Everyday Truth With Kurt Skelly

Hosea 7:8-14 Your likelihood to hit a target’s bullseye is only as good as the accuracy of the weapon you choose to use. If the barrel on the rifle is bent, the bullet will not fly straight. If the bow is crooked, the arrow will miss the mark. God called Israel a “crooked bow” who missed the mark. How so? Listen in!

Hosea 7:1-7 The people of Hosea’s day were not considering that God remembered everything they did. In fact, their sins had surrounded them! If God remembers our sins, then there can be no hope for any of us, right? Wrong! Because God has also provided a way by which He can forget our sins!

Hosea 6:1-11 In this chapter, Hosea assumes the role of an encourager. He has already carefully conveyed the primarily negative message of God’s displeasure and coming judgment. Now he pleads with the people to “return to the Lord.” The God who is judging you is doing so in love! He wants to heal and restore you. Come back!

Nehemiah 6 From the series "When God Interrupts Your Life"

Hosea 5:6-15 The people of Israel had dealt treacherously with the Lord. How so? They had intermarried with unbelievers and raised children that did not even know God. In that sense, they had raised children as foreigners (strangers) to the knowledge of God and the practice of serving Him.

Hosea 5:1-5 Behavior and works alone do not indicate a sincere faith, but there certainly are certain habits that we can practice that can fertilize a more ready turning to God. The people of Israel did not “frame their doings” to turn to God; rather, they allowed a heart bent toward idolatry and sensuality to guide their decision-making.

Hosea 4:17-19 Among the worst judgments God can bring someone is this: letting him have his own way. Israel had stubbornly pursued her lusts and loyalties. She had made up her mind that she wanted her petty idols and cheap pleasures more than she wanted God. Although God repeatedly warned her that she would regret such decision-making, she stubbornly persisted until God relented and let her alone. Be careful what you ask for!

Hosea 4:14-16 God uses everybody. That’s right. Even rebellious people are used of God… just not in the way they want. God will use the poor example of someone who has made a sinful choice like a billboard that says, “Don’t be like him!” Israel had made up her mind that she would not follow God. Places in Israel that had been places of holiness now had become cesspools of sinful behavior. God told Judah to stay away from Israel lest she fall into the same behaviors.

Hosea 4:9-13 Temptation is a slick marketing agent. She over-promises and under-perform. She tastes good to the mouth, but alway leaves the stomach upset. The people of Israel were living in sinful addiction—it was there very spirit to pursue sin. They loved the comfort (like the cool shade of a tree) of fleshly religion, but they didn’t realize that their pursuits were eroding their own hearts.

Nehemiah 5 From the series "When God Interrupts Your Life"

Hosea 4:1-8 It is not a knowledge about God that prevents the destruction of a life or an institution; it is a knowledge of God that secures us. The people of Israel had rejected their relationship with God, refusing to know Him in any real and relational way. Without a knowledge of God, the people acted in the most selfish ways with a total lack of regard for their fellow man. God placed a special accountability on the priests because they were not teaching the Word of God. Instead, they were imitating and benefiting from the sinful behaviors of the people. What a mess!

Hosea 3:1-5 What if the wife you loved walked out on you? What if she cheated on you in the most hurtful way? What if she did this over and over again? Divorce, right? Vengeance, perhaps? But God’s command was entirely different! Love her. Go get her. Pay whatever price to secure her. Restore her. Be faithful to her. Astounding! (And that’s the way that God loves us.)

Hosea 2:18-23 Through the years, God’s covenant people have not had the best testimony. In the Old Testament, many of the individuals who were among the elect nation made the unfortunate, individual choice to reject God. Does that mean that God has abrogated His covenant with His people. Can hardened people ever come back to God? Is there hope for those who do not currently enjoy a relationship with God?

Hosea 2:10-17 When people stubbornly pursue satisfaction in their sinful choices, trite temptations, and empty idols, God uses various means to get their attention. At times, he removes physical blessings. Other times, he takes the joy of sinful pleasure away. At the extreme, He allows a place of utter emptiness and desertion. But it’s in that place that His presence, His love, and His offer of hope greatly abound.

Hosea 2:6-9 Two ways that God gets our attention when we persistently pursue our temptations: (1) He makes them less accessible and satisfying. Our efforts to pursue them increase, but our achieving them and being satisfied by them decreases. (2) He removes His own blessings of protection and provision so that we can learn how truly fruitless life is without His involvement.

Nehemiah 4 from the series "When God Interrupts Your Life"

Hosea 2:2-5 Each person is responsible in some part for the group’s behavior. Even if an individual does not participate in the sin, he has a responsibility to call it out in some measure. God speaks to the people of Israel to call out and condemn the immoral group identity that Israel had embraced.

Hosea 1:8-2:1 Hosea’s children were given names by God, and those names each represented the sad condition of God’s people: Jezreel—God’s people will be scattered. Lo-Ruhamah—there will be no more mercy. Lo-Ammi—you are not my people. YET, God’s promise to them was that He would bring gathering from the scattering, mercy to replace the judgment, and belonging to replace the abandoning!

Hosea 1:6-8 Economic prosperity and good health are not necessarily a product of obedience; in fact, God often allows very wicked people to enjoy both. The underserved blessings of God should incentivize loving and obedient submission to Him. Israel did not understand this in spite of the radical ways God showed them.

Hosea 1:3-5 In modern days, baby names typically don’t have any more significance than that they sounded good to the parents. Not so in the Bible. Names were indicators of a parent’s desired character for his child, or were a testimony to a family member, or (as in the case of Hosea’s son) a prediction by God of something that was to come. The person with that name was a living prophecy of the Word of God!