Monday, February 25, 2008
Ok, so heres the deal for the morning
1. You pray the Sign of the Cross
2. You offer God your day
This just means that you tell Him everything thats coming up that you know
of, then you say "take all that I think, do, and say and I unite it all with
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass" So this way your small sacrifices are being
united to His all-powerful and saving sacrifice on Calvary.
3. You read the Bible Passage. Then pause for like a minute or two.
4. Ask yourself 2 Questions:
a. What is the keyword or theme of this passage?
b. What does this have to do with me?
Hosea 2: 8-9, 16-17
"Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,
And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her
paths.
"She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them
Then she will say, 'I will go back to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!'
"For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new
wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the desert
And speak to her heart
"Then I will give her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
"It will come about in that day," declares the LORD,
At the end of the day, before you go to bed,
Ask yourself 2 Questions:
1. How did God love me today?
2. How did I love God today?
3 comments:
Okay, seriously Brian! I think you're just doing the top 40 Bible verses ever... I LOVE this one!!
wow.. i second that. This one is just LIKE... the kind of thing that hits you in the stomach.
I don't even know how to relay what i'm thinking. Actually, does someone want to explain the first part of the passage to me? It's different... Usually, God's like, "I will take away the thorns, and tear down the walls!" But here, it's different. Is it that he's putting up a wall between her and something bad? I don't know.. there's just something about that line that really strikes me, but i don't really know why... Strikes me in a good way, that is, i just don't know what...
I also really like how she says she is going back to her "first husband," cause it was better then. Has that ever happened to anyone else? I've actually talked a lot about this with someone. LIKE, after God's taken a hold of your life, and you've been shown all this goodness, there's something about your old life that is calling out to you. This is so weird, cause it's really happening to me right now. And I think, not only am i struggling not to fall back, but God's challenging me to take one more step forward... And this has actually really been on my mind lately. Seriously... you know how sometimes you're like, "it could have been like this, or it used to be like this, or i just miss it!"? Probably not, my mind is strange. But then i remember, how much pain i was in before. It's so weird how you remember the good of all the bad, but you forget how bad the bad was. Does anyone follow? FOR EXAMPLE, lol, LIKE a bad relationship. When you're in it, you're like, man, this sucks. And you finally get out of it, and you're like phew, this is better. But then later, you look back on the relationship, and you remember all the good things. And somehow you seem to forget how bad it really was. Maybe it's just me... That's just an example i heard someone else use, but it's perfect, i think. Anyway, i guess for me right now.... is that i have to keep reminding myself how bad things were before. And how much different things are now. And about that step forward, i don't know. I've been feeling a nudge in my heart to take it, but it's like i'm standing at the ledge, and i'm waiting for something... but i don't know what for. It's like a part of me is waiting for some kind of affirmation, and another is worried about leaving the comfort of the cliff... anyway... just my thoughts...
Ok, can you bear for me to go on some more? It's Brian's fault for picking such an awesome passage! I really like how He's like, "YES, i GOT IT, what I'm going to do, isss bring her into the..... DESSERT!" Not, "I'm going to show her all these other amazing things that are as appealing as the thing she is leaving." But He's going to bring us into the dessert, and speak to our HEART! And then from there, there is will be HOPE and SONG. Iunno, i just think that is cool...
i'm done now :)
A little background...
Hosea was a prophet who God asked to marry a prostitute. So, he married this woman, but she was unfaithful to him and kept running around with other men. That is why Hosea is putting barriers up between her and these other men. That's also why he says she will come back to him, her "first husband."
In the end, after a lot of waiting on Hosea's part, his wife did come back to him and was faithful to him. "I will take her to the desert and speak to her soul." Beautiful!!
And in the big picture, God uses this story as an analogy for his relationship with the chosen people, the Israelites, and now, all of humanity. He has "married" us, but we continue to be unfaithful to him... worshiping other gods, disobeying his commands, generally ignoring him and leaving him out of our lives... but God will allure us into the desert and speak to our souls and "romance" us there. And eventually, we will all hopefully return to God and become faithful to him alone.
And Emma... I think your note makes perfect sense. So no... you're not crazy. And it's not just you. :)
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