DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR MONDAY SEPTEMBER 18:
NOTE: In Monday's Donnie Daily Gems, I am going to start including a link
where you can watch the Sunday morning service from the House of Prayer.
This is from Sunday September 17. My sermon is entitled "Is Death On Your
To Do List."
Please let me know if this works?
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1350657011724049&id=100003392900
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WORD OF WISDOM
The only way to avoid criticism is to say nothing, do nothing and be
nothing.
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DAILY DEVOTION
It Is Not Hard to Be Saved
"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the
churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and
morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely."
Revelation 22:16-17
In the Middle East today, just as in Bible times, water is precious. It is
vital to life, both of animals and people, to have a ready supply of clean
water. Often in Bible times, there was intense labor required to find water.
Jacob's Well, where Jesus met the Samaritan woman and offered her water that
would keep her from ever thirsting again, is some 135 feet deep. Isaac, on
more than one occasion, clashed with the people of the land over the rights
to wells that provided clean water. Even in our modern society, the price of
water, particularly pure and clean water, is quite high.
Yet God offers living water to all who believe, at no charge. Dr. John R.
Rice said, "It is not hard to be saved. The Bible never promises salvation
to those who weep. Salvation cannot be earned by weeping, nor by our
mourning. God is not a hardhearted judge who must be bought by good deeds or
touched by tears. He has already offered us salvation full and free and
eternal life in His Son Jesus Christ."
The responsibility that falls on those of us who have already been saved is
to be filled with the Holy Spirit and join Him in saying, "Come," to those
who have not yet tasted the living water. Each of us has someone-a parent, a
pastor, a teacher, a friend-who invited us to come and drink freely. In
turn, we must fulfill our responsibility to invite those around us who are
lost.
There is no greater tragedy than for someone not to accept the free gift of
salvation offered by God's grace.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Hosea 1-3New King James Version (NKJV)
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of
Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
"Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the Lord."
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and
bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:
"Call his name Jezreel,
For in a little while
I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,
And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5
It shall come to pass in that day
That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel."
6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:
"Call her name Lo-Ruhamah,[a]
For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
But I will utterly take them away.[b]
7
Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,
Will save them by the Lord their God,
And will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle,
By horses or horsemen."
8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then
God said:
"Call his name Lo-Ammi,[c]
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God.
The Restoration of Israel
10
"Yet the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
'You are not My people,'[d]
There it shall be said to them,
'You are sons of the living God.'
11
Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel
Shall be gathered together,
And appoint for themselves one head;
And they shall come up out of the land,
For great will be the day of Jezreel!
2 Say to your brethren, 'My people,'[e]
And to your sisters, 'Mercy[f] is shown.'
God's Unfaithful People
2
"Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
3
Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.
4
"I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the children of harlotry.
5
For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, 'I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.'
6
"Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
7
She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
'I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.'
8
For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold-
Which they prepared for Baal.
9
"Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
10
Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
11
I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths-
All her appointed feasts.
12
"And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.'
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13
I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot," says the Lord.
God's Mercy on His People
14
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
15
I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16
"And it shall be, in that day,"
Says the Lord,
"That you will call Me 'My Husband,'[g]
And no longer call Me 'My Master,'[h]
17
For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
18
In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.
19
"I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
20
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord.
21
"It shall come to pass in that day
That I will answer," says the Lord;
"I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
22
The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer Jezreel.[i]
23
Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;[j]
Then I will say to those who were not My people,[k]
'You are My people!'
And they shall say, 'You are my God!'"
Israel Will Return to God
3 Then the Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a
lover[l] and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the
children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the
pagans."
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and
one-half homers of barley. 3 And I said to her, "You shall stay with me
many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man-so, too,
will I be toward you."
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince,
without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward
the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David
their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.
Footnotes:
a.Hosea 1:6 Literally No-Mercy
b.Hosea 1:6 Or That I may forgive them at all
c.Hosea 1:9 Literally Not-My-People
d.Hosea 1:10 Hebrew lo-ammi (compare verse 9)
e.Hosea 2:1 Hebrew Ammi (compare 1:9, 10)
f.Hosea 2:1 Hebrew Ruhamah (compare 1:6)
g.Hosea 2:16 Hebrew Ishi
h.Hosea 2:16 Hebrew Baali
i.Hosea 2:22 Literally God Will Sow
j.Hosea 2:23 Hebrew lo-ruhamah
k.Hosea 2:23 Hebrew lo-ammi
l.Hosea 3:1 Literally friend or husband
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James VersionR. Copyright C 1982 by Thomas
Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
