coming to real terms with your reputation...

It seems we're often ready to allow our lives to be used as a witness for God's love to His people, but what happens when the message is more severe than we anticipated...Hosea was a man who offered himself a servant of The Almighty, and functioned in that role seemingly well, until the day God wanted to use him to speak powerfully to His people; it wasn't as though Hosea was against God's love, but he surely wasn't to hot on how God wanted to show it. Marry a prostitute, along with all the problems that ensue, so that your love life can be the public fodder of the redemption story including your wife's betrayal of you, and your buying her back in the final act of humiliating, public, sacrificial love. (yes this was B.C.).

Tall order, and while it is tough to imagine the circumstance that would have to be in place in order for history to repeat itself in this way, I cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the implicit challenge that Hosea's obedience offers.

*Patso