I AM A GOMER

Like so many I have been glued to the news, tributes, and thoughts about the sudden, tragic, and sad death of Whitney Houston who has been a music icon for so many years. Please take a moment to pray for her family and pause to thank God for life. Life is exactly what James says it is in chapter 4:14 - "It is a vapor that appears for a short time and then vanishes."

Perhaps it hits me a little differently this week because Michelle has been so sick for so long. Please continue to pray for her. She is best when she rests, which is not super easy for her. Doing the right thing (being with her) may disappoint some, and I apologize for ever letting anyone down, but we will see you soon. By God's grace I have a great team who fully support me being with her, and Please continue to pray for our leaders and staff, and support all that God is doing at Living Hope.

As I think about this day - Valentines Day - the day we celebrate love, the day untold amounts of candy and flowers get purchased, I pray that such a focus on love could happen everyday. To the extent we "get" God's love, is the extent we can "give" love to others, so I pray we will get a fresh and fuller understanding of the depth of His love for us.

I am doing something a little different this week: even though many people already have "Dangerous Devotions", I wanted send a chapter to everyone who reads this weekly devotional. I hope it opens your eyes to the extent of God's love for you.

I am a Gomer...

Love is the most important thing in the world. In fact, I would say without it, nothing else matters. But isn’t it odd that we only have one word to describe how we feel about Taco Bell and also our spouse?

Millions of songs have been written about love, endless love, consuming love, painful love, but at the end of the day we’re conditional people. If my wife does this, then I’m going to leave; if my wife does this, I’ll stay. We’re conditional. Why? Because we have been loved, and left, by people whose love had conditions. The only true picture of love is how God loves us. If we take our cue from Him all the rules change.

In 1992 I heard one of the greatest love stories ever told. And it made me mad. It was about a guy that was so in love with a woman, his love for her was unlike any other I’d heard of in my whole life. You know what made me mad? She married him and then was unfaithful. Multiple times, with multiple people. But he still loved her! He wasn’t like us. He didn’t go crazy thinking of all the things he was going to say when she got home, he went after her, told her he loved her and brought her home.

For three years this continued. She had multiple affairs, she had kids from other lovers and he just kept forgiving, kept loving, and kept pursuing.

I thought the guy was a lunatic. What kind of husband would do that? What kind of wife would do that? What kind of relationship is that? Believe it or not this is a real man, a real woman, and a real story. It’s the true account of the Old Testament prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer. Look at what God says to Hosea: “I want you to go and marry a prostitute.” “You’re going to marry, and she’s going to give you children that are going to be born from other men, and this will illustrate the way that people have been untrue to Me.” Hosea 1:2

This story is a picture of God’s love for us and how he pursues us even when we run away and betray Him.

God’s love for us is so beyond what we can comprehend. He’s the Hosea, and we are the Gomer. There is nothing we will do that will make God love us less, and there’s nothing we can ever do that makes God love us more!

Let me tell you conclusively that you cannot lose your salvation. Nothing can snatch you out of God’s hands! In the Bible, it says, “God will never leave you and never forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. When you see “never” and “ever” in the same verse, it’s what’s called a “double emphatic” which in English means, “God will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever leave you.” Get that!

After three years, Gomer finds herself at the bottom of the barrel: destitute, broken, penniless, and about to be sold at auction as a slave. In those days, they would traditionally strip someone naked, put them on a platform, and then start the bidding. Could you imagine what is was like to be Gomer? You don’t want to have eye contact with anyone. You feel worthless and completely ashamed. The bidding begins and you want to die, but you recognize the voice of the bidder. It’s your husband. Hosea went and bought her back. Slaves in that time would have sold for thirty pieces of silver, but Hosea only had fifteen, so he also gave barley and wine. In other words, he gave everything he had for his wife.

The text doesn’t tell us, but I’m sure there was a moment when tears began to stream down her face. A moment when she told him, “I have failed so much.” And he says “I love you anyway.” Outside of Jesus dying for the Church, it’s the greatest love story told in the entire Bible. And it’s our story too.

God will never stop pursuing you. There is nothing you have done or have yet to do that would make God say “Ok, I’m done now.” He wants to pick you up in your lowest moment when you feel broken and worthless, and He wants to redeem, to reclaim and rebuild your life.

Pastor John

Comments for this post have been disabled