Author: Christine Wyrtzen

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.  Psalm 91:4

Mention God’s wings, and I think of Ruth. 

Her life had taken some dark turns, and loss had become her companion.  She had no husband, no heritage, and no children.  She lived in a land as a vulnerable widow but one day, she looked up from her circumstances long enough to cry out to the one who could redeem her story.  She approached Boaz as he was sleeping on the threshing floor to protect his store of grain from being robbed.  She startled him, and then did something outrageous.  She asked him to spread the edge of his garment over her.  It was an intimate request.  To be under His garment, his tallit, was to be united to him in covenant love.  In Hebrew, the account reads like this ~ ‘She pulled his wing over her.’ The four corners of a Jewish man’s tallit symbolize being under God’s wings.

Move forward in Jewish history. Jesus’ tallit was touched by many who were sick and they became well.  He spread his garment over Jairus’ daughter and raised her from the dead.  The woman with the issue of blood touched the fringe of Jesus’ tallit and in doing so, she was healed.  And the good news is this ~ God makes this covering available to me.

These days, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.  God’s tallit beckons.  He lifts me up out of the shadows and hides me under His wings, a place of protection, perspective, and healing. 

David said, “I will stay in Your tent forever: I will trust in the cover of Your wings.”  Psalm 61

There is an invitation to dwell under God’s wings.  In doing so, I am lifted from tortuous thoughts to praise.  He lifts me up to the cliffs, away from the carnage of the valley, where the billows of His wings descend upon the shoulders of the afflicted. 

Jesus, I’ve learned not to just make a visit to the shelter of Your wings; I’ve learned to live there.  I am hidden in You.  Amen 

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 righteous will walk in them. Hosea 14:9

These are God’s final words in the book of Hosea. After all is said and done, this is how He chooses to end His communication to His people. He does not punish with an abrupt ending, leaving His people hanging. He wraps up His message with grace.

The storyline of Hosea has had all the elements of a great novel. God professed His love, took a bride, and hoped for fidelity. Love was unappreciated, spurned, and tested by the sin of unfaithfulness. God has been anything but stoic throughout these pages. He has been generous to express His heart. He showed them He is a God who feels intensely. He loves, hurts, weeps, longs, reaches, and forgives. He aches to bless, restores when there is repentance, and is willing to put the past behind His back.

In His closing thoughts, we are to grasp the truth that there is a difference between understanding the ways of the Lord and knowing them. God differentiates by saying, “If we are wise, we understand His ways. If we are discerning, we know them.” I don’t want to miss the implications of this important signature.

• To ‘understand’ something is cerebral. I take a precept apart, study it, and mentally grasp the truth of it.
• To ‘know’ something is to experience it. I make the precept a part of my life. I put it to the test and experience what it’s like to live by it.I am not a babe in Christ. Believe me, I know what He is saying about the differences between that which is cerebral and that which has been proven by experience. The first brings casual interest. The latter brings passion.

Oh God, I make a vow to You today. I will never go halfway. Once You reveal a truth, I will do more than study it. I will make it part of my experience. The story of our love has read like this novel. You called me Your side before my love was awakened. You made a covenant with me even though I was barely interested. You took care of me when my back was turned. I turned to many other lovers and broke Your heart. Ah, but then I heard Your voice. I thought it was too late but You kept calling my name. I repented. I came home. My eyes were opened to the beauty of Your love. Now, I hang on every Word. Amen

I am like the mighty cypress; from Me comes your fruit. Hosea 14:8 

God is aware of the language barrier that exists between the spiritual realm and the physical. Because we are earth-bound and our ability to comprehend His greatness and glory is compromised by our mortality, He is willing to tell us what He is like in terms we can understand. He is quick, throughout Scripture, to say….“I am like a _____________.” He employs the use of illustrations and metaphors that are common to our everyday life. 

What is the significance of God saying that He is like the cypress tree? He is telling me something about His strength and permanence. The cypress tree is renowned for its durability. The doors of St. Peter’s in Rome are made of cypress and even after 1200 years, they show no decay. The cypress groves of Lebanon are well known and referred to in the book of Ecclesiastes as ‘trees which grow up to the clouds.’ 

My spirit drinks in the message of my Father today. I know that who He is will live in me forever. I know that what He builds in me is everlasting. I know that the gifts He gives are as strong as the covenant He made with Abraham. I know that what He reveals is timeless. I know that what He births can not decay with the passing of years. 

I have been shortsighted in my lifetime. My confidence in the eternal was shaken.  Loss was embedded in my story.  I limped along in my faith.  But God invited me to wrap my arms around what is eternal, to dance like a young girl who twirls on a beach, and to celebrate the One who has revealed Himself to me as the mighty cypress. 

You, O Lord, are everlasting. You are the Word, and what You speak, is everlasting. I rest. Amen 

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Hosea 13:14 

Every single believer should ascribe to Christ’s triumph over death. I have said goodbye to my father and my mother. Both died of cancer. I have said goodbye to my son who took his life in his late thirties. While their loss ushered in profound grief, death was bittersweet because I knew that they were in the presence of God. There is no doubt in my heart about that. 

However, while I could say that God was victorious over death, I have not been as willing to put Him to the test regarding other kinds of death in my life. I have known what it is like to be the ‘living-dead’; dead to myself, dead to my dreams, dead to the experience of Jesus, dead to my past and my future. Can God triumph over these kinds of death? 

How do I know if there are dead places that need a resurrection? I will live frantically, preventing reflection. I will answer a penetrating question with, “I don’t want to talk about that.” I will fear being by myself for long periods because there are things from which I am running. I will be wordless about certain past, painful experiences. 

God is not bound by the grave, whether it be physical or spiritual. He said through the prophet Ezekiel, “You will know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves.” Until I allow Him to touch every dead thing and commence a resurrection, I will not fully know that He is the Lord! How do I begin to appropriate His eternal life? God reveals the secret in Ezekiel 37. “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord’.” I must speak the Word over myself, act on its truth, and allow the Spirit, God’s breath, to infuse my being with life that transcends the physical. He is the Word, He is the breath, the Spirit.  And He brings life to the grave. 

I stand at attention to Your Word today. I adjust my breathing to Yours. Touch every part of me that languishes for life. Amen 

I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt. Hosea 12:9a 

Our family has moved many times over the years. We, like many of you reading this, have had to learn how to make different kinds of places ‘home’. We have been involved in various kinds of churches, assorted in denomination. While we enjoyed making new friends, there was always a challenge. The new affiliations we made didn’t know our history. They didn’t know the places where we grew up; the schools, teachers, and life experiences that shaped us. They didn’t know our parents. They never walked the grounds of our childhood home. Their ability to really understand how we were wired was compromised by lack of history. That was isolating and lonely. 

I can never accuse God of not understanding my life. He was involved from the beginning, which started even before my conception. He knew my story even before I lived it. He was an active participant throughout my lifetime even while I was in the land of Egypt. He knew I would become a slave for many years and how I would respond internally to imprisonment. He took note of it all and with every seeming step backwards, He wrote redemptive opposites into my storyline. 

I am still under a transformational work. There are things, even today, which puzzle me about myself and why I respond to life like I do. But now, I know who to run to. “Reveal myself to me, Lord”…is a prayer that started turning my life around some years ago. Because He has been my God throughout the course of my entire life’s history, He has divine insight into what makes me the person I am. He is gracious to say, “The reason you did that was because……” It is a comfort to be in the embrace of One who not only knows me, but loves me. 

Some are intimate today with those who know too much about them and use the information against them. Oh, they are not like God. We must be careful to make God our refuge. Only He deserves the abandon of childlike trust. Only He should be given the power to write and shape our identity. 

I rest in the comfort of our history. I give You all the power to re-write my past and reveal my future. Amen 

They make for themselves molten images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice (their children) kiss the calves.” Hosea 13:2 

Hosea saw some pretty gruesome practices. In ancient Israel, human sacrifice usually meant child sacrifice. Hosea watched as men sacrificed their children at pagan altars. Consider their twisted values. A craftsman would make a metal god, men would sacrifice their offspring and beg for the god’s help, and then the ‘live’ animals who matched the representation of the graven image were worshipped. Children were thrown away, animals were exalted. 

In some ways, our values today are similar. We can be bent to save whales but discard the unborn. We can prize a pet and ignore our own child. We can worship a god made with our hands but forget that in the end, it will burn in the fire. When we cease to actively worship God, our values distort in front of our eyes. What should be treasured no longer appeals. What should be abhorred becomes appealing. If, at that point, we don’t recognize the perversion of our affection, we will feed the wrong appetite. 

I know what it is to love something that was not good for me, to prize the thing that would eventually consume me. Because my heart was engaged though, I was not willing to consider that God was calling me to wash my hands of that which was unclean. My attachment skewed my perspective. The longer I ignored the call to make corrective changes, the harder it became to do so. Keeping short accounts of my values, preferably daily, will prevent me from taking a long pleasurable journey down a road that promises nothing but heartache. Worshipping God and Him only can only promise peace and a life with no regrets. 

Jesus, I will love what You love today and turn away from everything the repels You. I am Your disciple, first and foremost. Amen 

In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he contended with God. He wept and sought His favor and found Him at Bethel. Hosea 12:3-4 

These verses speak to our personal life-stories.  I’ll personalize. I have walked in places similar to Jacob’s footsteps. I know what it’s like to seize control of the events of my life, the ones I find so extremely distasteful, and try to change the outcomes. I  know what it’s like to take them ‘by the heel’ and attempt to exact what I think is fair and, also, what I perceive I need. The consequences are far reaching. 

I know what it’s like to demand the attention of others in hopes of some kind of validation. While some attention was given, the desired approval remained elusive. I also know what it’s like to try to force fairness. I may have changed a few outcomes but the treasures I sought failed to gratify me once they were given under coercion. 

For any of you today who are ‘taking life by the heel’, let me encourage you to freeze in your tracks. In Jacob’s maturity, he contended with God by wrestling with the angel. He took the angst in his soul to the One who allowed it in the first place. Only One who is Sovereign can deal with such things and speak to these issues with authority. 

Jacob wept, surrendered in exhaustion, and sought God’s favor above all else. When the voice of God broke through at Bethel, it was a permanent WORD that would forever shape His future. He built a monument there, evidence of the lasting power of God’s voice. Throughout his life, he would visit that place often because of the poignancy of that one encounter. 

I have many Bethels to re-visit. And I do. They are always clarifying and strengthening. Some of you today need a Bethel. Seek it, don’t leave it until the contention with God is resolved. 

You did not make us to live conflicted. You are the Prince of Peace on the other side of the tantrums of contentious children. Lead me always to the stillness of surrender. Amen 

They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord. Hosea 11:11 

Earlier in Hosea, God called His children silly doves. They failed to know where there true home was. “There will come a day when they will come trembling again to their houses,” God prophesies.   He offers them a pilgrimage back to their roots. 

A woman ceases to make God her home when she no longer believes He can offer her what she needs. The promise of the abundant life doesn’t seem abundant. There can be many reasons. 1.) She has experienced too much pain in this world and she runs from the One she believes is responsible. 2.) There has been no instruction on how to make God her home so she settles in distant lands, looking for anyone who will offer her temporary shelter. 3.) Satan has taken advantage of her vulnerability and offered her some counterfeit ways out of distress. 

Whatever the reason, leaving home is rarely a short adventure. It might span the first half of someone’s lifetime. 

There comes a day when God says ‘enough’. The fog of misunderstanding about who He is begins to clear and a woman shakes her head and realizes her folly. God’s true character materializes in full blown pictures within her spirit. Hunger for His presence is awakened. She prepares for her trip back to her roots. “Before the foundation of the world, I knew you.” Ah yes, she remembers the verse now. She realizes that the only place she belongs is at home with God. She comes trembling, with awe and excitement, to the land that has always been hers. She travels back to claim it with joy. 

Home is sweetest to the one who has been homeless. Seeing the lights in the distance makes hasten her steps. Walking over the threshold brings waves of contentment. It’s home. Everything is as she dreamt it would be.

It took me over forty years to finally find my home in You. I lived many places, emotionally, even though I called You, “Father.” I will never get over the deep soul rest You provide. Amen 

Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, the inspired man is demented because of the grossness of your iniquity and because your hostility is so great. Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet; yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways. Hosea 9:7-8 

Listen to this passage from THE MESSAGE. Did Israel bluster, “The prophet is crazy! The ‘man of the Spirit’ is nuts!”? Think again. Because of your great guilt, you’re in big trouble. The prophet is looking out for Ephraim, working under God’s orders. But everyone is trying to trip him up. He’s hated right in God’s house, of all places. 

Today, I’m writing to the prophets, those of you who speak the word of the Lord faithfully. Perhaps you’re paying a price.  Those you preach to are in prosperity and they are repelled by a message that calls for repentance.  They are unwilling to take up their respective crosses for the sake of Christ. Unless there is tribulation, the ears of most listeners are closed. Only a few hearken to the voice of God who calls out to a peculiar people, willing to abandon themselves to whatever it means to follow Christ. 

Take courage. Remember the many faces of Jesus. He loved. He healed. He touched. But He also spoke to the resistant faces of religious leaders.  They were so stirred up that they plotted to take His life. His words bore the nature of the Sword, tearing asunder the religious edifices that His people hid behind.  Exposed, vulnerability was expressed through rage. 

May God overshadow you with grace to stand in the fire. Do not tweak the message to make it more palatable. The Gospel has not changed.  Do not let anyone rob you of your zeal.  You are the watchman on the wall, standing guard over the bride of Christ lest they go further astray. Your post calls for vigilance and fire.  Behind the words, endearing love must be in tact. 

Enable each of Your prophets to walk in the footsteps of John the Baptist and make a straight path for Your coming. Amen 

You have made love for hire on every threshing floor. The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. Hosea 9:2 

Have you ever been so desperate for a breakthrough that you did everything you could to bring it about yourself through whatever means you had to finagle? 

Israel was so hungry for blessing and prosperity that they practiced idolatry on the threshing floor, the place where they processed grain. They really believed it would help the harvest. Not only was it sinful, it was superstitious. God cursed it because He will not share His glory with anyone. 

What is it that eludes you today? More money? No amount of problem solving outside of prayer will bring the provision. Manipulating a distant relative will cause the money to burn in your hands. Extorting a raise from your boss will do the same. 

Need recognition? No heroic act originating from self-centeredness will bring the adulation that will fill your soul to overflowing. The praise you receive by setting others up to adore you will be short lived. Tomorrow, you’ll need to do it again to get the same thrill. 

The only One who satisfies us is Jesus. The only pathway to contentment is resting and trusting the Trustworthy One.  Simple trust abandons all forms of striving. 

New wine is available to us and it is of the overflowing variety.  No longer is love a reward for hard work. We can give up our daily propensity to earn it, believing we can make God happier with us.  We are already perfect in His eyes.  

We don’t even have to strive for a breakthrough.  We are kept by Love.  We rest in Perfect Love.  We are peaceful in the waiting.  And when the accuser comes to insinuate that our circumstances are due to our failures, we remind him of who we are in Christ.  We are hidden in His perfection. 

With every accusation from our enemy, You defend.  I wait for Your answers in the perfect peace of Your love. Amen