[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 20

[preacherdp1961 at gmail.com]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 20

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

The church that doesn't want to grow is saying to the world, "Go to Hell!"

___

___DAILY DEVOTION

Ten Reasons to Go to Church, Even When You Don't Feel Like It


"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of
some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day
approaching."
(Hebrews 10:25)

Yesterday, we looked at Reason #1: To Hear the Preaching of the Word.
Today, we are going to look at Reason #2: To Participate in Corporate
Worship

Reason #2. To Participate in Corporate Worship

Worshiping God alone is wonderful, but nothing can replace the beauty of
coming together corporately to worship Him with others who also have His
Spirit in them through the redeeming work of salvation. 

Jesus said those who worship must worship in Spirit and in Truth (John
4:24). In order to truly worship God the way He demands requires some soul
searching. All too often, people think worship is rooted in feeling like
they've been with God. So they flock to churches that help them muster up
those feelings. Sadly, if the church doesn't continue to create an
environment that stirs their emotions, many move on to find another
church--or worse yet stop attending altogether. 

Realize that worshiping God comes as a response to our humble gratitude for
His love for us. Knowing God and His character as revealed in Scripture will
stir in His children a heart of thankfulness that is expressed in worship
that brings Him glory--rather than a self-serving emotional experience. The
Spirit causes true worshipers to long to come together with other believers
to honor Christ. If God's Spirit does not stir in you a desire to worship
God both privately and corporately, it's time to ask Him to show you why.
For more insights read: How to Breathe New Life into Worship.

___

DAILY BIBLE READING

Hosea 7-10 New King James Version
Israel Has Rebelled Against God
7 "When I would have healed Israel,
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,
And the wickedness of Samaria.
For they have committed fraud;
A thief comes in;
A band of robbers [a]takes spoil outside.
2 They [b]do not consider in their hearts
That I remember all their wickedness;
Now their own deeds have surrounded them;
They are before My face.
3 They make a king glad with their wickedness,
And princes with their lies.

4 "They are all adulterers.
Like an oven heated by a baker-
He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough,
Until it is leavened.
5 In the day of our king
Princes have made him sick, [c]inflamed with wine;
He stretched out his hand with scoffers.
6 They prepare their heart like an oven,
While they lie in wait;
[d]Their baker sleeps all night;
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot, like an oven,
And have devoured their judges;
All their kings have fallen.
None among them calls upon Me.

8 "Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake unturned.
9 Aliens have devoured his strength,
But he does not know it;
Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,
Yet he does not know it.
10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,
But they do not return to the Lord their God,
Nor seek Him for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations
11 "Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without [e]sense-
They call to Egypt,
They go to Assyria.
12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them;
I will bring them down like birds of the air;
I will chastise them
According to what their congregation has heard.

13 "Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
Because they have transgressed against Me!
Though I redeemed them,
Yet they have spoken lies against Me.
14 They did not cry out to Me with their heart
When they wailed upon their beds.

"They [f]assemble together for grain and new wine,
[g]They rebel against Me;
15 Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me;
16 They return, but not [h]to the Most High;
They are like a treacherous bow.
Their princes shall fall by the sword
For the cursings of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

The Apostasy of Israel
8 "Set the [i]trumpet to your mouth!
He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord,
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And rebelled against My law.
2 Israel will cry to Me,
'My God, we know You!'
3 Israel has rejected the good;
The enemy will pursue him.

4 "They set up kings, but not by Me;
They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.
>From their silver and gold
They made idols for themselves-
That they might be cut off.
5 Your [j]calf [k]is rejected, O Samaria!
My anger is aroused against them-
How long until they attain to innocence?
6 For from Israel is even this:
A workman made it, and it is not God;
But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

7 "They sow the wind,
And reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no bud;
It shall never produce meal.
If it should produce,
Aliens would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up;
Now they are among the Gentiles
Like a vessel in which is no pleasure.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Yes, though they have hired among the nations,
Now I will gather them;
And they shall [l]sorrow a little,
Because of the [m]burden of the king of princes.

11 "Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,
They have become for him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law,
But they were considered a strange thing.
13 For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it,
But the Lord does not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
They shall return to Egypt.

14 "For Israel has forgotten his Maker,
And has built [n]temples;
Judah also has multiplied fortified cities;
But I will send fire upon his cities,
And it shall devour his [o]palaces."

Judgment of Israel's Sin
9 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples,
For you have played the harlot against your God.
You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress
Shall not feed them,
And the new wine shall fail in her.

3 They shall not dwell in the Lord's land,
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
And shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord,
Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him.
It shall be like bread of mourners to them;
All who eat it shall be defiled.
For their bread shall be for their own life;
It shall not come into the house of the Lord.

5 What will you do in the appointed day,
And in the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver;
Thorns shall be in their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come;
The days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a fool,
The spiritual man is insane,
Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God;
But the prophet is a [p]fowler's snare in all his ways-
Enmity in the house of his God.
9 They are deeply corrupted,
As in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.

10 "I found Israel
Like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your fathers
As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to Baal Peor,
And [q]separated themselves to that shame;
They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird-
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them to the last man.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place,
So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer."

14 Give them, O Lord-
What will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
And dry breasts!

15 "All their wickedness is in Gilgal,
For there I hated them.
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them from My house;
I will love them no more.
All their princes are rebellious.
16 Ephraim is stricken,
Their root is dried up;
They shall bear no fruit.
Yes, were they to bear children,
I would kill the darlings of their womb."

17 My God will cast them away,
Because they did not obey Him;
And they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Israel's Sin and Captivity
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;[r]
Now they are held guilty.
He will break down their altars;
He will ruin their sacred pillars.

3 For now they say,
"We have no king,
Because we did not fear the Lord.
And as for a king, what would he do for us?"
4 They have spoken words,
Swearing falsely in making a covenant.
Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.

5 The inhabitants of Samaria fear
Because of the calf[s] of Beth Aven.
For its people mourn for it,
And [t]its priests shriek for it-
Because its glory has departed from it.
6 The idol also shall be carried to Assyria
As a present for King Jareb.
Ephraim shall receive shame,
And Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off
Like a twig on the water.
8 Also the high places of [u]Aven, the sin of Israel,
Shall be destroyed.
The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars;
They shall say to the mountains, "Cover us!"
And to the hills, "Fall on us!"

9 "O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah;
There they stood.
The battle in Gibeah against the children of [v]iniquity
Did not [w]overtake them.
10 When it is My desire, I will chasten them.
Peoples shall be gathered against them
When I bind them [x]for their two transgressions.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer
That loves to thresh grain;
But I harnessed her fair neck,
I will make Ephraim [y]pull a plow.
Judah shall plow;
Jacob shall break his clods."

12 Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

13 You have plowed wickedness;
You have reaped iniquity.
You have eaten the fruit of lies,
Because you trusted in your own way,
In the multitude of your mighty men.
14 Therefore tumult shall arise among your people,
And all your fortresses shall be plundered
As Shalman plundered Beth Arbel in the day of battle-
A mother dashed in pieces upon her children.
15 Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
Because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
Shall be cut off utterly.

Footnotes
Hosea 7:1 plunders
Hosea 7:2 Lit. do not say to
Hosea 7:5 Lit. with the heat of
Hosea 7:6 So with MT, Vg.; Syr., Tg. Their anger; LXX Ephraim
Hosea 7:11 Lit. heart
Hosea 7:14 So with MT, Tg.; Vg. thought upon; LXX slashed themselves for
(cf. 1 Kin. 18:28)
Hosea 7:14 So with MT, Syr., Tg.; LXX omits They rebel against Me; Vg. They
departed from Me
Hosea 7:16 Or upward
Hosea 8:1 ram's horn, Heb. shophar
Hosea 8:5 Golden calf image
Hosea 8:5 Or has rejected you
Hosea 8:10 Or begin to diminish
Hosea 8:10 Or oracle or proclamation
Hosea 8:14 Or palaces
Hosea 8:14 Or citadels
Hosea 9:8 One who catches birds in a trap or snare
Hosea 9:10 Or dedicated
Hosea 10:2 Divided in loyalty
Hosea 10:5 Lit. calves, images
Hosea 10:5 idolatrous priests
Hosea 10:8 Lit. Idolatry or Wickedness
Hosea 10:9 So with many Heb. mss., LXX, Vg.; MT unruliness
Hosea 10:9 Or overcome
Hosea 10:10 Or in their two habitations
Hosea 10:11 Lit. to ride