A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure. Proverbs 16:9 AMP.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29 NKJV.

Two of my devotionals were germane to trying to share all that I received this morning. Some mornings are packed full! From Hearing God by Dallas Willard: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Consider carefully what you hear…With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Mark 4:23-24. People who don’t hear God insist He doesn’t speak to them, but perhaps their hearing is not “in tune.” Radio and television messages pass through our bodies and brains all day, but we aren’t appropriately tuned receivers so we can’t pluck them from the air. In the same way, we are showered with God’s messages, but they go past us because we are not attuned to God’s voice. Some of Jesus’ deepest teachings are about hearing. He taught in parables so those who did not really want to hear the truth could avoid it. He explained that not everyone has ears for the straightforward purpose of hearing, so they use their ears to sift out what they don’t want to hear. He urged His hearers to make a great effort to hear, assuring them that the measure they received would be proportional to the measure of their desire and effort. Reflect: Consider to what “measure” you are willing to hear God. What sorts of things would a person do who was immeasurably willing to hear God? What would his or her life be like? How different would it be from yours today?” And from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers: ““If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Romans 6:5. Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness. The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God – His complete and effective divinity – to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house – He invades all of it. And once I decide that my “old man” (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to “reckon” that I am actually “dead indeed to sin”, because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness – the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.”

I know this is long, but please bear with me because our chapter, Hosea 9, shows God’s heart and why it is so needed for each of us to bear our cross – our own sins – and crucify them with His help, and follow Him. Israel didn’t do that. Look at what happened! Do not rejoice, Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor…The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac…They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins…Because of their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of My house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious…My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; they will be wanderers among the nations. v. 1, 7, 9, 15, 17. Listen to the possibility…“When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree…but the result of our actions…But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.” v. 10. Can we see how it’s our very own sins that cause such hurt? God’s law is not evil. And we need the Holy Spirit to appreciate just how beautiful is the way of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. Listening to the news of our day is like reading these verses; and what is in my own heart that needs to be crucified – never felt so personal. I judge harshly. This morning in our Friday Retreat on Zoom, we learned of the death of one of our members. And one of our family group, a pastor in Kenya, asked us to pause and share what we knew of him, how he impacted our lives. He shared that in Africa, when someone dies, they let it go deep and they share memories together. Life is important. And in my ignorance, I can easily write off whole continents of people I judge to not care about people because of the violence in their lands…and how could they not look at the violence in my own country and yours and not think the same? My cross. Thinking I’m better than anyone else. Judging others without knowing them or their lives and life experiences. God helps us see what we shy away from because it’s so ugly. He does it out of great love because He knows what we will become with His help. Not what we are now or what they were then without Him, but what we will all of us be with His love healing us. Jesus, the Son, did His part in taking the sins of this whole broken world upon Himself to be crucified. He will help us take up our own personal cross of sins to be healed that has already been forgiven in Him. Thank You, Creator God, for so great a love!