Hosea 6:1-7

. . . if superstition dishonors God, is it not an evil thing and is not the Christian who harbors it guilty of serious sin against the Majesty in the heavens" The answer to these questions is not as pat as we could desire it to be. An unqualified yes or no would both be wrong. Here is the reason:

When we first come to God through Christ, we are pagans at heart and our ideas of God are likely to be a mixture of truth, half-truth, ignorance and error. Conversion lifts the veil of...

For Reading and Meditation:     Hosea 6:1-11

A danger that we must acquaint ourselves with as we discuss the need to contemplate God more deeply is that of becoming more interested in godliness than in God Himself. Theologian Jim Packer puts the point effectively when he says that "moving in evangelical circles as I do I am often troubled by what I find. While my...

"Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up." Hosea 6:1

It is the LORD's way to tear before He heals. This is the honest love of His heart and the sure surgery of His hand. He also bruises before He binds up, or else it would be uncertain work. The law comes before the gospel, the sense of need before the supply of it. Is the reader now under the convincing,...

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD." Hosea 6:3

Not all at once, but by degrees shall we attain to holy knowledge, and our business is to persevere and learn by little and little. We need not despair, though our progress may be slow, for we shall yet know. The LORD, who has become our Teacher, will not give us up, however slow of understanding we may be; for it is not for His honor that any degree of human folly...

Is it at all unreasonable to suppose that the contemplation of God will yield us greater more precious results than the consideration of anything or of everything in this world that he has made? You are wrapt up in the study of mineralogy, or botany, or conchology; and have no time to spare for the cultivation of your acquaintance with God. The sight of a little shell has wonderful power to awaken all your faculties: and you have no rest till you have ascertained its characteristics, traced...

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. § Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. § Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness.Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and...

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. § Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. § We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. § When that which is...

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. § Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way.I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” § Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the...

If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well. § “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” … “I am willing; be cleansed.” § Faith as a mustard seed.Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. § Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.First the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. § Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord....

Who, in the days of His flesh, … offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. § [Continue] steadfastly in prayer. § Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication. § By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses...