Start The Day

Saturday 19th July 2025

“Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows. ⁹No, I will not unleash my fierce anger. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.” Hosea 11:8-9 NLT

God the Holy One,

Here in these two verses Hosea wrestles with the dilemma of a You, being a holy, righteous God and yet who overflows with compassion. It is as if he can read Your heart – but as You remind him – You God are not a mere mortal. We wither and die and You do not. We are not capable of being good and You demand righteousness. We are want to fail and doubt and waver and yet, You are faithful.

I wonder if Hosea saw the journey of Israel from Abraham to Moses to the Promised Land to the divided Kingdom with all the swings between faith and folly? Obedience and rebellion? Saw how much You loved the children of Israel and yet hated their rebellious and sinful behavior. Would Hosea see how You repeatedly held to Your promises. We know that Your dilemma Lord would not have a solution for over 700 years – in Jesus.

It gives me hope and a great respect for Your mercy. You still love us, Your creation, regardless of the sin that so easily entangles (Hebrews 12:1) even Your family in Christ. And You are still calling out to those who would hear and find You.

Thank You, that You did not give up on Your chosen people, or on me. You will not give up on those yet to come. You never give up loving. We cannot fathom the depths of Your love but gratefully give thanks in Jesus

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Worship Saturday 19th July 2025

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Repeat . . .

Lyrics: Frederick Martin Lehman

Friday 18th July 2025

“Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel! The Lord has brought charges against you, saying: “There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. ²You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere—one murder after another. ³That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away. Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing. ⁴“Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you.So you will stumble in broad daylight, and your false prophets will fall with you in the night. And I will destroy Israel, your mother. ⁶My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.” Hosea 4:1-6 NLT

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. ²But the more I called to him, the farther he moved from me,offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols. ³I myself taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn’t know or even care that it was I who took care of him. ⁴I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.” Hosea 11:1-4

Father God,

Through these chapters 4 to 8 we read endlessly of Israel’s unfaithfulness, openly rejecting Your law, openly worshiping idols and Your Priests openly leading them astray. But them we catch snippets of the depth of Your compassion. How You loved him and led him and cared for him with kindness and love. You stooped from heaven to feed Israel.

You wait, You look, You hope and still love. Even in the face of such unfaithfulness You provide an opportunity. The writer of the letter to the Roams speaks of Your kindness, “⁴Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” (Romans 2:4). In the face of our sin and God’s kindness we find forgiveness. How wonderful the message of Your love has never changed and You still grant us free will to choose. You are eternally kind and eternally merciful and patient. To those who would repent that is.

Help us to be kind and gracious.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Worship Friday 19th July 2025
I could only remember snatches of this song and am so glad to have found it again. It is God’s kindness that led me to repentance.

Oh my Lord You are so kind
Oh my Lord You are so kind
Morning to morning day to day
You reveal Your righteous ways

It’s Your kindness that leads to repentance
It’s Your blood that brings forgiveness
It’s Your mercy that leads me here
To Your throne of grace

Lyrics: Charlie Hines

Thursday 17th July 2025

“The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel.” “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” ³So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. ⁴Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. ⁵In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.” ⁶Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. ⁷Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.” ⁸After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. ⁹Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” Hosea 1:1-9 NIV

Almighty God,

What a calling and what a message! Very specific and very final. Your people had been rebellious and would suffer the consequences. Hosea’s children, born over the years following his marriage, named as a permanent reminder of Israel’s spiritual state. The people of Israel would be punished, no longer loved and no longer Your people. While Judah would be saved.

This clearly shows that you are not like a Father who can be won round by a rebellious daughter or son with empty words.. You have drawn a line in the sand and they have gone over it. I wonder what effect it had on Hosea’s children by naming them thus? Israel’s words needed to be accompanied by action, behaving like children of God. Turning around 180 degrees in their faith and practice (repenting) of idolatry. But they did neither.

Unlike the prodigal son they did not return to You, their Father (Luke 15:18-20), at this message so clearly given. And we wonder at those we witness to who will not listen and those of our own family who do not believe. We will keep our hope and prayer alive and yet it is their free will and choice. Sad, but we are eternally grateful that we heard, and believed, and felt the touch of our Saviour. To know we are forgiven, loved and numbered among Your people.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Worship Thursday 17th July 2025
According to the editor of The Oxford Edition of the Works of John Wesley, “And Can It Be” was written immediately following Charles Wesley’s conversion to Christianity on May 21, 1738. Wesley had known his Bible well before this time but had not yet experienced affirmation of new birth or the wholeness of grace in his life.
Good to worship with a sound familiar hymn sometimes!

And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For, O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Lyrics: Charles Wesley