For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Christmas is coming soon. Let us remember what it is truly about, the birth of Jesus Christ. Let us strive to not be caught up in the commercialism which is what this season is about for many in our society today.

    When you flatter your friends (and in this context, “flatter” means telling them good things about themselves that are not true) you are setting them up for devastating failure.
    The evil will allow their desire to sin lead them into a trap. The righteous, who reject the sin, will avoid the trap completely, shouting for joy at their good fortune. The godly care about the poor, not only do they care about the poor, but they care about their rights. The wicked do not care about anyone but themselves, and their actions reflect it.
    The last of these proverbs reminds me of what is going on in Ferguson, MO. There are agitators stirring up trouble there. The proverb writer tells us that they are mockers and fools. If they were wise, as they would have us believe, they would be calming things down, not stirring them up.

    This psalm reminds me to look at my life and think about what could have been. When I look at my life, where would I be if God had not been on my side? If He had not been looking out for me? It would not have taken much to be different for things to be much worse. I made plenty of bad decisions over the years, but none of them turned out quite as bad as they could have, or as I deserved. If God had not been on my side, the suffering in my life would have been much worse. I thank and praise God for all He has done for me.

    This passage starts out with what, at first, appears to be circular reasoning. If we love God, we will love His children and we demonstrate that we love His children by loving God and obeying His commands. However, some thought reveals that there is an important point here. It is not enough to obey God’s commands and it is easy to say that we love God. We need to demonstrate that love by our actions towards our fellow believers, who are God’s children. However, John wants us to understand that we cannot truly love our fellow believers without believing in and loving God. John is addressing both those who want to make Christianity purely about a one on one relationship with God and those who want to make it purely about a relationship with the “Body of believers” (quotes used because this latter group does not actually believe).
    John changes subject slightly as he concludes this letter. However, here again John expresses what at first appears to be circular reasoning. If we ask God that He do His will, He will do as we ask. However, it is more a matter of knowing that as we seek His will, He will listen to our prayers and give us what we want. However, God will not give us what we ask for if what we are asking for will cause us to become less in love with Him.
    I am finding it hard to get this to come out right. So, I will use an illustration. If we ask God for a shiny new car, but if we get that car we will start to value that car more than doing God’s will, God will not give us that shiny new car. On the other hand, if we ask God for a new car so that we can use it to something that it is His will that we do and we will be better able to do that with a luxury vehicle, God will give us a luxury vehicle.

    Hosea married a prostitute/promiscuous woman. The passage tells us that God instructed him to do so. I do not know if God told him to marry a specific woman who was promiscuous, or if he was supposed to seek one out to marry. I don’t think it matters for the point of this passage, but I have always wondered. Every time I read, or hear, this passage I feel sorry for Hosea’s children. What terrible names to go through life with.
    Through Hosea God told the people of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, that they were not His people. Yet the day will come when they will once more be God’s people. The interesting thing I noticed is that although Hosea was speaking against the Kingdom of Israel, not the Kingdom of Judah, he tells us that the people of Judah will go into exile as well as the people of Israel. We find this out when Hosea says that the people of Israel will reunite with the people of Judah, and together they will return from exile.
    The key element of today’s passage is when God tells Hosea to go and love his wife once more, even though she was committing adultery. This is to illustrate that God will take back the people of Israel even though they worship other gods. I believe that it represents how God will continue to love us even though we sin and worship things other than Him.

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     God gave Hosea a difficult ministry. He started by instructing Hosea to marry a prostitute. Hosea’s wife had three children. One God told him to name for a valley where the power of the Kingdom of Israel would be broken. The second and third he was to name, “Not-loved” and “Not-my-people”. These names were a message to the people of the Northern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel. God was telling them that He would no longer love them above other peoples and that they were no longer His people. Yet despite all of this, Hosea prophesied that the people of Israel would multiply until they were like the sand on the seashore. Then, in God’s time, He would call them back and they would be called the children of the living God.
     Hosea prophesied that the day would come when all of God’s people would be united under one ruler. Today we are the children of the living God and tremble in awe of the Lord and His goodness. I am in awe of the good things God has done. He has brought the people of Israel back to the land He gave to Abraham. He has called people of every tribe and nation to be His children. I will praise God every day.

     If we believe that Jesus is God’s anointed One, we have become God’s children. If we truly love God, we will also love all of God’s children. If we truly love God’s children, we will love God and obey His commands. Jesus came by water (baptism) and blood (dying on the cross). In addition, God’s Spirit testifies to the truth of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection. God Himself testifies about the pivotal role of Jesus in the salvation He is offering us. Those who believe in Jesus believe God. Those who claim that Jesus never lived, or was just a man, and/or did not rise from the dead are calling God a liar. If we accept Jesus as the Son of God, we will know in our hearts that this is all true. I cannot prove to you that God exists or that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. That is something you will have to accept on faith. However, if you do accept it on faith, before very long, you will not just believe it to be true, but you will KNOW it to be true.
     John then tells us something about prayer similar to what James had said. He tells us that we can have confidence that if we ask God for something in order to fulfill God’s will, God will hear our prayer. And if God hears our prayer, He will give us what we ask for. The key here is that we cannot be asking in order to bring glory to ourselves or for our own pleasure. Rather we need to be asking in order to carry out God’s will. As we come to love God more and more, carrying out God’s will will bring greater pleasure to us than anything else we can imagine. Carrying out God’s will will bring greater pleasure to us than anything we could have experienced before we came to this understanding. John concludes this letter by reminding us to keep as much distance as possible between ourselves and anything that might take God’s place in our hearts.

     This psalm reminds me to look at my life and the difficulties I have faced and think about how bad they would have been if God had not been on my side. If God had not been on my side, my troubles would long since have overwhelmed me. To some degree my troubles were less than they could have been because of the personality traits which I have as a result of my faith in God, but to a significant degree, I was saved by divine intervention. I will praise God for all He has done for me and will remember how much worse my life would have been without God on my side.

     Flattering someone is setting them up for failure (flattery is not just complimenting someone. It is telling them that they are better than they truly are). The wicked are trapped by sin and do not even know it. The righteous recognize sin for the trap it is and rejoice when they escape from it. Someone who lies, cheats, and in other ways shows that they have no morals is lying when they say that they care about justice for the poor because they care for nothing but themselves. On the other hand, those who value honesty and integrity above all else, will fight for justice for the poor because without justice for the poor, there is no justice for anyone. Mockers can get people angry and looking for change, but the wise calm people down and get them to work together to make things better.