“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 14: 6
12 “Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22: 12-13
Pastors Noreen & Henry Kevern
Hosea, A Story of God’s Love and Judgment and Redemption, part 3
“Come, let us return to the LORD, He has torn us to pieces but He will heal…Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge Him.”
Hosea 6:1 & 3
Let us return to the LORD. Let us learn to put Him first in our lives. Let us surrender our lives to the LORD and honor Him with all that we are. Let us put away all things in our lives that are not of Him and let us read and study His WORD until we go home and live with Him. Let us acknowledge that God is God and let us stand in faith, living our lives in God’s way and not our own.
We are not our own, we were bought for a price. In 1 Corinthians 6:18-20: Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits is outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against his own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought for a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. Jesus died for you and me. God came to teach us in person how He wants us to live our lives. Jesus taught a gospel of repentance: Simply “Repent and sin no more.” (Matthew 4:17, 21:32; Mark 1:15; Luke 5:32, 13:3, 5, 15:7, 10; John 5:14, 8:11)
Not once did Jesus say to accept Him as LORD and Savior of your life and to continue in sin. Sadly many people claim to be Christian and yet do not acknowledge God or His way, His truth and His life in their lives. Depression abounds because sin continues in our lives. Our lives are torn apart by sexual immorality, economic chaos, hatred spill from our lips and we still will not acknowledge God. We fill our lives with American Idol, Big Brother, Simpsons, far too many TV shows which mock God and Christianity and then go on to blame God because He allows our lives to fall apart We ask God how He can let these things happen to us and yet we ignore His laws. We claim to love Him and yet we go about our own ways and do not acknowledge God’s ways but follow whatever makes us feel good. We prostitute ourselves in all forms of sexual immorality burning with desire for sexual pleasure against what God created. God created order. He created man and woman in His image, to go forth and recreate. God created marriage between a man and a woman and we have no right to recreate marriage into a mockery of what God has declared. It clearly states in His Word many times that marriage is between a man and a woman. We have His Word so that we can learn God’s righteous requirements and yet we still do not acknowledge God. But political correctness denies what God calls good and celebrates what the devil wants. Society has fallen prey to the evil that the devil is using to steal us from God and we allow it. The devil has penetrated ever part of life and we stand silent and do nothing. We, as Christians, need to stand firm in our faith and claim the Word of God as righteous and not back down. We have to stop letting the devil have his way and build our wall of faith with God’s Word. When we allow all that the devil uses to cause mankind’s downfall, we are assisting him in his work. Christians, stand firm in your faith and follow the way of the Lord no matter what. It does not matter if we are called bigots or anything else. Let us wear our badge of truth, God, Creator, Savior, and seek Him and His truth only and stop allowing the devil to have his way.
God sees all that we do and He hears all that we say but yet we ignore His Word because if we read it we would know God’s righteous requirements. But no, we ignore His Word and some even take His Word out of context so as to align it with their sin or simply take out the very Scriptures that involve their sin. Many say that they do not have time to read God’s Word but have plenty of time to watch TV, play games, text, fb or do other things. They blame God for what is happening in their lives and never Give God the time of day. I realize that I talk a lot about how as Christians there is such a lack of commitment to God. But I do so as to hopefully spur you on to giving God what He deserves from each of us. I do not hate any person but I love each person, even if I do not know you. I am called to be faithful to God and to listen to His voice and to speak out about the lies of the devil and to teach what God’s righteous requirements are. What I speak I do so in love because I want each of you to choose God and to go to heaven. We expect so much from God and want Him to do for us, giving us what we want but we live our lives at odds with His way. I’ve heard, “Well, He is God so what does He need me to do for Him? God doesn’t need us.” But God does need each of us. What was the point of God coming down to earth, becoming a human as Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, being buried and then rising from the dead? Why did He send out His disciples to go and teach the world His way, His truth, and His way? God created us to love us and for us to love Him in return. When God first created humans, He walked in the garden with them. God wanted to be friends with humans. Basically all humans had to do in the garden was to eat and walk and sleep, take care of the garden and the animals and follow whatever God said. But because God gave us free will and because of free will, God did not and still does not make us do what He wants. We choose and still choose to do whatever we want to do. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?...but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles (non-Jews), but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks (we as Christians {today} who are non-Jew [Greek was the common language and the term Greek also referred to non-Jews]), Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:20c, 23-25)
When I was sitting outside our motorhome in Eagle Nest New Mexico where we once stayed, I was enjoying God’s creation. We were in a valley, about 8500 feet above sea level and the mountain peaks surrounding us go up to almost 14,000 feet above sea level. A storm was coming in. It was quite beautiful. One thing that I have enjoyed since I was a child is watching the clouds. I would lay on the grass and image what the clouds looked like. I would see animals, angels and God in the clouds. I did not understand why I saw God so much in the clouds until later when I began reading the Bible. I realized that Jesus would return in the clouds and so I grew up; now I expectantly watch the clouds for Jesus. I long for His return. I realized long ago, that earth was not my home. Through all the pain of my childhood, the mental, physical and sexual abuse, I knew God was with me. I knew He loved me and I knew He was holding me through it all. I never blamed God for what was happening. I didn’t understand people or the Catholic church we went to when I was a child. I attended the school at the church. There was one nun who was the principal who really did not like me. It felt as if she took pleasure in putting me down. Her words hurt so much and made me feel worthless. I couldn’t understand why she said the things she did. Her actions for a woman who had given her life to God did not line up with the loving God I knew. One day as she was berating me the pastor came in the door and stood for a moment listening. He knelt down and held out his arms to me. I ran into his arms and he told Sister not to say the hurtful things to me any longer. At that moment I saw God’s love shining through him. Another priest at the church use to talk to me about God and told me how much God loved me and that He wanted to be my friend. He told me that I only needed God and that I only needed to confess my sins to God. He left the Catholic church and became a Protestant. I remember people talking how he was going to hell because he left the church. I always knew that he was a man after God’s heart and he truly was walking with God. I do not know if these 2 priests knew about the abuse in my life, but I do know that God used them to tell me about His love. I never told anyone about the abuse in my life because it was instilled in me that anyone who was abused deserved it because they provoked others to heap abuse onto another. This drove me to believe the lies of the devil and by the time I was 11 I was in deep state of depression. I was drowning in the lies of the evil one and I saw myself as worthless. So I allowed myself to fall into sexual sin in my teens and by the time I was 15 I hated myself so much. I knew that my decision to become a slut by sleeping around drove me into a deep depression and I made the decision to kill myself. One night I took a razor blade and tried to kill myself. I thought no one loved me and that God had given up on me. I had given up on myself.
But God did not give up on me. No matter how hard I tried to cut, the razor blade would not cut through my skin. Tears were flowing down my cheeks and I began slashing but I could not penetrate my skin. A still small voice called out my name and I felt God. He told me He loved me and that I was worthy of love. He told me that the next day He would bring into my life my soul mate whom He had chosen for me. The next day Henry walked in the door with my brother. And the rest is history. We have now been married over 41 years this weekend. We have had our struggles. We separated a few years after we married and were going to get a divorce but God had told me one day as we were going into the lawyer’s office that we were nor to divorce because God had put us together. We listened to God and stayed married. During our separation we both committed adultery but had convinced ourselves that because we were separated it didn’t count as sin. But the Holy Spirit convicted us of our sins and we asked for God’s forgiveness and received it.
The reason I tell you about these things is that I want you to know that I have sinned and fell short. I allowed the devil to fill me with lies and he used family and friends to tell me these lies. There were so many voices that I could not hear God’s still small voice. My depression stayed with me into my 40’s; my parents were still emotionally abusing me. I had all but given up. I knew God loved me and I cried out to Him through the years. Finally one Wednesday in February I awoke crying and I told Henry that I could not go to work and I wanted to quit. Five years earlier, Henry’s discs in his lower back ruptured and for more than 3 months he could not walk. He lost his job and I decided that I would go to work. God told me to trust Him and that I was not to go to work but I did not listen to God. After Henry began to walk again, he found work but I did not quit. My depression deepened. I kept crying out to God but I didn’t listen. I was given meds for my depression but I did not get better. I couldn’t remember my kids names; I was drinking; I wanted to kill myself because God was not answering me.
Well on that Wednesday, as I was lying in bed crying, Henry told me to quit, held me and left for work. I laid there crying, crying out to God and He told me to surrender all to Him. And so I did. I quit work, stopped drinking and taking my meds and surrendered my life to God. I began as a child and allowed God to teach me. I became a minister and earned my degree and have grown so much in God’s grace, His mercy and love. God fulfilled in me what was told to me as a child, that I would be His priest, His minister. I have put God first in my life and I trust Him completely.
So my point, my brothers and sisters, is that God requires our complete surrender in order for Him to do amazing things in our lives. It’s been a long struggle for me because I resisted God and would not surrender my life. Even though since childhood I knew what God’s plan for my life was, I had allowed the devil to ruin my life. I listened to the lies he told me through others instead of the voice of truth. I heard it but chose to ignore it. Believe me when I say I understand resisting God but I have learned that surrendering my life to Him has brought me such peace. I do not understand why we resist God. I know He hears my prayers and answers them. It’s not about my way or about your way but it’s all about God’s way. Please believe me when I say, God’s way is so much better. In my surrender I have found His way is best for me. God has such wonderful plans for my future and for yours; plans to prosper us and to give us a future and hope. He is teaching me every day, His will and plan for my life and He will teach you if you let Him. I keep giving Him my life and ask Him to use me for His glory. I have sound that I am one with God and that His love and grace covers me. I rejoice because His Spirit lives in me and guides me. And through it all, I trust God no matter what and that God is always with me and He never stops loving me.
And over the years since I surrendered all, I have still been reading and studying His Word, talking with God every day and in every way. And when I ended up in the hospital ICU with ketoacidosis’s from diabetes, I did not panic but trusted God. I told myself and keep telling myself through all the trials and the joys in my life, that God’s got this and that is all I need. He holds me in the palm of His hands. And no, my life is not perfect, I still have many trials and troubles, all my prayers have not been answered for my life, but I see God answering the prayers I pray for others. And I rejoice in each of those prayers being answered. God has been healing me of my diabetes; I am off insulin, following a healthy diet and am working off the metformin. God’s got this and that is all I need. It has taken me learning this for 20 to understand this fully, but God has never given up on me and He never gives up on you. Through my life, I have learned to trust and when I believed that nothing else but God mattered, I knew and I know that everything is working out in God’s perfect plan. I do not try and plan things but I ask God to reveal His will in my life and follow wherever He takes me. Surrender is sweet, my sisters and brothers. Perfect peace is available for our choosing. God’s love is eternal and His way, His life and His truth is our source for what we need. Choose to purposely walk with God and let Him have control over all areas of your life. Stop walking in the flesh, allowing your self to be caught up in the devil’s ways. Choose to only allow in your lives what is of God. You will rest in His peace and the worries of this world will not affect you any longer because this world is not our home. Our job here is to learn to love God with all of our heart, with all of our souls, with all of our minds and with all of our strength. And to love one another. Perfect love drives out all fear. When we place our lives in the hands of God, the devil may try but he cannot succeed. No weapon that the devil forms can prevail against us. When we allow God to live in us and to walk in His way, we are putting on the armor of faith and truth.
My prayer for you is this:
Father, please teach us to use the Word that You give, that all who hear will open their hearts to You. We pray that they will surrender their lives to You and allow you to come and live in their hearts. May Your peace fill each person with Your mercy and grace and that each will grow in a personal relationship with You. We pray that every person who hears this will give You complete control and to come to You for everything in their lives. We pray that they will know that You are their source for everything and that they will know that You call them to repentance for their sins and to accept You Jesus as their LORD and Savior. We pray that they will study Your Word daily and learn from Your instruction book what You require. May the Bible be their source for Your wisdom and knowledge. May You fill them with Your way and teach them to walk with you. May they know that nothing is impossible for You. May they learn to forgive one another as You God have forgiven us. May they learn from the cross that it doesn’t matter what someone does to you; that forgiveness will free their hearts. May they find a church that is based on Your Word, the Bible. May they learn to worship You in spirit and in truth. May they love You with all of their hearts, their minds, their souls and their strength. May they find You in their lives so that they can soar with wings like eagles, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
God loves you and is calling to you. Confess your sins and sin no more; and to learn to walk in the way of the LORD.
