Mar 2008
March’s Verse
The calendar we gave out at the beginning of the year
deals with the all important theme “Who is Jesus?”.
Many voices down through the centuries have made all
sorts of claims and promises. Many voices in the
present make their claims and promises too. They
clamour for our attention, call us to follow, believe
and commit. How are we to know which voice to listen
to?
March’s verse is Hosea 14:4 “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely.”
Hosea is one of God's preachers in the Old Testament. He is a man who hurts much because his wife runs around after other men and everyone knows it.
And Hosea is called by God to demonstrate a faithfulness and patience that is utterly beyond the call of duty. He is to wait, he is to love, he is to rescue his wife. Out of his own pocket he buys her back from another man – paying for the one who is rightfully his.
Hosea’s life is a real life parable of God's love for his people in the Old Testament – They were his people, he showered love on them, but they rejected him over and over again. They chose false gods rather than the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. And yet he didn’t wash his hands of them, but waited, pursued and loved them.
This verse comes at the end of the book where Hosea’s wife has returned to him, and God is now speaking about his own unfaithful people, and he says, “I will heal their waywardness, and love them freely.”
Perhaps you feel that your chequered past excludes you from God's love. Not so; God says here that he will welcome anyone who turns to him, no matter if they have paid as scant attention to God as Hosea’s wife did to Hosea. And more than that, God says he will pay the price to rescue you, and he will love you with a love that is beyond measure.
There are no hopeless cases with God.
March’s verse is Hosea 14:4 “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely.”
Hosea is one of God's preachers in the Old Testament. He is a man who hurts much because his wife runs around after other men and everyone knows it.
And Hosea is called by God to demonstrate a faithfulness and patience that is utterly beyond the call of duty. He is to wait, he is to love, he is to rescue his wife. Out of his own pocket he buys her back from another man – paying for the one who is rightfully his.
Hosea’s life is a real life parable of God's love for his people in the Old Testament – They were his people, he showered love on them, but they rejected him over and over again. They chose false gods rather than the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. And yet he didn’t wash his hands of them, but waited, pursued and loved them.
This verse comes at the end of the book where Hosea’s wife has returned to him, and God is now speaking about his own unfaithful people, and he says, “I will heal their waywardness, and love them freely.”
Perhaps you feel that your chequered past excludes you from God's love. Not so; God says here that he will welcome anyone who turns to him, no matter if they have paid as scant attention to God as Hosea’s wife did to Hosea. And more than that, God says he will pay the price to rescue you, and he will love you with a love that is beyond measure.
There are no hopeless cases with God.