Hosea 10:1-2

God gives us our talents not only for our personal use but most importantly for the good of the Body of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit belongs to Him and through us it is to be shared with the world that we live in so that through our actions others may be drawn to the Creator of us all. 

“I am the Lord your God and you shall not have false gods before me”……don’t let the the allure of the world become your god. 

Israel empties his vine refers to God’s blessings upon the nation, which contrast with the nation’s ingratitude and idolatry.

 Hosea refers to Israel’s deceitful and hypocritical ways.

Hosea 10:1-2

10 Israel empties his vine;

He brings forth fruit for himself.

According to the multitude of his fruit

He has increased the altars;

According to the bounty of his land

They have embellished his sacred pillars.

² Their heart is divided; 

Now they are held guilty.

He will break down their altars;

He will ruin their sacred pillars.²⁸

²⁸But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, If they can save you in the time of your trouble; For according to the number of your cities Are your gods, O Judah. 

Jeremiah 2:28

²For the Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob Like the excellence of Israel, For the emptiers have emptied them out And ruined their vine branches. 

Nahum 2:2

²¹ And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 

1 Kings 18:21

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 

Matthew 6:24

Mark 2:21-22

Your whole life changes when you invite Christ into it. 

Satan wants nothing less than to destroy  your relationship with the Father and he hates Jesus. Don’t give up when your world seems to fall apart knowing that if you presevere you will succeed! We are being made new, precept by precept, and the lessons that achieve this process are sometimes hard to understand and even harder to accept…just believe and remember  Jesus wins :) 

It is not about rules and regulations it is about relationship with the triune Godhead. It is a new paradigm expressed in the form of the only begotten Son of God.

paradigm |ˈparəˌdīm|

noun

1 technical a typical example or pattern of something; a model: there is a new paradigm for public art in this country.

• a worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject: the discovery of universal gravitation became the paradigm of successful science.

The comparison implies that the newness of His message, and of the new covenant to follow, cannot fit into the old molds of Judaism. The OT was preparation for the NT.

Mark 2:21-22

²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

²⁰ So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor. 

Luke 20:20

¹⁴ But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” 

Luke 13:14

²The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, ⁴saying, 

Psalm 2:2

Psalm 105:1-6

God is faithful….even when we are not! He is good and His mercy endures forever.

Those who call upon His name are under His covenant  with Abraham and He will do whatever it takes to bring them safely through the trials and tribulations of this life.

 Rejoice when things go wrong and you handle it His way for you are being changed into the very image of His Son, Jesus the Christ, so that you can reside with Him for eternity. 

Genesis 26:4 

And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

SEEK HIM AND YOU WILL FIND HIM. PRAISE HIM ALL DAY LONG!

Psalm 105, a psalm of praise, focuses on the positive experiences of Israel in their early history.. This poem celebrates God’s faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham in the lives of His people. 

The people needed to remember to be faithful to God, who had never forgotten to be faithful to them.

The psalmist wanted to remind God’s people of His goodness.

Psalm 105:1-6

¹       Oh, give thanks to the Lord!

Call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples!

² Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;

Talk of all His wondrous works!

³ Glory in His holy name;

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!

⁴ Seek the Lord and His strength;

Seek His face evermore!

⁵ Remember His marvelous works which He has done,

His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,

⁶ O seed of Abraham His servant,

You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!

³⁴Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 

1 Chronicles 16:34

¹Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 

Psalm 106:1

⁴ And in that day you will say: “Praise the Lord, call upon His name; Declare His deeds among the peoples, Make mention that His name is exalted. 

Isaiah 12:4

²⁷Make me understand the way of Your precepts; So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works. 

Psalm 119:27

⁸When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” 

Psalm 27:8

John 20:30-31

Jesus Christ, all God-all Man, the Son of God who was from the beginning and will eternally be. 

There will come a time, predestined by the Father, when Jesus will once again walk on earth. This earth will be as new and unblemished as the first and will never end. On this new earth Jesus will preside over all of His creation without the stain of the sin of Adam. In Him alone is eternal salvation. He is the hope of glory..

John states the purpose of his book. His purpose was to convince his readers that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah who fulfilled God’s promises to Israel. Jesus is the Son of God, God in the flesh. By believing these things, a person obtains eternal life.

John 20:30-31

³⁰ And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16

¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 

1 John 5:13

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 

1 John 5:1

¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:15

⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 

1 Peter 1:8

⁹ receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. 

1 Peter 1:9

John 21:15-17

It pierces the very heart of God when any of His creation perishes. 

We need to have that same heart for those who do not know Him showing His love to all those that we meet. Others will know Him by the love that we show each other. 

We show our love for Him by caring for others… especially those who are of the Body of Christ… His Bride!

John was the first to recognize the Lord; Peter was the first to act. Though Peter often made bad decisions, he had zeal that would eventually be channeled to good use.

John 21:15-17

¹⁵ So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

¹⁶ He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”

And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. 

²⁸ Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 

Acts 20:28

⁶ If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. 

1 Timothy 4:6

² Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; 

1 Peter 5:2

¹³So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture, Will give You thanks forever; We will show forth Your praise to all generations. 

Psalm 79:13

Luke 12:49-53

Jesus is the only way to the Father and through Him all things were created. Those who accept the unmerited gift of God in salvation are being molded precept by precept into His image. It is all about Him!

Mankind will only know Christ followers by the fruit of the Holy Spirit being manifested in their lives. The goodness, mercy, love and peace that they give to others will draw others to Christ. The greatest of these fruits is love and without it we are just making noise.

Jesus is the dividing line, the mark laid in the sands of time, that allows  you to cross over into belief  and eternal life with God or refuse His salvation and die in your disbelief.

Jesus’ coming brings judgment on those who refuse to accept Him and divides the believers from the faithless. 

Part of Jesus’ mission was to create a division within humankind.

Luke 12:49-53

⁴⁹ “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. ⁵² For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. ⁵³ Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

¹⁸ “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, 

Matthew 20:18

²⁷ “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 

John 12:27

³⁴ “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to ‘set ¹a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; ³⁶ and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 

Matthew 10:34–36

⁴³ So there was a division among the people because of Him. 

John 7:43

¹⁶ Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 

John 9:16

⁴ But the multitude of the city was divided: part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles. 

Acts 14:4

Luke 24:33-42

Heaven is for real. 

We will eat, drink and converse but with new bodies that are no longer bound by the rules of earth but are set free in the spiritual realm of God’s Kingdom. 

Praise be to God who offers His gift of salvation to anyone that will accept the birth, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Spread the Word of this beautiful gift to mankind….His peace that He gives to those who believe is eternal.

Jesus pointed out that a raised body is not a disembodied spirit. 

The presence of flesh and bones indicates that Jesus had been raised bodily, and that He was not a hallucination. He was raised in the same physical body in which He had been put to death. The difference was that His resurrected body is not corruptible and not subject to death. The physical nature of Jesus’ resurrected body was confirmed by the fact that he ate something.

Luke 24:33-42

³³ So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, ³⁴ saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.

³⁶ Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” ³⁷ But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. ³⁸ And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹ Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

⁴⁰ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. ⁴¹ But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” ⁴² So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. ⁴³ And He took it and ate in their presence.

⁵ and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 

1 Corinthians 15:5

¹⁴ Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 

Mark 16:14

¹⁹ Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 

John 20:19

²⁰ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 

John 20:20

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—

1 John 1:1

Mark 16:9-11

Call 9.1.1 call Jesus…. He is everything  that you need!

Mary Magdalene was a woman with many problems before she met Jesus. She who had sinned and had been forgiven so much also loved much and she spent the remainder of her days glorifying the Maker of Heaven and Earth. 

People respond to the love of God when we show them the love of God in our speech and most importantly in our actions. 

Ultimately it does not matter what others believe it matters whom you believe in!

Although the women had been commissioned to tell of Jesus’ resurrection, none had actually seen Jesus until He appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Only this verse and Luke 8:2 mention Jesus’ exorcism of seven demons from Mary, which would explain her strong devotion to Him. 

Jesus’ resurrection was evidently not expected by anyone in spite of His repeated predictions.

Mark 16:9-11

⁹ Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. ¹⁰ She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. ¹¹ And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe

²and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, 

Luke 8:2

¹⁷When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 

Matthew 28:17

Jeremiah 6:27-30

God does not always condone the actions of those who call themselves His people. 

Satan and his legions are rebellious liars who seek to destroy God’s people. Don’t give in to his deceptive tactics.

God always has the final word in HIStory!

We need to examine our ways closely before we ask for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven….the outcome may surprise us! 

Jesus came to establish peace and order not chaos in His people. Remember He blessed the Peacemakers saying they shall be called sons of God (Matt 5:9).

The Lord describes Jeremiah’s role as the nation’s assayer, the one who tests or evaluates quality or purity. 

Jeremiah gives his assessment of the people. Rebels speaks of their defiant attitudes. Slanderers refers to those who tell tales. Corrupters refers to those who destroy.

Jeremiah assesses Judah as a refiner purifies silver, using lead to remove impurities. The lead is consumed, so the dross in the silver ore cannot be purged. This results in the refiner discarding the ore because it is so impure that the smelting process is not worth the energy it takes. Similarly God rejects those whose wickedness cannot be refined.

Jeremiah 6:27-30

²⁷ “I have set you as an assayer and a fortress among My people,

That you may know and test their way.

²⁸ They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers.

They are bronze and iron,

They are all corrupters;

²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely,

The lead is consumed by the fire;

The smelter refines in vain,

For the wicked are not drawn off.

³⁰ People will call them rejected silver,

Because the Lord has rejected them.”

¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver. 

Ezekiel 22:18

²²Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water. 

Isaiah 1:22

Luke 10:25-28

Love is eternal…. love God with everything that you have and love others as much as you do yourself. 

The simplicity of the gospel sounds easy enough to accomplish. most of us have no problem professing our love for God in Jesus Christ but have a very hard time showing His love for others that are not in our circle of friends or family.

What good is it to love only those who love you…you have received your reward.

We need to give to others without thought of receiving something in return and show love and forgiveness to those who do not love us….it is God’s command. if we show his love in our actions others will see it and they will be drawn to him.

How many times must we show mercy? Too numerous to count according to  the teachings of Jesus. 

We cannot earn heaven but faith without showing God’s love for all people is questionable.

Jesus develops the theme of love for one’s neighbor.

Jesus was not saying that righteousness is the result of works. Rather He was saying that love for and obedience to God and others will be a natural result of placing one’s faith in the Lord.

Luke 10:25-28

²⁵ And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

²⁷ So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

²⁸ And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 

Deuteronomy 6:5

¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. 

Leviticus 19:18

¹⁹ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” 

Matthew 19:19

²⁹And testified against them, That You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, And did not heed Your commandments, But sinned against Your judgments, ‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’ And they shrugged their shoulders, Stiffened their necks, And would not hear. 

Nehemiah 9:29

John 15:1-4

Be thankful for the trials in your life….you are being pruned by the Master! Jesus will never leave you the same as when you found Him. He accepts you just as you are and then shapes you into His image through the Holy Spirit so that the Father sees His Son in you…..and so does the world!

With God as the vinedresser, the branches can experience complete confidence and security.

Prunes means “cleanses.” Once the fruit is on the vine, the vinedresser cleanses the fruit of bugs and diseases. The spiritual counterpart is cleansing which is done through the Word. For the branch to produce more fruit, it must abide, which means to dwell, to stay, to settle in, to sink deeper. The way to abide in Christ is to obey. The believer who lovingly obeys the Word of God produces much fruit…and the greatest of these fruits is love.

John 15:1-4

 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

¹³ But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 

Matthew 15:13

¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 

Matthew 13:12

¹⁷ Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 

John 17:17

²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

John 17:23

¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 

Ephesians 3:17

²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. 

Colossians 1:23

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. —2 Timothy 1:7

Romans 3:21-26

We are convicted under the Law and 

saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. 

We cannot earn eternal life with God it is His gift to those who accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of their life. In our gratitude for God’s mercy we do good works worthy of His calling. 

Faith alone pleases the Father.

God provided His only begotten Son as a living 


sacrifice providing the only way back to Him. 

Christ Jesus, all God and all 

man, died in our place to receive the punishment 

that we deserved so that we could have eternal life with Him.

In this context the righteousness of God is not an attribute of God, but an act of God whereby He declares a sinner righteous. This is righteousness from God. 

No one can live up to what God created us to be; we all fall short of His glory. 

We cannot save ourselves because as sinners we can never meet God’s requirements. Our only hope is faith in Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus died to provide redemption, which means He died to pay the price required to ransom sinners. Because of Christ’s death, God does not compromise His holiness when He forgives a sinner.

Romans 3:21-26

²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, ²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

¹¹ But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.” 

Acts 15:11

⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 

John 5:46

¹⁰ Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 

1 Peter 1:10

¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 

Romans 10:12

²² But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 

Galatians 3:22

John 17:20-26

In Christ all who accept the Fathers’ gift of salvation are made one. We are one in being with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Love is the binding element that holds all things together and in the unity of the heart of God, the Holy Spirit, we are sanctified and made whole. Christ within us is the hope for Gods’ glory on earth and without filtering our actions through His lens of love we can do nothing. Unbelievers are drawn to salvation through God’s love evidenced in those who believe. In unity we can do anything!

Jesus not only prayed for those the Father had given Him but for all future believers—for their unity and their future glory. The present tense of the verb “to be” indicates that Jesus was praying for the unity that takes place through the sanctification of believers. 

The loving relationship of believers to each other is the greatest witness to Jesus Christ.

Correct belief must bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit—a life that demonstrates God’s love and produces the unity between all the believers.The mutual indwelling of the Father in the Son and the Son in the church is also the means to unity, the true expression of God’s love. 

The ultimate reason for future believers to know the love of God is so that God’s love may be replicated in them, thus drawing the entire world to Christ.

John 17:20-26

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

¹⁶ And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. 

John 10:16

⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 

Romans 12:5

^28lThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 

Galatians 3:28

⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 

Ephesians 4:4

⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 

Ephesians 4:6

¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

2 Corinthians 3:18

¹⁴ But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 

Colossians 3:14