Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Hosea 1-7: Personal Experience


Hosea 4:1

Amplified Bible (AMP)
Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy (a pleading contention) with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness, love, pity and mercy, or knowledge of God [from personal experience with Him] in the land.

Hosea 4:6

Amplified Bible (AMP)
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

WOW!!!  These are some serious and sobering verses!!!
Most think about knowledge as gaining information, using facts and developing contexts.  But the knowledge referenced has little to due with using our cognitive processes and a whole lot to do with engaging our hearts in a personal and dynamic relationship with the One, True God!
Engaging my heart...which includes my emotions, my thoughts and my will to seek after a personal experience with God will keep me from destruction.  
It's personal experience with God that guides our path through this world, not the religious exercises of tradition.  Religious tradition seeks to bind our hearts to it, giving the illusion that if we attend a service or perform righteously or lead within the church structure, that we are safe from destruction.  
Although these things are good things, these things do not have the power to save!  
Jesus is the only One with the power to save us from eternal destruction!  By cultivating personal experiences with Him, our soul is taught to walk in His righteous ways, our spirit is bolstered with His Holy Spirit and our physical body is strengthened.
Holy Spirit, continue to reveal Jesus to us.  We require more personal experiences with the God of the Universe.  In the great and awesome name of Jesus!  AMEN!!!

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