Brown's Daily Word 10-26-11

Good morning,
Thanks be to Jesus our Lord for this new day. We will gather for our mid-week fellowship and Bible study followed by choir practice this evening. We are studying the Book of Hosea.
Our God does strange things at times, things we don’t always understand, things we can’t categorize, things that don’t fit into what we think we know of him.
It is a mistake to think that everything God asks us to do will be easy. It is also a mistake to think that we will always understand what God is up to. At times, it even may appear that God has acted in a way contrary to His character. But God is in the business of speaking to us in ways that are beyond our comprehension. It was a strange thing when He asked Abraham to slay his son, Isaac. It was strange when God told Moses to stretch out his rod over the Red Sea to part the waters. It was a strange thing when God spoke through the mouth of a donkey to save a prophet’s life. It was a strange thing for God to ask Noah to build a boat three-football field length when it never had rained before. It was a strange thing when God asked the Jews to slaughter animals so that blood can be shed for the atonement of sins. It was a strange thing that the walls of Jericho fell down from marching and shouting.
God asked His prophets to do many strange things. For instance, our God asked Ezekiel to eat a scroll, a book which would represent Him eating the Word of God and to then go to Israel to deliver a message. He also asked him to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 more days to represent the number years Israel and Judah will be punished. Ezekiel was also asked to preach to a valley of dry bones so that they would come to life.
Jeremiah was asked to construct a yoke complete with straps to wear around his neck to demonstrate the yoke of bondage around the necks of Israel. Isaiah 20:3 - Then the LORD said, "My servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last three years. This is a sign – a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia.
God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach, although Ninevah was one of Israel’s greatest known enemies. Ninevah was so brutal that they would leave the carcasses of their enemies in the middle of the street piled up.
God asks Hosea to something strange, but powerful as God brought together in marriage this prophet and a prostitute in order to send a nation a message they could not ignore. This prophet represented faithfulness. He represented unfailing love for an unfaithful woman. What a man Hosea was in having more love than hatred, more blessing than bitterness, more patience than pity. He demonstrated obedience to the nth degree. Submission to God he wore like a mantle. He also demonstrated dedication and commitment to a woman he knew was going to do him wrong. He knew she was going to cheat. He knew she was going to leave him. He knew she was going to go downtown. He knew when he saw the kids that they didn’t have his eyes or his ears. He knew she would eventually marry another man. Yet he married her and loved her anyway! Hosea would provide for her, protect her, clothe her, and care for her, but in spite of all of that she still cheated on him. In spite of what he offered her, she still wasn’t satisfied.
The prophet Hosea represents our God who is eternally Faithful and Forgiving and always mercful. (Lamentations 3:22-25) "It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him."
On the cross the Lord Jesus paid the price, the full price for our freedom, and bought us back. This is the story of God’s love and God’s heart -- his loving desire to make of his people the full persons he intended them to be.
In Christ,
Brown

http://youtu.be/iPeVIuRjUi4
An Evening of Music Festival, sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church :
Saturday OCT. 29,2011 6:30 PM at First United Methodist Church, Endicott, Special evening of musical praise and worship. Various Christian musicians will be participating in this special evening as they offer their gifts and talents to the Lord. A love offering will be received that will benefit needy families in
the community. Some of the musicians are Aric Phinney, Grant DeGaramo, Vin Rosenbarker, Dianne Glann, Laureen Naik, Yancey Moore, Emma Bronson and others.