Are you being chased?

Sherwood Oaks Christian Church Podcast

The book of Hosea is a very strange book in the Old Testament. It tells the story of a prophet in ancient Israel who was commanded by God to marry a prostitute and have children with her. But Hosea’s wife continues in her unfaithfulness, and God uses this as a lesson in his faithfulness.

Hi I’m Quentin Bemis, one of the pastors here at Sherwood Oaks.

This entire story is an encapsulation of the story of the Bible, of a people who are called into a special kind of relationship with God, yet continually choose to break the conditions of the relationship and betray the love of God. Despite all of that, God never breaks his end of the deal. This relationship was called a covenant. And a covenant required both parties to make commitments to each other that they would uphold.

Like Israel, and Hosea’s wife, each one of us has broken the covenant relationship with God that He invites us into. And like Hosea, God pursues us and upholds his end of the covenant no matter how far we run. God’s pursuit of his people led him to send his Son Jesus to uphold not only his end of the covenant, but ours as well. By his death on the cross, he paid our debt that our sin had accrued.

My prayer for you today is that you realize that there is a God who loves you and is chasing after you with all of his might. He sent Jesus to make a way for us to come back into relationship with him. So maybe, for just a moment, stop running, turn around, and let the presence of the Lord redeem you today.