We Are Gomer

This is the seventh and final post that I’m going to do on the book of Hosea. But seventh in the series though it may be, I want to treat it as though it is the first and the last. Layered over the timeless theology of this minor Prophet’s book, and this series, has beenContinue reading “We Are Gomer”

Hewn Husband: “Come back!”

It’s impossible to journey through the book of Hosea in a casual way. You would never slip into your favourite flip flops to start an ascent of Arthur’s Seat and neither can we receive from this book what we’re meant to receive without the serious footwear of meditation and prayer. There are many lows inContinue reading “Hewn Husband: “Come back!””

Tired of Terror

Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be Your Name Your kingdom come, Your will be done On Earth as it is in heaven Give us today our daily bread And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For YoursContinue reading “Tired of Terror”

Mr Cameron, Please Take Note

According to PM David Cameron in his 2015 Easter speech that most of us have heard, the UK remains a Christian country because the government help to repair Cathedrals and older church buildings that, supposedly, represent the ‘living active force’ who are the local church. Mr Cameron also pointed to the phenomenal welfare efforts of the churchContinue reading “Mr Cameron, Please Take Note”

Hosea 2: The Promise of Allurement

There is a higher summit. It hangs overs base camp like a shadowy, silhouetting God, incarnate in ancient rock…God is showing us His deepest, highest, widest affections through the churning heart of a husband bereft of the love and loyalty of his wife.

every time you sense God’s anger, try to instead imagine God as being grieved and as being gutted rather than as just waving His great, big, cosmic stick around in fury. I’ve found this a massively helpful distinction in coming closer to the heart of God.

Live Like a Limpet

English Riviera Back in the day, one of the best summer-time things to do was to roll down Headland Park Road on our mountain bikes and go crabbing in the rock pools of the English Riviera. We’d raid the ‘fishing box’ (an old Wall’s ice cream container) and arrive at the big pools with aContinue reading “Live Like a Limpet”

Hosea 1- Acclimatising to the Mess (& the wonder)

In order to speak prophetically to a Nation and to achieve redemption and righteousness for them, God invades, exposes and demands the masculinity of Hosea’s ego, his social and spiritual reputation, his lineage, his peace, his joy, his sanity, his sexual satisfaction and purity and, most ultimately, the emotional bed of his heart.