What a Powerful Love! Part II

I hope this finds you all blessed and prospering in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. I also hope you had time to read up in Hosea about the story of Hosea and Gomer we were discussing in Friday's post. If not, that's quiet alright because you will still be blessed as we conclude our story.

We left off with Gomer leaving her husband and returning to her life as a prostitute. It is interesting to note that she left a very well provided home to return to a life most of us would find repulsive, but I assure you that we have an enemy that can and does make anything look and sound good.

So now we have a devout man of God who is suddenly left to be a single parent of two small children, and he knows tat his wife is out committing adultery, as that is what prostitutes do. Most men would immediately call it quits if our wives or girlfriends cheated with one man, but you can safely assume she had several.

So what did this man who was by now the talk of the town do? You know how people yap and gossip nowadays. Just look at all the public hoopla that happens when a preacher, his wife or kids fall from grace today. They are ostracized and damned to hell. For example, look at Jim Baker, James Robinson or Jimmy Swagart. They all fell, repented, and by all reports are serving God faithfully today. Now despite what you may feel about televangelists, they are not all crooks trying to con you out of your money, but I am using these as examples. Despite their public apologies and despite all the good they have done for the Kingdom of God, mention them today to a majority of Christians, and you will hear how bad they are and they will be thoroughly condemned to hell.

That's what Hosea was going through. Here was a prophet of God who was tasked to take oracles from the Lord to the people and the king. His reputation, authority, and standing in society was very important, and it his day and time he needed all the help he could get so people would believe his report came directly from God.

And now this! His wife had committed sin. So what was a man to do. In this day and age, the preacher would immediately divorce his wife, publicly condemn her, and she would never be welcomed or invited to a church in the entire city, county, and probably state.

Know what Hosea did?

He loved her anyway!

He began to look for her. He searched high and low, stopped into every store, called and visited all her girlfriends, and no one had seen her lately. He was at the end of the line, and dejected and afraid she was dead, he began the slow walk back home.

What would he tell the kids? What about his parents? What would he say in church? He was void of just about all hope.

On his walk home, he happened to walk by the slave market, and upon glancing over one of the slaves caught his eye. He looked more closely, and could it be? She was awful dirty, bruised and naked but there she was, his Gomer. She was in big trouble, as her last client had beat her, kidnapped her, and was now selling her as a common slave.

Hosea ran over and begin to bid. And he purchased back what was his. He should not have paid such a high price, because she was already his. But he did. He took her home, cleaned her up, and once again treated her like a queen. But it was different this time. Gomer came to realize just how much her husband loved her.

And we don't know what happened that pushed Gomer over the edge and made her leave, as the bible leaves that to our imaginations. Maybe it is just like most preachers and teachers say, she was just a sinful woman who hadn't got it out of her system. But what if Hosea had actually had something to do with it. I don't know, and this is pure conjecture and is not told in the bible, but I can freely assume this without violating God's Word or changing the bible to suit me, so hear me out.

What if Hosea served God so devoutly that he began to neglect his duties as a husband and father? Trust me, it happens often to preachers nowadays and is the prime reason why most ministers leave their ministries. Maybe they had a big fight, maybe he had really screwed up the finances again and again, who knows but just fill in the blank here and you'll get the point.

I can hear you naysayers and legalist saying, "Oh, but preacher, Jesus said to divorce and remarry if adultery were committed." (also if your spouse died, see Matthew 5:31-2) But I must point out to you to read Mark 10:1-12 where Jesus taught that divorce was allowed because of the "hardness of men's heart," not because of the sin. remember the story of the woman caught in the very act of adultery and the Pharisees were about to stone? They asked Jesus His opinion, and He replied, "He that is without sin cast the first stone," and the people walked away ashamed. When the woman, in answering Jesus' question, told Him her accusers had left, He refused to condemn her, but told her to go and sin no more. Divorce was allowed, not commanded in either testament for adultery. And remarrying was ONLY allowed in instances of adultery and death.

So, he forgave her, and by all accounts they remained married the rest of their lives.

God used this story as an example of His love for Israel, and later for the entire world. If you put this together with Abraham's near sacrificing of his only son, you can begin to realize just how much God really loves you. These are striking, bold, and almost vulgar examples, but it still could not possible show us just how much God really loved us.

In Hosea, we see how, despite her continual sin, Hosea still loved his wife and would go through any cost to get her back. He paid way more than a normal price for a slave; he should not have had to pay one penny! She was already his! But he loved her that much.

Imagine now Abraham and Isaac. You may be familiar with the story, but if not, take a minute to read in in Genesis chapter 22. Suppose you and your husband or wife had tried for many, many years to have children and could not. Nothing the doctors could do helped, but you always remained faithful and held on to a little hope. Then you went through menopause, and with that, your hope died. Now there was none. But lo and behold, you feel sick and out of sorts, and after going to the doctor you find out you are pregnant! Then you give birth to a beautiful boy, and your heart is full of so much joy, you name him laughter! (Isaac in Hebrew=laughter)

Then God commands you to give him up. Not only give him up, but you are to kill him with your very own hands.

Sounds hateful, but you know what that is? Love.

Another quick example: Suppose there is a worldwide plague of swine flu that has mutated and the death rate is 100%. No hope. Then at the hospital it is found out that your only son had the antibody needed to make a vaccine in his blood. The whole world can be saved by your little boys blood. But there is a catch...it will take all of his blood and he will not survive. The decisions yours. Save the world, or save your son.

Are you getting it yet?

Think those stories are unrealistic? Each situation is just as real as the computer you are looking at. The entire human race was headed for an eternal death. All they would have had to do was serve and believe in God and repent of their sins, but they refused. They laughed and totally rejected God. They kept on and kept on committing spiritual adultery. And the only way to make a provision for these creatures that God loved so much would require His only Son to shed His very own blood.

All of it.

God is all powerful and mighty. He holds the entire world in His hands and causes our every breath not to end in death. Even now, He still creates new stuff every day. He could just as easily allowed the world to perish and start all over. But you know what?

He loved us anyway.

So much so that the Bible tells us that not only did He send His Son to die, but because He was in total control of the entire universe, He ultimately had to kill Him. Not only that, but He loved us so much that the Bible also said He took delight in causing His Son's suffering. And when Jesus cried out from the cross...

God turned His back on Him.

All so He wouldn't have to turn His back on you.

Now friends, that is love.

You may ask yourself, "How could God kill His only Son, or let Him die, or allow evil people to live?"

Because He loves you that much, and is not willing that any should perish.

That same God will soon send His Son, who not only died but also lives again (don't believe that, go take a look at His grave in Jerusalem...He's not there) to get all those that believe that He died and rose again, and then He will finally destroy His creation and all living things that remain.

And at one point in another, we all have to make that choice.

And friends, I can tell you from experience the joy that comes when someone you love so much it hurts, tells you they forgive you and that they love you too.

True love never fails. Despite what your friends or family tells you, hold on for a little while longer and God will see you through.

Because He has made provision for you.

Praise God who reigns in heaven above, yet live in my heart below, forever and ever.

Interested in meeting this God and His Son? I can introduce you! I don't have the link up for the Plan of Salvation, but if you are just reply to this post or send me an e-mail and I will get back to you as soon as I return from Church tomorrow.

Thanks for all the encouraging words and well wishes!

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads out there, and Praise God for all you Moms that put up with us!

I love and cherish you all and pray that this blog blesses you as it has me!

What a Powerful Love! Part 1

I hope this finds you all doing very well. It has been well over a year since I posted a blog, and it has been a year full of battles, heartaches, and even a miracle or two. I wanted to post a quick one to let all my subscribers (or at least the ones still left) that I have redesigned a little of the blog and will start this thing up again. I will be adding more links later and will eventually have a full service counseling site up and running.

My favorite subject has always been love. If you read my earlier posts, you will find that I think that love is the most powerful weapon we Christians have in our arsenal. I have preached and taught on the subject on many occasions, but just did not feel in my soul that I was getting the message out. Then I went through a trial so fiery that it almost destroyed everything I held sacred! Of course the Lord delivered me through it, but in the process He allowed me to finally "get it." By it, I mean love.

I will go into details in a later post, but to sum it up, I nearly lost my wife of almost 15 years very recently. It was nothing like adultery or domestic violence, but it was mostly my fault. I had hurt her so deeply that she became so angry and bitter that we almost called it quits. After many tears and false starts and stops, and despite all of our friends and family totally giving up on our marriage, God led us through and she forgave me, and now we are like newlyweds. We still have some things to work through, but this sacred union is intact, Praise God.

But looking back, I began to think: If I loved her this much, I mean so deeply and intently that it hurt and felt like my soul was being ripped from my body, how much more does God love us? I mean, we all know John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life," but what does that really mean? The Bible tells us that, but where does it explain just what "so loved" mean? We Christians claim to know, but do you really? Go ahead and try to explain it to someone, then. Harder to do than it sounds, huh? But God being who He is, He gave us a few examples in His Word so we could know just how much that "agape" love really is.

Look at the book of Hosea, for example. Hosea was a righteous man who was just about as perfect as a man could be without being God. He was a prophet, and was blameless in his work and actions. So God decided He was going to show Hosea just how much He loved His people, so He commanded this well thought of "church man" to go and marry a woman. Not just any woman, but a .............whore. Yes, you read that right. A prostitute.

But here is the good part. Not only did God tell her to marry her, because anyone could marry someone and then immediately divorce them, but no, God also told Hosea to LOVE HER!

And he did.

But she did not love him back. Oh, it was fine for a while, but before too long, Gomer (his wife) started longing for her previous life. Hosea gave her all her heart desires, but she still did not love him on the same level as he loved her. When it was convenient, she was the best wife in the world. But Hosea was a boring old prophet, so she left him. And she went back to being a whore.

Have you ever loved someone so deeply that it hurt, only to have them not love you back? The bed is cold, the son or daughter steals from you, the husband turns his head when you try to steal a kiss. You get the message.

But the story does not end there.

In my next post, I will finish up and share with you what God showed me through Hosea and Gomer thanks to a fellow minister that obeyed God and preached a sermon that probably not only saved my marriage, but more importantly saved both my wife and my souls as well. I am burning to share it with you now, but this has already gone on too long.

Please forward this to your friends and invite them to subscribe as well. And feel free to post any comments or questions you may have, even disagreements. And keep checking back for part two and for our new website to be up.

Until then, may the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ richly bless you and keep you!

Jesse

Ramblings

Hello all, I hope this finds you all doing well. We are blessed of the Lord and enjoying an evening at home with the family. I was sitting at my desk just letting rambling thoughts bounce back and forth in my head and thought I would share a few with you.

If 80% of America believes in God and with more Churches than the rest of the world combined, how come there are still homeless, hungry, and hurting people in our country? I mean, think about it; Jesus' teachings and guidance for the Church were pretty simple: Feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit the prisoners, and take care of orphans and widows. But then again, and this is directed at you Pastors and leadership out there, is your church doing all of that? You mis-read that, not this or that, but all of that? That could be part of the solution there, huh?

Or maybe we don't need to believe IN God per se, but just BELIEVE God.

Now that's a concept. Just imagine what would happen if we just believed what God has promised! If one believer with faith the size of a mustard seed can command a mountain to jump in the sea and have it obey, what if a whole Church had that much faith? What about two churches? Now how about all of them? Wow, would we get things done!

All of this debate we are having in Washington and all the other problems facing our country...gone. We wouldn't really need health care reform because the 80% of us who were Christians would just go to the Great Physician. We could actually elect folks that believe what we do, and the ten commandments would be posted wherever we wanted to post them.

Man, what a concept! Of course, all would not be perfect, as that will not happen until Jesus returns to earth, but it sure would be better than what we have now. Preachers are leaving the ministry in record numbers, all Churches outside the Assemblies of God and the Church of God saw reduction in membership last year, according to Time magazine. And of those 80% that believe in God- fewer than half believe Jesus is the only way to heaven and only 27% believe in a real hell.

Of course, this all must come to pass before the end, but it sure is frustrating to watch from a ministers perspective.

I say lets just take a first step and just stop attacking each other. We have hundreds of denominations, and true we have many differences. But what we share should trump all of our differences. Most of our differences are over really petty things; when it comes to the only true thing that matters, we are pretty much in agreement. That is the Gospel of the Blood of Jesus Christ. I will admit that there are many gray areas, and many questions that we do not know the answer to, but we DO know that there is One God manifested in three distinct offices of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that God sent His Son Jesus to die on a cross, and that by His Blood all men could be saved. We believe the Bible is His Word that He gave through the Spirit so that we may know Him and become closer to Him. All that He wants us to know is in there. He may reveal more to us for clarification, but will never show us, reveal to us, or teach us anything contrary to His word.

Is that not enough? Sure we can differ on how women should dress or style their hair, whether predestination means all men were chosen and then choose to reject God, or that only certain men are chosen, whether justification comes upon repentance or Baptism, the King James Bible is the only true Bible or any of those other things we disagree about. We can disagree- but lets not condemn each other. The ONLY way to get to heaven is through Christ, of that there is no debate among real Christianity...

Right?

The Blood is powerful...surely it can bring us together to tackle that whole hunger, hurting, homeless, drug addiction thing.

And we know that at the end there will be two distinct Churches- the true one that is raptured and the Apostate one that deceives humanity. You can find both today.

I was actually thinking about much more, but this just started flowing once I began and I know I will get hundreds of e-mails telling me your way is the only way and your church is the only church.

So before e-mailing and wasting your time, let me go ahead and reply here, for it will be the same to you all:

Christ is the Only Way, and HIS Church is the only Church. Read Romans and Hebrews if you are not sure where yours stands, and hit 1 Corinthians while your at it, and it will answer all of your questions.

What a promise!

The Lord says, " I will rescue those who love Me. I will protect those who trust in My Name. When they call on Me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue them and honor them. I will satisfy them with a long life." Psalms 91:14-16

What a promise!

Are you feeling a little weary right now? Yeah you. maybe in a little trouble...maybe just feeling lost, or maybe are lost.

Re-read that verse. Do you love Him? Then He WILL rescue you from whatever it is. This may be drug addiction or any other sin, or may be a clod marriage, a wayword son, a lonely wife. This does not promise "if it is His will, or if we pray hard enough," it says I WILL.

Do you trust Him? Don't have to be much. Just try it. Tell Him right now "I trust you Lord. I may not see the outcome, and I may not know the answer, but I trust You and know that you do". Still don't feel convinced? Keep telling Him. He will take care of the rest.

Have you called on Him? Or have you tried to fix it yourself first? Maybe we should call on Him first and then follow His guidance. It will come (see trust above).

Now notice the last part. The King of all ages, who deserves all honor and glory and has no reason to do so, but still promises to "rescue them and honor them and satisfy them.

OK, no scoffing till you've tried it.

This works in Germany too (love ya Sis).

Until next time, may His Peace and Mercy be upon you!

Brother JR

Funny touching video

Hey, here is a funny post I did using a collection of funny military pictures I collected from friends from Iraq. These represent American, British, and Canadian soldiers entertaining themselves. Nice to know soldiers could at least have a little fun in trying circumstances.

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KosXMQEO2s

ACLU Attack

Our beautiful, quiet, rural community has been sued by the ACLU on behalf of a Baptist Ministers Son to remove the ten commandments from our small county courtroom!

The ACLU states that now is the time to attack these rural communities because of the economy; most do not have the money to fight back, so most will settle out of court. The gentleman who filed the complaint states that he is a christian, but just is interested in the separation of Church and state. The fact that he is a newcomer and having financial difficulties and him asking for financial compensation due to "pain and hardship" have nothing to do with it.

Yeah right. Fighting God for money is a very dangerous ground.

I have volunteered to spearhead the community action against this, so please pray that our community of 99.9% Christian will not sit on their posteriors over this and will rise up together and stand against this. Our Judge Executive has vowed to fight this at enormous political risk, so pray for him as well. If we win, they will have to pay court cost...but if he does, our county will go bankrupt.

Pleas pray and please feel free to post ideas on organizing our community and any suggestions you may have.

One quick update on my health: Cancer Free!!! Can a get a Praise the Lord!

Can we get over our differences and unite under the one thing that we all have in common, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of His Blood. All of us, regardless of the sign outside the door, have at least this in common. Lets put the petty arguments aside for a second and rally around our God and our community. The ACLU supposedly upholds and fights for our constitutional freedom. Even though it was started by a communist and tramples Christian rights daily to uphold the minorities rights. One person can stop the rights and choice of the rest of the county. MM, MM, what is this world coming too.

SO pray...I have contacted Liberty Counsel, Sean Hannity, Bill Oreilly and other "Conservative" public figures, so pray that they step up and show that they are true conservatives and not just "anti-democrats".

I will define true conservatism in a future post. We CAN as a church support politicians without being partisans and without interfering with the healthy aspect of Separation of Church and State...without advocating a Theocracy, but just upholding the rights given us by our Constitution.

Thank you in advance for standing with us in prayer. I will keep you all updated on our progress!

Until next time, may the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ richly bless you in everything you do!

Brother JR

Still Here

Hi all, just a quick note to let you all know I am still here. To say the last few weeks have been challenging would be a gross understatement. Please keep us all in your prayers because we are really going through some things right now as a family. A lot of times God delivers us from some things, but yet sometimes He chooses to deliver us through them. But know this; God is concerned! And He's working it out, and we will come out the better for it.

I do not want to get into specifics, but just know that when you pray, God knows what we are going through and what we need before we even ask, so just mention us...He will know what you are talking about. I look forward to posting a testimony after we have overcome these obstacles in Jesus' name. The ministry is still going strong, although I fear that it is suffering due to our battles. But again, we still have our Jesus and still are soldiering on. We have quiet a few folks nearing the end of there "victory" over their addictions, and hope to have them post their testimonies on the web site. May God bless you in all you do, and thank you all so much for the kind e-mails offering support and prayer, and even the ones asking if I had died or something (got a chuckle out of them). Again, God bless and keep tuned in, because we are anticipating a victory and having a rip roaring summer.

PS: Please pray for me for June 6, as I will be performing my first wedding (did the whole funeral thing last week...). I am excited about it, but a little nervous as well. Been in the ministry a short time, but this is the first time I was asked to do this. Also remember to mention our mission trip to Africa in October, and our mens conference at The Potters House in Dallas, which I pray I will be able to attend. God Bless!