Turmoil in your home? Want to escape your current boss? Feel like 'People are stupid!' The world seems against you. Your efforts seem wasted. Is God truly your Lord and master or have you given yourself to something else right before His face?

Whoever DOES God's will is part of the family of God ...NO ONE else!
(Mark 3:35)

 

...And ONLY THOSE can sing this song ...

"I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. I've been washed in the fountain; cleansed by His blood. Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod..."

 

NO ONE can come to the Father unless the Father draws him. (John 6:44)

 

Jesus said, ... the Father IS IN me. (John 14:10, 11)

... and ...

"When I am lifted up I will draw ALL men unto me." (John 12:32)

...and ...

"No one comes to the Father but by me." (John 14:6)

 

So ALL people HAVE been drawn ... And God draws His people with bands of love... (Hosea 11:4)

 

But it is the responsibility of the individual to HEAR.

God's word also says, "Be careful HOW you hear." (Luke 8:18)

Those who have heard will understand more and those who have distracted themselves will lose even what they thought they had.

 

There IS a mystery to the kingdom of God. To those living outside this mystery, scripture will be not much more than a collection of stories. They will see things, but not truly perceive them. They will hear messages, but not truly understand their application to life. Otherwise, if they truly perceived the secrets of living in the kingdom of God, they would turn from God-LESS habits and be converted to a right way of living and thinking and their sins would be forgiven.

In some who hear a verse of Scripture, Satan comes and steals away any thought of that Word. Some find a verse that brings them joy and refreshment as they read it, but they never root it into operation in their life. The joy of enlightenment and delight lasts only until trial overwhelms them and they are scandalized. Others hear or read a verse, but their lusts, which they have made a habit of gratifying, and their desire to find a way to make more money enters into their thinking and the instructions of the Word bear no fruit in the life of that individual. The 'good' man will read or hear Scripture and receive it as applying to themselves and will be obedient in the application of its principles.
To those who truly enter in, secrets of God's kingdom will be revealed.  (Mark 4)

 

God's word through Hosea is plea to HIS people...

 

HOSEA (my own personal paraphrase for today) ...

By fornication, they shall depart from the Lord. Like a wanton woman, this land is unfaithful and worthless to the Lord. (1:2) Plead with her (the bride of the Lord) put away her fornications from her face; to banish her lovers from her bosom. (2:2) She has committed fornication, for she said, 'I WILL pursue that which I will: it pleases me.' (2:5) So I will block her way and put obstructions in the path she wishes to go so she will no longer follow her old ways. She shall pursue that which she will, but will not find satisfaction. She will know that it was better with Me, who has provided for her all along. For I will take away my provision.  And there will come pubic disgrace to her. I will put a stop to her playing and regular dedications with which she has pleasured herself. She will suffer want of provision because of the distractions that she has entertained herself with and invested in and through which she 'forgot' the Lord. (2:6-13) So I will allure her and lead her into the wilderness; and there I will speak to her heart. (2:14) When the worthless has been cut away and true escape has been made from the things that distracted, then I will bring rest and peace and we will become espoused together forever in justice, judgment, mercy, commiserations, and faith. I will say, 'You are mine' and she will say to me, 'You are my God.' (2:15-24) 

[The 'she' here is YOU and ME, who claim to belong to Him)

 

The Lord will enter into judgment with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth, or mercy, and no knowledge of God. Cursing, and lying, and killing, and adultery, have abounded, with licence. So the land, its animals and people, will languish and pine away. But let NOT any man judge. It is not for any man to prove their case. They are like those who contradict authority. My quarrel is with the false priest. Priest? You blunder on and on. My people have been silent and are ruined because they have no knowledge of God and have forgotten His instructions. The more priests there are, the more my people sin against Me. But people and priest shall be treated alike: I will punish them for their conduct and reward them according to their doings. They have committed fornication because they have forsaken God in not observing His law. They behave like a wanton woman, but their lust is never satisfied. Their capability to understand has been taken away because the spirit of fornication deceives them and they commit fornication against their God. They like the comfort of the things in which they delight. So their children will do the same and their spouses will commit adultery. But I will not visit judgment on their children or their spouses because they themselves 'converse with harlots' and 'sacrifice with the effeminate'. They do not understand, but they will be beaten. And he who partakes with idols, just leave him alone. He has gone astray by fornication.  He who should have been protectors bring shame upon their dependants instead. He will remain confounded and deluded. (ch.4)

 

So hear this: there is a judgment against you who are in positions of authority and leadership, because you have been a snare to those whom you should have watched over. They will not set their thoughts to return to God because fornication is in them and they have not known the Lord.Their misdeeds have barred their way back to God. Pride will be the answer in their face and they will fall in their iniquity. They will go to seek the Lord but not find Him. He has withdrawn from them because they have been unfaithful to Him. They are raising children who are strangers to God. They are under oppression and broken in judgment because they go after that which God considers filthiness. They doggedly pursue what is worthless.  They see their sickness and bondage but choose to run after yet another 'lord' to serve. So I, the Lord, will return to my place until they are consumed and seek my face in their distress. (ch.5)

 

In their affliction they will come to me. They will intend to know and follow Me saying, 'Let us humble ourselves and strive to know the Lord.' But, oh, how shall I deal with you? Your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the morning dew that melts away. Loyalty is my desire, not regular gifts. Knowing Me and what I desire, not occasional devotions. (ch.6)

 

When I would have healed him and reversed his fortunes, iniquity was discovered and his guilt was revealed. He had not been faithful to me. And lest he admit and confess that I, the Lord, took notice of and have remembered his wickednesses, he has surrounded himself with his own devices and explanations, even before my face. He has chosen the favor of man rather than Me. He is an adulterer. There is no one among his company that calls unto Me. He is like dough that is mixed but never proven or like a pancake never turned, raw on one side and hard and burnt on the other.While they are relaxed all night, long their passion slumbers.  But the next day, it flares up again. Strangers have devoured his strength, but he does not know or recognize it happening. He is unaware or else ignorant of it. His pride has been humbled right in front of his face and yet he still has not returned to God's way nor sought His will and way in spite of his misery. He is become like a decoy, wooden and hard with no heart that can be affected...he is unimpressionable. He continues running here and there for solutions and comfort. But I will spread my net over him and bring him down yet again. He will be wasted because he continues to be departed from Me and what I want him doing. I redeemed him, paid for him, and long to deliver him from his current state, yet he comes up with ideas and beliefs about Me that are not true. He has NOT cried to Me with his whole heart. There is no sincerity in his prayers.   Instead, he whines upon his bed. He lies there and thinks about how he wishes things to be or what he wishes he had or the pastimes he entertains himself with, but stays departed from Me. I HAVE chastised him, and I HAVE given him strength, yet he imagines wrong about Me. He relapses back into old habits. He returns to Me only to be rid of a yoke he detests. He is like a bow gone slack. He will fall because of the rage of his own tongue. (ch.7)

 

Let there be like a trumpet in your throat, because my people have violated my covenant and rebelled against my instructions. They will call upon me, 'O my God, we know you', but they are loathsome to Me. They have chosen to pursue the things they ought not, and so the enemy pursues them and has his way with them. They have made decisions and follow pursuits without consulting Me. They have used their money and time to invest in their idols and in the things they adore apart from Me and for themselves. Their idols stink! How long will they be incapable of being cleansed? They are the invention of man ...a workman MADE these things. Yet they 'sow the wind' and 'reap a whirlwind'. There is no lasting fruit of their work, and the fruit of the work they do receive is given to strangers. He is swallowed up and feels like he is seen as good only for the occupations no one wants ...alone in the world. Yet he continues to give time and attention and resources to that which he loves and which makes him feel appreciated. Nevertheless, I will continue to draw him with my net, and I will give him a little rest. But because his dedication is to many things apart from faithfulness to Me, they are become for him a practice of sin. I have given him my instructions in many writings, but he regards them as invalid. I will not receive the portion he offers to me, but will bear in mind his continuing iniquity and he will find himself once again under an unpleasant yoke. Because you 'forget' Me, but remember to give attention to your own choice of dedication, I will send a fire upon your accomplishments and a devouring of your dwelling place. (ch.8)

Rejoice NOT in that which the world rejoices. Do not exult like others do, for you have committed fornication against your God. You have loved an idol. You have loved a reward upon every 'threshing floor' that offers 'reward'. But these do not feed but rather deceive you. You will not dwell in the Lord's blessing because you give yourself to other service and partake of that which God considers unclean. You are polluted. What you do for the Lord will not please Him, for your 'bread' is nourishing only your own soul and shall not enter into His presence. The days of repaying are come. Understand now that the prophet was foolish and the spiritual man was mad because you are so filled with your own iniquity and madness and guilt. You have sinned deeply. You have alienated your own self to confusion and become as abominable as the things you have loved. Your root is dried up and he yields no fruit unto righteousness. (ch.9)

 

He is a vine full of branches with fruit agreeable to him. And according to the abundance of this agreeable fruit, he increases the investment of that which he can give. He has had many idols. His heart is divided. He is nothing but talk: making promises he does not keep, and all to no purpose. Shame shall fall on him and confusion and he will feel the shame of his disobedience. Thorns and thistles will grow over the things he has spent so much of himself on. So he will grow weary of life. From long ago he has continued his sinning and taken his stand in rebellion. According to my desire I WILL chastise him. It will seem like everything is against him for two deeds of shame. Sow for yourself in justice: do what God wants you doing and you will reap what loyalty deserves. Receive the reward from mercy given to others. Break up your fallow ground: be done with your apathy and negligence to the things of God. It is time to seek the Lord and He will teach you what His way of living looks like. You have been ploughing wickedness into your soil and you have been harvesting the fruit of treachery and mischief. Because you have trusted in doing things your way, turmoil is rising up in your house and your safeguards are broken down. (ch.10)

 When he was a youth, I loved him and called him my son. I called him a away from the bondage of the world. The more I called him, the further he went from Me. And as the things of the world called to him, he pursued them and gave himself to them. But I was like his foster father and carried him in my arms. Yet he did not know that it was I who kept healing him as he became sick again and again. I led him with bands of love and lifted him like a little child to my cheek and provided his needs. But he refused to return to Me.  Now, he will have another lord and master because he refuses to be converted. He will long for my return, but the yoke shall remain upon him. Oh, how will I deal with you? How will I protect you? My heart is stirred within Me. I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath, because I am God, and not man.  And they will walk after the Lord, because He shall roar like a lion and they will fear Him. Then they will fly like a bird out of the land of their bondage and I will establish them in their own houses. (ch.11)

 

He had surrounded Me with denials and deceit. He is still loyal to the idols he counts good and set apart. Yet, he has fed on the wind and followed after what is 'hot'. All day long he had increased his desolation and multiplied deception. He makes covenants with that under which he binds himself and gives to them of his own substance. Therefore the Lord will render to him according to his devices.
Turn back all of you by God's help. Practice loyalty and faithfulness to His way of living and wait always upon your God! And yet, there is a deceitful measure of balance in his hand and he loves his deception. He says, 'I have all this investment to my credit: I have found me an idol'. But all his gains will not pay for the guilt of his doings. I have been your God even while you lived in the place of bondage. I will make you live with little in the wilderness, once again, as in days gone by. I spoke to you through dreams and through people. Did you go after idols? Yes, you made yourself worthless and gave yourself to serve them. You have given God bitter provocation, so the Lord will bring on your own head the blame for all you have done. (ch.11:12-ch.12)

 

When they mumbled their prayers, God himself denounced them. They were guilty of idol worship and good as dead. Yet they have sinned more and more and gave themselves to dedications that resemble idols: all of which are the workmanship of man. So you WILL be like a morning cloud or like the morning dew that passes away: like dust driven by wind: like smoke from a chimney. But I am the Lord thy God and thou shalt know no God but Me, and there is no savior besides Me. I knew you in your desert. I cared for you in the wilderness as if you were in good pasture. But according to where you grazed and what you fed yourself upon, you were filled and made full and lifted up your heart and let pride control you and forgot Me. So now I will be like a panther to him; like a bear robbed of her cubs. Destruction has been your own choice. Your only help should be IN me. I will give you a master in my wrath and I will take him away in my indignation. Sorrows like a woman in labor will come on you. You are an unwise son, because at the proper time you refused to become born new. Though you flourish among reeds, a blast from the Lord will come upon you, rising from the desert. Your source will dry up and your treasures will become the spoil of the enemy because you have rebelled against your God. (ch.13)

 

Return to the Lord your God, for you have fallen because of your wrong courses. Prepare words and go before the Lord and say to Him, 'You do not endure iniquity. Take away all our iniquity, and receive the good. We will keep our promises. We will no more serve the works of man's hands nor will we seek after them. In You is found a father's love'. And I WILL heal their branches. I will love them freely, for my wrath will be turned away. He will spring up like a flower. His root will shoot forth. His branches will spread. He will have glory and become a delightful fragrance. He who sits under the shadow of the Almighty will be converted. He will partake of God's provision. He will blossom. He will say, 'I have nothing more to do with idols.' And I will hear his prayers and make him flourish, for his fruit shall be found to be from Me.'

Who is wise and will understand these things? Who is prudent and will do them? For the ways of the Lord are right. The righteous will walk in them, while sinners will continue to stumble. (ch.14)