Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / February 25 - Hosea 7

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February 25 - Hosea 7 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Shawn. Here it is Wednesday.
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  It's the 25th of February and would you know that today is
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  actually a Cracker Jack of a day?
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  It is inconvenience yourself day.
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  Yep, this date for the last 20 years has been celebrated as a
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  day to just for a moment, do something that might not be
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  convenient for yourself, but is helpful to someone else.
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  Isn't that a beautiful thing? Just a small act of kindness,
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  even if it costs us something? Because isn't it interesting how
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  we judge everything on how it contributes or detracts from the
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  ease of our own experience? And so this is a g'day to be
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  reminded that actually, it's not about me.
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  It's not about my ease. How about I inconvenience myself
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  for someone else's goodness? And of course you know how to do
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  that in a way that is caring and respectful and just can bring a
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  little bit of joy and light to someone else's day.
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  So there you go. That's our challenge.
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  Inconvenience yourself for someone else's well being.
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  And that is certainly what we are reading about is Hosea being
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  very inconvenienced as he has to say these very awkward words to
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  his people, trying to call them back to fidelity with God.
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  And we are going to continue hearing his calls today as we
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  continue reading through this book of Hosea.
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  So you're ready to do that with me?
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  Oh, Yep, Yep. I think we can do it.
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  All right friends, let us read together.
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  Hosea Chapter 7. I want to heal Israel, but it's
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  sins are too great. Samaria is filled with liars.
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  Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside.
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  It's people don't realise that I'm watching them.
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  Their sinful deeds are all around them and I see them all.
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  The people entertain the king with their wickedness and the
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  Princess laugh at their lies. They are all adulterers, always
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  aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is
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  kept too hot while the Baker is kneading the dough.
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  On royal holidays, the Princess get drunk with wine, carousing
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  with those who mock them. Their hearts are like an oven
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  blazing with intrigue. Their plot smoulders through the
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  night, and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire,
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  burning like an oven. They consume their leaders, they
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  kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me
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  for help. The people of Israel mingle with
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  godless foreigners, making themselves as worthless as 1/2
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  baked cake. Worshipping foreign gods has
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  sapped their strength, but they don't even know it.
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  Their hair is grey, but they don't realise they are old and
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  weak. Their arrogance testifies
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  against them, yet they don't return to the Lord their God, or
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  even try to find him. The people of Israel have become
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  like silly witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to
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  Assyria for help. But as they fly about, I will
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  throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the
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  sky. I will punish them for all the
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  evil they do. What sorrow awaits those who
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  have deserted me? Let them die, for they have
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  rebelled against me. I wanted to redeem them, but
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  they have told lies about me. They do not cry out to me with
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  sincere hearts. Instead they sit on their
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  couches and wail. They cut themselves begging
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  foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from
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  me. I trained them and made them
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  strong, yet now they plot evil against me.
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  They look everywhere except to the Most High.
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  They are as useless as a crooked bow.
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  Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because of their
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  insolence toward me. Then the people of Egypt will
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  laugh at them. Our Lord, as we hear you crying
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  out to your people to come back to you, you tell them that when
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  things are difficult, they first run to Egypt and then when they
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  don't get help there, they run to a Syria.
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  Our Lord, I wonder what our Egypt and our Syria are.
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  I wonder where the places are that when things first go wrong,
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  when things first become challenging or hard or draining
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  or difficult or not, what we want.
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  Where is it that we turn Because you want us to turn to you.
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  You want us to lean into Your grace and Your provision to get
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  us through our day. We want us to come to you to
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  receive Our Daily Bread, not to dig into some other
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  relationship, some other source in our lives.
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  Our Lord Jesus give us pure hearts that we would look to
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  You, that we would rely on You, and that our relationship with
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  you would be the bedrock of where we find our Wellness and
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  wholeness and our reason to keep going.
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  We are your children, we are your people, and we come before
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  your mighty throne and we worship you and you alone, and
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  we recognise that it's you who rescues us, and not just in some
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  small trivial way, but you have rescued our souls for eternity.
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  And you draw us back to you and you prepare a place for us to
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  come and spend all that eternity with you, basking in your love
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  for us. Ah, we are your loved children,
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  and we thank you and we pray all of this in your mighty and
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  wonderful name, Jesus, Amen.