As I read this passage from Hosea I think about the church
today and see many parallels. Here,
God's complaint is that the nation has whored after other lovers and left Him,
her husband, behind. He implores the
children of Israel to call the nation to account for her adultery. What, specifically is He talking about? "For she said, ‘I will go after my
lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my
drink.’" The nation has believed
that other gods have provided what God Himself has done. His reaction is to take away all these things
and expose her nakedness without His provision so that her lovers will reject
her in her shame. Giving in the church
is about 2.5% of income or about 25% less than the percentage given by Christians
during the depression. About 20% of
church-going evangelicals give exactly nothing.
What does that say about us? Does
it say that our treasure is elsewhere and does it say that we, like the nation,
have forgotten He is our true provider?
Either the kingdom of God is our ultimate treasure or it is
accounted of less value and worth than something else. Where do we invest our lives, our time,
talent and treasure? Jesus says that we
have yet to see the kingdom if we aren't willing to fully invest these things
in the kingdom of God. These parables
sound wonderful in our ears but the reality is that we aren't living into them
at all in western Christianity. By any
reasonable measure we are lukewarm Christians and that is not a good thing (see
Revelation
3.14-22, the letter to the Church at Laodicea). The world will never value the kingdom of God
unless Christians do.
"if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a
perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body." Can James really mean that? If I don't stumble in my words and I able to
bridle my body? The tongue is indeed a
serious problem for most of us. I bet
many of you had some words to say or that came to your mind when you read those
first two paragraphs but where is the error?
When we get defensive or when we self-justify we continue to live out of
step with our "faith." Indeed,
the tongue tells the tale on many of us.
The most amazing thing in the book of Job to me is that after he lost
his wealth, his children, and his health it could be said of Job, "In all
this Job did not sin with his lips."
Why? He didn't want to lose the
kingdom, the one thing remaining was the hope of the kingdom. He suffered the loss of all else and held his
tongue but when the friends attacked his hold on the kingdom, righteousness, he
spoke.
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