You know what shook me when I was Muslim?
The story of Hosea. God tells a prophet to marry a woman He knows will betray him.
She does. She runs to other men. She ends up enslaved, sold, used up, worthless to the world.
And God tells Hosea to go BUY HER BACK.
To pay money for his own wife who cheated on him, and love her again. Hosea 3.
I thought it was the most humiliating command in the Bible. Why would any man do that?
Then I realized I was the wife.
I gave my heart to everything but God. I chased other masters. I sold myself cheap. I made myself worthless.
And God looked at me, the betrayer, and didn’t say “you’re not worth it.”
He said, “Name the price. I’m buying her back.”
That’s the Gospel. God doesn’t wait for the unfaithful to come crawling back clean.
He pays to redeem them while they’re still dirty.
Islam told me to make myself worthy of God.
Hosea showed me a God who pays to redeem the unworthy.
The cross was Him naming the price.
Praise the Lord.
@JoshuaBarzon A...A...A...A...God does not make mistakes in giving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not play the hokey pokey!! It puts all in and stays!!
@TheRonSlay@ryanschumpert00@rockytopinsider@Vol_Hoops I've wanted to call in and tell you. When y'all went to the sweet 16, I was a new 23 yr old youth pastor in KY. L'ville & KY were put out the first weekend. I started the service asking if anyone needed an altar call of repentence for L'ville or KY fans. It was a great!
@StoneyKeeley How do you think Femi fits into the future at edge? If you sign jaelen Phillips, do you still double dip at edge? Do you still go after Bailey or trade down and draft mccoy or monsoor in top 10 or 15? Maybe sign alonte taylor?
@CADbacksfan51@TicTacTitans When i played baseball in high school, I thought mlb players were such weaklings for the reasons they'd go on the disabled list. Then I got in my late 20s and was like, "ohhhhh! I get it now."
@luke_mccown Gets so old when people try to talk about capitalism as evil. The bible is clear tgat its our hearts that are evil. Capitalism, socialism, etc all have the capacity for the "love if money" leading to sin.
I used to love my wife because she earned it.
When she was kind, I was kind.
When she respected me, I respected her.
When she didn't—I didn't.
Marriage was a transaction.
A balance sheet.
I gave what I got.
Nothing more.
Then one Sunday our pastor said something I couldn't shake.
"The way you treat your wife is the way you treat the Lord."
I thought he was being poetic.
He wasn't.
That night I looked at my wife.
Really looked.
She was exhausted.
The kids had been brutal.
The house was chaos.
And I was keeping score.
Waiting for her to earn my kindness.
That's when it hit me:
I wasn't loving a woman.
I was worshiping myself.
Every act of service I withheld was worship I stole from God.
Every cold shoulder was an altar to my ego.
Every "she started it" was a prayer to my own righteousness.
Marriage isn't a contract between two people.
It's an offering to the One who made them.
I started loving her differently.
Not because she deserved it.
Because He does.
I served her when she didn't thank me.
I pursued her when she pulled away.
I led when I didn't feel like leading.
Not for applause.
For an audience of One.
She noticed.
Not right away.
But one night she said:
"You're different. What happened?"
I told her the truth.
"I stopped loving you to get something back."
"I started loving you to give something up."
She didn't understand at first.
Now she does.
When you love your spouse as an act of worship
Everything shifts.
The scoreboard disappears.
The transaction ends.
And marriage becomes what it was always supposed to be.
A daily death to self.
A living sacrifice.
An act of worship disguised as a Wednesday night doing dishes.
Your spouse isn't your enemy.
They're your offering.
Treat them like one.
@howertonjosh "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." What is "cute" is different for everyone. A man should be attracted to his bride as the bride should be to her husband. I'd hate for my wife to have heard me say in response to, " you may now kiss the bride!", "DO I HAVE TO?"
Titans rb goes down. As he begins to goes down, the ball is in his hands. By the time he completes it, the ball is out but he's got a teammates leg.
Got to be the worst team since the buccaneers expansion team!!