favourite books in the bible because it is one of the greatest stories of undeserved love -between Hosea (a prophet of God) and his wife (a prostitute). And it just happens to also mirror the love of our God even though we prostitute ourselves to the ways of the world.

As I read Hosea’s story, where God tells him to find a prostitute to marry, yet when he does and hey marry, she continues in her ways. It breaks my heart to think what he would have been goig through, especially when God him to take His wife back.

The humiliation he must have felt walking in to buy back what was already his in the first place. The thought of his wife sharing intimacy with other men. But he still took her back as his own. Read the rest of this entry »

8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. - – Romans 13:8-10

God had given the Israelite 10 commandments after coming out of Egypt. These were given as basic “lowest acceptable level” type rules that God put in place to esure a happy and blessed life for His people.

As you continue to read through the Old Testament and into the New Testament you start to realise that these laws are constantly being broken by God’s people – and even continue to be today.

So Paul decided to try and make things a little simpler when he said, “The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus put it this way in Mark 12:28:

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”

So what Jesus and Paul are both trying to say is, “All we need is love.”

To follow God’s commandments, we need to: Read the rest of this entry »

4 “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.  5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah 6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. 7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.  8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools. - – Psalms 39:4-8

David here questions the purpose of life – just as his son Solomon does years later.

David states, “Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro.” while Solomon puts it a little bit more bluntly when he says, “Life is meaningless.” But they are both in the same situation , wondering what is the purpose of their lives. Do we really matter in the scope of eternity? With our lives being so miniscule in relation to eternity – a drop in the ocean of time, then what is really important?

I love what David asks of God in verse 4:

“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”

Our lives on earth are limited . From the moment of our birth we are like an hourglass and the grains of sand are quickly passing with each moment. Yet we still get caught up in the little meaningless things and forget what is really important.

David realised this and knew that if he could really grasp how brief his time on earth really was, then he would start to find out what was really important in his life.

Have you ever had a near death experience or know someone who has?

Notice how almost instantly their priorities change? Thigs that were important are tossed to the side as they chase the dreams they were to afraid to live. They always seem to ‘get their lives in check.’

David mentions the meaningless of wearch in verse 6, just as Solomon does in Ecclesiastes 5. He also casts aside these as meaningless as well:

• Wisdom 16 I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. - – Ecclesiastes 1:16-17 Read the rest of this entry »

Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

- – Joshua 1:7-9

What God is doing here is laying out to Joshua His strategy for success. As Joshua takes over leadership from Moses God wants to ensure that Joshua will leader Israel into victory and live a successful and prosperous life.

God Wants You To Be Successful

But before we can look at God’s plan for success in our lives we mush first understand what true success is. The dictionary defines success as:

The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted

So putting this into God’s point of view, we are successful when we acheive what God has desired fulfilling the plan he has for our lives.

I don’t know about you, but I definately want to be successful in God’s eyes, so lets pull that verse in Joshua apart and look at 3 things that we can do to ensure that we are doing all that God has called for us to do.

1. Guard Your Heart And Your Tongue
   I love the Message version of Proverbs 18:21

   Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.

   Words are powerful. Think about it, God formed the universe with His words, He spoke and light was. This is why He says to Joshua: ‘Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth.’

   God wants us to be speaking life into situations, into people and into ourselves. He wants us to confess His promises, His laws and His love. However His promises have to be in us before they can come forth from our mouths. They need to be ingrained into our spirit before we can speak them with authority.

   I love Luke 6:45 where it says: ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’

   How often do you hear someone says something that is hurtful, only to add ‘I was only joking.’ Maybe you have done this yourself. I know I have many times, which is why this verse really hit home with me. Usually when we say these things, they just come out, before we can stop ourselves we have already blurted out this hurtful statement – because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

   Knowing this, I decided to make a change. But instead of trying to stop myself from saying these things, I went to the root of the problem -  my heart. I had to examine what I was allowing into my heart, and put up walls and set boundaries to stop certain things from influencing my heart.

   But stopping things from getting into your heart is only one part of seeing God’s heart flow abundantly out of our heart – and mouth. We need to make sure we are letting God’s word in. Read the rest of this entry »