Category: Daily Devotionals

TRYING TO BE TOO NICE

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.

            I’m writing to the prophets; those of you who speak the word of the Lord faithfully.  Perhaps you’re paying a price.  When those you preach to are in prosperity, they repel a message that calls for repentance and cross-bearing.  It seems that unless there is tribulation, the ears of most listeners are closed.  Jesus predicted this.

            Be courageous.  Continue reading “Trying To Be Too Nice” →

BEATING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL

Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they will bear no fruit. Hosea 9:16

            One of the major reasons Israel went after idols like Ashtoreth and Baal was because those gods were thought to bring fertility.  God reminded them the He was Lord over the womb, that in their disobedience, He would turn their fruitfulness into barrenness.

Have you ever known a time when you beat your head against the wall in frustration?  Technically, according to the strategies offered by people who have achieved some measure of success, you’ve done it all right.  You’ve gotten the right education, moved to the right place, made friends with those in high places, gotten your resume in tiptop shape, made sure your name was spoken in the right circles, and yet….open doors still alluded you.  Powerlessness washed over you, then anger, then a sense of futility. Continue reading “Beating My Head Against The Wall” →

Their bread will be like mourners’ bread; all who eat of it will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves alone; it will not enter the house of the Lord.  Hosea 9:4

Life is a gift.  Every day is a clean, twenty-four hour slate upon which we can write with our lives, yet sometimes we curse the gift of time.  If it’s Monday, we can yearn for the following weekend.  If it’s winter, we long for summer.  Let life be miserable enough and we will wish for death itself.  This is to eat of the bread of mourners.

When my own sin leads me into Egypt, I must watch myself eat foreign bread to live.  The bread is tasteless on my tongue and it only manages to enable me to live another meaningless day in an existence I despise.

Oh, to be in so desperate a state that what I must consume to live is detestable, even to the Lord.  I am forced to segment my daily life from my holy practices.  Who I am and what I eat during the week can not be introduced into the house of worship, the place where I try to convince myself that I am okay.  I am really a double agent.  I live one way before men and become inauthentic before God.  Though I may try to bring my sacrifices to the temple, they are unacceptable.  The bread is defiled.

There is another kind of bread, the Bread of Life.  Any who eat of it will consume Life itself.  For a while, eating this Bread may commence a time of weeping and repentance, but this is all only a temporary resting place on the journey.  The enemy may try to convince the one who weeps – while eating the Bread of Christ – that this is really the bread of the mourner.  This is a lie.  Satan is an illusionist.

The Bread, your daily Bread, is the One who served his disciples breakfast on the shores of Sea of Tiberius.  It is being warmed on the coals and the Master is calling you to come and eat.  Just as Peter sat by Jesus, ate the bread that he offered, and momentarily tasted the bread of humility, his life was about to be infused with power and authority.  Never would his life be more significant.

     I eat of you.  I am fed today by Your hand.  I curse the food of Egypt, Jesus.  You are Life to my being.  Amen

PRETENTIOUS CHURCHES

For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces.  Hosea 8:14

            It’s easy to read of Israel’s idolatry and point my finger at them in condemnation.  As soon as I do that, I turn into a Pharisee.  Is it possible that our present day church has forgotten its Maker?  Are we leaning more on palaces and programs than the living Word of God and the Spirit of Jesus?  Has pretension replaced authenticity?

            John Piper has shaped my life spiritually as much as anyone.  I’ve flown to Minneapolis many times to attend his conferences, seminary classes he’s taught, and just to sit and enjoy the worship services at his church.  But I have to admit, the first time I went, I arrived early at the church and thought I had the wrong place.  Continue reading “Pretentious Churches” →

SPIRITUAL LAW OF PROPORTIONS

They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind.  Hosea 8:7

    The relationship between sowing and reaping is a most interesting dynamic.  The proportions change dramatically between the former and the latter.  We sow one amount but reap another.  The ‘seeds’ of our actions are compounded so that what we reap is an exaggeration of what we sowed. I know this to be true.  Don’t you?

    I have been careless to sow some unrighteous seeds in my lifetime.  Ideas were birthed in private, in my thought life.  No one even knew but me that such thoughts existed.  Eventually, these thoughts germinated, took on a life of their own, and I began to act out what had once been only thoughts.  When I finally reaped the consequences, it seemed that I was living in a firestorm.  “How could this little thing cause so much trouble,” I wondered?   Continue reading “The Spiritual Law of Proportions” →

TEARS CAN BE WASTED

They did not cry out to Me with their heart when they wailed upon their beds. Hosea 7:14

    Is God compassionate?  Yes.  Is He moved enough by my pain to alleviate it?  Not always.  Oftentimes, He waits to see what kind of tears I cry.  Before you conclude that I am inferring that God is not compassionate, consider today’s scripture. Continue reading →

FIRES

Their hearts are like an oven as they approach their plotting.  Their anger smolders all night, in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.  Hosea 7:6

    Coals that are stoked all night by the keeper of the fire are kept alive. Embers are hot and ready for the job of baking the morning bread.  There would be no fire without someone having fiddled with coals.  The message is clear.  No person commits a grave sin without forethought.  Though people don’t yet see the fire of his deeds, there are coals he has been stoking.

    Every sin begins as a seed-thought.  For it to turn into a deed, there is a process of keeping the ‘thought of it’ on the back burner of our minds.  The idea is nurtured. It’s turned over and over in our heads, the place we think we can indulge safely, but the heat of the coals are preserved.  Fire will not be far away. Continue reading “Fires” →