If we are to love our neighbor as ourselves what does that mean exactly? What characteristics of love would that entail?

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength...but what does that mean? How do I love the Lord with my heart? My soul? My mind? And my strength?

In Chapter 5, the Lord said he would return like a lion to his lair until the nation of Israel repented. In Chapter 6, Israel is still unrepentant and we explore what genuine repentance would look like.

In Chapter 4, God began to lay out His case against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In verses 1-7 of Chapter 5 God renders His verdict against the three guilty parties responsible for the decline of the Northern Kingdom. Who is most to blame for the present state of affairs in America? How did we get to where we are now? Are our political leaders to blame? Or are our religious leaders to blame? Or are we to blame for selecting and supporting our current political and religious leaders? Or are we all three of us to blame and who is at most blame?

Psalm 23 is one of the best-known and most loved passages In the Bible. David wrote it 3,000 years ago, but it's just as applicable today as it was then. The psalm uses the metaphor of a shepherd's care for his sheep to describe the wisdom, strength, and kindness of our God.

The first three chapters of Hosea describe the prophet's marriage to an unfaithful wife named Gomer and the three rebellious children born during their marriage. Hosea’s marriage and children serve as a living illustration of the Lord's relationship with Israel in its spiritual adultery and rebellion against Him. The remaining chapters (4-14) occur over a fifty-year period and contain discourses denouncing Israel's unfaithfulness, selfish ingratitude, and callous immorality. This morning we begin with the first discourse.

In today's text, God makes His case against the Northern Kingdom.

Chapter 3 finds Hosea and Gomer separated because she has abandoned him. In abandoning Hosea, Gomer is no longer under Hosea’s protection and care. She is taken advantage of and one of her so-called lovers becomes her master and she becomes enslaved to him. When her usefulness to him has passed he decides to sell her in the slave market. Now if I were Hosea I would be thinking all of this serves Gomer right, but the Lord instructs Hosea to go find her and buy her out of the slave market. Consider this, if other folks thought Hosea a fool for just marrying such a woman, what do you suppose they would think about him buying her out of the slave market to restore her as his wife?

God wanted Hosea to warn the people of pending judgment but in an unusual way. God commands this young prophet to love and marry an unfaithful woman. Why? Hosea's relationships with his wife and the three children that follow become visual aids of the Lord's relationship with the nation of Israel which has been spiritually unfaithful.