A WHOLE MAN

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”  Hosea 6:6  The book of Hosea is a very odd book when you consider it in the scope of the prophetic writings. In all of the other prophetic works, you find what you expect to find, prophetic pronouncements. But in Hosea, it is more of an autobiography which serves as a metaphor for the relationship between God and His people. And although Hosea does have many utterances from God in it, they are reinforced by the love that Hosea has for an adulterous wife. Hosea was a prophet of God for about 40 years (1:1) in the Northern Kingdom, but did have some words for the Southern Kingdom (1:7, 5:2, 7:1). There are several themes in this book, and I will just highlight three of them here: Indictment, Instruction, and Hope. The people of God had turned away from God and were living very wickedly. They had rejected God’s law and covenant (4:1), acted in idolatrous practices (11:2), and plac...

Recommended Reading: Chapter 2 (17 pages) Key Quotes: Chapter 2 "One group of theologians will talk about God's love as universal, undiscriminating, and unconditional, but at the core we find man-centeredness. Another group will talk about God's love as God centered, and that's where the offense lies." (43) On Defining and Displaying God's Love: "A God-centered view of love combines both desire and gift. We most desire God, and we give God…A God-centered love draws lines between whoever loves God and whoever does not. " (47, 48) On Agape-only love: "Here's the problem: repentance, holiness, and right belief are eventually cast to the side with agape-only love. Such love softens or even dissolves doctrinal, ethical, and church boundaries…Think about it: what can I do if I want to call myself a Christian but also accommodate the culture's moral drift, particularly in matters of sexuality and family? Easy: I define God's love as ...

He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  Luke 20:25  Perhaps you have heard the saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Possibly, no greater example of this can be seen in the many confrontations Jesus faced than here in the 20th chapter of Luke. It is in this chapter where we read the religious leaders teaming up to challenge Jesus with the goal of discrediting him and swaying the hearts of the people away from him by challenging his authority as a teacher. In verses 19-26, we read of a challenge posed to Jesus by spies who were sent to him to try and trap him. In Matthew and Mark’s Gospel, we read more specifically that it came by the Pharisees and the Herodians which was meant to serve as a political, religious, and social dilemma of paying tribute to the Roman empire. It is interesting to me that in their coming to Jesus they first flatter him with insincere words, but words which do de...

Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed. Isaiah 56:1 In this article we consider the third portion of Isaiah. Check out the previous Friday blog articles to read an overview of Isaiah, Part 1 of Isaiah (chapters 1-39), and Part 2 of Isaiah (chapters 40-55). After having walked through a valley of judgment, in chapters 1-39, to find hope in the Messiah and God, in chapters 40-55, we find ourselves facing several charges from God. At the outset of this section the people of God are challenged to live righteously and this theme of living faithfully to God is expressed in several manners such as obedience to the covenant (56:4), purity from idols (57:2-13), proper posture in fasting (58:3-13), and more. In these last chapters of Isaiah, we are getting a better picture of Godly activity as well as the future hope and destiny of true followers of God. This section is a complete reversal in state of th...

Recommended Reading:  Introduction-Chapter 1 (26 pages) Key Quotes: Introduction  "When [the Bible] says, 'God is love' (1 John 4:8), it's not saying there is a thing out there called love and that God measures up to it…Rather, God in himself provides the definition, the reality, of what love is." (13- Author's emphasis) "The world presumes to understand love and authority, like it presumes to understand God. Yet it understands these things only in their fallen forms, not in their created or redeemed forms…The local church serves, therefore, as a three-dimensional display of God's love and God's authority." (20-21) Chapter 1  Speaking on how individuals are portrayed in many of the Romantic writings-- "What matters is who they are in themselves- what they want, what they feel. Every relationship is a contract that can be ripped up. What's nonnegotiable is whatever my individual heart tells me is true." (27) Speaking on Con...

“One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.” Luke 14:1  The trite saying “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” is a bit older than we possibly think. In today’s New Testament reading, we read of Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees at a dinner party he was invited to. While there, we read of how “they were watching [Jesus] carefully.” Now, we do not know exactly, what this means. It is possible that they were curious about him and his teachings. It is likewise probable that they wanted to believe in him. But more likely than those two scenarios, they were watching him to find something that they could use to get rid of him (6:7; 11:53-54). While there Jesus provides three teaching moments that all emphasis how the Kingdom of God does not belong to the religious elite or to those in power, but how the kingdom belongs to those who are humbly dedicated to him. Here we will consider just the first ...

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”  Isaiah 40:1  O.k. Let’s address the elephant in the blog. If you have been following along you probably can predict with great accuracy the order and content for each of these articles. You know that when we start a new book in our Bible Reading Plan, there is always an intro article for that book. If we are still reading a book by the time next week rolls around, you will find an article related to something from that day’s reading. So why is it that we are having yet, another “intro to Isaiah”-ish article? First off, although I am breaking Isaiah into three parts and “introducing” each section, it does not mean that Isaiah should be thought of as three distinct books. There are some theologians and historians who believe that Isaiah was actually written by multiple authors; one author for each part (1-39, 40-55, 56-66), however I do not believe that. One reason for this is because the NT authors seemed to all have the sam...