Two certainties.

In  “The Cobbler of Preston” (Christopher Bullock; 1716) appears the line, “Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes.”, and the sentiment has been echoed on a number of occasions, by a number of well-known people.

However, I would suggest that there are two other certainties, referred to by the prophet Hosea, in the book that bears his name. He writes, concerning YHWH "... He has torn, that He may heal us; He has stricken, and He will bind us up." (Hos 6:1).

I know that Almighty God punishes those who deliberately break His laws - those who are sinners in His sight. And that, as I stated on Wednesday, included my friend; it includes me; and it includes every person who has ever lived - with the solitary exception of the Lord Jesus. "... all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ..." (Rom 3:23) writes Paul - and that "all" includes you and me.

However, I also know that Almighty God forgives those who repent, and turn to Him, through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. These are two certainties that I have sought to preach, clearly and distinctly, throughout my pastoral ministry.

On Wednesday of the past week, I conducted the funeral service for an English friend who, with his wife, had been living in France for some seven years. A brother in the Lord; John had been suffering from cancer for many months but, on the previous Thursday, his mortal body had succumbed. His widow asked that I would conduct the service because, to use her own words: "We sing from the same hymn-sheet"! She knew that I would bring the Gospel message into whatever I said at the funeral. And I did!

I commenced the message by possibly shocking some of those present with the announcement that John was not dead! What was in that coffin was the mortal body that he had been given and that he used for almost 80 years. The man that we knew – some of us better, and for longer, than others – was not there.  He was, and is, with Jesus! How could I be certain? Simply because at 45 years of age, John recognised that he was a sinner! That's the first certainty.

John had a 'church background'; He believed in the existence of God. He knew about Jesus. But, as he shared when he gave his own testimony, he didn’t have a personal relationship with the Saviour. However, in middle age, he discovered that the very God against Whom he sinned, loved him so much that He had already done something about the situation! In the Persona of the Son, Almighty God took upon Himself human flesh – that very flesh that He had created – and came to live among mankind. He lived a quiet, unassuming, hard-working, life for about 30 years but then became a wandering Teacher and, eventually, as we shall shortly be recalling at Pâques (Resurrection Day), was crucified, and buried in a borrowed tomb.

John confessed his sins, and his sinfulness; he acknowledged that he could never do anything about them; he accepted that, at Calvary, the Son paid the penalty that he deserved to pay; he was born anew of God the Holy Spirit; he became a true son of Almighty God – joint-heir with the Lord Jesus, the Christ; he moved from death to life – a life that continues even although his mortal body has reached the end.

One of John's favourite Bible verses is found in John’s account of the Gospel, in 14:6. It reads « Jesus said …, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” » There is only one way – and that is through the Lord Jesus. Anything else is counterfeit. I cannot earn my salvation; I cannot buy my salvation; I do not deserve my salvation. It is, as Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers “… the gift of God …” (2:8).

Two certainties: As surely as the sun rises in the morning, the judgement of Almighty God will come. But His mercy is just as certain for those who turn from their sin, to the new life in the Lord Jesus.

May all who read this post find that new life for themselves.

What's in a name?

When a couple are expecting a child, one of the exciting things that they tend to do is to think about what name(s) they will give the baby when it is born. When my wife was pregnant, we had chosen two sets of names - one if the baby should be a girl, and another if the baby should be a boy. Today, of course, the gender of the unborn child may be known from quite early on in the pregnancy - giving the lie to any suggestion by the pro-abortion lobby that what is aborted is merely an amorphous lump of cellular material!

In the last post, I looked at the Old Testament prophet, Hosea, and how he was commanded by Almighty God to take a wife - who would be unfaithful to him! However, as we read the book that bears Hosea's name, we discover that his marriage to Gomer appeared to have started well. Before too long, their first child was born. What name would they give this little boy? They didn't name him after his father - or after any other relative. Instead, in obedience to God, they gave him the name 'Jezreel' = 'God shall scatter' for, said YHWH, "... yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." (Hosea 1:4-5; see II Kings 10:1-11).

Then gradually, Gomer's interest in her marriage began to fade and, soon, the symptoms of an extra-marital affair began to show - unexplained absences; unreciprocated love; endless excuses; etc. However, although Hosea's suspicions were surely growing, it was not until the arrival of a second child - a daughter - that his doubts became certainty. "And YHWH said to him, “Call her name 'Not pitied', for I will no more have pity on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will deliver them by YHWH their God; I will not deliver them by bow, nor by sword, nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen." (Hos.1:6-7).

After this little girl had been weaned, this unfaithful woman bore a second son. "And YHWH said, 'Call his name 'Not my people', for you are not My people and I am not your God'." (Hos.1:8).

What a sad story! According to the law of the time, Hosea was entitled to have his wife stoned to death for her repeated adultery. However, he chose to forgive her. His love for her was too strong to be broken by her infidelities. Of course, he was considering God's particular interest in his marriage. It was, after all, to be a visual aid for Israel, enabling them to see what was happening in the bigger 'marriage' between themselves and their Covenant God.

This, Hosea declares to the people. Speaking the words of YHWH, he says: "Plead with your mother, plead - for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband - that she put away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked  and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a parched land, and slay her with thirst.

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Upon her children also I will have no pity, because they are children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot;  she that conceived them has acted shamefully." (Hos.2:2-5).

As I look around me, I see so much of that which claims to be the Church - the Body of the Lord Jesus, the Christ - acting like the kingdom of Israel. I hear those who have been ordained to the ministry of the Word, diluting it; diminishing it; denying it; destroying it. Those who proclaim from their pulpits that when Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6), He didn't really mean that He is the only way! Those who support the 'marriage' of persons of the same gender, in spite of it being contrary to the clear teaching of the written Word of God. Those who appear to be happy with the latest fad of 'transgenderism', by which I may simply declare myself to be a woman, and society must treat me as such - including allowing me to share the ladies' showers at the gym: a veritable pervert's charter!

There are those who claim that it is only by conforming to the standards of the contemporary culture that the Church can survive. Yet I see those denominations, and congregations, that espouse this point of view continuing to lose members (many of whom were only 'paper-members' in any case!) hand over foot. Perhaps they need to return to the Word; to reflect on the inspired words of Paul that we should "... not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom.12:2).

Of course, all of us may learn from Hosea, and the patience and forgiving love that he displayed towards his wayward wife. We will be learning from the Lord Himself - Whose love for us is beyond anything that we can think, or imagine. As I shared recently, in a preached message (you may hear the message here: http://www.eel-bergerac.fr/message%20du%2001.10.17.mp3 but I should warn you that it is in French!), He cannot love you any more than He already does - and Calvary proves it!

Walking the walk, not just talking the talk!

It's been a while since I posted on the subject of marriage. It is, however, a very important subject - perhaps more than ever in these days when its God-ordained status is being increasingly downgraded - not least by the fact that, Biblically, it is used as a picture of the relationship between Almighty God and His people: El Shaddai and the Children of Israel under the Old Covenant; and the Lord Jesus and the Church under the New Covenant.

The 'Minor Prophets' are a group of Hebrew prophets whose writings are gathered together, in English-language versions of the Bible, at the end of the "Old Testament". However, this is not the case in the Hebrew Old Testament (the Tanakh). One of these men, whose book is at the beginning of the Minor Prophets, is named Hosea, and his message is more than interesting! The book that is named after him commences with these words:

"The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Be-eri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. When YHWH first spoke through Hosea, YHWH said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits great harlotry by forsaking YHWH.” So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son." (Hos.1:1-3).

Read those words again - carefully! Did you catch on what Hosea was commanded to do? Not simply to get himself a wife - nothing unusual in that - but to be married to a prostitute!

Hosea came into prominence some 700 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, during what was a period of stability in the northern kingdom of Israel (Ten tribes; Judah, to the south, was composed of the other two tribes). Indeed, it was known as the "Golden Age" because of Israel's military, political, and economic strength: the greatest since that of the united kingdom under Solomon. Morally, however, she was rotten to the core! She had turned her back on the one thing that made her unique - her faith in the Covenant God Who had redeemed her from bondage in Egypt.

I suspect that I was not unusual when I proposed to the young woman who became my wife. I had high expectations for our marriage, and anticipated that any problems we encountered would be met by the two of us together.  However, when God spoke to Hosea at this point in the nation's history, and commanded him to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him, he "proposed" knowing that, right from the start, his marriage would be plagued with deep and disturbing problems. 

Why would God lead one of His chosen prophets into a marriage of such a kind?! The answer is provided in those opening words: "...  the land commits great harlotry by forsaking YHWH." or, as another translation puts it: "... for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord." (NIV). In Exodus 24:3, we read that, after the Children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt, they entered into a covenant relationship with YHWH (the Lord) that they would be faithful to Him. The vow that they made to Him was similar to a marriage vow. However, by 'flirting' with other gods, the nation was guilty of adultery. So, in effect, God is saying to Hosea: "I need your help! I have marriage problems. Stick to Gomer, no matter what happens, and perhaps the nation will understand, through you actions, something of my undying love."

Hosea faced an astonishing request from God - not only to preach His message, but also to live it!

"Words", the old adage has it, "are cheap!". A similar proverb reminds us that "Actions speak more loudly than words!". Personally, I have to be honest and confess that, if God had given me a challenge similar to the one He gave Hosea, I would have had great difficulty in meeting it! Yet Hosea's is the level of faith to which all who own the name of Jesus are called - a faith that trusts Him, even although it cannot see the way ahead. Indeed, that is the only true faith. William Barclay states, somewhere, that for the disciple of Jesus, "faith is spelled R.I.S.K."

Are you willing to stake your all on Him today? Are you willing to walk the walk - or merely talk the talk? 

As up-to-date as tomorrow's newspapers!

Those who read the Bible with any level of understanding will appreciate what used to be often claimed that, in its basic teachings, it is not a bundle of irrelevant ancient documents, but is, as the title of this post says, as up-to-date as tomorrow's newspapers!

This was, once again, brought home to me during my personal devotions this morning.  Having completed my time in Paul's letter to the disciples of Jesus in Galatia, I decided that I should return to the books of the Minor Prophets, in the Old Testament.  These are the closing books of the OT, starting at Hosea and going through to Malachi.  I should perhaps point out that they are referred to as the "minor" prophets, not because they are less important than the 'major' prophets, but merely because their writings are shorter!

It is always useful, I would contend, to familiarise oneself with the background to any Biblical text before attempting to read it, and learn from it.  Accordingly, I picked up a commentary by Warren Wiersbe - in my opinion, one of the finest Biblical commentators of this generation.  In his introduction to Hosea, I read the following: "Israel was enjoying great prosperity, but Hosea could see that the nation was rotten to the core; for honest government, pure religion, godly homes, and personal integrity had vanished from the land.  Judgment was inevitable."

The book was published in 1996.  Twenty years later, those words are, surely, even more true of most of the so-called "western" countries, than they were back then.  I read my daily (online) newspaper; I receive additional information through e-mails; I am inundated by Facebook messages that also inform me as to the state of the world in which we live.  Sadly, I see that "... honest government, pure religion, godly homes, and personal integrity ..." are in as short supply today as they were in Israel [the northern kingdom; the southern kingdom, at that time, was referred to as Judah] at the time of Hosea.   In the UK there is a Prime Minister who appears, to many, to be an inveterate, almost pathological, liar.  The major, traditional, Christian denominations are almost indistinguishable from the world to which they should be an example, and a prophetic voice (like Hosea!).  Godly homes are almost as rare as hen's teeth.  Personal integrity seems to have become little more than a phrase from antiquity.

Is it too much to suggest that judgement is inevitable?  Indeed, is it possible that we are, in the 'western' world, already tasting that judgement?   When child sacrifice, under the name of "abortion", is practiced on a scale that would horrify even those who practised it millennia ago in an attempt to appease the 'deities' they worshipped, but merely because a pregnancy, and the responsibility of a child, would be "inconvenient", what right have we to claim that we are the civilised ones? When deviant sexual relationships are accepted as being perfectly normal, even although they are incapable of producing children, what allows us to call our selves "progressive"?  When people are murdered, under the label of "euthanasia", because they have reached a certain age, and are no longer 'productive' members of society, how on earth may we call ourselves loving, caring, and compassionate?

All of the above - and there is so much more - is in total contradiction of the teachings of the Bible, and the will of the Creator God Who, through His servants, authored it (see II Tim.3:16).  However, Paul, writing to those Galatian believers in the letter that I have just finished reading again, warned them: "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." (Gal 6:7-8).  As a society, I fear that we are beginning to reap what we have sown - and it is not pleasant!

A mighty man of God named Moses, spoke to the Children of Israel shortly before his own physical death.  Listen to these words, spoken towards the end of that discourse: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life , that you and your descendants may live, loving YHWH your God, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deut 30:19-20).

Have you chosen life?  It's readily available to you, and in a measure greater than was offered to those people all of those millennia ago.  Because the life that is offered to you is the very life of Almighty God - eternal life, here and now.  It is something that you can never deserve; never purchase; never earn.  It is offered, as a free gift, to those who are willing to confront, and confess, their sins - and their total inability to do anything about them - but who come to the foot of the cross of Calvary, and accept, by faith, that God has done it all, in Jesus the Christ.  He has paid the penalty that you and I ought to pay, that we might know salvation, full and free.  When you take that step, you become His child, adopted into His family: "How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be His very own through what Christ would do for us; He decided then to make us holy in His eyes, without a single fault - we who stand before Him covered with his love.  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And He did this because He wanted to!" (Eph 1:3-5; TLB; emphasis added).

Like me, you may live in a world that appears to be "going to the dogs".  Like me, you may enter a new relationship; a new family; and have a new future.  The choice, always, is yours.  Make the right one!