Hosea

Ah me, how does time go so fast? This week seems to have slipped away and I am now at the end of it! Well, this weekend can make up for the slow pace of this week for sure. It all starts tomorrow, Yikes!

Today the only thing I had planned was to clean Diane's house, but I always find more to do. I went on the walk and afterwards went straight to the refrigerator to retrieve Steve's bottles. I haven't been able to get him to drink out of the big bottle so I have to take three small ones out to him instead. Then I cut down a tree branch for him and Sandra to snack on for the day. Next I had to get on the computer and finally order my books. I'm a teachers worst nightmare when it comes to being prepared for the first day of school. I cleaned at home for a little while after that. Mom had to go do some shopping and run errands and I wanted to wait till she got home to eat lunch. For some reason, I'll be fine doing any activity around the house alone, but when it comes to eating a meal, I'd rather have someone around to share it with. We each ended up making salads out of all the new garden fresh vegetables we had acquired from Rachel. Her salad was what we call a "Romanian Salad" and it is composed of oinions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and radishes if they are on hand, all mix with a little bit of oil and salt, no lettuce. It is the cat's meow. (I know that phrase is outdated but it's seemed appropriate.) Mine was just a normal salad.

Then it was off to Diane's. Now, I don't mind cleaning, really, but today my shoulders were so sore from vaulting that it made the four hours drag on endlessly. I was glad when I had finished. The rest of the evening was really slow.

So, in my quest to better understand the word Devotion, today, in all my free time, I made a poster with the definition, synonyms, antonyms, verses that talk about it, and people from the Bible who are noted for their devotion. This is the sort of thing that really helps me. Upon finishing that I decided on a definite reading plan. I am going to start with Hosea and read through the rest of the old testament. And I have a special notebook and pen for note taking. The notes I am going to take are actually going to be in question form, like, what was Hosea's career? So then next time I get out my Bible I can do a review of what I read before. This has always worked for me in the past and I am excited to do it again.

You know what's interesting about the first chapter of Hosea? First, God tells him to marry a prostitute and he does it. That had to be a terribly hard thing to do for God, but he marries Gomer willingly. Well, she has a child and God tells them to name him Jezreel. Here's the cool part about the chapter: all the names signify God's reactions to Isreal's unfaithfulness. Jezreel, for instance was the place in which God was going to punish or judge Isreal. The next child was a girl named Lo-ruhamah (definitely going to name my first child that!) which meant no mercy for Isreal, but mercy for the more devoted Judah. Next came Lo-Ammi and the foreboding statement God made after announcing this child's name was,"for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God." complete separation. However, and this is just super, the next sentence explains that God will still hold true to his promises to these unfaithful people! And, the last verse is my favorite. It's a total prophecy of Jesus and God says, "for great shall be the day of Jezreel". Jezreel in this case means "God plants" He's talking about a new relationship with His people. Isn't that cool to think about? It's scary also. I don't believe God's treatment to the Isrealite's unfaithfulness was much different than it would be for us if we are unfaithful. Judgment, no mercy, and separation. But praise be to God that he sent Jesus and we can everyday start a new relationship, a new love with him every day! Praise God!