Good day dear friends.
Please remember Billy Hardesty in your prayers this morning. I was able to pray with her just as she was to be taken into surgery at Seton in Austin. Thanks to an Emmaus brother at my 6:30 am reunion group, I was reminded she was to undergo surgery and so I left at 6:30 and got to the surgery area at 7:37, nothing like early morning Austin traffic! She's in great spirits and we pray the Lord grant the doctors and she a victory in Christ' Name.
Here is our study guide for today:
Thursday: Hosea 13, 14What about this book have you found most appealing? What is its dominant characteristic?
I don't know what it is about golden calves and their attraction. I've shared before that one of my childhood highlights of traveling from Kingsville to the Valley was the drive on Highway 281 as it turned the corner through Edinburg at the Golden Jersey Creamery. And yes, true to their name (and what were they thinking?) they had a golden cafe above the doorway leading into their building. Once we saw that marvel we knew we were close to our aunt's house. The calf now sits, or it did the last time I walked through the Edinburg Historical Museum. You could not, in those days, convince me that that calf was not a relation to the one Moses had to put up with in the desert.
How often do we go back to that which we know we shouldn't? If you've tried giving up that habit you know is bad for you and those around you, it's very tough to quit. If it's a channel on cable that you know you shouldn't be watching because of the negative influence it has on your life, you still pause there when you're channel surfing. It seems this was the case with the people of Israel as Hosea is trying to share with them what God wanted for their lives.
The saddest thing to read is from the Subject/Title for today: They kill babies, and they kiss golden calves." That pretty much sums up how lost and how far down they had gone. To kill a living, precious child, and then show devotion to a graven image. That's a serious indictment of where they were.
What's the indictment against us? What have we killed when we should have given life? Have we used a negative or hurtful word against someone when we know we should be using our energy and time praying for that person? Where have we shown our devotion? To the living God or to the idol of idle time, such as gossip, slander, half-truths, etc?
The lesson being taught to the people of Israel should be the lesson we need to be taught as well. God is still our God and He loves us and wants us all to turn away from the things that "kill, steal, and destroy" and turn our whole lives back to the fullness of life.
PRAYER: God of life, bring me back to life and that in its fullness. Lead me away from the things that kill, steal or destroy. I ask this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
Please remember Billy Hardesty in your prayers this morning. I was able to pray with her just as she was to be taken into surgery at Seton in Austin. Thanks to an Emmaus brother at my 6:30 am reunion group, I was reminded she was to undergo surgery and so I left at 6:30 and got to the surgery area at 7:37, nothing like early morning Austin traffic! She's in great spirits and we pray the Lord grant the doctors and she a victory in Christ' Name.
Here is our study guide for today:
Thursday: Hosea 13, 14What about this book have you found most appealing? What is its dominant characteristic?
I don't know what it is about golden calves and their attraction. I've shared before that one of my childhood highlights of traveling from Kingsville to the Valley was the drive on Highway 281 as it turned the corner through Edinburg at the Golden Jersey Creamery. And yes, true to their name (and what were they thinking?) they had a golden cafe above the doorway leading into their building. Once we saw that marvel we knew we were close to our aunt's house. The calf now sits, or it did the last time I walked through the Edinburg Historical Museum. You could not, in those days, convince me that that calf was not a relation to the one Moses had to put up with in the desert.
How often do we go back to that which we know we shouldn't? If you've tried giving up that habit you know is bad for you and those around you, it's very tough to quit. If it's a channel on cable that you know you shouldn't be watching because of the negative influence it has on your life, you still pause there when you're channel surfing. It seems this was the case with the people of Israel as Hosea is trying to share with them what God wanted for their lives.
The saddest thing to read is from the Subject/Title for today: They kill babies, and they kiss golden calves." That pretty much sums up how lost and how far down they had gone. To kill a living, precious child, and then show devotion to a graven image. That's a serious indictment of where they were.
What's the indictment against us? What have we killed when we should have given life? Have we used a negative or hurtful word against someone when we know we should be using our energy and time praying for that person? Where have we shown our devotion? To the living God or to the idol of idle time, such as gossip, slander, half-truths, etc?
The lesson being taught to the people of Israel should be the lesson we need to be taught as well. God is still our God and He loves us and wants us all to turn away from the things that "kill, steal, and destroy" and turn our whole lives back to the fullness of life.
PRAYER: God of life, bring me back to life and that in its fullness. Lead me away from the things that kill, steal or destroy. I ask this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
