Hosea 4:1-3 presents God as one who brings a charge or a legal dispute (Hebrew rîb) against Israel. The chosen nation stood guilty before her God because the people had failed to live up to the terms of the covenant. Truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God were to be qualities of Israel’s unique relationship with Him. … Continue reading –>
Key Thought: Even amid spiritual adultery and divine judgment, God’s love for His people never wavers. [Teaching plan for Spiritual Adultery April 1, 2013] 1. Have a volunteer read Hosea 1:2,3. A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is. B. Why does God ask the prophet … Continue reading –>
Read Hosea 2. What is God’s basic message to His people here? How is the gospel revealed in this chapter? Hosea’s message presents the profound truth of God’s steadfast love for an undeserving people. Hosea 2 contains a lengthy speech by the Lord about Israel’s apostasy, which is then contrasted with God’s unfailing love for His people. After … Continue reading –>
When Hosea’s wife, Gomer, committed adultery against him, he suffered the agony of betrayal, humiliation, and shame. To the neighbors and friends who saw his pain, Hosea delivered a divine message through words and actions: Israel, God’s wife, was just like Gomer. The chosen people were committing spiritual adultery. The prophet Jeremiah compared God’s unfaithful … Continue reading –>
“The day of resurrection –” John Wesley sang, “Earth, tell it out abroad! The passover of gladness, The passover of God!” But that brings us no closer. What does that mean? The answer lies far, far away. Go back in time. Back a hundred generations, to the margin of the Roman Empire, in a little … Continue reading –>
“When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.’ So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” (Hos. 1:2-3, … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: Hos. 1:1-3, Ezek. 4:1-6, Hos. 2:12-18, 4:1-3, James 5:1-7,Rev. 14:6-12. Memory Text: “‘I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one.” I will say to those called “Not my people,”“You are my people”; and they will say, “You are my God”’” (Hosea 2:23, … Continue reading –>
“And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. 06As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of … Continue reading –>
Benjamin Sam was a Global Mission pioneer in a primitive highlands region on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. While visiting the ailing village chief, he faced down soldiers with guns pointed at his head and prayed for healing for the chief. God helped him raise up a small congregation in the highland … Continue reading –>
Do you remember the Charlie Brown Halloween special? Linus, Lucy’s little brother, spends the entire program going on about the Great Pumpkin. He tells everybody he meets about how the Great Pumpkin will appear. He even convinces Charlie Brown’s little sister Sally to wait in the pumpkin patch with him, while all the other kids … Continue reading –>
“But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13 NIV [Thought questions for Creation, Again March 27, 2013] 1. Creation continues forever. Have you ever longed for the new heaven and earth that Peter talks about in 2 Peter … Continue reading –>
“Before the entrance of sin, Adam enjoyed open communion with his Maker.”–Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 7. After the Fall, however, that close relationship was radically altered in many ways. Read Genesis 3:24, Exodus 33:20, and Deuteronomy 5:24-26. What did sin do to the close relationship that existed between humanity and God? Sin had broken the relationship between … Continue reading –>
