My favorite story...

Hey everybody… What’s your favorite Bible story? Would we be surprised? Maybe one of the super encouraging miracles? Or a character who did mighty exploits for God? Or one of Jesus’s compassionate encounters with a struggling sinner? I bet you my favorite Bible story will in fact shock you. It’s one of the worst stories in there. But it makes me fall in love with God. Curious? Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below… 
 
But first… a few quick notes… 
 

• We will have youth group this Sunday from 11:30-1!  Let Jess know if your youth needs a ride home. 

 

• Ladies: Mark your calendars for our annual Women’s Retreat, September 11-12, 2026!  

 

• We have a new Facebook page to support relational connections and promote events for the Women’s Ministry!  Ladies can click here to join!

 

• Women’s Trauma Support Group: We are launching a new and private small group to work together to support and heal personal trauma of all kinds that women have experienced. Date, time, and location will not be publicly published to honor women’s privacy and security. Click here to email Keysha Miller who is facilitating this group for more information and to RSVP. 

 

• Two weeks ago, we had a very special field trip to Landover, MD for a unique experience of multi-cultural unity in worship with the Body of Christ. It was recorded; If you are interested, click here to view the full service (~ 1 hour, 40 minutes), or click here to view the host Pastor John Jenkin’s introduction and the six-pastor panel discussion which I was part of leading (~ 1 hour, 14 minutes). 

 

• LAST TWO WEEKS of The Daily Six!! Join us for six minutes each day, Monday through Friday, as we dig into the Psalms to learn how to pray scripture. At the end of June, we will conclude our current season of The Daily Six, taking at least a three-month production break to support Chris and Sherri’s sabbatical. Click here for our Daily Six webpage to find new content on Monday morning, OR… click here to sign up for our daily email reminders (if you’ve not already done so!).  

 
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails…  
 
BUT… 
 
 
Some Deeper Thoughts… 
 
So, we can all agree that God is into morality, correct? 
 
Would God ever lead us to do something really bad? Something immoral? The Bible is pretty clear on this one: “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13).  
 
But what about God leading us to love someone who is caught in deep immorality? Would He ever do that? 
 
Check this one out: One time, God told a pastor to marry a prostitute.  
 
Yep… you read this right. God led a man of God—a prophet—to marry a woman who openly and publicly sold herself. The preacher was told to build his life with a woman of tremendous unfaithfulness, brokenness, and pain. 
 
“When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous woman and children of unfaithfulness…’” (Hosea 1:2). 
 
So, Hosea married Gomer. (A rather unfortunate name, don’t you think?) And then they had kids. And they weren’t all Hosea’s. And they got unfortunate names too: “Not-Loved” was their second kid’s name—the one who likely came about… well… um… through her day-job. Talk about needing therapy when you grow up… “yeah, my mom and dad named me ‘Not-Loved.’” 
 
Are you mortified right now? First that I am telling this sordid story in the first place, but then secondly that I am telling you this is my favorite Bible story?  
 
“This is all kinds of messed up, Pastor.” 
 
Indeed. But it has a purpose. 
 
God is not into immorality. God is not into ruining preacher’s lives. God is not into affirming self-destructive behavior. 
 
But God is into love. Way into love. 
 
God had a personal problem. He wanted to expose the problem to the people He was having the problem with. So, the Lord asked a preacher to live out a lifelong illustration of both God’s problem and God’s solution. 
 
God’s problem was that He was in love with a very unfaithful people. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous woman and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.’” (That’s the rest of Hosea 1:2). 
 
You see, God’s beloved people were selling themselves into great unfaithfulness, chasing after other gods, other ideologies, other pleasures and pursuits, abandoning their one true God in favor of the shallow lovers of worldly idolatry. And yet, God loved these people as His only wife—His beloved for whom He would do absolutely anything. 
 
And before you decide this story is just too gross and click on out of our email, you gotta hear what God… um… I mean what Hosea… I mean what God modeled through Hosea.  
 
When Gomer had thoroughly destroyed the heart of her godly preacher-husband, Hosea relentlessly pursued her to return to him, to stay with him, and to love him. He just would not give up.  
 
And neither will God. 
 
Standing in line at an auction block of slavery where Gomer was being sold by her evil human traffickers, Hosea clung to his thirty pieces of silver and waited patiently for his chance to buy her back [**insert the word “redeem her” here] from her slaveholders so she could be his bride once again. 
 
Oh friends… do you see it? “God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). While Gomer was destroying herself and being ravaged by wickedness, Hosea gave up everything he had for her. While we ravage and destroy our hearts by loving worldliness and sin, God gives us everything He has to redeem us back to Him. 
 
God called a preacher to marry a prostitute not because He thought that this would be the model for a healthy marriage. Hosea and Gomer did not go on to lead Old Testament marriage conferences. No, God called a preacher to demonstrate through his undying love for a crooked, wayward woman just how much God loves us—we who are also wayward in our own manner. 
 
This is going to be an amazing Bible study on the limitless love of God and His scandalous grace towards every single human being. Read Hosea chapters 1-3 beforehand and then let’s meet. 10:00 a.m. Sunday! Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! 
 
Much love to you all…  
 
Chris Eads 
Mt. Hope Pastor 
Friend 
[email protected] ​