1
12
1
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/464b1eb62053df6c35ed462ef8342aa9.mp3
cf9d4b8d96760f9368f21d4cf4eaff11
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c74e44ab7a3365f9c7fad18100cc5c86.pdf
e134ceba68982673df8ef23e77c70d87
PDF Text
Text
The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
From the sermon series: God, Our Ally
Text: Hosea 11: 8-9, 32; Hosea 14: 4
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
August 25, 1985
Transcription of the spoken sermon
God is our Ally.
He will never give up on us - not because finally we will come round and deserve
His love, but rather because His love, flowing out of His own depths, will never
let us go. That is the theme of this message: He will never give up on us; He will
never let us go.
This is a message about the unconditional love of God. It is a message about what
is translated from the Hebrew word hesed as God's "steadfast love." This is a
message about God our Ally Who has called us into a covenant relationship to
which He remains faithful even when we prove unfaithful. This message is a love
story, the story of a love beyond compare, a love beyond human conception. This
is the story of a love that will never give up, never let us go; a love that will finally
heal us and bind us to the bosom of God.
The message comes from Hosea, a great Eighth Century B.C. prophet who
experienced deep pain in his own marriage and therein discovered the pain of
God at the unfaithfulness of His people Israel, but discovered something more
amazing - that God's love is unquenchable.
The first three chapters of Hosea deal with biographical material from the
prophet's own life. There has been much debate about the interpretation of these
chapters. I cannot give you the whole discussion, but will summarize what I
believe is the most adequate understanding of Hosea’s experience. In Chapter 1:2,
we read,
…The Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, for the
land commits great harlotry by forsaking the Lord.”
This was probably a reflection after the fact. Hosea married Gomer and she
proved unfaithful. The verse above summarizes what happened rather than
indicating that Gomer was a harlot before Hosea married her. The first chapter
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
records Goner's unfaithfulness. Although it is not clearly stated, it would appear
that Hosea divorced Gomer because of her wantonness. (cf. Hosea 2:2a, 4-5a).
Then in chapter 3:1, we read,
And the Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a
paramour and is an adulteress; even as the Lord loves the people 0f
Israel, though they turn to other gods..."
So, Hosea redeems Gomer - buys her back out of the bondage of her harlotry and restores her as his wife. In his own experience, thus, he found a "lived
parable" that pointed to the unquenchable love of God.
He was tormented by his separation from Gomer, he felt maimed and
incomplete, and he realized that however little Gomer might deserve his
love… yet she retained it to an undiminished degree, and he was
constrained even against his own judgment to attempt to restore the old
marriage relationship.
The mystery of the compulsive power of his own love for Gomer made
Hosea reflect upon the love of God for erring Israel. It was thereon that
he founded his message of hope for his people… (Interpreter Bible, Vol. VI,
p. 562)
Martin Buber writes,
That a particular person should be bound to love another particular person
in utter concreteness, is there such a thing as this? The word can only be
spoken to one who already loves. He loves, he still loves the faithless one,
he cannot suppress this love, but he does not want it, for he feels himself
degraded by it. ...Into this state of soul God's word descends, "Continue
loving, thou art allowed to love her, thou must love her; even so do I love
Israel." (The Prophetic Faith, p. 113)
Hosea loved Gomer still. He redeemed her and brought her back. She did not
deserve such love and grace.
But if Gomer did not deserve such merciful treatment as Hosea felt
constrained to give her, no more did Israel merit the mercy and love of
God. Her redemption from sin and shame was an act of God’s grace and
of his love that would not let her go. (Interpreter Bible, p. 562)
The statement of God's unconditional, unquenchable love is beautifully stated in
the first verse of the eleventh chapter. Now the figure is not the marriage
relationship, but that of God the Father and Israel the son.
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
But Israel was unfaithful; she worshipped the Canaanite gods. Tenderly, God
nurtured her.
I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love… (11:4)
But still they failed to live faithfully in that covenant love. They succeeded only in
eliciting God's anger. Judgment was surely coming; Hosea could feel it.
Hosea prophesied around 745 B.C. Jeroboam II had brought the Northern
Kingdom to prosperity, but Hosea could see the dry rot in the soul of the nation.
Judgment would come and judgment did come. In 721, the Assyrian Empire
came in and overthrew Israel, dispersing the ten northern tribes.
But judgment was not the final word. Judgment was only a means to the end of
finally bringing His people to their senses and causing them to return to Him.
Listen to the "last word:"
How can I give you up, O Ephraim!
How can I hand you over, O Israel!
How can I make you like Admah!
How can I treat you like Zeboiim!
My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my fierce anger.
I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man,
the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come, to destroy. (11: 8-9)
There you have the text, a text to ponder. There you have a statement of God's
unconditional, unquenchable love, a love that will never give up on us, a love that
will never let us go.
In God's relationship to Israel, we see mirrored His relationship to all nations.
God created the nation Israel in the event of the Exodus. Israel was a chosen
nation. God elected Israel to be a representative people for all peoples. We cannot
fathom the mystery of that choice, that election. It was not an election of one
nation cutting off the rest of the nations, but the choosing of one on behalf of the
rest. It was a particular choice with a universal purpose. Remember the call to
Abraham:
…by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. Genesis 12: 3
The basis of God's choice of Israel was simply love:
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that
the Lord set his love upon you and chose you…but it is because the Lord
loves you… Deuteronomy 7: 7-8
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Israel was the representative of us all. Berkhof calls Israel God's "Experimental
Garden." In her concrete history – thus in the arena of our history – it has been
demonstrated that the human covenant partner will never prove faithful.
... in an experimental garden the soil and what can be done with it are tried
out, so that other fields, to which these experiments are applicable, may
benefit from it. ... in the Old Testament, Israel, in distinction from other
nations, is more than once pictured as a specially cultivated and tended
vineyard, from which might thus be expected a greater yield, but whose
unproductivity arouses the greater anger of God. (Christian Faith, p. 245)
Pointing to Israel's election, Berkhof shows that as a People she had a special
privilege and a special task; the outcome of the Old Testament is the
demonstration in our history of the faithlessness of the human covenant partner
and the faithfulness of the Divine covenant partner. Berkhof writes,
And we who are witnesses of this way know that Israel is no better or
worse than the other nations, but that her guilt and fate disclose the way of
the whole human race. The abiding relevance of the Old Testament is that
the experimental garden Israel has shown once and for all how unfruitful
we humans are in our faithfulness to God and our neighbor; and then, too,
how unimaginably faithful God remains to mankind which ever and again
seeks life apart from him. (p. 245f)
What is the solution? Certainly there is no hope from our side; there is no
solution possible from the human covenant partner. When God moved to effect a
solution through the gift of Jesus in whom He dwelt in fullness, we crucified him.
This is the New Testament history that corresponds to Israel's failure. Thus we
have in both Old and New Testaments the concrete history of radical human
guilt.
What is the solution? The solution is the radical grace of God, which flows from
the unconditional love of God. It was this insight that gripped Hosea, written
indelibly in his own soul through his personal experience. God says, in effect,
“You deserve to be given up; I should give you up. But how can I give you up? I
will not give you up.”
In his book Unconditional Love, John Powell writes,
In the Old Testament God reveals himself to the People of Israel as a God
of unconditional love. His gift of himself in the choice and creation of "My
People" is totally unsolicited, undeserved and unmerited. ... God decides,
God chooses, God offers his gift of love. He is by his own free act forever
committed to his People. The prophet Hosea uses the image of God taking
a bride: "And I will betroth you to me forever." (2:19-20) Through the
prophet Isaiah, God says, "Even if a mother should forget the child of her
womb, I will never forget you." (49:15).
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
The unconditionality of God's love for his People is a constant refrain in
the Old Testament. God has promised and God will always be faithful to
his promise. Jeremiah writes of God's constant willingness to forgive:
"With an eternal love I have loved you. Therefore, in loving-kindness I
draw you to myself." (31:3) (Unconditional Love, p. 97F)
Hosea understood the faithfulness of God to his covenant which was rooted in a
love that would never give up. As Bernard Anderson writes,
Just as Gomer played the harlot, so Israel had broken the covenant.
According to Hosea, this was the real historical tragedy, and all the
contemporary troubles of Israel were only symptoms of it. The "wife"
whom Yahweh had chosen and betrothed to himself had become a whore.
A "spirit of hostility" had inflamed the people, and they had become
estranged from their God. (4:12) Hosea's critique of Israel's society went
far deeper than a mere condemnation of social immorality, political
confusion, or religious formation. He was concerned with men's motives,
with the devotion of the heart, with the things in which men place their
trust. (Understanding The Old Testament, p. 247)
Sounding the keynote of Hosea's message, Anderson writes,
The deepest note struck in the book of Hosea is the proclamation that
God's "wrath" or judgment is redemptive. God's purpose is not to destroy,
but to heal. Through historical crises that shake the very foundations of
human self-sufficiency, Yahweh acts to free his people from their
enslavement to false allegiance and to restore them to freedom in the
covenant loyalty. Just as Hosea's love was greater and deeper than
Gomer's infidelity, so Yahweh's love for Israel is truly steadfast. It is a
divine love that will not let his people go, despite their fickleness and
harlotry. His "wrath" is not capricious, vindictive, and destructive; it is the
expression of a holy love which seeks to break the chains of Israel's
bondage and to emancipate her for a new life, a new covenant. (Ibid., p.
251)
... divine judgment is not the last word ... (verses 8-9). For even in the
hour of catastrophe Yahweh does not abandon his people, nor does his
love for them cease. It is not his will that Israel be destroyed as Admah and
Zeborm were leveled during the holocaust of Sodom and Gomorrah, (cf.
Gen. 19:24-25; Deuteronomy 29:23). Rather, the purpose behind
Yahweh's judgment is love, like that of a parent who lovingly disciplines a
wayward child. These verses passionately describe a struggle, as it were,
within the heart of God - a struggle that doubtless reflects the agony of
Hosea's experience with Gomer. But the triumph is on the side of the love
that will not let Israel go. (Ibid., p. 252)
Thus Hosea ends his prophecy with words of healing,
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
I will heal their apostasy; of my own bounty will I love them. (14:4)
The secret of such love lies in God. We cannot fathom it; we can only bow before
its majesty. It is beyond human comprehension. God points to His own
"Godness" as it were, differentiating Himself from us.
... for I am God and not man.
Such is the amazing story of the love of God.
It is interesting to relate Hosea's sense of God's love that never gives up on us to
Paul's struggle with Israel's rejection of Jesus. Romans chapters 9-11 relate that
struggle. Paul cannot understand how to put together God's faithfulness to his
covenant promise with Israel's disobedience. His final conclusion is that, through
Israel's rejection, the Gospel is being brought to the Gentiles. He concludes that
section of struggle with these words:
For in making all mankind prisoners to disobedience, God’s purpose was
to show mercy to all mankind. (11:32)
Then he breaks out in a great doxology, praising the God of so great salvation.
What are we to make of this amazing love story, this tale of unconditional,
unquenchable love? Must it not seem too good to be true? If it seems too good to
be true, it is because we are not accustomed to hearing this message stated simply
and straightforwardly. As the message has come to us filtered through centuries
of Church tradition - our own Church tradition included - the message has been
garbled and the unconditional love of God has been hedged in with numerous
qualifications and conditions. I think it accurate to say that for the most part the
message that has come through is that of a conditional love of God, conditional
on our response, conditional on our good behavior. We speak much of grace, but
we operate on the basis of good works and self-righteousness.
Is it not perhaps that we are afraid to let the truth of the radical grace and
unconditional love of God out because people might really believe it and presume
upon it, take advantage of it? Do we dare tell people that the love of God will
finally overcome their disobedience, their unfaithfulness, their unworthiness,
their fickleness, in a word - their sinful rebellion and self assertion?
Do we not rather make God's gift of salvation conditional on saying the right
words, confessing the right beliefs, conforming to accepted morality?
Have we not transformed the Gospel of God's radical grace and unconditional
love into a morality game? Has not the message of the Church been strongly
flavored with "Santa Claus theology" - that is – not "You better be good 'cause
Santa's coming to town," but "You better be good 'cause Jesus is coming again?"
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
That is so very human, just like us. We use reward and punishment on our
children; good behaviour gets a reward; bad behaviour gets punishment. That
seems only reasonable; that seems like a just mode of operation.
Is that not also the way God operates? The answer is simply, "No."
Is that not why when He makes His amazing declaration about not being able to
give up on Israel, He explains,
... for I am God and not man.
Similarly in Isaiah 55 we read after the gracious invitation to return to Him Who
freely forgives,
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my
ways… For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts; and as the
rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return until they
have watered the earth, making it blossom and bear fruit, and give seed
for sowing and bread to eat, so shall the word which comes from my
mouth prevail; it shall not return to me fruitless without accomplishing
my purpose or succeeding in the task I gave it. (Isaiah 55:8-11)
God is God. God is other than we are. In His dealings, Love always triumphs. God
will never give up on His People. His anger burns. His judgment falls. But His
love wins out and the last word is grace.
We hardly dare let this good news be known for we fear then we will lose our hold
on persons, we will lose our control factor. A good dose of threat and a pinch of
fear, the reinforcement of the guilt that is present and well deserved tends to keep
the Church in the driver's seat and the people subservient and docile. What would
happen if we really let it out that God's love is the final reality, the last word?
A great Christian leader and spiritual giant of an earlier day, A.W. Tozer, wrote a
beautiful essay entitled, "God Is Easy To Live With." He writes,
Satan's first attack upon the human race was his sly effort to destroy Eve's
confidence in the kindness of God. Unfortunately for her and for us he
succeeded too well. From that day, men have had a false conception of
God, and it is exactly this that has cut out from under them the ground of
righteousness and driven them to reckless and destructive living. (These
Times, 1-74, p. 10)
He points out how our notion of God must always determine the quality of our
religion. Instinctively we try to be like our God and if He is conceived to be stern
and exacting, so will we ourselves be. We can speak of salvation by grace, but we
reduce the glory of the Gospel to the drudgery of legalism. Tozer goes on:
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 8
From a failure properly to understand God comes a world of unhappiness
among good Christians even today. The Christian life is thought to be a
glum, unrelieved cross-carrying under the eye of a stern Father who
expects much and excuses nothing.
If we think of Him as cold and exacting we shall find it impossible to love
Him, and our lives will be ridden with servile fear. ... The truth is that God
is the most winsome of all beings and His service one of unspeakable
pleasure. He is all love, and those who trust Him never know anything but
that love.
Unfortunately, many Christians cannot get free from their perverted
notions of God, and these notions poison their hearts and destroy their
inward freedom. These friends serve God grimly, as the elder brother did,
doing what is right without enthusiasm and without joy, and seem
altogether unable to understand the buoyant, spirited celebration when
the prodigal comes home. Their idea of God rules out the possibility of His
being happy in His people, ... Unhappy souls, these, doomed to go heavily
on their melancholy way, grimly determined to do right if the heavens fall
and to be on the winning side in the day of judgment.
We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but
by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections and
believing that He understands everything and loves us still.
Tozer had read Hosea. He makes such an important point. It is precisely the
knowledge of God's unconditional love that has the power to change us inside
out.
What have we produced in so much of the history of the Church? Not happy,
grace-full persons, but fearful, guilt-ridden persons whose external conformity to
the Law is a mask over seething hostility and rebellious resentment.
James Sandeishas written a book with the interesting title, God Has a Story Too.
He points out that the Bible is a story about God's action first of all, not about
human reaction. He argues that we moralize the Bible when we should theologize
the life. By this he means that the biblical narratives are stories not about human
achievements, human obedience, human goodness. We are not given a series of
models to emulate in the Bible. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife and
laughed when God said they would have a child. Moses murdered and was a
fugitive from justice. David was guilty of murder and adultery. Paul persecuted
the Church. Peter denied Jesus.
The Bible is the story of what God can do through the likes of such people - in
spite of them. The story is God's story - a love story, a story of a love that never
quits, a love that never gives up on us, a love that will never let us go.
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page 9
Thus when we become wiser than God, feel we must guard the morality of
persons and keep their religious practice in line by qualifying the burning passion
of His unquenchable love, we not only distort the amazing wonder of that love,
we also miss the greatest single catalyst for transforming human personality and
the greatest motivation for a life of trust and devotion lived in the light of His
grace.
Moralism produces self-righteous, proud and judgmental persons. Legalism
produces tense, guilty persons lacking joy and assurance in the freedom of grace.
Stressing a conditional acceptance produces fear and finally despair. In a word,
the shading of the truth of God's love that knows no limits simply backfires; it
does not accomplish the purpose. It does not work.
In a quarter century of pastoral ministry, I must say that it is grace that is most
difficult to receive and God's unconditional love that is most difficult to believe.
We do not deserve it.
We know we do not deserve it.
We are guilty people and we know it.
We despair of ourselves; why wouldn't God despair?
We condemn ourselves; why wouldn't God condemn?
We are faithless and fickle;
we resolve, we perform, we fall away again,
we have done it a thousand times;
will the pattern ever be broken?
And here is the greatest peril of spiritual existence: We despair and give up.
Rather than responding to the call of the higher, we give up and yield to the
lower.
We write ourselves off: "Hopeless Case."
The old Baptismal liturgy contains great insight and wisdom. Explaining the
meaning of the sacrament, it teaches that Baptism is a sign and seal of our ingrafting into the body of Christ... By
this assurance we are called to new obedience: to hold fast to this one God,
... to trust and love him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength;
and to forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a new and
holy life.
Fine. That is what we are committed to. But who can realize that high calling?
The Saints, right? Abraham, Moses, David, Peter and Paul? Maybe the Elders.
Maybe even the Deacons.
But that holy life is hardly within the range of ordinary mortals, is it? Maybe for
some. Some folks seem full of goodness and steadiness and from all outward
© Grand Valley State University
�The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Richard A. Rhem
Page10
appearance it would seem they are walking the straight and narrow. But as for me
...
Then our liturgy comes with profound spiritual insight:
And if we sometimes, through weakness, fall into sin, we must not
therefore despair of God's mercy, nor continue in sin, since Baptism is the
sign and seal of God's eternal covenant of grace with us.
There you have it! Again, the liturgy does not at the point of our weakness issue a
warning, but reminds us of a promise. It does not focus on what we ought to be,
but on what God has already established. Baptism is a sign and seal of an Eternal
Covenant of Grace.
That Eternal Covenant of Grace flows from the heart of the Eternal God, which is
Love; unquenchable love, unconditional love, love that will not quit, love that will
not give up on us, love that will never let us go. Radical grace. Radical love. That
is mind-boggling. If that is Who God is, then He is easy to live with, easy to love, a
joy to serve, a delight to please.
God is our Ally. He will never give up on us. His love will finally triumph. I do not
know how; sometimes through judgment, sometimes through adversity,
sometimes through death. That is His prerogative; for us the "how" remains a
mystery. But the "that" is clear: Love is the last word. God is love.
He will never give up on you!
References:
Bernhard W. Anderson. Understanding the Old Testament. Prentice-Hall, 2nd
edition, 1966.
Hendrikus Berkhof. Christian Faith: An Introduction to a Study of the Faith.
Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979.
John Joseph Powell. Unconditional Love: Love Without Limits. Resources for
Christian Living; first printing edition, 1978.
A. W. Tozer, “God Is Easy To Live With,” These Times, 1, 1974, p. 10.
© Grand Valley State University
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost XIII
Series
God Our Ally
Scripture Text
Hosea 11:8-9, 14:4, Romans 11:32
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament, 1966
John Joseph Powell, Unconditional Love, 1978
A.W. Tozer, "God Is Easy to Live With," 1974
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-19850825
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-08-25
Title
A name given to the resource
The God Who Never Gives Up On Us
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 25, 1985 entitled "The God Who Never Gives Up On Us", as part of the series "God Our Ally", on the occasion of Pentecost XIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hosea 11:8-9, 14:4, Romans 11:32.
Covenant of Grace
God's Unconditional Love
Hebrew Scriptures
Hosea
Judgment
Prophet
Transformation