PREAMBLE:
Are we taking God and his grace for granted? Or as Paul puts it in Romans 2:4 do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

It is true that the moment when history is being made, we do not know because today’s moment is too obvious until we look back. And as we look back to Hosea’s time, the people’s disobedience made dreadful history. Are we learning to avoid their stance toward God, or blindly and carelessly repeating their mistake?

Could it be the same for us, as God warns comfortable people? Can the rebuke and warning of God be seen as a history marker among people who have settled away from him? Could it be that the comfort of God’s people in their godly routines can be so spiritually blinding and too deafening to have the warnings of God come through? For indeed, we can keep is church and keep away from the demands of God. Israel was in the promised land and away from God.

Today, the church has lived in the obvious with God for so long that Christians find comfort in the fog that blinds them from the requirements of God. A sincere love for God directs his people to service not shopping around for a better church deal. A reverent fear for God will drive people to pray for themselves that as a result of sinfulness in the church, they may overcome by righteousness not by running away.

When the weaknesses, shortcomings, inadequacies we all share in equal measure with other fallen people, cause us to denigrate each other, or disparage our spiritual leaders, or give up on ministry, or abandon fellowship, or risk loss of friendships, or forget history only to kangaroo around for a more perfect lot, better people, then know that we are losing sight of the cross of Christ, of the saints’ destiny and of our own imperfections that cause such shallowness of consideration.