Lake Eufaula Christian Church
A wedding is a joyful celebration of love—the holy rite of two people becoming one in the eyes of God. The world at large loves seeing such commitments take place.
In April 2011, 2 billion people around the world tuned in as Prince William and Princess Kate were married at Westminster Abbey. Seven years later in May of 2018, 1.9 billion people watched as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were joined in matrimony at Windsor Castle. In those two televised events, half the population of the world watched the regal tradition, the pomp and circumstance, and the fairy-tale quality of those royal weddings.
No wonder God chose marriage as a metaphor for His relationship with His people. Because God created the institute of marriage, it’s tragic to Him when those sacred vows are violated. It’s also tragic to Jesus, who paid the ultimate price for us all to live out a happily ever after.
Nevertheless, throughout the Bible God takes something broken, impure, strained, and/or failed and redeems it for a greater purpose. His doing so shows us that even though we often rebel from God’s design, He wants us back and relentlessly pursues us with grace and mercy.
How he loves us is exactly how we should love others.
The Bible’s book of Hosea tells of Israel’s continued wicked rebellion against God. Israel at that time was a lot like our country right now broken and sinful, but still prideful.
The Lord charged them, saying “There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere. Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.” (Hosea 4:1-2, 4, 6) Is the marriage between God and the United States so different from the one between God and Israel at that time? Don’t we need to acknowledge the danger of our country’s declining morality? Both spiritual and physical adultery are against God’s law and design. When we continually sin, our hearts harden, and our relationship with God is strained.
Don’t we need to plead for repentance, as Hosea pleaded with the Israelites to do? “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought
you down. Bring your confessions and return to the Lord. Say to Him, ‘Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises…. Never again will we say to the idols we have made; you are our gods.’” (Hosea 14:1-3) When we repent, “The Lord says, ‘Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know NO BOUNDS, for my anger will be gone forever.’” (Hosea 14:4-9) Christ followers know that forgiveness begins with recognizing our sins’ destructiveness and the futility of trying to navigate this broken, fallen world without God. But we don’t stop with realization. We admit that we cannot save ourselves. We need a savior and the mercy offered through Jesus’s sacrificial love.
We at LECC give thanks for His saving grace at 10 a.m. small group Bible study, 11 a.m. worship, and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night classes for all ages. Please join us at 415987 Highway 9, Eufaula, to praise the God who “answers your prayers and cares for you… like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me.” (Hosea 14:8) God Bless You.
Jeremy Little, Minister
