Hosea ( Psalm 81 v 7 - 16 )

Hosea the prophet had a bad marriage ,he married a promiscuous woman, Hosea loved her dearly,but it made no difference.God was in it all.The loving husband and the unfaithful wife has a deep spiritual meaning,it illustrated God's faithful love, to the unfaithful nation of Israel. Time after time God forgive Israel,and time after time they did the same wicked thing,turned from Him,to other god's and wicked ways.Thy suffered greatly for their sinful ways,they never appeared to learn to be faithful,and to walk in holiness .They had only themselves to blame, Derek Kidner writes ,'Sin not only alienates ; it saddles one with guilt,and guilt is written all over this nation, not only by the shamefaced looks that normally betray it, but by the very brazenness that would deny it.' One has said that God knows the worst about us,and yet persists with us'.  God is merciful,but there will come a point that is if mercy is  spat on, it will give way to judgement,only God knows that point, it will happen, Genesis 6 v 3. The last verse in the book of Hosea reads,

                                           'Who is wise? Let him realise these things.

                                            Who is discerning? Let them understand.

                                            The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous

                                             walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them'

                                                            Someone wrote.

                                                 'To turn aside from Thee is hell,

                                                  To walk with Thee is heaven '

Rituals { Galatians 5 v 1 - 6 )

 Bruce Milne writes the following as regards the rituals of non- Christian religions,here is what he writes ,' Whenever people depend upon fulfilment of ritual observances to alleviate their consciences before God. These  rituals of the non- Christian  religions cannot cleanse the heart. Jesus alone is the way to God, empty ritual, however, can arise also in the context of the Christian faith. Receiving baptism( by whatever mode), taking communion( in whatever church) attending worship (with whatever regularity), offering prayers (of whatever length ), giving money(  of whatever amount), in themselves, do not, have not,will not, and cannot save us from our sins and their inevitable judgement.' None of these things can save us,only Christ can do that.

                             ' Not what my hands have done, can save my guilty soul,

                               Not what my toiling flesh hath borne, can make my spirit whole.

                               Not what I feel or do,can give me peace with God,

                               Not all my prayers and sighs and tears, can bear my awful load.

                               Thy work alone O Christ, can ease the weight of sin,

                              Thy blood alone,O lamb of God,can give me peace within.'

                                                          Horatius Bonar.

9(

Temptation ( 2 Timothy 3 v 18 )

 In  2 Corinthians 10 v 4, we read,'The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary , they have divine power to demolish strongholds.'  As Christians we are in a warfare against ,the world ,the flesh , and the devil,it is important to remember that.The good thing is we have a powerful helper,God,His word,and prayer, we have not been left to cope on our own,we have been given  everything we need for a godly life  (2 Peter 1 v 3),Christ has not left us orphans,we have the wonderful Holy Spirit within us,He can help us to overcome all those things arrayed against us.The devil is ever active,24/7 yes he does not have a day off so we must be on our guard.The devil is our enemy remember that,and so it is important that we know our enemy,in 2 Cor 2 v11 we read in regard to Satan,'we are not ignorant of his schemes'.He came to tempt Jesus when he starving Matthew 4 v 2, so he tempted Him on that ,Jesus reminded him that we need more than bread,we need Gods word.He tempted Eve as regards what God said Gen 3 v 3-4,so many people who are Christians are believing his lies\,remember the Devil is a liar.indeed the father of lies,( John 8 v44.).We need not be overcome by this tempter, we are told that we can resist the Devil (James 4 v 7),but to do that effectively we must submit ourselves to God ,that means depend on Him,be obedient to Him,in other words ask the Saviour to help you,He is willing to aid you,He will carry you through.

Temptation 3 (Isaiah 41 v 10)

Now we have been considering something that we all experience, when we are faced with temptation,the question is,will we yield to it or resist it?  The words of a hymn come to mind ,'Yield not to temptation for yielding is sin'.When we give into it,we sin,and that that effects our relationship with God,and it is vital that we repent of that sin,and confess to God ,and if we do God will forgive us ,no matter how awful that  sin was,he will forgive and restore us to fellowship.( Isaiah 1 v18/ 1  John 1 v 9). Again we consider the words a hymn,  'Ask the Saviour to help you......He is willing to aid you,He will carry you through'. Remember God is only a prayer away,His ear is open unto your cry and He will help you, also the effects on you and others if you yield to temptation, you will be remembered by people not for the good you have done,but for the wrong you have done. Also if we sin ,having yielded to temptation,we have to live with a guilty conscience,and live in fear of being found out,it can be very painful. It is not inevitable that we will yield to sin,God can withhold us from sinning  (Genesis 20 v6 ).

                                                'Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin,

                                                 Each victory will help you some other to win;

                                                 Fight manfully onward ,dark passions subdue,

                                                 Look ever to Jesus,He'll carry you through.'

                                                                 Horatio R. Palmer.

Temptation.2 ( Genesis 3 v1-7 )

 Now let us consider the source of temptation,I will let Jame answer first of all.' Let no one say when he is tempted, ''I am being tempted by God'',  for God cannot be tempted by evil,and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. ( James 1 v 13 - 14) The word tempt literally means to prove or to test, one writer puts it like this ,' Let no one who is tempted (to sin) say that he  is tempted by God,'' God does not tempt anyone to sin.'James points out that our fallen nature which we all have ( Jeremiah 17 v9 ) is one of the root causes of us yielding to temptation..James puts it like this we get,'carried away and enticed by our own lusts.'  'Even as Christians we can give house-room to our evil desires, in the Lords prayer we have the following words,' Lead us not into temptation'( Matthew 6 v 13),but alas so often we run blindly into temptation,did not Judas do this?,the answer is yes.Now the other source were temptation comes is from Satan ( Matthew 4 v3 / 1 Thessalonians  3 v 5) He is a heartless being who is described as being like a roaring lion who wants to devour us.( 1 Peter 5 v8 ) The devil is not  seen by the world as a real being,but to us Christians we are in no doubt that he exists. We will continue this next time.

Temptation 1( Matthew 26 v 41)

Every day many people pray,'Lead us not into temptation',whither we pray those words or not,the fact is we will all face being tempted,that means everyone,of every age,of every colour, of every nationality. Temptation does not go away,it will be with us till the day we die,it is only then will we get rest from it.There is no place were you won't be tempted,Adam and Eve were tempted in  paradise,one can tempted when one is praying,or sitting in church. There are no,no go areas,as regards temptation,going into religious order is no guarantee,that you wont be tempted.If you were a castaway on a desert  island you would will still be tempted.Ministers of God ,religious activity will not shield them from temptation,that may make them more vulnerable.I want to stress this very important point,being tempted is not a sin, no matter how wicked and evil it is,it only becomes a sin ,when one yields to the temptation. We will continue to consider  this subject next time 

Galway (Ephesians 2 v 1- 22 ) 1

On the west coast of Ireland there is a city called Galway, it is an old city,the meaning of the name Galway means ,    'Town of  foreigners,', I suppose it goes back to when it was a town.I suppose the fact that I come from Northern Ireland and now live in England I could be classed as a foreigner,although I have never felt that I am foreigner,Writing to the Christians at Ephesus Paul reminds them of their former condition as Gentiles, that like all the unsaved , they were spiritually  dead in their sins,and all that meant. It didn't stop there there for he goes on to say as regards their position, 'that they were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the  covenants of the promise,without hope and without God in the world'. There was deep hostility between Jews and Gentiles ,especially on the Jewish side ,who considered them no better than dogs created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell.So they were alienated  from  God's people Israel. Unfortunately Israel forgot to their shame that they were meant to be a light to the nations,the kingdom of God was never meant to be an exclusive club, we will continue looking at this next time.