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Jan 17
Midweek Update
By Pastor Jeff
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Good morning NCL family,
A teacher asked her students to write down what they thought the difference was between love and true love. One little girl answered perfectly when she wrote, "Love is when my daddy reads me a book before going to bed at night and true love is when he doesn't skip any of the pages!"
This Wednesday night we see that Hosea's message to Israel was, "There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1b). The reason there was no truth or mercy or knowledge was because the priests and prophets of that day had skipped over some of the pages. Like today, so many pastors skip over some of the pages of God's word that are difficult for the heart and focus on the passages that help you feel good in the head. They think they are doing the loving thing, but true love doesn't skip over the difficult passages, true love will set you free!
"Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' They answered Him, 'We are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, 'You will be made free?' Jesus answered them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:31-36).
Just as the Jews misunderstood what Jesus meant by "the truth shall make you free," people today still take it the wrong way. In fact, many people use this to promote an academic knowledge, but that is not what Jesus meant at all! God has never cared about head knowledge; His desire is that we would have heart knowledge. The error comes when we think of truth as a concept, rather than God Himself, which was the way Jesus used the term. Jesus clarified His meaning when He said, "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." By interchanging the "truth" and "Son," Jesus implied that granting freedom is God's work. Jesus promised freedom from slavery to sin. That freedom begins when we acknowledge our bondage to sin. Only God can free us through His forgiveness, which He made possible through Christ's death, in our place, on the cross. Knowing God's true love is the only thing that will set us free, and that is heart knowledge!
This Wednesday night as we continue through the book of Hosea, we will see how God can heal our heads and our hearts as we look deeper into "God's Persevering Love" (Hosea 4-6).
