Sing to God, sing praise to His Name,
Extol Him Who rides on the clouds –
His Name is the LORD –
And rejoice before Him…
Hosea 2:18-20
The book of Hosea has been trying to kill me for awhile now. I thought I’d let it slay you for a bit, too.
If you are interested, the previous posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. (That’s a lot of heres.)
We are now near the end of chapter two:
“On that day I will make a covenant
With all the wild animals and the birds of the sky
And the animals that scurry along the ground
So they will not harm you.
I will remove all weapons of war from the land,
All swords and bows,
So you can live unafraid
In peace and safety.
I will make you my wife forever,
Showing you righteousness and justice,
Unfailing love and compassion.
I will be faithful to you and make you mine,
And you will finally know me as the Lord.”
Just like in Chapter one, this is a future word about God’s people. A time when the long-awaited Messiah reigns on the New Earth with all whose hearts belong to Him. A time when wolves lie down with lambs and infants play near cobras’ holes. When people will turn their swords into plows and nation will no longer war against nation.
In other words…not yet.
We obviously do not live in such a time as this. We just celebrated the First Advent at Christmas. Jesus did indeed come for us. But there’s a Second Advent. A time when He will come again and make all things right. Jesus will not just scrap His creation, He will redeem it. He will make a New Heavens and a New Earth.
Does that affect you strongly? Have you seen enough hard things to long for Redemption of it all?
This is what the prophet is celebrating in these Hosea verses. And notice how tender God is with His Bride. He will make sure she can live in peace and safety. He will be the Perfect Husband – not just Righteous and Just, but also full of compassion and unfailing love.
Even though we are not in this future paradise yet, in what ways has He shown Himself to be this Perfect Husband to you now?
We may not know perfect earthly peace and safety, but how has He shown you that’s what He does for your soul even now?
The Perfect Home is coming. Until then we already have the Perfect Husband.
“And you will finally know me as the Lord.”
Expectations
I am quite sure this blog will morph over time, but I want to make expectations for the time being clear up front.
You see, I have spontaneous tendencies. And I am completely comfortable with this.
However, I know that there are those of you out there who are not.
Because of this, I plan to have fresh content for conversation posted every Monday morning. These will be disciplines or tips or ideas I’ve heard of or implemented or wondered if you have implemented that will help us be more fully available to Him. Hopefully we can chat about them together.
However, there will be more than these types of Monday posts scattered throughout. I had committed on my previous blog to work through the book of Hosea. I continue to commit to that book with my small group and will share on here.
Also I love using writing to process and learn best through reflection. If you will indulge me, hopefully some of these reflections will resonate with you as well.
But through it all, my aim is to point back to Jesus. What He did for me on the cross I could never do for myself. And if anything good has come from learning how to live more intentionally, it is because He has empowered it. It was a grace from Him.
The grace of God, baby.
I’m glad you’re here. Have I said that yet?
Intentional Kingdom Living
Seven years ago our family made the God-prompted decision to move to Wichita.
Seven years.
I have learned so many things. And I’ve decided to share some of them. Actually, what I’d really like is to help facilitate a conversation.
In order to do that I am moving!
My new home for writing will be:
www.intentionalkingdomliving.com
The goal is to write fresh content every Monday. Likely I will write more often than that, but I want anyone following me to be able to expect consistency at the beginning of each week. Consistency is good. Hopefully we can add more reliable days as it becomes a habit.
Another goal of mine is to recruit people who have taught me over the past 15 years to guest write. I have learned volumes watching others’ lives and gleaning from their wisdom. I’d love it if others can benefit from them as well.
So let’s make a move together. We all need Him and we all need each other.
I hope you will join me in this new adventure!
Welcome!
God has walked with me on a journey the past 15 years.
We have worked on things like how to organize my prayer life to ways to reach out to those far from God without acting like a weirdo to walking through some deeper, internal struggles that affect how I love others.
And I’m just wondering…anybody else? What have you learned? The Body works best when we’re each playing our part. I’d love to hear how He has released you to do just that in your journey with Him.
I’m gonna make a lot of mistakes. But that’s cool. He will forgive me and hopefully you will too! Plus, maybe it will give you permission to try new things without fear of mistakes.
I really do want to host a conversation. I want to share any possible thing He’s taught me that might help you, too.
So…will you join me? And will you share right on back?
It’s gonna be fun!
Wanna Talk About 2015?
Wow. We might have the most organized and clean house ever. Okay, maybe not. But we have been working hard the past couple of days to get our home ready so when routine comes in full swing next week, we are ready.
I feel like that is what God did with me in 2014 on a personal level. He pushed me in a few areas and now in 2015 I feel pretty ready to go.
It is in this spirit I’m publicly sharing a few goals I have:
1. Teach my children to prayer walk (go on neighborhood prayer walk once a quarter)
2. One chore/child/day
3. 3 new Pinterest recipes tried per month
4. Consistent verse memory and review
5. Blog through the book of Hosea once a week
6. Write daily, even if it’s not on here
7. Work out on my own twice a week
8. Now that I’m mostly consistent in eating breakfast daily (yay!) try to eat protein or green smoothie daily for lunch. (I’m telling you, baby steps friends)
There are a few more, including financial/work, writing, ministry, and personal spiritual life. But those are my public ones.
How bout you? Do you have any goals for the new year?
Hosea 2:15b – 17
She will give herself to me there,
As she did long ago when she was young,
When I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
“When that day comes,” says the LORD,
“You will call me ‘my husband’
instead of ‘my master.’
O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips,
And you will never mention them again.
When Yahweh led His people out of captivity with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, it was clear Who was their Savior. It’s in times like those we’re most likely to sing to Him our praise. Of course, like the Israelites, the trick is to continue to put Him in focus. We fix our own eyes on Him and we help each other look up and see Him when we lose perspective.
When is the last time someone did that for you in love?
“When that day comes…you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.'”
The Hebrew word for master in this verse is ‘Baali.’ It means my lord and has to do with authority. The word for husband is ‘Ishi’, a term of affection.
When that day comes…you will call me Ishi, not Baali.
When He leads us out of captivity, when He speaks tenderly to us and restores our Valley of Trouble, we know Him by a different name. There is a difference in intimacy between a master and a husband. Obedience is still there. But it looks different.
To obey someone whose job is to tell you what to do is different than obeying someone who you know has your best interest at heart and loves you. Even the most rockstar husband cannot love us the way our Husband loves us. The biblical role of husband is to lay down his life for his bride. He shows us over and over throughout Scripture that is exactly what He does for us.
You will call me Ishi, not Baali. You will serve me out of love, not fear.
“Oh Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips,
And you will never mention them again.”
The many names of Baal.
Baal technically means “lord.” But there were many different deities under that name to which the Israelites were bowing down and whose names they were crying out for crop production or fertility.
He will wipe them all from their lips.
He will show them only He provides for them.
God will gather to Himself a people Who worship Him alone.
Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let your glory be over all the earth.
Psalm 56:8-11
My heart got heavy about the last post and I don’t want to take that lightly. Because I lean toward blaming others instead of taking full responsibility for my own sin, I want to make sure and say almost every Valley of Trouble I’ve been in has been one I’ve put myself in.
God will never let me off the hook in not completely confessing my sins and taking full responsibility.
Plus, if the previous post had been written by someone I know, I would question if our relationship was one they were talking about. So I want to make sure and say I had no one in particular in mind when writing and it didn’t come from conscious bitterness. I do not want to place burdens on others, but share how only He is worthy of our worship.
I am blessed. He loves me too much to flatter me. Thank goodness.
(I will add this to the end of the previous post as well. Heavy hearts do not mesh well with a fun family day!)
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