One of the important changes I am implementing in our church and staff is a bimonthly directional guide for mission and discussion. Our staff will have time to meditate on these things through staff meetings. Our church will be introduced to them through a bimonthly magazine that we are working on publishing.
These “guides” are meant to be an outflow of what God is teaching us through His word and to help us be gilded together in the gospel work. It is important as a people and staff, for unity’s sake, to always be thinking, meditating, and praying in the same direction. We see this unity of spirit, mind, and (even) bodily presence in Acts 2:42-47.
For June and July, our theme is FAITHFUL. It is an obvious choice, given our preaching series, but in case you might have missed it, let’s circle back to this past Sunday.
Hosea 3:1a, “And the Lord said to me, ‘Go again, love…’”
In context, we saw it as the unending, faithful pursuit of God’s grace for His bride. Remember that God is using the marriage between Hosea and Gomer as a living example of lessons in grace. Hosea, as the head of his home, is pictured as the pursuer, the groom, the coming of Christ – God in His dispense of grace. Gomer is pictured as the unfaithful bride – Israel, Judah, the people of God, and the bride of Christ.
Gomer has this insatiable appetite for the things that sin provide…though she fails to realize that sin never really gives her anything, it is always taking away. Hosea, a picture of Christ, continues to go and get Gomer, to bring her out of her sin, even to go find her in the detestable places.
There is no better word to describe Hosea (a picture of Christ) as anything but “FAITHFUL,” even if it is to a bride who is “prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.”
Those three words – “Go again, love” – speak volumes, don’t they?
“Go” – don’t stay where you are, pursue, come after, leave this place, etc.
“Again” – this isn’t the first time, repeat performance, be patient and persistent, redo, etc.
“Love” – “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).
In short, those three little words convey a powerful message – ‘Go wherever you must and repeat regularly your unfailing commitment.’
Through Hosea (and the apostle Paul), this is God’s message to you and me – “I will go wherever I must and continue to pursue you because of my commitment to restore you into a right relationship.” God is FAITHFUL.
And scripturally…FAITHFULNESS is an attribute of God’s people. They are: faithful to one another, faithful to Christ, faithful to the truth, faithful to gather in corporate worship, faithful to their neighbor, faithful to their families, faithful in their giving and faithful in their service.
Why? – Because we are to be conformed into the image of Christ, the incarnate Deity, the Second Person of the Trinity, the ever Faithful One.
Faithfulness is costly…it cost God His Son. Faithfulness requires that we assume the best in one another. Faithfulness is a willingness to not keep a track record of wrongs. Faithfulness is LOVE.
Faithfulness for Hosea meant seeing some tough things…it meant going to some tough places…it meant having questions that were probably never answered…it meant not being held prisoner to another’s reciprocation of love.
Faithfulness for you and me, at least if we want to model Christ, means a lot of the same things.
Recently, I was doing some research that led me to a blog…in a few moments, I heard the story of God’s faithfulness that I cannot recount with anything but straight from the author. Here is God’s faithfulness in the words of Dr. Michelle Bengtson, a clinical neuropsychologist, from the Dallas area:
“Have you ever experienced those times in your life that just didn’t make sense, or wasn’t like you expected it to be? Life doesn’t always go as we expect or as we’d like. Trials come and, depending on our response, they can either break us or make us stronger. If we truly trust God and His word, trials are the perfect setup for us to watch God use them for our good.
“A potentially deadly childhood illness left me with physical disfigurement and petite in stature. The subject of great childhood bullying left me reliant on God to be my defender. He taught me that when I am weak in my own strength, His strength is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9-11).
“Losing my father when I was a young adolescent, initially brought hurt and anger. But it propelled me to become a doctor, which I later realized was part of God’s plan to provide for me and my family when my husband received a cancer diagnosis and was unable to work (Philippians 4:19).
“After my father died, and my mother remarried, I was heartbroken when my family moved away from the life, school, church, and friends I’d always known. Little did I know then, but that trial was part of God’s plan for me to meet the man I would marry and make a family with (Genesis 2:18).
“After marrying and starting a family, my husband was given a diagnosis of a very rare form of cancer. Doctors told us to get our affairs in order because he had less than two years to live. He endured scan after scan, surgeries, and prolonged chemotherapy. At the same time, my mother was given a diagnosis of lung cancer and began her own treatment before ultimately dying from the disease. Those few years were the hardest of my life. People advised me to “take one day at a time,” but the reality was that I often had to pray for God to help me make it five minutes at a time, for it was all I could handle. Walking with my mother and my husband through their sacred cancer journeys forced me to lean into God and cling to Him and His promises like never before (Proverbs 3:5-6).
“Years later, I succumbed to a life threatening illness. Put on five months of bedrest, kept alive on IV-hydration and nutrition, and unable to be the doctor because I had become the patient, led to a severe bout of depression. I witnessed depression in my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother. Having been a neuropsychologist for over twenty years, I tried everything I had always suggested that my depressed patients do, only to find out that while those suggestions helped, they were insufficient for eradicating the depression. I had to seek wisdom from God to understand what I was missing (James 1:5) as well as how to better treat my patients in the future.
“Recently, after submitting the manuscript to my publisher for my most recent book, I was on the way with my husband to see his oncologist, when my own doctor called and delivered the news no one ever wants to hear: “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but you have cancer.” I had been the caregiver to my husband after three different bouts of cancer, and to my mother during her cancer journey, but now I was having to learn to be the patient. Such a hard, painful experience. Yet as I clung to God’s truth and his promises to us, he comforted me. Then he brought others alongside who were diagnosed with cancer just not quite as far along in their journey so that I could walk with them and offer them they same comfort God had given me (2 Corinthians 1:4).
“Yet what I have discovered is that God never wastes our pain. Truly what the enemy intends to harm us, God will use for good and for his glory (Genesis 50:20).
“As I’ve aged, and experienced more of life’s trials, I’m grateful that I can look back and see God’s goodness and faithfulness through each one. It served me well, especially when the doctor delivered a cancer diagnosis, and most recently when my husband shared about another health concern prompting a visit to his doctor. I was able to think back on God’s faithfulness throughout my life and determine that since God had always been faithful and trustworthy, I have no reason to doubt Him now (Deuteronomy 7:9). It allows me to maintain faith in the goodness of God, even when life doesn’t go as I would desire (Hebrews 11:1).”
What a powerful line – “Yet what I have discovered is that God never wastes our pain.”
How FAITHFUL is God? God’s FAITHFULNESS is the bedrock of our hope…perhaps the words of Jesus are the best closing argument:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
Held by Grace, PC