Maranatha Grace Church

Welcome back to our Challenges.

Book of Hosea Outline

Israel's Rejection as an Unfaithful Wife;

 Her Future Reception and Restoration, Ch. 1---3

Messages of Judgment Mingled with

 Pleadings of Love and Mercy, Ch. 4 --- 14

Hello:

Book of Isaiah Challenge – Day 2 Hosea 1, 2 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

² When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” ³ So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. (Hosea 1:2-3)

²⁰ “In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord—“I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;²² and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. ²³ 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 2:20-23)

Love responds to love. Love is both the question and the answer. "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Someone always has to take the first step toward love and reconciliation. May it be us.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Hello:

Book of Isaiah Challenge – Day 3 Hosea 3, 4 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (Hosea 3:1)

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. (Hosea 4:6)

God teaches us by example, and he empowers us to do just like he does. He is love, we can also be love. The prophet had to forgive his unfaithful wife to show us the extent of the love of God for his people. This God’s kind of love is a beyond what we can imagine. His love for us endures forever. “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8).

May the Lord richly bless you!

Hello:

Book of Hosea Challenge – Day 4 Hosea 5, 6 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

“Come, let us return to the Lord;
 for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
 he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
² After two days he will revive us;
 on the third day he will raise us up,
 that we may live before him.
³ Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
 his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
 as the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Why does God forgive our sins when we confess them? Because he is faithful and just. God is faithful, he always keeps his word. He is just, Jesus death on the cross satisfies his justice.

We should never run away from God. Even when he is disciplining us, “because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son” (Hebrews 12:6). Come, let us return to the Lord (v. 1).

May the Lord richly bless you!

Hello:

Book of Isaiah Challenge – Day 5 Hosea 7, 8 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

For Israel has forgotten his Maker
 and built palaces,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
 so I will send a fire upon his cities,
 and it shall devour her strongholds. (Hosea 8:14)

There is good success and bad success. Good success is success anchored on the Lord, this is success with eternal outlook. Bad success is success anchored on self, self-preservation, and self-aggrandizement. Israel built palaces, and Judah multiplied fortified cities, but they forgot the Lord. Vanities.

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127)

May the Lord richly bless you!

Hello:

Book of Isaiah Challenge – Day 6 Hosea 9-10 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
 reap steadfast love;
 break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
 that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

¹³ You have plowed iniquity;
 you have reaped injustice;
 you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way
 and in the multitude of your warriors, (Hosea 10:12-13)

May the Lord richly bless you!

Hello:

Book of Isaiah Challenge – Day 7 Hosea 11-12 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

He strove with the angel and prevailed;
 he wept and sought his favor.
He met God^[e] at Bethel,
 and there God spoke with us—
⁵ the Lord, the God of hosts,
 the Lord is his memorial name:
⁶ “So you, by the help of your God, return,
 hold fast to love and justice,
 and wait continually for your God.” (Hosea 12:4-6)

God is asking all of us to return to him. The truth is that he is the one who is helping us to return to him. We can’t do anything that pleases him without his help. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). So we should wait continually for God with great expectation. Hope is the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19). It is wonderful to know that God is helping us.  

May the Lord richly bless you!

Hello:

We have come to the end of the Book of Hosea Challenge. Tomorrow we start the Book of Daniel Challenge - 2 chapters a day.

Book of Hosea Challenge – Day 8 Hosea 13 - 14 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
 whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
 and the upright walk in them,
 but transgressors stumble in them. (Hosea 14:9)

After the decision to accept Christ as their personal savior, every Christian must come to the next decision to willingly let Christ rules their lives moment by moment till the end. This is possible only when the Christian is totally convinced that “the ways of the Lord are right (v. 9).” One cannot second-guess the Lord and be a faithful servant of the Lord at the same time. Not everything in the spiritual life will make sense to our human mind, but a godly life demands total trust in the Lord and in his word.  

 “The ways of the Lord are right.” Trust him.

May the Lord richly bless you!