Faithful love

Easter Monday Blues

Posted on by Betsy

The day has finally arrived and gone. All the plastic eggs and colorful chocolate foil wrappers have been picked up and put away. For the church, this means that the long winter night know as Lent is finally over and we can get back to business as usual. But a well spent Lent leaves a mark on our soul. That is the purpose and intention of Lent. So now that our fasting and self-examination period is over, what’s next? What did we learn? How will we apply Lent’s healing salve on our hearts for the rest of our year? What do we need to do to keep this fire of discipline burning so that our faith won’t dissipate like a vapor?

I think we should start by asking the same question that Hosea did. What does God desire for his people?

Hosea 6:4-6

 Ephraim, what will I do with you?
            Judah, what will I do with you?
    Your love is like a morning cloud,
            like the dew that vanishes quickly.
5     Therefore, I have attacked them by the prophets,
            I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
                and my judgment goes forth like a light.


6     I desire faithful love and not sacrifice,
            the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea was a prophet who served God during the period of the divided kingdom. Civil war had separated the people into the Northern Kingdom of Judah and the Southern Kingdom of Isreal. Political and economic prosperity had led the people to turn away from God and turn toward idolatry, corruption, and spiritual and moral decay. God called Hosea to speak to the people and kings of the Northern Kingdom. The name Hosea means “salvation” and comes from the same root as Joshua and Jesus. Thus he was tasked by speaking the truth of God in an attempt to save the people from themselves.

Hosea is very clear and direct regarding God’s desires, boiling it down to two things: Faithful love and knowledge of God. Truly, if we were to succeed in just these two things we would grow closer to God every day.

The people of that time we so far from God, their love evaporated as quickly as the morning dew and the sunrise clouds. Barely here, they are gone in an instant like the mercy and obedience of the wayward people. While they were consistently bringing animals to sacrifice at the altar, none of them could bring themselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord. They missed what God really wanted from them: A deep, close relationship. 

Jesus quoted Hosea twice in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7. “Go and learn what this means: I want mercy and not sacrifice. I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). It seems that we never learn.

“What will I do with you?” God asks us today. I suggest that as we enter into Eastertide, we keep God’s desires in mind. Let us resolve to show acts of faithful love and mercy every day. Let us resolve to grow in our knowledge of God through faithful worship and Bible study attendance. How will you live up to God’s desires? Make a plan.

Morning Cloud by Michelle Robertson

Look Me

Posted on by Betsy

Our two-year-old grand-twins have reached the stage of wanting our attention when they do things they have just learned. FaceTime has enabled us to participate in their toddler Olympics, and we always know we are in for a show when they interrupt their mother by yelling, “PAPA! NANA! PAPA! NANA! WATCH ME! WATCH ME!” This continues until we yell, “WE’RE WATCHING! SHOW ME! SHOW ME!” They’ll peer intently into the phone until they have ascertained that we are indeed watching, and then perform twirls, spins, running around the house in circles, rolling a ball, etc. while yelling, “LOOK ME! LOOK ME!” It’s exhausting. Not for them, for us.

Today’s psalm is very interesting in its format. Before you read the whole thing, take a look at the beginning of each sentence. Do you see this pattern? Tell me. Show me. Deliver me. Teach me. Guide me. Make me. Bring me. And finally: Wipe out my enemies. Destroy my attackers. This use of verbal directives is striking! Do you get the sense that the psalmist has a very deep and personal relationship with God (so much so that he comes off as a little bossy!) and that he fully and completely believes God is able to do all these things? I do. With the intensity of a toddler, he demands our attention.

It probably comes as no surprise then to learn that this is a psalm of David.

Now that we’ve looked at the beginning phases, let’s isolate the phrases that follow the words “because” or “for.” You’ll see this pattern emerge: I trust you. I offer my life up to you. You are my God. You are righteous. You offer me faithful love. I am your servant. The demands at the beginning of each sentence are softened by the assurances of David’s covenantal relationship with a God who loves him completely. Our toddlers make their demands for our attention based on the deep and sure knowledge that we love and adore them.

Psalm 143 (Common English Bible)

Tell me all about your faithful love come morning time,
    because I trust you.
Show me the way I should go,
    because I offer my life up to you.
9 Deliver me from my enemies, Lord!
    I seek protection from you.
10 Teach me to do what pleases you,
    because you are my God.

Verse 10 reveals the basis of David’s pleas. He asks God to guide him by God’s good spirit into a good land. Remembering that the concept of the Holy Spirit is a New Testament thing, this wording speaks to David’s deep understanding of the many layers of God. God as warrior, God as protector, God as deliverer, God as Spirit. David understood the width, depth, height, and dimensions of the God he loved. Do you know God this well?

Guide me by your good spirit
        into good land.
11 Make me live again, Lord, for your name’s sake.
    Bring me out of distress because of your righteousness.
12 Wipe out my enemies because of your faithful love.
    Destroy everyone who attacks me,
        because I am your servant

If you felt bold enough to list your petitions to God today, what would you say? What aspects of God’s relationship with you would you base your pleas on? Do you ask to be led by God’s good Spirit? May we approach our Lord with the assurance and directness of twin toddlers.

Look me, Lord!

Look Me!

Strength to the End

Posted on by Betsy

Two of my friends lost their mothers in December, and it always brings back memories of my own mother’s passing when that happens. If you have lost your Mom, you understand the special kind of painful hole that her death creates in your soul. Your mother, whether she was good or not, whether she was supportive and encouraging or judgmental and harsh, was the very first person to know you from the inside-out. There is a blood bond or an adoptive bond that can’t be denied. And if your mother was good, the hole is cavernous and hard to navigate, especially in the first weeks and months. Her lack of presence in this world is disorienting and foreign.

I had a good mother, so I know this pain.

Our lectionary passage today has a beautiful phrase that made me think of my friends’ new grief and my own well-worn sadness over losing our mothers. The blessing of my mother’s passing came in the way she died, as we had spent the evening together and I made her tea and helped her get ready for bed. A few hours later she died in her sleep. We didn’t know it was coming. What a tremendous gift of grace that was!

God gave both of us strength for the end.

Paul assures the church of Corinth that God will also strengthen them to the end. This is a powerful promise that we can all grab ahold of when a loved one dies or as we face our own mortality. I think this can also apply to the end of a relationship, losing a job, graduating from college, moving away from your home, adult children going off on their own … all those things that at some point must come to an end.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until it’s season, something God alone can see. (Hymn of Promise, Natalie Sleeth, UMH #707)

God is faithful indeed.

The End and the Beginning by Michelle Robertson

With All My Heart

Posted on by Betsy

One of my favorite moments in a wedding happens during the ring vows. As the rings are nervously being slipped onto fingers for the first time, the couple says to each other, “With all that I am and all that I have, I honor you.” There is something quite profound in that statement.

“With all that I have” is a promise that you will share every single resource you possess with the other, including everything that the future promises. Going beyond the material and financial support that is pledged, this statement is a way of saying that there is not one part of my life that I will not share from this point on.

But when you say to someone, “with all that I AM,” the commitment goes even deeper. It promises that you will not hold anything back. It says I will honor you with my inner self. I will honor you with my secrets. I will honor you with my hopes and dreams. I will honor you with sharing my failures and fears. Pledging such deep loyalty to another person with all of your heart is an audacious act of optimism and hope.

Whom do you love with all your heart?

In our Psalm today, David puts God in that place of honor and love:

Psalm 138 (Common English Bible)

 I give thanks to you with all my heart, Lord.
    I sing your praise before all other gods.
2 I bow toward your holy temple
    and thank your name
    for your loyal love and faithfulness
        because you have made your name and word
        greater than everything else.

David’s feelings of gratitude, love, and loyalty came from a place of reciprocity. God extended these blessings to him first, and his response to God’s faithfulness was to pledge himself by thanking God’s name. God answered David in times of trouble.


3 On the day I cried out, you answered me.
    You encouraged me with inner strength.

4 Let all the earth’s rulers give thanks to you, Lord,
    when they hear what you say.
5 Let them sing about the Lord’s ways
    because the Lord’s glory is so great!
6 Even though the Lord is high,
    he can still see the lowly,
    but God keeps his distance from the arrogant.

When we feel lowly, it is good to know that God sees us and answers us, no matter what it is we are experiencing. But beware of being arrogant…God has no tolerance for that.

7 Whenever I am in deep trouble,
    you make me live again;
    you send your power against my enemies’ wrath;
    you save me with your strong hand.
8 The Lord will do all this for my sake.

Your faithful love lasts forever, Lord!
    Don’t let go of what your hands
    have made.

Have you ever been let down by someone who supposedly loves you? I have.

I don’t know what you are going through today, but hear this; God’s faithful love for you lasts forever. In those moments of deep hurt, betrayal, disappointment, and estrangement from the people you love and count on, remember that God is incapable of letting you go. His hands have made you, and you are HIS.

With all that God is, and all that God has, God honors you.

Two Loves.