Dear Hope family,

For those who do not get the WhatsApp messages, welcome back. I have had an amazing time visiting projects we support in Uganda and Zambia (see video link below).

Thought for the Week

Message of Hosea – God is ready to welcome you back

Hosea 1v10 “In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called, ‘sons of the living God’.”

I plan to do a little series looking at the message of each of the “Minor Prophets” as we call them. They are short books at the end of the Old Testament. They each deliver a prophetic message to the people of God.

God had chosen the people of Israel because he had loved them. However, they often did not return that love to God. On the basis of his love and salvation, he told Israel to love and serve Him above all. However, the people were easily allured by the pursuits of the people around them.

God uses Hosea’s family to demonstrate the problem. First, his children are given names reflecting the situation, and then his wife leaves him for other men. But Hosea is called to welcome back the estranged wife.

God says that the people of Israel are like his wife: when they were under a covenant with God, they were committing adultery with the idols of the nations by worshipping them as well. But God says that he is ready to welcome them back despite their unfaithfulness. While God condemns the plurality of their hearts and declares they are “not my people”, he also offers hope as he holds out his hand in the above verse and says that they will be called “sons of the living God.”

God is calling us too to serve him wholeheartedly, with total commitment to him. As he speaks into our divided hearts, he offers hope: hope of restoration of a complete relationship with Him. God is reaching out to you in love. Why not receive his love and forgiveness and be welcomed into a deeper and more committed relationship with Him?

With love and blessing,

Roland