Podcasts about through hosea

Are you caught in a storm you created yourself? In this message, Pastor Levi Lusko reveals the painful truth about those chaotic seasons we sometimes bring upon ourselves. Through Hosea 8:7, discover how "sowing the wind" leads to "reaping the whirlwind" and learn to identify five key areas where we often sabotage our own peace.

In the book of Hosea, we witness a powerful and heartbreaking portrayal of God's covenant love. Through Hosea's marriage to Gomer, God paints a vivid picture of His unwavering faithfulness to His unfaithful people.

Through Hosea, God not only reveals his willingness to do whatever it takes to buy back his errant bride, but also whatever it takes to break the pattern of sin that keeps leading her astray. He heals his beloved’s past and makes possible new beginnings that the marriage might last forever. Speaker: Sean Scribner Series: Unrequited … Continue reading Of Raisin Cakes and Men →

Through Hosea, God speaks tenderly to Israel, promising restoration and renewed relationship after a period of judgment. He vows to lead them into the wilderness and transform their sorrow into hope, offering forgiveness and a fresh covenant, pointing forward to Jesus. Ultimately, the faithfulness of Israel—meaning all of God's people, will be restored, and they will call God their husband, no longer chasing after false idols. This renewal reflects God's unwavering love, as symbolized by Hosea's reconciliation with his unfaithful wife, Gomer.  The Rev. John Lukomski, co-host of Wrestling with the Basics on KFUO Radio, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Hosea 2:15-3:5. Find Wrestling with the Basics at kfuo.org/wrestlingwiththebasics.  Hosea tells the powerful story of a prophet commanded to marry an unfaithful woman, Gomer, as a living symbol of God's boundless love for Israel despite its repeated betrayals. Through heartbreak and redemption, Hosea's marriage becomes a vivid portrayal of how deeply God desires His people to return to Him, even when they chase after idols. Packed with raw emotion, prophetic warnings, and a message of divine mercy, this book captures God's relentless pursuit and offers a stirring reminder that restoration is always possible—through Jesus--no matter how far one has wandered. 

Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them in order to love other gods. Therefore, in accordance with curses of the covenant he made with them at Sinai and for the sake of His holy name, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children and laments the calamity that will come upon them. With this love in mind, He promises that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.Hosea 10 - 1:04 . Hosea 11 - 4:37 . Hosea 12 - 8:13 . Hosea 13 - 10:32 . Hosea 14 - 13:42 . Psalm 143 - 15:57 .  :::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Bible.facebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them and turning to love other gods. Therefore, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children, lamenting the calamity that will come upon them, promising that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.Hosea 8 - 1:11 . Hosea 9 - 3:53 . Hosea 10 - 8:36 . Hosea 11 - 12:06 . Hosea 12 - 15:45 . Hosea 13 - 18:14 . Hosea 14 - 21:29 . Psalm 109 - 23:50 .  :::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Bobby Brown, Katelyn Pridgen, Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity Hosea 14:1-9, Romans 6:19-23, & St. Mark 8:1-9 by William Klock The Prophet Hosea lived in the midst of a wicked and idolatrous people.  God's people had been split since the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Judah in the South and the Kingdom of Israel in the north.  Judah had its own problems with wickedness and idolatry, but compared to Israel Judah was a downright goody-two-shoes.  Hosea lived in the northern kingdom of Israel.  He could walk through the cities of Israel and see it all: drunkenness and sexual impurity of all kinds.  People mutilated their bodies and took their own sisters as wives.  Everywhere there was a general disregard for God's law.  And the King.  Those were politically turbulent days, but instead of trusting in the Lord, the King made forbidden alliances with pagan nations and played the game of international politics and intrigue.  But worst of all was the idolatry.  There was a temple to the Lord at Bethel and another at Dan (and that was a problem in itself), but all over Israel, whether in the towns and cities or at the “high places” out in the country, there were temples and altars to Baal and to his consort, Asherah.  The Levites at Bethel and Dan went through the motions of worshipping the Lord, but as Hosea looked around him it seemed most people had devoted themselves to this pagan sky god and his fertility goddess wife.  Sacred prostitutes spilled out of the temples and into the streets, enticing the Lord's people to what should have been unthinkable.  To Hosea it seemed like just about everyone in Israel, from the King down to the labourer in the market, had forgotten who they were and to whom they belonged.  They were the people who lived with the Lord in their midst.  They were the people chosen and called to show the nations the greatness of the God of Israel.  But no one cared about that anymore.  There was little difference anymore between an Israelite and an Assyrian or a Phoenician.  And to those pagans, the God of Israel was a joke—powerless, jilted by his own people, no one to be feared. And then the Lord spoke to Hosea.  And the Lord told him to go and find one of those prostitutes spilling out of the pagan temples and to marry her.  He wasn't just going to give Hosea a sermon to preach.  He did that too.  But, no, he was going to make Hosea himself a prophetic object lesson.  “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom,” said the Lord, “for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). Hosea's life was to become a graphic reminder to the people of Israel that when the Lord had rescued them from Egypt, he had made her his people, the way a husband takes a bride.  He had loved her.  He had cared for her.  He had lavished good gifts on her.  And in return she had prostituted herself to other gods and forsaken his house.  In the same way, Hosea loved his wife, Gomer.  But repeatedly she abandoned him for other men and for her former life of prostitution.  Repeatedly Hosea went after her, buying her out of her bondage, restoring her to his house and to his loving care.  And in between he preached to Israel, reminding them of the Lord's love and the Lord's care and of the Lord's faithfulness.  In between he preached to Israel and called her to repentance—to turn aside from the Baals and the Asherahs and to return to her first love, to return to the Lord.  To remember who she was and to whom she belonged. Through Hosea the Lord warned the people that their betrayal would be costly, but he also reminded them of his love for them and of his faithfulness.  And he made them a promise.  We read part of that call and promise as our Old Testament lesson this morning.  Hosea 14:1-9. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,        for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words        and return to the Lord; say to him,        “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good,        and we will pay with bulls        the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us;        we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,'        to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” I will heal their apostasy;        I will love them freely,        for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel;        he shall blossom like the lily;        he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out;        his beauty shall be like the olive,        and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;        they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine;        their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?        It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress;        from me comes your fruit. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;        whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right,        and the upright walk in them,        but transgressors stumble in them.   The Lord called his people to repent, to turn aside from their idolatry, but he also promised that one way or another, he would heal their apostasy.  He will make them the people he chose and called them to be—his witnesses to the nations. I brought home a pile of antique camp stoves this weekend along with a large box of paint cans for when I get around to restoring them.  It had me thinking of the last camp stove I restored.  I had trouble finding a green paint that matched the original colour.  When I did find a good match, it was expensive automotive paint.  It was a unique stove, so I splurged on the paint.  And it started out okay.  I sprayed the paint and the colour was pretty much perfect, but the colour itself was pretty thin.  I thought maybe the cans had been sitting on the shelf a long time and all the pigment was settled in the bottom.  They say to shake the can for one minute after the little mixing ball rattles.  I warmed the can a bit and shook it for ten minutes.  No change.  What I managed to paint looked great, but it took a lot more paint than expected, so I ran out.  I went back to the store for another expensive can, got home, shook it like crazy for ten minutes just to be sure.  And I started spraying.  And this can was full of colour.  But the first thing I noticed was that it wasn't quite the same colour.  And then I noticed that it wasn't laying down smoothly.  No matter what I did, it left a rough and blotchy texture on the surface.  And, of course, to get the colours to match, I had to spray the new paint over everything I'd already painted with the old paint. And as I sat there looking at this mess of a project, I got discouraged and frustrated.  I'd invested a lot in that paint and had high hopes for what it would look like and in the end it failed me.  It didn't do what it was supposed to do.  And it got me thinking about Hosea and Gomer and the Lord and Israel—and about the church and about me.  I invested in some cans of paint.  The Lord invested in a whole people.  I expected that paint to make an antique stove look good and to show off my handiwork.  The Lord expected Israel to show his goodness and glory to the nations.  I thought about giving up on that paint—throwing the stove back into the electrolysis tank and stripping it back to metal and starting over.  But that's not what the Lord did with his people and it wasn't what I was going to do with that paint.  I sent photos to a friend who used to work painting cars and he said, “Clear coat covers a multitude of sins.”  He was right.  So I sat down with those stove parts and some water and some fine-grit sandpaper, and I spent hours wet-sanding.  I sanded and sanded until the paint was smooth and my hands were stained green.  And when I was done it looked awful.  It was smooth, but it was cloudy and swirly and covered in fine scratches.  But it was ready.  All it took was one can of clear coat and a few minutes of spraying.  Clear coat covers a multitude of sins.  It fills in the fine scratches and imperfections and somehow it always comes out with a smooth, glossy finish.  It never fails.  The next evening I put everything together on the workbench and it looked great.  You'd never know what a mess it had been except for all the green under my fingernails. And because I'm a preacher and the story of the God of Israel and his people is always on my brain, I thought about my friend's joke about clear coat covering a multitude of sins and then I went for a bike ride and the whole time I was thinking about the ways that clear coat is like Jesus and the Spirit.  I know on some level there's a heresy in there, but that's the problem with every analogy and I wasn't taking it that deep.  That expensive green automotive paint was Israel.  The Lord bought her out of Egypt, delivered her from Pharoah, and displayed to her and to the rest of the world his goodness and generosity in—at least a little bit—the same way I bought those cans of paint and showed the people, or at least the cashier at Lordco, the depth of my pockets.  And as the Lord set Israel to work to be a witness to his glory, I started spraying that paint to be a witness to my own handiwork—to photograph and post to the lantern and stove collectors' forum on the Internet and on YouTube—to the great acclaim of my fellow collectors.  And just like Israel, that paint failed to perform.  It didn't meet my expectations.  It made me look incompetent.  If I'd posted photos on the Internet without explanation, people would have mocked me for the sake of that paint that wouldn't do what it was supposed to do.  Not so unlike the nations that mocked the Lord, the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of his people—although certainly with far greater consequences.  And the sanding.  The hours and hours of sanding, scuffing up, knocking down, smoothing out that paint that just would not behave.  And not unlike Israel, even when I was done and everything was ready, it still looked awful—not at all what I expected.  The Internet would have mocked me even more if they'd seen it and thought that was the finished project.  But then the clear coat that covers a multitude of sins—at least in my own mind, so much like Jesus the Messiah, God himself, sent to be the faithful Israelite.  To give his life for the sake of their sins, his shed blood—dare I say—like the clear coat, filling in all the scuffs and scratches to the point you'd never know just how unfaithful that paint—or Israel—had been to its purpose and mission.  And then that gloss it leaves behind.  Even if that expensive paint had done everything it was supposed to do, even if it went down flawlessly, it would never have look as perfect and as glossy as that damaged, roughed-up paint looked after it was clear-coated.  Kind of like the people of God.  Even if she'd kept the torah, a people with the divinely given law carved on stone tablets will never show forth the glory of the Lord the way a people filled with his own Spirit will show forth his glory. And so I took some photos and I posted them in the lantern and stove collectors' forum and the likes and the comments with glowing praise started rolling in.  Brothers and Sisters, that what's supposed to happen with the nations, when the world sees the handiwork of the God of Israel, the work of Jesus and the Spirit, in his people.  That's why you and I are here today.  Because God disciplined and renewed his people by his Son and by his Spirit and that new people became witnesses of his glory.  In their story the nations saw the faithfulness of God and through their proclamation they heard how it was done through Jesus the Messiah and through God's own Spirit.  And they came and gave him glory and believed in Jesus and that divine clear coat covered them just the way it had Israel, and they became—and eventually you and I became—part of the people of God and part of that community meant to continually witness his glory. And yet somehow, despite all that the Lord has done for us, we still need to be reminded who we are, to whom we belong, and what he's called us to do and to be.  Last week we heard Paul's words from Romans 6, reminding us of our baptism.  In the waters of baptism, he writes, we have died and risen with the Messiah.  We're like Israel, passing through the Red Sea.  When she went in, she belonged to Pharoah, slaves to the Egyptians, but when she came out the other side she belonged to the Lord, free to serve him in his goodness, his bride and a beloved member of his household.  In today's Epistle, Paul carries on a few verses later, again, Romans 6:19-23. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.    For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.   But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.   Remember that Paul was writing to an audience that was mostly Jewish or at least steeped in the Jewish scriptures and in the Jewish identity.  When Paul wrote about slavery and freedom, the first thing that came to mind was the Lord's deliverance of Israel from her slavery in Egypt.  There had been a time when their ancestors had no choice but to obey the will of Pharaoh.  But as Moses led them through the Red Sea and delivered them from that bondage, so Jesus has led us through the waters of baptism and delivered us from our bondage to sin. That doesn't mean that the life we have in Jesus is always easy.  The Lord led Israel through the wilderness before taking her into the promised land and Jesus leads us through a wilderness of our own on our way to the age to come.  He promised that his disciples would be rejected—some would even die—on account of him.  We live in the overlap of the ages, but the Lord has a purpose in that.  We, his church, are his means of proclaiming the good news about Jesus and we are witnesses of his glory to the world so that the nations will believe and give him glory.  When it was finished, I posted photos of my stove project to the Internet and everyone liked the photos and posted comments giving me praise for what I'd done.  Do you ever stop to think that the Lord is, right now, doing the same sort of thing with us?  He's bought us with the blood of his Son, he's washed away our sins, and he's filled us with his Spirit, regenerating our hearts and renewing our minds.  He's made us new creations and he's sent us out into the world and the world is supposed to see his new creation in us and glorify him and believe.  When the world looks at the Church, it's supposed to see, to have a foretaste, of God's new creation and of the age to come in which all the pain and sorrow and sin and tears—even death itself—have been wiped away and everything set to rights. Before Jesus washed us clean and filled us with the Spirit we were slaves to sin and sin leads to death and we see it all around us.  It's the way of this fallen world.  But in Jesus and the Spirit the Lord has set us free, in Jesus and the Spirit he is sanctifying us—that means he's making us holy, making us into the people he intends for us to be—stripping away the old, worn paint and the rust, cleaning off the grime, sanding and prepping, painting and sanding and painting and sanding and clear-coating and all of that until his handiwork is perfect and holy and fully witnesses his glory—and causes the whole world to take note and not just to like and comment, but to come to him in faith to worship and to praise.  And one day the Church will be everything he's working to make it and one day we will have proclaimed the good news about Jesus everywhere, and then every enemy will be defeated and this in between time will finally come to an end as the age to come finally arrives in all its fullness—like Christmas when all the decorations are finally up and the tree is in the living room and the presents are ready to be opened and the turkey's on the table. In the meantime, in this overlap of the ages, Brothers and Sisters, we need to remember who we are and to whom we belong.  We need to remember the hope that lies before us.  Even having been washed by Jesus and filled with the Spirit, the false gods of the world and the lusts of the flesh can be tempting.  Like Gomer, leaving her loving husband and returning to her old life of prostitution.  Like the Israelites in the wilderness.  We grumble.  And our bellies grumble and we think back with longing to the fleshpots of Egypt, forgetting that in Egypt we were slaves to sin and subject to death.  Brothers and Sisters, look around—or as Paul wrote in last week's Epistle, “consider”, “reckon”, look around you, look where you've come from and look at what God had done in Jesus and do the math.  The presents may still be in the attic and the turkey may still be in the oven, but thanks to Jesus and the Spirit all the signs are there.  The Christmas lights are up, there are ornaments on the tree, and we can smell the turkey roasting.  Trust him.  Everything about the story shouts at us that the Lord is faithful and fulfils his promises and so we know that Jesus will finish what he has started.  And if the Gospel lesson today tells us anything, it's that the Lord will always look after his people in the wilderness.  He fed Israel with manna from heaven.  He fed the multitude with seven loaves and a few small fish.  Brothers and Sisters, come to his Table this morning, eat the bread and drink the wine, and remember that he will feed us too.  Here he reminds us what he's done for us through the death of his Son and the gift of his Spirit.  Here he reminds us who we are, of the family to which we belong, and of our hope—where we're headed.  Here he lovingly feeds and clothes us, so that the world might see his faithfulness and give him glory. Let's pray: Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things:  Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

In this sermon, we dive into the heart of the prophet Hosea's final chapter to uncover the depths of God's unfailing love and mercy towards us.  Through Hosea's call for Israel to return to the Lord, we discover a message that resonates with all who seek forgiveness and a fresh start.  We pray you will be encouraged to reflect on your own path and recognize the ways you are called to turn back to God with open hearts.  Join us as we explore the transformative power of Hosea 14:1-9, a passage that not only offers hope and redemption but also shows the path towards a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. 

A new MP3 sermon from Free Reformed Church Rockingham is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Through Hosea’s marriage with an unfaithful woman, the LORD makes a last appeal Speaker: Rev. A. Veldman Broadcaster: Free Reformed Church Rockingham Event: Sunday - AM Date: 1/14/2024 Bible: Hosea 1:1-2:1 Length: 79 min.

Through Hosea 11: 1-9, we get to see God as a parent. There is a degree to which each of us strays from God, and yet God continues to be the faithful parent, continually wrestling with God's own love for us; a love that will not let us go. Sermon delivered by the Reverend David J. Powers on Nov 12, 2023.

Hosea 10 - 1:04 . Hosea 11 - 4:37 . Hosea 12 - 8:13 . Hosea 13 - 10:32 . Hosea 14 - 13:42 . Psalm 143 - 15:57 . Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them in order to love other gods. Therefore, in accordance with curses of the covenant he made with them at Sinai and for the sake of His holy name, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children and laments the calamity that will come upon them. With this love in mind, He promises that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Bible.facebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Hosea 8 - 1:11 . Hosea 9 - 3:53 . Hosea 10 - 8:36 . Hosea 11 - 12:06 . Hosea 12 - 15:45 . Hosea 13 - 18:14 . Hosea 14 - 21:29 . Psalm 109 - 23:50 . Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them and turning to love other gods. Therefore, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children, lamenting the calamity that will come upon them, promising that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Bobby Brown, Katelyn Pridgen, Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity: Life in Jesus the Messiah Hosea 14:1-9, Romans 6:19-23, & St. Mark 8:1-9 by William Klock Hosea—these days we call him the Prophet Hosea, but then he was just Hosea, although not for long—Hosea lived in the midst of a wicked and idolatrous people.  God's people had been split since the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Judah in the South and the Kingdom of Israel in the north.  Judah had its own problems with wickedness and idolatry, but compared to Israel Judah was a downright goody-two-shoes.  Hosea could walk through the city and see it all: drunkenness and sexual impurity of all kinds.  People mutilated their bodies and took their own sisters as wives.  Everywhere there was a general disregard for torah.  And the King.  Those were politically turbulent days, but instead of trusting in the Lord, the King made forbidden alliances with pagan nations and played the game of international politics and intrigue.  But worst of all was the idolatry.  There was a temple to the Lord at Bethel and another at Dan (and that was a problem in itself), but all over Israel, whether in the towns and cities or at the “high places” out in the country, there were temples and altars to Baal and to his consort, Asherah.  The Levites at Bethel and Dan went through the motions of worshipping the Lord, but as Hosea looked around him it seemed most people had devoted themselves to this pagan sky god and his fertility goddess wife.  Sacred prostitutes spilled out of the temples and into the street, enticing the Lord's people to what should have been unthinkable.  To Hosea it seemed like just about everyone in Israel, from the King down to the labourer in the market, had forgotten who they were and to whom they belonged.  They were the people who lived with the Lord in their midst.  They were the people chosen and called to show the nations the greatness of the God of Israel.  But no one cared about that anymore.  There was little difference anymore between an Israelite and an Assyrian or a Phoenician.  And to those pagans, the God of Israel was a joke—powerless, jilted by his own people, no one to be feared. And then the Lord spoke to Hosea.  And the Lord told him to go and find one of those prostitutes spilling out of the pagan temples, to take her, and to marry her.  He wasn't just going to give Hosea a sermon to preach; he was going to make Hosea himself an object lesson.  “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). Hosea's life was to become a graphic reminder to the people of Israel that when the Lord had rescued them from Egypt, he had made her his people, the way a husband takes a bride.  He had loved her.  He had cared for her.  He had lavished good gifts on her.  And in return she had prostituted herself to other gods and forsaken his house.  In the same way, Hosea loved his wife, Gomer.  But repeatedly she abandoned him for other men and for her former life of prostitution.  Repeatedly Hosea went after her, buying her out of her bondage, restoring her to his house and to his loving care.  And in between he preached to Israel, reminding them of the Lord's love and the Lord's care and of the Lord's faithfulness.  In between he preached to Israel and called her to repentance—to turn aside from the Baals and the Asherahs and to return to her first love, to return to the Lord.  To remember who she was and to whom she belonged. Through Hosea the Lord warned the people that their betrayal would be costly, but he also reminded them of his love for them and of his faithfulness.  And he made them a promise.  We read part of that call and promise as our Old Testament lesson this morning.  Hosea 14:1-9. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,          for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words          and return to the Lord; say to him,          “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good,          and we will pay with bulls          the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us;          we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,'          to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” I will heal their apostasy;          I will love them freely,          for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel;          he shall blossom like the lily;          he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out;          his beauty shall be like the olive,          and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;          they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine;          their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?          It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress;          from me comes your fruit. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;          whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right,          and the upright walk in them,          but transgressors stumble in them.   The Lord called his people to repent, to turn aside from their idolatry, but he also promised that one way or another, he would heal their apostasy.  He will make them the people he chose and called them to be—his witnesses to the nations. This week I've been working on restoring an antique camp stove I've had around for a while.  It's not a run-of-the-mill stove and I'd been delaying because I was having trouble finding a paint that matched the original colour.  But last weekend I found a perfect match at the auto parts store.  It was expensive automotive paint—not the cheap stuff they sell at Home Depot or Canadian Tire—but since it's kind of a special project I decided to go for it.  And it started out okay.  I sprayed the paint and the colour was pretty much perfect, but the colour itself was pretty thin.  They say to shake the can for one minute after the little mixing ball rattles.  I warmed the can a bit and shook it for ten minutes, thinking that maybe they'd been on the shelf for a while and the pigment had really settled in the bottom.  No change.  I started wondering if the cans were short on pigment or something.  What I managed to paint looked great, but it took a lot more paint than expected, so I ran out.  I went back to the store for another expensive can, got home, shook it like crazy for ten minutes just to be sure.  And I started spraying.  And this can was full of colour.  But the first thing I noticed was that it wasn't quite the same colour.  And then I noticed that it wasn't laying down smooth.  No matter what I did, it left a rough and blotchy texture on the surface.  And, of course, to get the colours to match, I had to spray the new paint over everything I'd already painted with the old paint. And as I sat there looking at this mess of a project, I got discouraged and frustrated.  I'd invested a lot in that paint and had high hopes for what it would look like and in the end it failed me.  It didn't do what it was supposed to do.  And it got me thinking about Hosea and Gomer and the Lord and Israel.  I invested in some cans of paint.  The Lord invested in a whole people.  I expected that paint to make an antique stove look good and to show off my handiwork.  The Lord expected Israel to show his goodness and glory to the nations.  I thought about giving up on that paint—throwing the stove back into the electrolysis tank and stripping it back to metal and starting over.  But that's not what the Lord did with his people and it wasn't what I was going to do with that paint.  A sent photos to a friend who used to work painting cars and he said, “Clear coat covers a multitude of sins.”  He's right.  So I sat down with those stove parts and some water and some fine-grit sandpaper, and I spent hours wet-sanding.  I sanded and sanded until the paint was smooth and my hands were stained green.  And when I was done it looked awful.  It was smooth, but it cloudy and swirly and covered in fine scratches.  But it was ready.  All it took was one can of clear coat and a few minutes of spraying.  Clear coat covers a multitude of sins.  It fills in the fine scratches and imperfections and somehow it always comes out with a smooth, glossy finish.  It never fails.  The next evening I put everything together on the workbench and it looked great.  You'd never know what a mess it had been except for all the green under my fingernails. And because I'm a preacher and the story of the God of Israel and his people is always on my brain, I thought about my friend's joke about clear coat covering a multitude of sins (He's not a Christian and had no idea the source of the phrase, but I hope maybe he'll hear this and good things will come of it!) and then I went for a bike ride and the whole time I was thinking about how similar clear coat is to Jesus and the Spirit.  I know on some level there's a heresy in there, but that's the problem with every analogy and I wasn't taking it that deep.  That expensive green automotive paint was Israel.  The Lord bought her out of Egypt, delivered her from Pharoah, and displayed to her and to the rest of the world his goodness and generosity in—at least a little bit—the same way I bought those cans of paint and showed the people, or at least the cashier at Lordco, the depth of my pockets.  And as the Lord set Israel to work to be a witness to his glory, I started spraying that paint to be a witness to my own handiwork—to photograph and post to the lantern and stove collectors' forum on the Internet and on YouTube—to the great acclaim of my fellow collectors.  And just like Israel, that paint failed to perform.  It didn't meet my expectations.  It made me look incompetent.  If I'd posted photos on the Internet without explanation, people would have mocked me for the sake of that paint that wouldn't do what it was supposed to do.  Not so unlike the nations that mocked the Lord, the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of his people—although certainly with far greater consequences.  And the sanding.  The hours and hours of sanding, scuffing up, knocking down, smoothing out that paint that just would not behave.  And not unlike Israel, even when I was done and everything was ready, it still looked awful—not at all what I expected.  The Internet would have mocked me even more if they'd seen it and thought that was the finished project.  But then the clear coat that covers a multitude of sins—at least in my own mind, so much like Jesus the Messiah, God himself, sent to be the faithful Israelite.  To give his life for the sake of their sins, his shed blood—dare I say—like the clear coat, filling in all the scuffs and scratches to the point you'd never know just how unfaithful that paint—or Israel—had been to its purpose and mission.  And then that gloss it leaves behind.  Even if that expensive paint had done everything it was supposed to do, even it went down flawlessly, it would never have look as perfect and as glossy as that damaged, roughed-up paint looked after it was clear-coated.  Kind of like the people of God.  Even if she'd kept the torah, a people with the divinely given law carved on stone tablets will never show forth the glory of the Lord the way a people filled with his own Spirit will show forth his glory. And so I took some photos and I posted them in the lantern and stove collectors' forum and the likes and the comments with glowing praise started rolling in.  Brothers and Sisters, that what's supposed to happen with the nations, when the world see the handiwork of the God of Israel, the work of Jesus and the Spirit, in his people.  That's why you and I are here today.  Because God disciplined and renewed his people by his Son and by his Spirit and that new people became witnesses of his glory.  In their story the nations saw the faithfulness of God and through their proclamation they heard how it was done through Jesus the Messiah and God's own Spirit.  And they came and gave him glory and believed in Jesus and that divine clear coat covered them just the way it had Israel, and they became—and eventually you and I became—part of the people of God and part of that community meant to continually witness his glory. And yet somehow, despite all that the Lord has done for us, we still need to be reminded who we are, to whom we belong, and what he's called us to do and to be.  Last week we heard Paul's words from Romans 6, reminding us of our baptism.  In the waters of baptism, he writes, we have died and risen with the Messiah.  We're like Israel, passing through the Red Sea.  When she went in, she belonged to Pharoah, slaves to the Egyptians, but when she came out the other side she belonged to the Lord, free to serve him in his goodness, his bride and a beloved member of his household.  In today's Epistle, Paul carries on a few verses later, again, Romans 6:19-23. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.    For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.   But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.   Remember that Paul was writing to an audience that was mostly Jewish or at least steeped in the Jewish scriptures and in the Jewish identity.  When Paul wrote about slavery and freedom, the first thing that came to mind was the Lord's deliverance of Israel from her slavery in Egypt.  There had been a time when their ancestors had no choice but to obey the will of Pharaoh.  But as Moses led them through the Red Sea delivered them from that bondage, so Jesus has led us through the waters of baptism and delivered us from our bondage to sin. That doesn't mean that the life we have in Jesus is always easy.  The Lord led Israel through the wilderness before taking her into the promised land and Jesus leads us through a wilderness of our own on our way to the age to come.  He promised that his disciples would be rejected—some would even die—on account of him.  We live in the overlap of the ages, but the Lord has a purpose in that.  We, his church, are his means of proclaiming the good news about Jesus and we are witnesses of his glory to the world so that the nations will believe and give him glory.  When it's finished, I'll post my finished stove project to the Internet and everyone will like the photos and post comments giving me praise for what I've done.  Do you ever stop to think that the Lord is, right now, doing the same sort of thing with us?  He's bought us with the blood of his Son, he's washed away our sins, and he's filled us with his Spirit, regenerating our hearts and renewing our minds.  He's made us new creations and he's sent us out into the world and the world is supposed to see his new creation in us and glorify him and believe.  When the world looks at the Church, it's supposed to see, to have a foretaste, of God's new creation and of the age to come in which all the pain and sorrow and sin and tears—even death itself—have been wiped away and everything set to rights. Before Jesus washed us clean and filled us with the Spirit we were slaves to sin and sin leads to death and we see it all around us.  It's the way of this fallen world.  But in Jesus and the Spirit the Lord has set us free, in Jesus and the Spirit he is sanctifying us—that means he's making us holy, making us into the people he intends for us to be—stripping away the old, worn paint and the rust, cleaning off the grime, sanding and prepping, painting and sanding and painting and sanding and clear-coating and all of that until his handiwork is perfect and holy and fully witnesses his glory—and causes the whole world to take note and not just to like and comment, but to come to him in faith to worship and to praise.  And one day the Church will be everything he's working to make it and one day we will have proclaimed the good news about Jesus everywhere, and then every enemy will be defeated and this in between time will finally come to an end as the age to come finally arrives in all its fullness—like Christmas when all the decorations are finally up and the tree is in the living room and the presents are ready to be opened and the turkey's on the table. In the meantime, in this overlap of the ages, Brothers and Sisters, we need to remember who we are and to whom we belong.  We need to remember the hope that lies before us.  Even having been washed by Jesus and filled with the Spirit, the false gods of the world and the lusts of the flesh can be tempting.  Like Gomer, leaving her loving husband and returning to her old life of prostitution.  Like the Israelites in the wilderness.  We grumble.  And our bellies grumble and we think back with longing on the fleshpots of Egypt, forgetting that in Egypt we were slaves to sin and subject to death.  Brothers and Sisters, look around—or as Paul wrote in last week's Epistle, “consider”, “reckon”, look around you, look where you've come from and do the math.  The presents may still be in the attic and the turkey may still be in the oven, but thanks to Jesus and the Spirit all the signs are there.  The Christmas lights are up, there are ornaments on the tree, and we can smell the turkey roasting.  Trust him.  Everything about the story shouts at us that the Lord is faithful and fulfils his promises and so we know that Jesus will finish what he has started.  And if the Gospel lesson today tells us anything, it's that the Lord will always look after his people in the wilderness.  He fed Israel with manna from heaven.  He fed the multitude with seven loaves and a few small fish.  Brothers and Sisters, come to his Tablet his morning, eat the bread and drink the wine, and remember that he will feed us too.  Here he reminds us what he's done for us through the death of his Son and the gift of his Spirit.  Here he reminds us who we are, of the family to which we belong, and of our hope—where we're headed.  Here he lovingly feeds and clothes us, so that the world might see his faithfulness and give him glory. Let's pray: Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things:  Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Hosea 10 - 1:04 . Hosea 11 - 4:37 . Hosea 12 - 8:13 . Hosea 13 - 10:32 . Hosea 14 - 13:42 . Psalm 143 - 15:57 . Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them in order to love other gods. Therefore, in accordance with curses of the covenant he made with them at Sinai and for the sake of His holy name, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children and laments the calamity that will come upon them. With this love in mind, He promises that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Bible.facebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Hosea 8 - 1:11 . Hosea 9 - 3:53 . Hosea 10 - 8:36 . Hosea 11 - 12:06 . Hosea 12 - 15:45 . Hosea 13 - 18:14 . Hosea 14 - 21:29 . Psalm 109 - 23:50 . Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them and turning to love other gods. Therefore, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children, lamenting the calamity that will come upon them, promising that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Bobby Brown, Katelyn Rahn, Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity Romans 6:19-23 & St. Mark 8:1-9 by William Klock The Old Testament prophet Hosea called Israel back to the Lord.  The people had turned their backs on him, they were worshipping idols, and even offering their children as sacrifices on the altars of pagan gods.  Instead of trusting the Lord to take care of them as he had promised, they had thrown themselves into the game of geopolitics and had put their trust in horses and chariots and made alliances with their pagan neighbours—all things that the Lord had forbidden.  Through Hosea, the Lord call his covenant people back to himself.  He did it by turning Hosea's life into a series of living object lessons, the best known of which took place when the Lord told Hosea to take a prostitute named Gomer for his wife.  Repeatedly Gomer left him, going back to her life of prostitution, and repeatedly and lovingly, Hosea sought her out, bought her out of her slavery, and brought her back to his home to be his wife. People thought Hosea was crazy.  What kind of idiot would take a prostitute for his wife and keep buying her back out of that life as she was continually unfaithful to him?  But through the prophet the Lord eventually says to them, “I'm that ‘idiot' and you're the prostitute!  I brought you out of Egypt, I loved you and fed you in the wilderness, I conquered the Canaanites for you and gave you homes that you didn't build and an abundant harvest that you didn't plant, and yet you continually turn your back on me and play the harlot with false gods and with the nations of the world.”  And having given them that dramatic object lessons, Hosea calls the people back to their God: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept that which is good and we will pay with bulls the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,' to the work of our hands.  (Hosea 14:1-3) Israel continued to struggle to be faithful to the Lord.  That's why Jesus came.  Israel's God, himself, taking on human flesh and being born of Mary.  He humbled himself, becoming one of his own people.  And as if that wasn't enough, he was despised, rejected, and killed.  But in that, as the perfect Israelite, Jesus took on himself the death that Israel deserved.  He brought a means of forgiveness, a means of restoration, and in his resurrection he brought a means and a promise of life to people who were dead.  And each of us, though Gentiles, have been called into the redeemed life of Israel through Jesus.  Our God is a god who gives his life out of love for his people—the very people who reject and despise and rebel against him. And yet even as Jesus' people, given his life and his Spirit, how often are we like Hosea's wife Gomer?  How often do we turn our backs on the Lord?  Consider our priorities in life.  All too often we put everything else first, and feel good about ourselves if we're willing to give him an hour or two on Sunday morning and maybe a few minutes of prayer during the week.  Instead of devoting our time, our talents, and our treasures to the one who gave them to us, we squander them on the things of the world.  We profess with our mouths that Jesus is our Saviour and Lord, but we fail to put our trust in him and instead trust in the ways and systems of the world for our security.  Through the prophets the Lord condemned his people for their false view of worship.  They thought that they could live their lives however they wanted as long as they came to the temple to offer the Lord the sacrifices he required—even thinking they could worship other gods on the side.  Jesus paraphrased God's response to that when he told the people, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”  True worship involves our whole selves given over to God for his use all of the time. Think about the vow we took or that our parents took for us when we were baptized.  The priest asked: “Do you renounce the devil and all his works, the empty display and false values of the world, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that you will not follow them and be led by them?”  In our Baptism we renounce the powers of the present evil age and we take hold of Jesus and the new age he has ushered in.  In our Baptism we are consecrated to the Lord.   But what does it mean to be consecrated to something or someone?  Notice that in our baptismal vows we don't promise to renounce the world the flesh and the devil when it's convenient or when it doesn't cut into our own plans or our own enjoyment or sense of security.  In our vows we give ourselves over to the Lord entirely.  We put ourselves firmly in his kingdom and renounce everything that stands opposed to it.  Like the Israelites, we've been called by the Lord to a new life.  They were slaves to the Egyptians and he brought them to a new life of freedom.  We were slaves to sin and he does the same for us spiritually.  Look at Romans 6:19-22.  St. Paul says: I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.    For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.   But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.   When it came to conveying the depth of our total devotion, first to sin and then as redeemed men and women to Jesus, Paul chose to compare it to slavery. A slave is literally owned by his master and is expected to be totally devoted to him in body and soul.  For Paul, to serve Jesus was everything—it was his life.  Remember that a slave's life belonged to his master, and so while the analogy isn't perfect—the negative side of slavery isn't what Paul has in view here—it illustrates the level of devotion that the Christian has to God.  He has bought us out of slavery with the blood of his Son, and we serve him; not out of fear or slavish obligation, but out of gratitude for what he has done for us.  Think again of Israel, delivered from her Egyptian slavery to be the Lord's people.  There's no way we can pay him back for his sacrifice, but we do the best we can and he gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to do more than we can ever do on our own. At one time each of us was a slave to sin.  That's a point where all the negative connotations of slavery are appropriate.  Oddly enough, though, when we were slaves to sin most of us didn't really see the negative side of it.  Read some 19th Century American history and you'll read about slaves that ran away from their masters.  They didn't want to live that miserable life.  But before Jesus found us, how many of us tried to run away from the master of sin?  We were slaves to sin and we enjoyed it.  Like the drug addict who is a slave to his drugs that get him high, all the time ignoring the harm the drugs do to his body and mind and the life of crime those drugs often lead him to, the sinner is slave to the momentary pleasures of sin, oblivious to or ignoring the deathly consequences of that sin.  In our natural and fallen state each of us is a slave to sin.  We have absolutely no desire to get away from it and no way to master its temptations if we did want to get away, and so we serve it body and soul. By contrast, as redeemed men and women we are called to serve the Lord with the same level of commitment we used to have to sin.  We used to seek sin out.  We left no stone unturned in a search for pleasure and gratification.  Brothers and Sisters, we need to put at least the same amount of effort into serving Jesus that we used to put into serving sin.  Where our wills were once submitted to unrighteousness, we are now to submit them totally to righteousness.  That's the total consecration that has its beginning in our baptismal vows. And note that there's no middle state and there's no compromising. You can't say you're no longer a slave to sin and at the same time not be a slave to righteousness.  Just like a real slave, God bought us from our old master, sin, with the blood of Jesus, who has become our new master.  In a very real sense we've gone from one form of slavery to another.  It's not uncommon to hear people refer to someone as a “carnal Christian”—someone who professes to have made Jesus his Saviour and Lord, but doesn't really live out that faith.  St. Paul doesn't leave any room for someone like that.  Either you're a slave to sin and serve the world, the flesh, and the devil, or you're a slave to Jesus, serving him with body and soul.  St. James reminds us that faith without works is a dead faith.  You can't be a Christian, you can't have experienced the amazing grace of God in your life, and at the same time not be wholly driven to serve Jesus with everything you've got! Do you ever notice how non-Christians usually don't want to have anything to do with Jesus?  I know a lot of people who take a big interest in God, but they don't want to talk about Jesus unless it's their own distorted version of him.  A distant and non-interfering God is okay, but a Saviour who comes into our lives and calls us to account makes people uncomfortable.  This is why churches that teach pop-psychology and self-help, that affirm people in their sin or in their spiritual immaturity, and that don't hold their members accountable are often so popular.  Nobody likes to be convicted of sin.  We'd rather have a religion that makes us feel warm and fuzzy and comfortable.  St. Paul makes the point that the problem isn't that man doesn't want God—what we don't want, he says, is Jesus.  We want God and the good things he has to offer, but on our own terms.  Jesus, however, reminds us that we are sinners and can only come to God on his terms—that we have to give up our sin and acknowledge his lordship.  Paul tells us that when we were ruled by sin, we didn't want to have anything to do with Jesus—he only convicted us of our sin.  Our redemption flips things: now that Jesus rules us, he must be our master and we should have no desire for sin. St. Paul's slavery analogy drives home the absoluteness of our duty under Jesus.  Some translations render the word as “servant.”  That misses the point of the absoluteness of what St. Paul is saying.  We are to have a total devotion.  Our love for our master changes our desire.  How much of a chore is it to sin?  In our natural state we love to sin.  Our desire to serve Jesus should be like that.  Serving him isn't a chore, it's a pleasure because we love him. If we go on and look at verses 22 to 23, Paul shows us the contrast made between the wages of sin and the wages of Christ: But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:22-23) Sin may give us pleasure today, but it only has one end.  The only place it ultimately takes anyone is death.  Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve living in the presence of the Lord, their Creator, and under the branches of the tree of life.  They were made of dust, the point being that they were mortal creatures.  But he brought those two mortal creatures into his presence and in the presence of the Lord is life.  In choosing to sin, in choosing to rebel against their creator, Adam and Eve chose to be outside his presence.  They chose mortality, they chose death over life.  Brother and Sisters, God is the source of life and each and every sin we commit widens the gulf that stands between him and us.  Each sin takes us further away from the life found only in God's presence. In contrast, in return for serving Jesus we are daily brought closer and closer to God's life.  I think a lot of Christians sit around and passively wait for the life of eternity.  A lot of Christians look at the problems of the world around us and take an escapist attitude.  We want out.  “Come, Lord Jesus!”  And yet too often in just looking for escape, we miss out on the life that God gives us right now.  When we're grafted into his vine we start bearing fruit—that's his life manifested in us right now.  Sin has its own fruit, but it's like a cancer that gradually kills the vine.  God, on the other hand, nourishes us and makes us grow.  That's the sanctification that St. Paul writes about—it's the journey we take as we travel the road to eternal life, each day getting closer and closer to God. Paul also notes that God's gift of eternal life is free.  It's free because the life of the Christian isn't the result of his own goodness—it's in spite of his sinfulness.  Every one of us has earned the deathly wages of sin—it only takes one time, one sin.  Each of us deserves death, but life in God can never be deserved or earned.  It's God's gift.  And as we follow our new master we will find his sustaining grace will grow; our yoke will become easier, our burden will become lighter, our peace will become deeper, and our hope will become more and more assured. Our Gospel lesson gives us the assurance we need as we put on Jesus' yoke and carry the burden he's given us.  In our lesson today we read St. Mark's account of Jesus' multiplication of the loaves and fishes for the crowd that had gathered to hear him preach. Jesus expects us to follow him just like those people followed him into the country where there was nothing to eat.  He didn't cut his sermon short thinking, “Hmm, some of these people came a long way and I'd better let them go early so they can go home to dinner.”  He preached for three days.  But all the time he understood what they'd given up to be there.  He said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away. (Mark 8:2-3) Jesus demands our all, but in return he gives us all the grace we need to follow him.  When he calls us to seek him first, he knows what we've left behind to follow him.  He knows how far we've travelled to be with him and to sit at his feet.  As he cared for the Israelites in the wilderness, he will take care of us too.  The Gospels tell this story more than once, and each time they tell us how everyone ate until he was satisfied and that there were still plenty of leftovers.  God isn't stingy with his blessings.  These accounts of his generosity ought to confirm our faith in him. Brothers and sisters, God has promised this all along.  Go back to our Old Testament lesson from Hosea.  This is what he promises in verses 4-8: I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.  They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. (Hosea 14:4-8) It's easy to be wholly devoted to Jesus and to stay away from sin when we're surrounded by our brothers and sisters as we worship the Lord on Sunday morning.  But when we step out of the church door and into the world it's not always easy to take that little pocket of the Kingdom of God with us.  God's promise to us is that he will give us the grace necessary to follow him—and we know from what he's done in the past that he's never stingy with his grace.  Too often we foolishly go off into the world and try to “be good” on our own.  It doesn't work that way, because without the Lord's life sustaining us we have no life of our own.  We make the mistake of focusing on eternal life as a reward we'll get after we die.  Our hope lies in the life of the age to come, but Brothers and Sisters, life is also God's reward to the faithful every day, right here and right now in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus has pulled the life of the age to come into the present and he pours it into us in our Baptism.  All we have to do is take our collect for today and make it our daily prayer and our daily commitment: “Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of your Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and so by your mercy keep us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

Through Hosea, the Lord rebukes Israel and Judah for their unfaithfulness and calls them to repentance.

Hosea 10 - 1:04 . Hosea 11 - 4:37 . Hosea 12 - 8:13 . Hosea 13 - 10:32 . Hosea 14 - 13:42 . Psalm 143 - 15:57 . Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them in order to love other gods. Therefore, in accordance with curses of the covenant he made with them at Sinai and for the sake of His holy name, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children and laments the calamity that will come upon them. With this love in mind, He promises that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Bible.facebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Hosea 8 - 1:14 . Hosea 9 - 4:01 . Hosea 10 - 8:36 . Hosea 11 - 12:09 . Hosea 12 - 15:45 . Hosea 13 - 18:03 . Hosea 14 - 21:11 . Psalm 109 - 23:27 . Israel has taken the lavish blessings of their God and given those gifts to the calf idols of Baal, turning away from the covenant love of the God who redeemed them and turning to love other gods. Therefore, the Lord will discipline his people for their rebellion. Through Hosea, God remarks that he raised Israel like a father raises children, lamenting the calamity that will come upon them, promising that He will not release His full wrath upon them. The book of Hosea ends with a call to repentance. If God's people will turn back to Him, they will flourish once again.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Hosea The problem was that Israel did not know their God (Hosea 4:1) and so God tells a man named Hosea to marry a prostitute. Hosea marries her but she leaves him and commits adultery. Then God tells him to go after her and bring her back. Hosea's marriage is symbolic of God's covenant relationship with Israel. Through Hosea, the Lord tells the story of Israel's disobedience, His discipline, and His steadfast, faithful love. Joel When God was delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, He sent a plague of locusts on the Egyptians' crops. Hundreds of years later, He is judging His people with the same kind of plague for straying from Him. But God also sends His prophet Joel who explains to the people what the Lord wants from them: repentance.

Hosea The problem was that Israel did not know their God (Hosea 4:1) and so God tells a man named Hosea to marry a prostitute. Hosea marries her but she leaves him and commits adultery. Then God tells him to go after her and bring her back. Hosea's marriage is symbolic of God's covenant relationship with Israel. Through Hosea, the Lord tells the story of Israel's disobedience, His discipline, and His steadfast, faithful love. Joel When God was delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, He sent a plague of locusts on the Egyptians' crops. Hundreds of years later, He is judging His people with the same kind of plague for straying from Him. But God also sends His prophet Joel who explains to the people what the Lord wants from them: repentance.

Hosea The problem was that Israel did not know their God (Hosea 4:1) and so God tells a man named Hosea to marry a prostitute. Hosea marries her but she leaves him and commits adultery. Then God tells him to go after her and bring her back. Hosea's marriage is symbolic of God's covenant relationship with Israel. Through Hosea, the Lord tells the story of Israel's disobedience, His discipline, and His steadfast, faithful love. Joel When God was delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, He sent a plague of locusts on the Egyptians' crops. Hundreds of years later, He is judging His people with the same kind of plague for straying from Him. But God also sends His prophet Joel who explains to the people what the Lord wants from them: repentance.

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity Romans 6:19-23 & St. Mark 8:1-9 by William Klock The Old Testament prophet Hosea called Israel back to the Lord.  The people had turned their backs on him, they were worshipping idols, and even offering their children as sacrifices on the altars of pagan gods.  Instead of trusting the Lord to take care of them as he had promised, they had thrown themselves into the game of geopolitics and had put their trust in horses and chariots and made alliances with their pagan neighbours—all things that the Lord had forbidden.  Through Hosea, God call his covenant people back to himself.  He did it by turning Hosea's life into a series of living object lessons, the best known of which took place when God told Hosea to take a prostitute named Gomer for his wife.  Repeatedly Gomer left him, going back to her life of prostitution, and repeatedly and lovingly, Hosea sought her out, bought her out of her slavery, and brought her back to his home to be his wife. People thought Hosea was crazy.  What kind of idiot would take a prostitute for his wife and keep buying her back out of that life as she was continually unfaithful to him?  But through the prophet the Lord eventually says to them, “I'm that ‘idiot' and you're the prostitute!  I brought you out of Egypt, I loved you and fed you in the wilderness, I conquered the Canaanites for you and gave you homes that you didn't build and an abundant harvest that you didn't plant, and yet you continually turn your back on me and play the harlot with false Gods and with the nations of the world.”  And having given them that dramatic object lessons, Hosea calls the people back to their God: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept that which is good and we will pay with bulls the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,' to the work of our hands.  (Hosea 14:1-3) Israel continued to struggle to be faithful to the Lord.  That's why Jesus came.  Israel's God, himself, taking on human flesh and being born of Mary.  He humbled himself, becoming one of his own people.  And as if that wasn't enough, he was despised, rejected, and killed.  But in that, as the perfect Israelite, Jesus took on himself the death that Israel deserved.  He brought a means of forgiveness, a means of restoration, and in his resurrection he brought a means and a promise of life to people who were dead.  And each of us, though Gentiles, have been called into the redeemed life of Israel through Jesus.  Our God is a god who gives his life out of love for his people—the very people who reject and despise and rebel against him. And yet even as Jesus' people, given his life and his Spirit, how often are we like Hosea's wife Gomer?  How often do we turn our backs on the Lord?  Consider our priorities in life.  All too often we put everything else first, and feel good about ourselves if we're willing to give him an hour or two on Sunday morning and maybe a few minutes of prayer during the week.  Instead of devoting our time, our talents, and our treasures to the one who gave them to us, we squander them on the things of the world.  We profess with our mouths that Jesus is our Saviour and Lord, but we fail to put our trust in him and instead trust in the ways and systems of the world for our security.  Through the prophets the Lord condemned his people for their false view of worship.  They thought that they could live their lives however they wanted as long as they came to the temple to offer the Lord the sacrifices he required—even thinking they could worship other gods on the side.  Jesus paraphrased God's response to that when he told the people, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”  True worship involves our whole selves given over to God for his use all of the time. Think about the vow we took or that our parents took for us when we were baptized.  The priest asked: “Do you renounce the devil and all his works, the empty display and false values of the world, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that you will not follow them and be led by them?”  In our Baptism we renounce the powers of the present evil age and we take hold of Jesus and the new age he has ushered in.  In our Baptism we are consecrated to the Lord.   But what does it mean to be consecrated to something or someone?  Notice that in our baptismal vows we don't promise to renounce the world the flesh and the devil when it's convenient or when it doesn't cut into our own plans or our own enjoyment or sense of security.  In our vows we give ourselves over to the Lord entirely.  We put ourselves firmly in his kingdom and renounce everything that stands opposed to it.  Like the Israelites, we've been called by the Lord to a new life.  They were slaves to the Egyptians and he brought them to a new life of freedom.  We were slaves to sin and he does the same for us spiritually.  Look at Romans 6:19-22.  St. Paul says: I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.    For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.   But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.   When it came to conveying the depth of our total devotion, first to sin and then as redeemed men and women to Jesus, Paul chose to compare it to slavery. A slave is literally owned by his master and is expected to be totally devoted to him in body and soul.  For Paul, to serve Jesus was everything—it was his life.  Remember that a slave's life belonged to his master, and so while the analogy isn't perfect—the negative side of slavery isn't what Paul has in view here—it illustrates the level of devotion that the Christian has to God.  He has bought us out of slavery with the blood of his Son, and we serve him; not out of fear or slavish obligation, but out of gratitude for what he has done for us.  There's no way we can pay him back for his sacrifice, but we do the best we can and he gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to do more than we can ever do on our own. At one time each of us was a slave to sin.  That's a point where all the negative connotations of slavery are appropriate.  Oddly enough, though, when we were slaves to sin most of us didn't really see the negative side of it.  Read some 19th Century American history and you'll read about slaves that ran away from their masters.  They didn't want to live that miserable life.  But before Jesus found us, how many of us tried to run away from the master of sin?  We were slaves to sin and we enjoyed it.  Like the drug addict who is a slave to his drugs that get him high, all the time ignoring the harm the drugs do to his body and mind and the life of crime those drugs often lead him to, the sinner is slave to the momentary pleasures of sin, oblivious to or ignoring the deathly consequences of that sin.  In our natural and fallen state each of us is a slave to sin.  We have absolutely no desire to get away from it and no way to master its temptations if we did want to get away, and so we serve it body and soul. By contrast, as redeemed men and women we are called to serve the Lord with the same level of commitment we used to have to sin.  We used to seek sin out.  We left no stone unturned in a search for pleasure and gratification.  Brothers and Sisters, we need to put at least the same amount of effort into serving Jesus that we used to put into serving sin.  Where our wills were once submitted to unrighteousness, we are now to submit them totally to righteousness.  That's the total consecration that has its beginning in our baptismal vows. And note that there's no middle state and there's no compromising. You can't say you're no longer a slave to sin and at the same time not be a slave to righteousness.  Just like a real slave, God bought us from our old master, sin, with the blood of Jesus, who has become our new master.  In a very real sense we've gone from one form of slavery to another.  It's not uncommon to hear people refer to someone as a “carnal Christian”—someone who professes to have made Jesus his Saviour and Lord, but doesn't really live out that faith.  St. Paul doesn't leave any room for someone like that.  Either you're a slave to sin and serve the world, the flesh, and the devil, or you're a slave to Jesus, serving him with body and soul.  St. James reminds us that faith without works is a dead faith.  You can't be a Christian, you can't have experienced the amazing grace of God in your life, and at the same time not be wholly driven to serve Jesus with everything you've got! Do you ever notice how non-Christians usually don't want to have anything to do with Jesus?  I know a lot of people who take a big interest in God, but they don't want to talk about Jesus unless it's their own distorted version of him.  A distant and non-interfering God is okay, but a Saviour who comes into our lives and calls us to account makes people uncomfortable.  This is why churches that teach pop-psychology and self-help, that affirm people in their sin or in their spiritual immaturity, and that don't hold their members accountable are often so popular.  Nobody likes to be convicted of sin.  We'd rather have a religion that makes us feel warm and fuzzy and comfortable.  St. Paul makes the point that the problem isn't that man doesn't want God—what we don't want, he says, is Jesus.  We want God and the good things he has to offer, but on our own terms.  Jesus, however, reminds us that we are sinners and can only come to God on his terms—that we have to give up our sin and acknowledge his lordship.  Paul tells us that when we were ruled by sin, we didn't want to have anything to do with Jesus—he only convicted us of our sin.  Our redemption flips things: now that Jesus rules us, he must be our master and we should have no desire for sin. St. Paul's slavery analogy drives home the absoluteness of our duty under Jesus.  Some translations render the word as “servant.”  That misses the point of the absoluteness of what St. Paul is saying.  We are to have a total devotion.  Our love for our master changes our desire.  How much of a chore is it to sin?  In our natural state we love to sin.  Our desire to serve Jesus should be like that.  Serving him isn't a chore, it's a pleasure because we love him. If we go on and look at verses 22 to 23, Paul shows us the contrast made between the wages of sin and the wages of Christ: But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:22-23) Sin may give us pleasure today, but it only has one end.  The only place it ultimately takes anyone is death.  Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve living in the presence of the Lord, their Creator, and under the branches of the tree of life.  They were made of dust, the point being that they were mortal creatures.  But he brought those two mortal creatures into his presence and in the presence of the Lord is life.  In choosing to sin, in choosing to rebel against their creator, Adam and Eve chose to be outside his presence.  They chose mortality, they chose death over life.  Brother and Sisters, God is the source of life and each and every sin we commit widens the gulf that stands between him and us.  Each sin takes us further away from the life found only in God's presence. In contrast, in return for serving Jesus we are daily brought closer and closer to God's life.  I think a lot of Christians sit around and passively wait for the life of eternity.  A lot of Christians look at the problems of the world around us and take an escapist attitude.  We want out.  “Come, Lord Jesus!”  And yet too often in just looking for escape, we miss out on the life that God gives us right now.  When we're grafted into his vine we start bearing fruit—that's his life manifested in us right now.  Sin has its own fruit, but it's like a cancer that gradually kills the vine.  God, on the other hand, nourishes us and makes us grow.  That's the sanctification that St. Paul writes about—it's the journey we take as we travel the road to eternal life, each day getting closer and closer to God. Paul also notes that God's gift of eternal life is free.  It's free because the life of the Christian isn't the result of his own goodness—it's in spite of his sinfulness.  Every one of us has earned the deathly wages of sin—it only takes one time, one sin.  Each of us deserves death, but life in God can never be deserved or earned.  It's God's gift.  And as we follow our new master we will find his sustaining grace will grow; our yoke will become easier, our burden will become lighter, our peace will become deeper, and our hope will become more and more assured. Our Gospel lesson gives us the assurance we need as we put on Jesus' yoke and carry the burden he's given us.  In our lesson today we read St. Mark's account of Jesus' multiplication of the loaves and fishes for the crowd that had gathered to hear him preach. Jesus expects us to follow him just like those people followed him into the country where there was nothing to eat.  He didn't cut his sermon short thinking, “Hmm, some of these people came a long way and I'd better let them go early so they can go home to dinner.”  He preached for three days.  But all the time he understood what they'd given up to be there.  He said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away. (Mark 8:2-3) Jesus demands our all, but in return he gives us all the grace we need to follow him.  When he calls us to seek him first, he knows what we've left behind to follow him.  He knows how far we've travelled to be with him and to sit at his feet.  As he cared for the Israelites in the wilderness, he will take care of us too.  The Gospels tell this story more than once, and each time they tell us how everyone ate until he was satisfied and that there were still plenty of leftovers.  God isn't stingy with his blessings.  These accounts of his generosity ought to confirm our faith in him. Brothers and sisters, God has promised this all along.  Go back to our Old Testament lesson from Hosea.  This is what he promises in verses 4-8: I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.  They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. (Hosea 14:4-8) It's easy to be wholly devoted to Jesus and to stay away from sin when we're surrounded by our brothers and sisters as we worship the Lord on Sunday morning.  But when we step out of the church door and into the world it's not always easy to take that little pocket of the Kingdom of God with us.  God's promise to us is that he will give us the grace necessary to follow him—and we know from what he's done in the past that he's never stingy with his grace.  Too often we foolishly go off into the world and try to “be good” on our own.  It doesn't work that way, because without the Lord's life sustaining us we have no life of our own.  We make the mistake of focusing on eternal life as a reward we'll get after we die.  Our hope lies in the life of the age to come, but Brothers and Sisters, life is also God's reward to the faithful every day, right here and right now in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus has pulled the life of the age to come into the present and he pours it into us in our Baptism.  All we have to do is take our collect for today and make it our daily prayer and our daily commitment: “Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of your Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and so by your mercy keep us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

Cross TrainingDevelop a Deeper Relationship with GodRead or WatchTony Hawk — the most famous professional skateboarder on the planet — loves to tweet about how often he's unrecognized or mistaken for someone else. Some people confuse him for Lance Armstrong, Tom Brady, or even Tony Stark. Even when he reveals his name, some folks say, "Oh, like the skateboarder? I wonder what he's up to these days." How embarrassing! I'm sure some days he'd love to say, "Don't you know who I am?" rather than flying under the radar. But that's a minor slight compared to the lack of recognition given to the Creator of all we see and enjoy. We're Cross Training to develop our reverence, one of twelve marks of the Master we're working on this year. Reverence comes when we know God, fear him, worship him, and live in holiness. But how can humans know God?What You Need to KnowWhen we talk about knowing someone, we usually have two different things in mind. First, we know information. The better you know someone, the more you know about them. In the same way, to know God is to know who he is, to understand his character, attributes, and desires (cf. Jer. 9:24). But we also have a relationship with those we know. You can understand a little about someone (like Tony Hawk!) and not even recognize them when you see them face to face. Job had heard a lot about God "by the hearing of the ear," but in his encounter with God, he humbled himself and repented (Job 42:5-6). Through Hosea, God exposed his people's lack of knowledge about God (Hos. 4:6). But God's goal was to know his people like a husband knows his bride (Hos. 2:19-23; cf. Hos. 6:6).If we open our hearts, we can look around at creation and recognize the hand of almighty God (Rom. 1:19-20). Of course, observation can't teach us everything, but it should give us a sense of awe at his goodness and power, leaving us wanting to know him more. Do you acknowledge and seek God, or are you among the indifferent? "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Rom. 1:21). If we seek God, we'll come to know him — not by our wisdom, but by believing what he reveals about himself. He reveals himself in his word: "For ... the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). But we see God the clearest through Jesus, God the Son (Heb. 1:1-3). Jesus said, "He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me" (John 7:28-29). Jesus came so that we can live forever. "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3). To know Jesus is to know God and to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). What You Need to DoTo contemplate God is to give the mind and heart its highest occupation. Cultivate an adoring interest in who God is. With each passage you read, ask, "who is God?" Meditate on his works (Psalm 143:5). Find comfort at night in his goodness. As David said, "On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night" (Psalm 63:6). And when you learn something about God, imitate it. To see God's face is to be transformed by it (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). Don't live like those who "profess to know God, but ... deny him by their works" (Titus 1:16). To know God is to love like God (1 John 4:7-12) and pursue his holiness (1 Peter 1:14-17).Always remember that you are God's, and he is yours (Heb. 8:10-12). It's the bedrock foundation of your identity now. Holding onto this relationship, we'll never fall (2 Peter 1:3-8). For "now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back" (Gal. 4:9). What a "firm foundation" — even in unsteady days — to remember that "The Lord knows those who are his" (2 Tim. 2:19). Through the WeekRead (Mon) — Matt. 6:6-13; Jer. 31:31-34; Hos. 4:1-6; Prov. 2:1-8; 1 John 4:7-12Reflect (Tue) — How close is my relationship with God?Request (Wed) — "Lord, may I come to know you better each day" (cf. 2 Pet. 3:18). Respond (Thu) — Stay up late or wake up early to meditate on God's steadfast love for you.Reach Out (Fri) — What attribute of God do you most want to emulate?Support the Show

Through Hosea’s story, God shows us our story. He endlessly pursues His sinful people with His unfailing grace. But God pursues His people in surprising ways–by exposing their sin and by revoking His blessings. Yet all of this serves to call His people to repentance so that He can restore us. This sermon was preached […]

In this sermon, we looked at how God called Hosea to do something that seemed completely ridiculous in order to display God’s love toward His people. Through Hosea and Gomer’s story, God reveals what happens when His people pursue idols as a source of abundant life. God warns Israel that if they continue cheating on Him with other gods, they will no longer be His people. However, we also see that God will not keep His unfaithful wife (the Church) at a distance or withhold Himself from her, but sacrificially buys her back, alluring her into the safety of His arms, completely restoring her as His bride. Even today, we may desire God's authority over our lives but often turn our focus towards other gods, inviting them in under the assumption that they will make us happy. Through Hosea, God calls us to drop our false gods and turn back to Him, promising to accept us again as His radiant bride.

A Right Heart Podcast is a life-changing tool to be used as a guide for worship and meditation on God. This is an intentional focus on who God is declared to be in the book of Hosea. Through Hosea he declared HIS character of faithfulness, and through Gomer HIS character of a pursuing and forgiving God who restores the broken. He showed HIS patience and that He is a dependable Promise Keeper. Meditation on God settles us in the truth of who God is and gives us insight into His character.

A Right Heart Podcast is a life changing tool to be used as a guide for worship and meditation on God. Even when Gomer chose to be unfaithful and ran away, God instructed Hosea to go after her and show her unconditional love. It is selfless, forgiving, undeserved and merciful. Through Hosea we see the character of God, who is so good. He sees and knows all and desires us anyways. Meditation on God allows us to understand and be secure in the fact that He is the source and giver of perfect love.