Double jeopardy is a legal term meaning someone can’t be tried for the same crime twice. Once they’re found innocent, that’s it. In today’s message, Pastor Richard reminds us that this is the same with Jesus and His atonement for our sins. Jesus paid our debt so that we can never be tried for our crimes again. How can that be true? It’s a mystery of salvation that once we’ve accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, God sees us as holy and blameless. 

The Good News of Jesus Christ is simple, straightforward, and for everyone! In today’s message, Pastor Richard encourages you to make a decision to follow Christ. Step one is to repent. Acknowledge that you’re a sinner in need of a Savior and turn from your sin. You can’t do it on your own! God is merciful and loves you so much that He sent His Son to die on a cross to pay the debt that you can’t pay. Accept this as truth and be saved today!

When farmers leave one of their fields fallow, it’s to let the soil rest and recover its fertility. To ready a fallow field for planting, the soil first needs to be broken up. Our hearts can be like a fallow field that needs the soil softened up, so that new seeds can take root there. Today, Pastor Richard urges you to make yourself open and receptive to God, so that His word can become deeply rooted in you and produce abundant fruit.

One of the characters in the novel 1984 argues, “War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength.” In a similar vein, Isaiah says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness”. Sounds a lot like our times, doesn’t it! Today, Pastor Richard tells us how Israel and Judah forgot and disobeyed God, and yet He continued to call them back to Himself. Know that He will do the same for you. 

Imagine this: it’s your second day on your brand-new job, and your boss wants you to do the work your co-worker has been doing for FIVE years! Well, that’s not fair, is it? You cannot hold the same standards for two different people when they’re in completely different stages. Today, Pastor Richard talks about how your convictions may be different from those of others. Your job isn’t to make everyone else follow your standards, but to build them up.

I think we ALL can relate to judging our fellow Christian friends for some of the choices they make. It’s important to remember that their walk with Christ isn’t ours, and that we can’t control everything they do. Today, Pastor Richard discusses the importance of encouraging your new believer friends in their walk with Christ when they fall short, instead of judging them when they may be struggling. How can you encourage your friends today? 

Today, Pastor Richard discusses the similarities between Hosea’s time and our own, as well as Paul’s day. In Ephesians, Paul exhorts the Church not to follow after the world, but to walk as children of light and expose the world’s dark deeds. We are to be salt and light and be transformed into the image of Christ. Therefore, trust and live in Jesus, immerse yourself in God’s Word, and get involved in a community of faithful Christians.

The news today is unsettling, infuriating, and tragic. There are many different viewpoints in the world around us, and everyone thinks that their’s is the right one. So what’s missing? How can we know what’s true? Today, Pastor Richard describes Hosea’s time, where the knowledge of God no longer governed the behavior of individuals or the nation. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Even so, God’s love was present then for them, as it is now for you.

Gomer, the adulterous wife of Hosea, had a faithful husband and multiple children, but she was not satisfied with her life. She wanted to cheat on him and pursue her previous lovers, whom she thought would fill her soul with those things that were lacking in her life. But God promised to thwart her, so that she would seek but not find what she craved. Are there things in your life you crave, hoping they’ll fill a void only God can fill? 

God told the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute, an unfaithful adulteress. Now, why would He do this? Because that’s how God felt about His people, whom He dearly loved. For they had turned away from Him to other lovers, to idols. The Church in the New Testament is likened to the Bride of Christ. And like a faithful husband, Jesus longs for your affection and to be your first love. When you look at your own life, is Jesus number 1 in your heart?