“Come, let us return to the Lord … let us press on to know the Lord” (6:1,3).
It’s one thing to consider that God takes an interest in human beings, encouraging us to follow his paths and allowing negative consequences to occur when we don’t.
Read More love, reconciliation, return
Home, it’s been said, is the place where they have to take you back no matter what you’ve done. Not all homes are like that, of course, yet the sentiment works as a metaphor of God’s unending desire to restore his wandering children to their proper estate.
“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity” (v 1).
Read More repentance, welcome, returnThe high notes of yesterday are not quite maintained. A recital of injustice, desperate pleas to God and a cry for vengeance are more prominent. Evil and pain are all-pervasive and cannot be ignored; they act as a constant challenge to faith, and anyone who pretends otherwise has not plumbed the depths of human agony or faced the questions that it raises.
Read More evil, pain, comfort, returnWhen I was younger in my faith I had a wayward outlook on ministry. I can remember thinking that when we had an opportunity to speak at a school or event that we were bringing Jesus to that place. I don’t think anyone necessarily brings Jesus in that sense as if Jesus has never worked in that place before!
Read More return, exile, God at work