Focal Passage: Hosea 10:5-15

A story is told of a farmer who went out to gather some eggs and harvest his crops. As he walked across the farm toward the hen house, he noticed a pump was leaking. So he stopped to fix it. It needed a new washer, so he set off to the barn to get one. But on the way, he saw that the hay needed to be straightened in the barn, so he searched for his pitchfork. 

Hanging next to the pitchfork was a broom with a broken handle. He made a note to buy a broom handle. By now, it’s clear that the farmer isn’t going to get to his eggs or his crops. Likely, he’s not going to accomplish much. He is a prisoner of unbridled spontaniety. The farmer fails to reap significantly because what he sows is minimal, misguided and his priorities are malfunctioning.

Beware what you sow. But there’s even more at risk for the believer than this. It’s so easy for any of us to live our life in this regard. There are no shortcuts to godliness. It’s a pursuit that is met with obstacles and struggles. Struggles never take a vacation. What may seem urgent is not always the most important thing in our lives. And a fickle heart can wander farther into sin than it ever thought it could possibly go!  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Hosea 6:1-7:2    

Recently, I was watching a movie that dealt with themes of father wounds. The father in the movie made many promises to his sons and failed on all of them. He promised his boys he would throw baseball with them and come to their games. He promised he would take them to get a dog. He promised he would teach them to fish. He promised he would quit drinking. Every single promise was a failure. These patterns drove a wedge so deep in his relationship that his sons struggled emotionally into adulthood in their own relationships.

I would be surprised if there’s a single human on earth that has not broken a promise. Maybe they never intended to, but through the course of life, for some reason or another, it happened. I evaluate my life and I would be a bit embarrassed to share just how many promises to God I’ve broken, negotiations I’ve made, only to see them falter.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Hosea 1:2-9; 3:1-5

In 2005, the Guinness Book of World Records said that Percy and Florence Arrowsmith held two records — the longest marriage of a living couple (80 years) and having the largest married couple’s aggregate age (205 years). 

Before they died, they left good advice for those who want to have a lasting marriage. Percy humorously said the secret to his long marriage was just two words, “Yes, dear.”

Good advice perhaps, but Hosea and Gomer’s marriage was a bit more complicated.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Jonah 4:1-11    

A passenger in a taxi cab leaned over to ask the driver a question, gently tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove over the curb, and stopped just inches from a building.

For a few moments everything was silent in the cab. Then, the startled driver asked, “Are you OK? I’m sorry, but you scared the daylights out of   me.” The shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said, “I didn’t realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle you.” The driver replied, “No, I’m the one who is sorry, today is my very first day driving a cab. I’ve been driving a hearse for 25 years …”

The cab driver had plenty of experience driving, but he was clearly out of his comfort zone. In chapter four, we find Jonah not only out of his comfort zone, but “displeased” and “angry” that God would take him to Nineveh to preach a message of repentance. In verse 2, he says to God, “… for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Jonah 1:15-2:10 

Every believer in Christ has a testimony. And all of them are great! No matter the background or condition of a person before they met Christ, one thing every believer has in common — we were dead in our sin! 

Not half-dead, or a little dead, but dead-dead. Spiritually dead! But God made us alive! 

I don’t have a testimony of salvation that would make most people’s hair stand up, shed tears, or juicy enough to make a TBN documentary. But God rescued me from death and has declared me righteous because of Jesus! 

However, I do have quite a story of my “call” to pastoral ministry. To make that long story short, I ran from God’s call on my life to pursue pastoral ministry. I grew up as a pastor’s kid. My grandfather was a pastor. Two of my great-grandfathers were pastors. That’s a lot of pastors in the family and I didn’t want to be just another one. But God outran me.  [Read more…]