Hosea

His Heart Breaks With Love for You

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Mrs Knochel


Hosea 9:1-14:9

“Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? … My heart is torn within Me, and My compassion overflows.” Hosea 11:8

Today we finished reading the book of Hosea, a book about the fierce love and jealousy of a Creator God. He is a God who longs for YOU with the ferocity of a bear who has had her cubs taken away. (Hosea 13:8)

I recently got to experience a taste of the jealousy of God, it is an AMAZING thing… and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get to experience even a full ounce of it. I was considering staying late at work instead of coming home to do my devotions and writing before the kids got home from school. His words were firm, few, simple, and undeniable;

“Don’t. You. Dare.”

I didn’t stay late.

When I got home I was hit full force with a jealous Heavenly husband who had waited long enough for me to arrive and satisfy His desire for intimacy with me. He read me the riot act! And it was glorious!!! 😀 All this time, I’ve been throwing fits like a spoiled child about having to go to work and missing spending time with Him when all the while never stopping to think about how HE felt about the whole situation. And I love that He took the time to explain it to me.

What I’m doing away from my writing desk is important for my growth and spiritual well being, not to mention helpful for my family finances and social networking. It’s His will for me to be there. But that doesn’t mean that HE isn’t missing me just as much if not more than I’m missing Him! I’d never stopped to think about that, not even for a second. He made it VERY clear that my time at work is important, HOWEVER, so is my time with Him. And that if I am to ever stay after work at the cost of spending alone time with Jesus, well it had BETTER be under HIS orders and not just because I want the extra money or because someone has made me feel guilty for not staying and I was too spineless to tell them, “No.”

God’s authority surpasses that of a store manager, CEO, head of a household, president, king, you name it! His will is for us to submit to the authorities placed over us, but never at the cost of our spiritual growth and intimate time with Him! There are plenty of hours in the day to work and get things done. Everyone has been given the same twenty-four hours to work with – what we do with it is up to us. And like Hosea 10:12 says, “Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love.” When we plant seeds of righteousness by spending time with Jesus – the supplier of our righteousness – we will reap a harvest of love that will overflow and overtake us in a journey that was created just for us.

Our God is a jealous God, He is jealous for YOU. He is jealous for time with you, alone and uninterrupted time where you can get stark naked honest with Him and yourself and come to a new place of awakening and intimacy in your relationship with Him. He wants a relationship with you like you would not believe. He longs for you like a stumbling wanderer longs for a drink of water in the blistering desert sun. And He doesn’t want you for your body, or your abilities. He doesn’t want you for your title or your paycheck. He simply wants YOU. He wants to touch that person you are deep down inside that is weak and frail and raw. He wants to coax that person out from the shadows and rub healing balm on the spirit of your ailments. He wants to strip away the hurt and the pain and bring you to a higher high than you’ve ever achieved on your own. He wants YOU, naked and unashamed of your nakedness. He is Creator God; He created that nakedness without shame. He created that weakness in you that’s in need of His strength to complete you. You’ll never find anyone who will love you the way that He does. His heart is torn over your absence from His presence, yet He would never force you to come to Him. He is, after all, a gentleman. He is soft and understanding; slow to anger and quick to forgive. And abounding in love for Y.O.U.! He has not, and He will not ever let you go because He can’t.

He ADORES you!

when I thought my foot slips your steadfast love o LORD held me up when the cares of my heart are many your consolations cheer my soul Psalm 94 18

Categories: 365 Life, Hosea, Season 3 | Leave a comment

Spread the Love

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Mrs Knochel


Hosea 3:1-8:14

“My people are being destroyed because they don’t know Me.” Hosea 4:6

Now friends, this is not like my normal posts. However, I’m feeling pretty strongly that I am supposed to share this story with you. More than anything, I just want this little boy to feel special and for his parents to know that God cares for them.

You can read all about it here on Kristen Lamb’s blog.

Thanks for reading today, and every day guys. 😀 You’re the best!

Categories: 365 Life, Hosea, Season 3 | 2 Comments

Rain

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Mrs Knochel


Hebrews 12:3-13:25 & Hosea 1:1-2:23

“I will be faithful to you and make you Mine, and you will finally know Me as the LORD. In that day, I will answer,” says the LORD, “I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain. Then the earth will answer thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevine and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, ‘Jezreel’ – God plants!” At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved’. And to those I called, ‘Not My people.’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!'” Hosea 2:20-23

Lord, thank You for the glorious symphony that is rain dancing on the leaves, drumming on the deck and clapping on the tin. Thank You for the authoritative peals of majestic thunder as You pronounce Your name above all names.

Jehovah of Might.

Thank You for the flash of lightning that punctuates the sky with Your brilliance, the splash of a single drop’s impact as it permeates the surface of a gathering puddle. Thank You for the sploosh of a car’s tires ripping across the glistening pavement and the drone of the flow of life cascading from the downspout. Lord, I love how You made the raindrops pop when they hit the hard-packed earth. Flowered faces bow as their petals fill with this nectar of life. The glittering green grass bounces under the sudden weight and release of the drops from their hands causing them to wave their palms in praise of You. There are circles of dry earth under tables and chairs sitting silent and unused. The thunder rolls from cloud to cloud singing the song of the rain – He is LORD!

The saturated fall air thrills as it trickles up the spine and down the arms in a chill that exits through bumps on skin making hair stand on end to Your presence. Lord, thank You for the excuse to gleefully run through the rain to Your waiting embrace. Oh Your waiting embrace! How it thrills and spills over my heart. I love how You hold my heart when You hold my hand, and how You hold my hand when You hold my heart. Great is Your love and Your patience! Great is Your wisdom and solace. You are great!

Lord, thank You for ink that flows from pen-tips like rivulets of Your love. May it never cease its torrent of words, YOUR words, through my soul and my hands. Thank You for loving me too much to allow me to stay who I wasn’t. Thank You for teaching me to love others enough to say, ‘No.’ And to love myself enough to spend the time to learn at Your knee that I’m worth receiving a ‘no’ from; that I’m worth standing up for. My life, my writing, my calling, my time with You – they’re worth celebrating and protecting and sharing.

Lord, thank You for the way that You love me. Oh! How You love me! Thank You for the symphony of a thunderstorm as an accompaniment to My praise to my God, THE GOD ALMIGHTY. My creator, my Father, my brother, my husband, my lover, my confidante, my friend, my healer, my protector, my provider, my song, my strength, my hope, my promise, my seal, my teacher, my lesson, my inspiration, my leader, my help, my lion and my lamb. You are my rock and my pillow, my rest and my sword, my armor and my robe, my comfort and my conviction, my hurt and my healing. You are my GOD!

You are my alpha and omega, my beginning and my end. You are my refuge and my fortress, you are my home. You are my light and direction in dark places. You are my breath and my life. You are my blood and my design. You are my savior and my king, my God you are my everything! You are my definition, you are my source, you are my lifter – You are my course. You are my garden, You are my joy. You are my Beloved – Mary’s baby boy. You are my innocence and my righteousness. You are my justification and my cleansing. You are my passion and my delight. You are my God in the deepest of nights.

You are God, strong and sensitive; tall, light and handsome. You are God and I am not and I thank You for that! I am thankful that because You are God, I don’t have to be. I Thank You that because You are my provider and protector I don’t have to be afraid. Lord, help me to not be afraid! Please! Lord, lead us in the way that we should go and help us to fearlessly follow You all the days of our lives, in Jesus’ name!

Lord, thank You for the decadence of a moment truly savored and frozen in time. Thank You for the raindrops tracing lines through the sky and misting the view. Thank You for a warm cats purr in the lap and the remnants of a salty chocolate treat in teeth to lick for time to come. Thank You for the fading thunder as it warns of a storm’s departure. Thank You for the warmth and familiarity of a favored sweatshirt and the trickle of the drops as they slow their downward dance – always earth bound, never up. Thank You for the brilliance of sun as it rounds the horizon in the ever-growing stillness as the symphony ceases – Rain.

Categories: 365 Life, Hebrews, Hosea, Season 3 | Leave a comment

In Christ Jesus

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Mrs Knochel


Hosea 9:1-14:9

“In You the orphan finds mercy.” Hosea 14:3

In Christ Jesus the homeless find HOME.

In Christ Jesus the barren find FRUIT.

In Christ Jesus the hopeless find HOPE.

In Christ Jesus the helpless find HELP.

In Christ Jesus the forlorn find LOVE.

In Christ Jesus the downhearted find
COMFORT.

In Christ Jesus the lost find THE WAY.

In Christ Jesus the forsaken find SALVATION.

In Christ Jesus the condemned find
RIGHTEOUSNESS.

In Christ Jesus the sinners find
FORGIVENESS.

In Christ Jesus the forgotten find
RECOGNITION.

In Christ Jesus the poor find ABUNDANCE.

In Christ Jesus the mourners find JOY.

In Christ Jesus the haughty find HUMILITY.

In Christ Jesus the hungry find DAILY BREAD.

In Christ Jesus the thirsty find STREAMS OF LIVING WATER.

In Christ Jesus the battle-weary find REST.

In Christ Jesus the persecuted find the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

In Christ Jesus the reviled find REWARD.

In Christ Jesus the dead find LIFE.

In Christ Jesus the uprooted find
FERTILE SOIL.

In Christ Jesus the wounded find HEALING.

In Christ Jesus the broken find
RESTORATION.

In Christ Jesus the weeping find LAUGHTER.

In Christ Jesus the depressed find DANCING.

In Christ Jesus the outcasts find
FELLOWSHIP.

In Christ Jesus the rejected find EMBRACING.

In Christ Jesus the torn find MENDING.

In Christ Jesus the mute find SPEECH.

In Christ Jesus the lame find MOBILITY.

In Christ Jesus the sick find HEALTH.

In Christ Jesus the blind find VISION.

In Christ Jesus the hated find ADORATION.

In Christ Jesus the untouchables find
CONTACT.

In Christ Jesus the childless find FAMILY.

In Christ Jesus the frenzied find PATIENCE.

In Christ Jesus the worried find PEACE.

In Christ Jesus the fearful find LOVE.

In Christ Jesus the rude find KINDNESS.

In Christ Jesus the evil find GOODNESS.

In Christ Jesus the undependable find FAITHFULNESS.

In Christ Jesus the unbendable find
FLEXIBILITY.

In Christ Jesus the harsh find GENTLENESS.

In Christ Jesus the wild find CONTROL.

In Christ Jesus the insecure find SECURITY.

In Christ Jesus the chased find REFUGE.

In Christ Jesus the irritable find SOOTHING.

In Christ Jesus the weeping find SMILING.

In Christ Jesus the exhausted find
ENDURANCE.

In Christ Jesus the fallen find FLIGHT.

In Christ Jesus the downtrodden find
FREEDOM.

In Christ Jesus the wandering find DIRECTION.

In Christ Jesus the unloved find GRACE.

Categories: 365 Life, Hosea, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Fire!

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Mrs Knochel


Hosea 3:1-8:14

I think if I read the word “whore” one more time in today’s reading I was going to go scrub my eyes out with soap! YIKES ISRAEL!

There was no denying or second guessing how God felt about their actions! Yet at the beginning of the sixth chapter of Hosea the Israelites speak out their understanding of how God works, and this is where I think we should pay extra close attention today.

“Come, let us return to the LORD: for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” (6:1-3)

Why was it that the LORD allowed their enemies to defeat them?

“He has torn us, that He may heal us, He has struck us down,, and He will bind us up.”

Later on in chapter eight the LORD explains the purpose of His tactics: “I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds.” (8:14) In this pronouncement, there is a physical meaning and a spiritual meaning. The physical meaning is obvious, there will be a physical fire in the cities that will destroy their physical strongholds, or the places where the enemy armies will target first because once those areas of the city are secured they will have control over the entire city. The same is true for the spiritual meaning. Let’s start with investigating the fire that will come.

Exodus 13:21-22 “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”

What was the fire? The presence of God. And what was it for? To give them light so that they may travel by night. And did His presence ever leave them? Nope. God was a pillar of fire by night in order to give them light so that they could travel by night. And He never left them alone forcing them to travel in the darkness. What a great God we serve!

In Deuteronomy 4:12&24 we read, “Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire…. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

Here we find that our God speaks through the fire that brings us light in our darkest moments. He is jealous for us; His love for us is a consuming fire!

And then in Acts chapter two we see the promised Holy Spirit come as “divided tongues as of fire” and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (2:3-4)

It is after the cross that we finally see the fulfillment of so many promises spoken so long ago. Here in Acts at the moment of Pentecost we see the pillar of God’s all consuming fire coming and resting upon the heads of each believer and filling them with His presence, never to leave or forsake them EVER AGAIN! AND causing them to SPEAK! His Spirit gave them utterance, He gave them the ability to speak His word of Truth to the lost and broken the downhearted and depressed. His Spirit came to speak to them individually, straight to their hearts in their darkest hours, never to desert them and leave them stranded in the wilderness of the valley of the shadow of death. If that doesn’t give you hope today I don’t know what will! But wait, there’s MORE!

Strongholds! There’s a secret Truth buried in the story of Sharach, Meshach and Abednego; the all consuming fire of the Holy Spirit destroys strongholds! In Daniel chapter three we find our three heroes standing before the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar refusing to bow down to his idols.

“Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king’s order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?’ They answered and said to the king, ‘True O king.’ He answered and said, ‘But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.’ Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, ‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!’ Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.’ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.” (Daniel 3:21-30)

These brave men were unshakable in their faith that God would save them, one way or another, either from the fire altogether or through it to death and to Paradise. They held fast to their belief that their God is so good that no matter what happened to their bodies; He would redeem their lives in the end.

When they were thrown into the furnace, the fire was so hot that it consumed the men who threw them in! Consider this; in those hot situations of life where you feel like you’re in a pressure cooker because of something someone in your life said or did, picture yourself in the furnace of God’s all consuming fire. Those people who threw you in are being exposed to its flames as well. And the one who ordered you in, but perhaps didn’t throw you in himself; he is watching how you fare in that fire!

Your reaction to the flames could very well save the very people who threw you in in the first place! And here’s the beauty of the fire of God’s Holy Spirit, when we are in the fire of Christ, the things that were binding us before are being burned off. And because we have His fire inside us, we can walk back out of those hot situations unscathed from the flames. In Hebrews chapter twelve we read,

“At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken -that is, things that have been made – in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

God uses the things that come against us in life to shake the things that have been made. He shakes the earth under our feet so that the idols we have placed on the shelves of our hearts come tumbling down to the ground leaving only the unshakable things – His Word and His Holy Spirit. Your world may be on fire today. Is it all around you or is it in you? Don’t allow the fires around you to frighten you, they are ONLY meant to burn off the cords that bind you. They are meant to destroy the strongholds in your life that keep you from trusting God alone for your salvation. They are NOT meant to harm you or to hinder you; they are intended for your good and for the saving of many lives. They are meant to shake down the shakable, and leave the unshakable; the Truth of God’s promise to NEVER leave you or forsake you. Allow His consuming fire to light the darkness that surrounds you and presses in on your consciousness. Hold the flaming Light of His word up to your situation today and tell the darkness to flee in Jesus’ name! You are in His fire and His fire is in you and that makes YOU unshakable!

Categories: 365 Life, Hosea, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Another Milestone

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Mrs Knochel


Hebrews 12:3-13:25 & Hosea 1:1-2:23

Well my friends, I have reached yet another milestone in this journey with you. It was at about this point in writing through the Bible in a year that I called it quits last year. It was August 24th and we were in Isaiah when I submitted the post, “The End”. I had had a dream about a surgery that was necessary in order to save my life. That surgery was to remove posting to the blog, from my life.

When I looked up “The End” to see what point I had received that message to hang up on the blog, I remembered that dream. I remembered the overall feel of the dream and how dark and dismal the atmosphere was in the dream. The hospital walls were yellow, but not the bright cheery kind of yellow the dark and dirty kind of yellow. The lights were yellow, the mood was depressing and the people in the dream were… well, I can’t even describe them.

Last night I had another dream, much like that first one. I was in a classroom that felt more like a cave than a classroom. The color in this dream was dark charcoal gray. The walls of the classroom were gray hewn out stone, curved like an underground cave. The atmosphere of the dream was dark and depressing. The teacher was cruel and taunted me constantly. But I was still desperate to please him, which I find interesting. He even made fun of me for measuring out 50mL of milk every day and for saving every single little bit of food I came in contact with. I refused to throw anything away.

Anyway, I bring all this up because last night before bed I was begging God to come and speak to me in my dreams and tell me what it is that He wants me to do. A job opportunity has presented itself. The income would make a HUGE difference in our finances, but so would the time. I am already feeling stretched past my time/stress limits and the addition of a part time job would force something I’m already holding out of my hands. And of course the blog was the first thing I thought of being wrenched from them.

I’ve given up on you before and it didn’t go well with me. When I picked the blog back up again and God encouraged me to start fresh from the beginning He made it abundantly clear that the blog is not something I am to ever let go of again. It’s too good for me and it’s too good for you. Yet, when things get hectic and life beacons with dollar signs and the potential of upgrading our life, well, setting down the things that don’t make me money looks awfully tempting.

So as I lay me down to sleep last evening, begging God to guide me in the way that I should go, then having this dream that ended with the teacher telling me that “it’s OK to throw away food”. I was beginning to believe that perhaps God really was leading me to let the blog go again. But when I got up to do my reading, I just kept thinking about that other dream and the last time I lay down the blog. The similarities became shocking when I finally pulled up “The End” to look at it again. Then it became apparent to me what God was saying. The dreams are one in the same. However, the message received from them is different because of their timing. The first dream I was to heed, because I needed to experience what would happen if I walked away from the blog. That way, I wouldn’t ever want to do it again. This dream was to beacon me back to that first dream and that first time when I stopped blogging and remind me of all the consequences that ensued from it. It also reminded me of the first week after I picked that measured milk back up again. I pray I never forget that week. I spent it flat on the floor in praise of the God who died for me. That first week back in God’s word daily, reading measured amounts of salvation were absolute bliss.

It was then that I begged God to help me read His word and write about it daily for the REST of my life. I didn’t ever want to put it down again. I had been away for far too long and had paid dearly for it too. I had dried out and become hard like a cheap kitchen sponge that hadn’t been used in a long time. My edges had become sharp; I was in desperate need of the Living Water that flows through my fingers to you.

Unfortunately, things aren’t that different right now. While I have been reading and blogging daily, it’s been out of duty instead of delight. I’ve placed you on the back burner and I apologize for that. You are all so near and dear to my heart that it has pained me to do that. But life happens and honestly we need the money.

This is where I need your help. Please pray for God to bless our finances in the way that only He can so that I may continue to preach His good news to you uninhibited. Time is one of the only things on this planet that we will never ever get back. Every moment I spend on you is more than precious to me! And I pray that the same is true for you as well. I pour my heart out onto this screen day in and day out and I pray that that means something to you personally.

Some of you I have met face to face and some of you are just a picture on the screen. But I know full well, that those pictures represent a living, breathing person who needs the Grace of God just like me. My friend, you are precious to me, because you are priceless to Him.

Categories: 365 Life, Hebrews, Hosea, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Hosea

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Mrs Knochel

Today’s reading: Hosea 10:1-14:9

Categories: Hosea | Leave a comment

The Knowledge of God

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Mrs Knochel

Today’s Reading: Hosea 5:1-9:17


Well my friends, today I started my classes at Grace University right here in my living room where the Holy Spirit is homeschooling me. Together, the Holy Spirit and I, have been working on my Master’s degree in Christian Studies for the last three years now… I’m not sure I’ll ever really graduate, not that I want to mind you, but I am certainly taking on a full course load this semester! I’ve committed to watching three sermons daily by Joseph Prince, Creflo Dollar and Joel Osteen – all Grace Ministers. I’ve also committed to reading several books, “They Thought for Themselves” by Sid Roth, “Every Man’s Battle” by Stephen Arterburn, Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey, “School of the Seers” by Jonathan Welton, and of course continuing reading through the Bible in a Year. I will also be doing/leading a Bible Study by Beth Moore, “Believing God” and then blogging daily about the things that I glean from all of these wonderful people of God. My exams are of course, LIFE. As part of my Sabbath recreation I told God that I would like to start working on a fictional novel; He gave me the story line in a dream a couple of weeks ago… but we’ll see how He leads me in all that. J And then of course I’ll still be working on getting up and running smoothly all while being the best mom and wife that my family could ask for! What’s funny is, writing it all down like that makes it sound like SO much… but it’s not any more than what I’ve already been doing!

In the verse that I pulled out today (Hosea 6:6) God tells us that He desires for us to acquire the knowledge of God more than He desires our burnt offerings (or works). He wants for us to know Him. He wants us to spend our lives and our after lives getting to know who He is, how He works, and most importantly of all doing all that by simply spending time with Him. He wants us to know what He has done for us, what He has given us, what He has promised us. And when we start harvesting from His abundant field of grace we begin to understand those things. We begin to fathom how much we might mean to Him, how deep His love for us runs.

Did you know that God’s love runs? Did you know that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are running after you right now? Yup, they really are. To this very day one of my deepest desires is that someone would want me; my husband, my friends, my family. I’ll never forget the day when I heard the truth that Jesus wants me so badly that He follows me everywhere. It changed my life! God wants me more than I want Him! Wow. His desire for you is so strong that neither life nor death can separate you from Him. Jesus wants you so badly that He was willing to die rather than to live one more moment without you by His side.

As Jesus is, so are we in this world. When He died on that cross and covered us with His blood we were instantly made righteous in the sight of God Almighty. We didn’t do anything to gain that standing… so is there any way that we could do anything to lose that standing? NO!!! However, we can lose sight of that right standing with God. We can chew on and believe the lies the Enemy feeds us when he tells us that we’re not “good enough” to be righteous. Guess what folks, . Do you know what that means??? Justified = just as if I’d never sinned. You are JUSTIFIED, which makes you RIGHTEOUS, period. I was tempted to put you are justified which makes you righteous in God’s eyes, but that’s only half true. You are righteous in the Enemy’s eyes too. He KNOWS you have been justified, he KNOWS and he makes it his primary concern in your life to hide that TRUTH from your eyes! Because you ARE justified, you are righteous. Period. There is nothing that you can do; there is nothing that the Enemy can tempt you to do to make that truth go away. The only thing that can hinder you from living that truth out is your unbelief in that truth. And since it is impossible for God to lie, and it is in His Word that we find this truth what is there not to believe? You have been justified… by His grace as a gift. Do you accept that gift?

While I was meditating earlier God showed me what I’ve been doing. He showed me a picture of my self bent over in tear-filled prayer, hands desperately clasped together as I pleaded to Him to “give me… give me… give me…” and He said to me “Beloved, give Me your eyes (that’s what I say to my kids to get them to look me in the eye), I have already given you… given you… given you… I gave it to you the first time you asked, you just haven’t unclenched your hands enough to receive the gifts I’ve been trying to give you. Child, open your hands and receive the gifts that have already been given!”

Next He showed me a picture of water rolling off a duck’s back and the way that the water simply beads up and rolls away never really even touching the feathers of the duck. Then He showed me a picture of the duck’s feathers having just been ruffled and exposing the downy fluff underneath. Water was poured onto the duck and it soaked right in. And He said, “The Enemy does everything he can to get your feathers ruffled because it is only then that his lies have any impact on you. He presents you with situations in life that contradict My promises to protect you, IGNORE THEM. Do not let him ruffle your feathers; simply allow his attacks and lies to roll off your back. Give Me your eyes, keep your eyes on Me and My love for you and we can weather any storm of life together.”

The knowledge of God, how much He loves you, it’s a powerful thing. Something the Enemy simply can’t fight, although he certainly does try.

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Grown-up Love

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Mrs Knochel

Today’s Reading: Hosea 1:1-4:19

In today’s reading the prophet Hosea is called by God to take a promiscuous wife and have children with her in order to be an object lesson to all of Israel in how they are behaving towards their God and husband. God is our husband! He is our provider and protector, our shield and our salvation, but beyond even that He is our lover! He doesn’t just love you as His child, just because you were born from His supernatural loins. He loves you with the passion of an adult. Right now I want you to think of your spouse, how do you love them? Why do you love them? What are some of the ways that you show them you love them? What are some of the ways that your spouse shows you that they love you? You see while we were children we loved our parents and our grandparents because they loved us first. We loved them simply because they were all we knew. But as we grew our horizons were broadened and our eyes became opened to the idea that there were other kinds of parents out there. Parents that let their kids stay up later or let them eat things we didn’t get to eat and we began to resent our parents. But then after entering into adulthood we began to realize how right our parents really were. And we began to mimic their ways, most of the time without even knowing that we were doing it. And then we met “The One”. *Romantic sigh…….* That man who is the complete package, the real deal, Mr. Right and we fall in love. This love is nothing like the love that we feel for our parents! This love is deep and passionate and hot. We do things with our husband that we don’t do with anyone else. We say things to our husband that we don’t say to anyone else. We have a level of intimacy with our husband that we don’t have with our parents. Though our relationships with our parents may still run deep, it is very different from the relationship with a spouse.

Then we have children and everything changes!!! We experience another kind of love that is, again, like nothing we’ve ever felt before in our lives. We suddenly love someone we’ve never even met before simply because they have come from this deep passionately hot relationship of intimacy that we have with our spouse. We have this deep need to tenderly care for this precious tiny thing that we have created. We delight in every single moment they are with us and long for them desperately when they are away from us. We worry if they are cold or hungry, if they are clothed well or dirty, we care about them even when they are away from our sight.

In a way that God can only understand He loves us like all of that. He loves us as the parent and as the lover – and not in a gross way either… somehow. While Yaweh is our Father, Jesus is our husband and that helps us separate the two kinds of love a bit I suppose. But yet it is through the Holy Spirit that we are able to have the intimacy with both of them the way that we can. It is through the Holy Spirit that we can have fellowship, friendship and yes even spiritual intercourse with God. Woo! Did I just say that??? Yup, I sure did! But it’s true! So often in the church today people don’t talk about God in “that way” because they feel it is disrespectful of Him somehow. But look at the book of Hosea!!! He’s talking about Himself in “that way”! If there is one thing our society knows about and can relate to it’s sex! And yet here is God, wooing us in every possibly way imaginable so that He can be intimate with us and we can be intimate with Him and know Him in “that way” and yet people are going hungry right and left because they’re just not getting it. They do not understand just how deep God’s grace goes. When Jesus’ blood dripped down the cross it didn’t stop running when it hit the ground. It hit the ground running! Grace doesn’t mean that you’re forgiven until your next sin, the blood of goats and sheep did that, Jesus’ blood is ever so much more effective than that!!! While the blood of animals wiped away the sin from the slate until we wrote all over the slate again, the blood of Jesus made the slate so that it couldn’t be written on ever again! It didn’t just wipe it clean, it took it away completely! And yes, some of you may be out there thinking “there’s no way that’s how it works”, “can God really be that good?”, “but all I’ve ever learned is that we need to pay close attention to the things that we do so that we don’t fall into sin against God and make Him angry”. Guess what my friends, when God said “I will remember their sins no more” He meant it! Can God really be that good? YES!!!!! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!! I pray that God will give you ears to hear this today my friend, because it is the God’s honest truth. It’s a truth that I have been fighting for the last three years to learn and really digest. I have LIVED this message every moment of every day for the last three years. I LIVED through the Law and attempting to follow it to the letter. I LIVED through the cords that it tied me up with and I can’t begin to tell you how depressed and downhearted I became because of it, not to mention extremely judgmental and condemning. But best of all, I have LIVED through the acceptance of Grace and what it really means to be SAVED. I have heard it said that when you get “saved” you are saved from the wrath of God. And I believe that to be true. But to me, to be saved is so much more than that. You become saved from condemnation. When Adam took that first bite of the forbidden fruit he chose to stand in agreement with Satan and his lies instead of standing in agreement with God and His truth. Before that moment Adam and Eve knew no sin. They had no concept of the fact that they were naked. God made them naked, He didn’t care that they were naked otherwise He would have clothed them now wouldn’t He have. But no.

You see there’s this thing called ignorance. Ignorance is when you are blissfully unaware of what is right in front of you. Adam and Eve were ignorant of the fact that they were naked… UNTIL they stood in agreement with the Enemy. Then and only then did they realize that they were naked and needed covering. Up until that fateful bite, GOD had been their covering. When we step away from God we are no longer covered and become shamefully buck naked. BUT. Oh praise God there’s a but! BUT then there came Jesus! And what was it that His blood did? It covered us! It covered us in a way that nothing else, not the blood or skins of sheep or goats, not the fibers of cloth, nothing covers like the blood of Jesus. When we choose Jesus, we are saved! We are saved from God’s wrath and anger. We are saved from judgment and condemnation. We are saved! Jesus died to bring us back under the covering of God, back to an intimate God-love relationship with Him where He loves us in a way that no one could fathom or begin to understand. And because of how much He loves us, we love Him back. How could we not? With a love that hits the ground running how can we not run with it? How can we not dive deep into that ocean of goodness and not come gasping back up praising His name? How can we not allow Him to wrap us up in this blanket of steadfast love and mercy?

My friend, Jesus loves you. He is truly faithful. He is “The One”, the real deal, the complete package, Mr. Right. He is your friend AND your lover and He is calling for you right now. He is calling you to an intimacy with Him that you’ve never experienced before. He’s calling you to come to bed with Him and experience a new kind of love, His God-love. It’s not like anything else in this world, it’s better!

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