Isaiah 58:6-12

Isaiah 58:6-12
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed ones go free, and that you break every yoke? (7) Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, and that you should bring home the wandering poor? When will you see the naked and cover him; and you will not hide yourself from your own flesh? (8) Then shall your light break out as the dawn, and your health shall spring out quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Jehovah shall gather you. (9) Then you shall call, and Jehovah shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If you take the yoke away from among you, the pointing of the finger, and speaking vanity; (10) and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. (11) And Jehovah shall always guide you and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones fat; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. (12) And those who come of you shall build the old ruins; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.


Prayer Requests

Please pray for the leaders in the church: Joseph Okoth, Steve Maremwa and Benson Okoth, Alfred Otieno, Ben Lippert, Peter Odoyo.
That they would grow in their classes, in maturity, in their communication of the Word, that the Lord would grant them wisdom.

Please pray that our Children in our childrens ministry will grow in their knowledge of the Lord. There are some kids that come to church without their parents. Pray that the Lord would use those kids to even teach their parents about the Lord.

We have a prison ministry on Thursdays for Men, the Lord has been doing a lot in the lives of those inmates. Pray for open hearts .


Saturday, December 6, 2008

Pursuing Love


Today I read one of my favorite books, the Book of Hosea. This is always such a sweet picture of the Love of the Lord for His people. It is a book of God pursuing his bride that was a harlot. It starts out with God telling Hosea to go find a wife in harlotry and to marry her and have children. He was to love this wife that he bought out of harlotry. The reason for this was because God had a message that was going to go out to His precious people that were doing the same thing to Him. Hosea was going to be the one to carry the message and God wanted Him speaking with the Heart of great passion that God had for His bride. God first dealt with the heart of Hosea.

See this message that God had for His people was calling her to love and repentance. This was going to become very personal and meaningful to Hosea because He would be going through the same process with His bride. He was going to buy her out of harlotry, dress her in fine clothes, feed her, take care of her and Love her with all his heart, He was even going to have children with her. She had security in His embrace. Israel had security in the embrace of God but she wandered, we all wander at times. Why do we do that? It is a weird thing how we like dogs run back to our vomit even though it is not good. Even when She left the loving groom God says "I will Allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak words of comfort to her heart." It was still a time of him pursuing the heart of His bride even when she had hurt Him. He loved her!

When I was in Israel we were in the Judean wilderness and our tour guide was explaining something to us about the wilderness. He said "you know Christians treat the wilderness as a place of punishment but in biblical times that is not how they saw it at all. They would go to the wilderness as a place to get away and see the Lord and hear his voice. This was a place to meet with God. It was a good place to be. God said that he was going to take her to the wilderness to speak to her heart. How sweet those words are!

My friend Jessica was reading a devotion thing to me today and it was sweet. It was God saying to His bride "There is no spot in you." (They defined spot at the littlest thing that would go away in a few days.) "You are perfect." He was looking at His bride through the eyes of Love. He did not choose to say there is not huge scar found in you. Our Lord loves us so much and we are His bride. His heart is to pursue His bride and speak to her heart. He will deal with the sin. He will require repentance when it is due but he will take you back with His gracious, Huge arms of love. How greatly He wants to do that!!!!
God hates sin, He will judge, but His love stands firm and He is reaching out His hand to restore!