All posts tagged forgiveness

We Are Hosea’s Wife

I used this video in a recent sermon on the covenant love of God.  One of the great examples of this is found in the prophetic marriage between Hosea and Gomer.

What I find challenging about Hosea is that clearly we are Hosea’s wife.  We are the unfaithful spouse.  Yet, with our dagger of betrayal still in His heart, He loves us and asks us to stay.

Micah 7:18-20 works well as our response:

[18] Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. [19] He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. [20] You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

What sort of God is this that is faithful even when His faithfulness is met with betrayal?  And don’t we severely violate this love when we refuse to love others with this kind of reckless forgiveness?

Embracing the Pig Sty

We all know the story. The Prodigal Son gets full of himself. He cashes in his inheritance and leaves home to do his own thing. He soon blows the inheritance on hard living and eventually finds himself wallowing in a pig sty eating with the pigs. It is at this lowest of low points that the Prodigal Son repents and returns home to the open arms of his father. We should remember that this is a story told by a Jew to other Jews. Jews HATED pigs. They were “unclean” animals. There would have been few things a typical Jew would have found more disgusting (or humiliating) than eating pig food with other pigs. When Jesus told this parable, He chose this specific imagry because it painted a clear picture of the negative consequences of rebellion and pride.

Whenever I read this story (Luke 15:11-32), it immediately reminds me of a story from my year-long adventure as a drug rehab counselor in Britain. Never have I seen this parable of repentance played out in real-life drama like I did then.

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