What is your gut reaction to the following & what advice springs to your lips?
Setting The Scene
A close friend has recently married, because of your friendship with him you were even on the bridal party. But a week into the marriage rumours started to circulate that she had once been a prostitute. This was confirmed when you asked him outright one evening after they had returned from honeymoon which caused major concern since your friend is one of the godliest Christians you know.
He assured you that she had left her previous lifestyle & now was a Christian, so you felt alot better, but inside you thought 'really, an ex prostitute?'
Now a year later you have just heard that she has up & left, beginning a job in a lap dancing club she has progressively returned to working the streets & is apparently all over the Internet. Even the local tabloids mention her, she's so well known for her depravity.
Your friend is devastated, he wants to woo her back, you heard that he keeps sending flowers, chocolate & texts as well as phone calls checking she's okay. His heart just cannot let go & he is filled with worry & concern over her.
My Reaction & Advice
I know that if this were my friend my advice would probably be that he is better off without her! She was a mistake, he never should have married her & he absolutely got it wrong when he had said God had told him to marry her!
My advice would be to get a divorce & leave her well alone, she is trouble. Why would he want this girl back, a girl who was sleeping with who knows how many men per night for cash!
Perhaps you find the same advice welling up & no doubt if we were watching a film we'd be screaming at the main character to forget her & go after the nice girl who plays piano at his church. But not so with God.
Hosea
God told Hosea to marry a whore & the above story fairly well summarizes what happened. But when his wife (Gomer) reached pit bottom & was put up for sale in the local market place to become someones slave, Hosea raised the cash & bought her freedom.
God's Purpose
God told Hosea to marry this lady because their relationship would act as an illustration of God & His people, & of Christ & His Church (Us Christians).
Us & God
We are Gomer, the prostitute selling ourselves to other idols & acting the whore with money, sex, religion, tv, work, cars, sports etc etc, sin in general. Lets be honest about how often we keep returning to these things!
But God (illustrated by Hosea), paid our debt, not with money but by Jesus taking the just & righteous wrath for our sins upon Himself. In this 'great exchange' as Martin Luther called it, Christ, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God.
We are no longer slaves to sin, being driven & enslaved by sin, satan, world, flesh or any other thing that would drive us away from God.
We are now, because of Jesus, described as the bride of Christ having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing. We are viewed by God as being spotless & beautiful!
Further Thoughts
This has a propensity to radically change our view of sinners & of peoples past, of redemption & forgiveness. In writing this i'm reminded of something Tim Keller wrote about the prodigal son:
'Jesus shows the father pouncing on his son in love not only before he has a chance to clean up his life and evidence a change of heart, but even before he can recite his repentance speech. Nothing, not even abject contrition, merits the favor of God. The Father's love and acceptance are absolutely free.'
Now if that doesn't help to change our mindset toward situations like this i'm not sure what would.
Setting The Scene
A close friend has recently married, because of your friendship with him you were even on the bridal party. But a week into the marriage rumours started to circulate that she had once been a prostitute. This was confirmed when you asked him outright one evening after they had returned from honeymoon which caused major concern since your friend is one of the godliest Christians you know.
He assured you that she had left her previous lifestyle & now was a Christian, so you felt alot better, but inside you thought 'really, an ex prostitute?'
Now a year later you have just heard that she has up & left, beginning a job in a lap dancing club she has progressively returned to working the streets & is apparently all over the Internet. Even the local tabloids mention her, she's so well known for her depravity.
Your friend is devastated, he wants to woo her back, you heard that he keeps sending flowers, chocolate & texts as well as phone calls checking she's okay. His heart just cannot let go & he is filled with worry & concern over her.
My Reaction & Advice
I know that if this were my friend my advice would probably be that he is better off without her! She was a mistake, he never should have married her & he absolutely got it wrong when he had said God had told him to marry her!
My advice would be to get a divorce & leave her well alone, she is trouble. Why would he want this girl back, a girl who was sleeping with who knows how many men per night for cash!
Perhaps you find the same advice welling up & no doubt if we were watching a film we'd be screaming at the main character to forget her & go after the nice girl who plays piano at his church. But not so with God.
Hosea
God told Hosea to marry a whore & the above story fairly well summarizes what happened. But when his wife (Gomer) reached pit bottom & was put up for sale in the local market place to become someones slave, Hosea raised the cash & bought her freedom.
God's Purpose
God told Hosea to marry this lady because their relationship would act as an illustration of God & His people, & of Christ & His Church (Us Christians).
Us & God
We are Gomer, the prostitute selling ourselves to other idols & acting the whore with money, sex, religion, tv, work, cars, sports etc etc, sin in general. Lets be honest about how often we keep returning to these things!
But God (illustrated by Hosea), paid our debt, not with money but by Jesus taking the just & righteous wrath for our sins upon Himself. In this 'great exchange' as Martin Luther called it, Christ, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God.
We are no longer slaves to sin, being driven & enslaved by sin, satan, world, flesh or any other thing that would drive us away from God.
We are now, because of Jesus, described as the bride of Christ having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing. We are viewed by God as being spotless & beautiful!
Further Thoughts
This has a propensity to radically change our view of sinners & of peoples past, of redemption & forgiveness. In writing this i'm reminded of something Tim Keller wrote about the prodigal son:
'Jesus shows the father pouncing on his son in love not only before he has a chance to clean up his life and evidence a change of heart, but even before he can recite his repentance speech. Nothing, not even abject contrition, merits the favor of God. The Father's love and acceptance are absolutely free.'
Now if that doesn't help to change our mindset toward situations like this i'm not sure what would.
