Beats From Your Pastor’s Heart
Deuteronomy 7:7-8, “The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you.”
To speak of God’s unconditional love is to utter a wonderful fact about God’s nature.
He loves because He chooses to love and for no other reason.
His love is not dependent upon finding something in us that merits His love.
His love is without conditions–it is unconditional.
It is this kind of love that is expressed to Israel in the above verses.
In other words, God loves because He chooses to love, not because of a reason found outside of Himself.
God’s unconditional love is revealed throughout the Old and New Testaments, but the most detailed description of His love is found in the book of Hosea.
When we touch this book that unveils the nature of God’s love, we are treading ground that we have never trod before.
We see God’s unconditional love coming to the least likely object of love.
Gomer, the name of the woman Hosea was to take as a wife, reveals the depths of the nature of God’s unconditional love.
Gomer is derived from a Hebrew word (gamar) that means “cease, come to an end, and fail.”
In other words, God was telling Hosea, “Go take failure to be your wife,” or “Go take that which has come to an end to be your wife.”
This illustrates the nature of God’s love to us.
He loves us when we have no potential, no victory, when we have come to an end–when we are nothing but failure.
Gomer not only means failure, but it also has the meaning of “completion” or “perfection.”
So this woman was complete or perfected in her failure.
She was a harlot.
She filled up the measure of harlotry to the uttermost.
She committed not merely one transgression but a thousand transgressions.
She reached a state of completion and is ironically spoken of as being perfected in harlotry.
She was that low, that base.
She was perfected in her harlotry because she was fully experienced in sinning and in rebellion.
She was fully developed, perfected, and completed in the realm of failure.
She was not partially a failure, but she was a total failure.
Yet God tells Hosea to take this “wife of harlotry” to be his wife (Hosea 1:2).
Later, God tells him to love her.
This demonstrates the Lord’s love toward us.
He takes us and then lavishes His love on us, despite our failed condition.
Until Tomorrow
With A Shepherd’s Love,
Pastor Jackson
FRIDAY’S PRAYER REQUESTS
Marynell Ford and Family
Junior Stephens
Amy Garner
Amy Garner’s Mom & Dad
Andrew Halevi & Daughter
Ashely Burn’s Sisters
Coly/Connor – Allison’s G’sons
Dan Haines
Darlene Wiggins
David Burnette
David Harrison – Riverside
Deanna Fowler
Denise Hulsey – Jordan’s G’mother
Donnie Butler’s Dad
Doris Loyd
Dr. and Mrs. Davis
Drew
Easton Fielder
Ed Mays
Eric Magnusson’s Mother
Eric Ward
Faith Burnette
Freddie May’s Mom
George & Linda Alexander
James Burnette
James Garner’s Friend
Joanie/Jeanie Mom
Jodi Bateman
John Austin
June Cronan’s Sister
Kailey Bateman
Kim McClain’s Mother
Krista Hilscher
Larry Barker
Lee Cronan
Lillanna Magnusson’s Mom
Linda Breedlove’s Sister – Sarah
Linda Hodges’ Sister
Lonzo Christin
Lori Blount’s Mother
Mary Sims
Marynell Ford
Maureen Brown
Michael Stanley
Miles Bradshaw
Nora Allison
Pastor & Mrs. Driskell
Ricky Gipson
Rose Fuller – Pruitt-Monroe Nursing Home, Forsyth GA
Roseleigh Osborn
Sandra Graham
Scott Lanier
Soso Nzolo – 17 Yr. Old South African Pastor’s Daughter
Susan & Alexis Tesone
Susan Mosley
Tom Witcher