Title: Know (Ho 6:1-3)
Contents
The fundamental spirit that we want to show you through Hosea in the text is that God is love and that we want to know Him. When you look at us with such loving eyes, we look infinitely lovely and infinitely pitiful. Therefore, I bless you in the name of the Lord that your life from now on, your thoughts, heart, words, and actions, will be worth living in the sight of God.
Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...” Hosea 6:6 “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, but rather the knowledge of God than burnt offerings” Hosea 6:3 “Therefore, we Let's do our best to get to know the Lord..” God tore me to heal, so don't just know the God who tears me, but the God who heals and binds me. Therefore, we are asking that we return to the Lord and do our best to know God. At this time, we would like to share grace with God about the attributes of God who heals and binds us.
1. God is love.
The whole universe is full of love. Meaning comes only when there is love in the world Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” 1 John 4:8 “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” God is love. But we know him better as a God of justice and more as a God of fear than as a God of love. In John 8, there is a woman caught in adultery. “He who is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at him.” After they all went back, "Neither do I condemn you, so go and sin no more." You did. It is harder for the church to bear than the world when it commits a certain mistake. There is no forgiveness in the church. Mistakes and mistakes are no longer acceptable. A community of love is more difficult to love. Don't try to say it by any deed, but do it because you love it. Because God is a God of love.
2. God is a Spirit.
John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” God who is the essence and the eternal God should not be treated as phenomena. Hos 6:6 “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, but the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” We must do everything with love and essence. Hos 6:9 “As a robber waits for a man, so a company of priests murders on the way to Shechem, and they have done wickedness.” If you focus on the status quo, you will surely perish.
3. God is all-powerful.
(Psalm 23) “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff comfort me.” Wherever you are, in light or in darkness, your presence is there.
4. God is holy.
1 Peter 1:15 “But be holy in all your conduct, just as the Holy One who called you.” To be on the same level with God, you must be holy. To be holy means to be separated from the world. You cannot be holy with the world.
5. God is immutable.
1 Samuel 15:29 “The Most High of Israel neither lies nor repents, for he is not a man, and he does not change.” The unchanging God loves us unchangingly.
If we say that we know God, but we mistakenly believe that He is a God of fear, help us to know that God is love. Because I have received the love of God, let me love all people and live my life.
(Rev. Jang Gyeong-dong)