Sweet Summer Sunday

Today was a good day. This morning Josh and I got ready for church and headed off to the Central City First Baptist Church. As you can see the church itself is pretty large. We were greeted and made a game-time decision to sit in the "upper deck" They had a baptism of a 9 year old to start the service so that was exciting. Next they welcomed any new visitors and told visitors to remain seated so that everyone would come to you. We got a lot of good, firm Kentucky handshakes and were then handed some visitor cards to fill out. There was an adhesive name tag to detach and then the completed cards were to be put in the offering plate. We felt a little funny with the name tags, but they weren't very sticky so we kept our identities concealed for the time being.

The pastor did a good job with the sermon over Hosea 1:1-11. Since this book is not often covered, most people wonder who in the world is Hosea? We could say he was a man of God, a "good catch", romantic, articulate, poet, a great guy, everything you could ask for, someone their parents are glad their daughter is dating. But God told Hosea to take an adulteress wife, named Gomer. We could describe her as an adulteress, promiscuous woman, a harlot, impure, immodest, unfaithful, the party girl, "damaged goods".

Hosea is obedient to God and marries her. Soon Gomer gets bored with righteousness and gradually, little by little, drifts back to her own ways. Gomer gave birth to children of which their names mean "God scatters", "not loved", and "no kin of mine" for she engaged in relations with other men and bore their children outside her marriage to Hosea. Although she was unfaithful, Homer remained faithful to her and to God. But Gomer still rejected both Hosea's and God's love. Gomer eventually went to a man that sold her into slavery. The man cared nothing for her. She was brought to the auction block and Hosea came. He spent everything he had to get her back. We often think Hosea should have washed his hands of Gomer and let her reap what she deserved. She deserved to die and definitely didn't deserve Hosea's love. But Hosea bought her back anyway. He took her in to live with him again. He shows the love and grace to Gomer that God also showed him. So what is the purpose of this account of Hosea's life? There are many comparisons that can be drawn. The first is that Hosea represents God as Gomer represents the nation of Israel. Israel had fallen away from God and began to worship other gods but God would redeem them as Hosea did with Gomer. In a similar way, we are in the position of Gomer in the eyes of God. Although we continually fall short of his commands, disobey, and prostitute ourselves to other Gods (money, entertainment, social status, etc) He still loves us. God shows love no matter what we do. It has nothing to do with what you have done. There's nothing you can do to make him love you any more or less. He doesn't love you because of what you do, but he loves you in spite of what you do. We are all sinners and we are saved by God's grace if we repent and live a righteous life. This is the story of the unfailing redemptive love of God. Even when we don't feel loved by anyone else, God loves us. We need to learn to love when it hurts us to love. God is speaking to the lost when He says, "come home. It's not too late".

After the service we were greeted by a couple more people and then head back to the apartment. For lunch I made spaghetti and then we rested. I took a walk in the late afternoon and picked some blackberries on the bank of a small creek down the road. Josh went for a run and then a bike ride and then we ate apples and chunky peanut butter on the deck as the sun set. It doesn't get much better than apples and chunky peanut butter in a Kentucky sunset. It was a good day, I pray everyone out there has a great week.

AMS

Cool Pillars

Upper Deck Status

Where's the spot for social security number?