I love the wilderness, I love nature… I love being out in the middle of nowhere and hearing nothing but the wind and sounds of nature. There is an eerie closeness that comes from being completely vulnerable to the elements of the world; no cell phones, computers, schedules, nothing to occupy the time but the thoughts and feelings of yourself. I look at the time I spend in the wilderness as a time of restoration, to start all over again. Hosea describes this need for restoration or starting over through a parable in which the Lord’s Love for unfaithful Israel is parallel with Hosea’s unfaithful wife Gomer in Hosea 2:14-15, ‘Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as [she did] in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.’ Hosea’s ministry was a spin-off of his experiences with his unfaithful wife but look past that and concentrate on the parallel of how we as people of God flirt with sexual sins and are unfaithful by jilting God’s Love. (Towns, 2003)
We have all grown up in a society that is filled with noise. When I say noise, I am talking about all the distractions that come in the forms of movies, magazines, websites, advertisements, billboards, sporting events, commercials, cell phones, iPods, laptops, video games; distractions are everywhere. For a man, these are temptations. Sexually temptation is the most difficult area for all men no matter who you are, where you are or what your profession; the only difference is that some choice to control it and some choice to indulge in it – and most men fall right in the middle. Temptation is everywhere and at times can seem hard to avoid no matter what we do. Lets not be mistaking, temptation includes other areas as well; such as, pride, power, recognition from others, money, fame. All temptation forces us into a battle to make a conscious decision to either do the right thing or to fall to the enticing and attractive areas of sin. Doing the “Right Thing” is easily said but when we are in those situations that involve those temptations that produce sin, it can be the hardest thing not to give in.
In the society in which most of us live in it is OK to indulge into our wants and desires, other wise know as temptations. Also, we can find people to hang out with who re-enforce those actions and make us feel better about ourselves when in actuality they are as lost as we are. When I moved to Waco I was already into alcohol pretty heavily, drugs were something I did when we really wanted to party and pornography was something that became second nature. Even when my “true” friends started to question my lifestyle that had become reckless and abusive, I found new people to hang out with the made me feel normal. The lifestyle I choose to live was normal to me because I had saturated myself in that environment but it was actually adultery against God. Hosea knew first hand of what the adultery to God was like because he had felt the same with his wife the prostitute who couldn’t stay faithful and kept going back into promiscuous activities. We are all like Gomer the prostitute in some way; we go out into the world in some form or fashion and fulfill a temptation, we are all promiscuous in some way.
The definition of promiscuity is a miscellaneous mingling or selection of person or things. For most men, it is venturing out into the world of pornography, for others it may be something as simply as being prideful in a relationship and not forgiving someone or gossiping in the workplace; whatever that “thing” is in your life that is causing separation with God. The thing about being separate from God is that we don’t realize it because we our not knowledgeable that the actions we are participating in are causing that separation because we our looking to the people around us and not letting God guide us. Hosea writes about the inhabitants of the land of Israel around 720AD and how they sought help from other nations instead of the Lord, he writes of this lack of knowledge; ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will (God) reject you for serving as My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons – Hosea 4:6.’ (“Forgetting sons” means generational sin)
Israel had turned their back on knowledge and refused to recognize the revelation of God, they where trading glory for shameful acts. All through Hosea chapter 4 it speaks of all the disrespect of God that was occurring; which are things that are occurring in our everyday life now with all of the noise of movies, magazines, websites, advertisements, billboards, sporting events, commercials, cell phones, iPods, laptops, video games; all things that if used without having a revelation of God can be distractions that lead to promiscuous activities. In Hosea 13 it is written that God is still our God no matter what and mentions how He takes care of use in the wilderness, when we have nothing to distract us, He supplies us with everything we need. For me, I literally go to the wilderness to be freed of all distracting and let God supply me with what I need through my prayers and mediation of His word. Everyone needs a word from God… you just have make yourself available.
All of this might sound good and all but with out a true acceptance of Christ in your life and as I mentioned before a revelation of God happens in our lives then Gods word is blocked by all the noise of the world.
Talk to God. Read His Word. Don’t give up.
We have all grown up in a society that is filled with noise. When I say noise, I am talking about all the distractions that come in the forms of movies, magazines, websites, advertisements, billboards, sporting events, commercials, cell phones, iPods, laptops, video games; distractions are everywhere. For a man, these are temptations. Sexually temptation is the most difficult area for all men no matter who you are, where you are or what your profession; the only difference is that some choice to control it and some choice to indulge in it – and most men fall right in the middle. Temptation is everywhere and at times can seem hard to avoid no matter what we do. Lets not be mistaking, temptation includes other areas as well; such as, pride, power, recognition from others, money, fame. All temptation forces us into a battle to make a conscious decision to either do the right thing or to fall to the enticing and attractive areas of sin. Doing the “Right Thing” is easily said but when we are in those situations that involve those temptations that produce sin, it can be the hardest thing not to give in.
In the society in which most of us live in it is OK to indulge into our wants and desires, other wise know as temptations. Also, we can find people to hang out with who re-enforce those actions and make us feel better about ourselves when in actuality they are as lost as we are. When I moved to Waco I was already into alcohol pretty heavily, drugs were something I did when we really wanted to party and pornography was something that became second nature. Even when my “true” friends started to question my lifestyle that had become reckless and abusive, I found new people to hang out with the made me feel normal. The lifestyle I choose to live was normal to me because I had saturated myself in that environment but it was actually adultery against God. Hosea knew first hand of what the adultery to God was like because he had felt the same with his wife the prostitute who couldn’t stay faithful and kept going back into promiscuous activities. We are all like Gomer the prostitute in some way; we go out into the world in some form or fashion and fulfill a temptation, we are all promiscuous in some way.
The definition of promiscuity is a miscellaneous mingling or selection of person or things. For most men, it is venturing out into the world of pornography, for others it may be something as simply as being prideful in a relationship and not forgiving someone or gossiping in the workplace; whatever that “thing” is in your life that is causing separation with God. The thing about being separate from God is that we don’t realize it because we our not knowledgeable that the actions we are participating in are causing that separation because we our looking to the people around us and not letting God guide us. Hosea writes about the inhabitants of the land of Israel around 720AD and how they sought help from other nations instead of the Lord, he writes of this lack of knowledge; ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will (God) reject you for serving as My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons – Hosea 4:6.’ (“Forgetting sons” means generational sin)
Israel had turned their back on knowledge and refused to recognize the revelation of God, they where trading glory for shameful acts. All through Hosea chapter 4 it speaks of all the disrespect of God that was occurring; which are things that are occurring in our everyday life now with all of the noise of movies, magazines, websites, advertisements, billboards, sporting events, commercials, cell phones, iPods, laptops, video games; all things that if used without having a revelation of God can be distractions that lead to promiscuous activities. In Hosea 13 it is written that God is still our God no matter what and mentions how He takes care of use in the wilderness, when we have nothing to distract us, He supplies us with everything we need. For me, I literally go to the wilderness to be freed of all distracting and let God supply me with what I need through my prayers and mediation of His word. Everyone needs a word from God… you just have make yourself available.
All of this might sound good and all but with out a true acceptance of Christ in your life and as I mentioned before a revelation of God happens in our lives then Gods word is blocked by all the noise of the world.
Talk to God. Read His Word. Don’t give up.
Image Source: www.codyfmiller.com
Resource: Towns, E. (2003) Bible Answers for Almost All Your Questions. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
