Hard to get

Our Daily Bread
Have you ever had a romantic interest that played "hard to get"?  I think we all have at one time or another.  It is part of the game of romance that I am not very good at.  I don't like these types of games!

We don't have to worry about that with God.  God is not "hard to know".  People make it so difficult to know God.  I guess I don't understand sometimes.  Yes, He is the God that made all things and is way beyond our understanding.  He is also the God that wants a personal relationship with each of us.  Like any relationship, we need to spend time to get to know him.  "Prepare our hearts" to open up to the Almighty God.  I love this sentence from the devotional: "And the first thing in all of life is to know God and enjoy Him."  Wow!  Did you ever think about "and enjoy him"?  I never thought of it that way!

Lord, please help us to know and enjoy you!

Teaching Tuesday
We read about the first two major prophets this week - Amos and Hosea.  Wow! What stories!

Amos, like many other great characters in the Bible, was thought to be of lowly stature.  It is hard to tell from his writings since he seemed to know more than a person of his background should know about international affairs.  Or, it could be that his words were directly from YAWH who knows all!  His dark, dramatic story was truly amazing.  I speak out many times when others won't, but this guy was unbelievable.  Read the short book of Amos to see.  Remember that many of the statements, especially in the first few chapters, are independent statements.  They don't really tell a story.

Hosea was more positive than Amos, but not much.  He felt that there was a chance of redemption for the people of Israel, although unlikely considering how far they had fallen from God's ways.  As his story goes, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute to symbolize the relationship between God and Israel.  Many scholars believe that there was reconciliation between Hosea and his wife.  The funniest thing to me is that Hosea named his children after the relationship between Israel and God.  That was wild!

Read over these lesser read books sometime.  Amazing stories!

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We too can know this God and be assured of His presence. He has revealed Himself in His creation and in His Word. As we ask Him to make Himself known to us, we’ll learn that He is even more than the owner and creator of everything! - Our Daily Bread web site