Recently I began carrying again my old worn Bible I had retired to the bookcase - it was falling apart. It is the one made of bonded leather full of napkin parts, envelop corners… anything on which I could scrawl my latest thoughts.
Here is one I wrote as I studied through the book of Hosea:
Why do we pursue harlotry?
Because we’ve abandoned God?
Why have we abandoned God?
The sin that separates us from the Love of God.
Not because we “misbehave.”
So, where do we start?
(Hos 6:1) Convincing people that they are LOVED by God.
Not by beating them over the head with their sin.
I want to repent and replace the first person plural with the first person singular. I am the one who pursues harlotry. I am the one who needs to stop beating my own self over the head with my sin.
I am the one who needs to be convinced I am loved by God.
I now dare to give myself some direction in the matter:
Be still. Be alone. Listen. No matter what it feels like; no matter what else you “want to” do. See “I love you” in Jesus’ gaze.
Listen to the voice of God in others… above your own voice. You would never speak to others the way you speak to yourself. Let your friends speak to you, think for you, be Christ for you.
Ponder the Cross. He did that for YOU. Go there, be there. Hear the pain, smell the blood. Let Jesus’ blood-curdling shrieks penetrate your own heart. You were His motive. Jesus’ own Daddy abandoned Him… imagine that pain.
He’d do it again…just for you.
Here is one I wrote as I studied through the book of Hosea:
Why do we pursue harlotry?
Because we’ve abandoned God?
Why have we abandoned God?
The sin that separates us from the Love of God.
Not because we “misbehave.”
So, where do we start?
(Hos 6:1) Convincing people that they are LOVED by God.
Not by beating them over the head with their sin.
I want to repent and replace the first person plural with the first person singular. I am the one who pursues harlotry. I am the one who needs to stop beating my own self over the head with my sin.
I am the one who needs to be convinced I am loved by God.
I now dare to give myself some direction in the matter:
Be still. Be alone. Listen. No matter what it feels like; no matter what else you “want to” do. See “I love you” in Jesus’ gaze.
Listen to the voice of God in others… above your own voice. You would never speak to others the way you speak to yourself. Let your friends speak to you, think for you, be Christ for you.
Ponder the Cross. He did that for YOU. Go there, be there. Hear the pain, smell the blood. Let Jesus’ blood-curdling shrieks penetrate your own heart. You were His motive. Jesus’ own Daddy abandoned Him… imagine that pain.
He’d do it again…just for you.
Jesus, keep me near the cross,
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.
Refrain
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.
Refrain
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day,
With its shadows o’er me.
Refrain
Near the cross I’ll watch and wait
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand,
Just beyond the river.
Refrain
(Near The Cross by Fanny Crosby)
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