1-Page Book Intro: Hosea [Blog]

by Rev. Natalie Hill (DCXA at AU)

Throughout scripture, we see that God used prophets to do some pretty extreme things in order to communicate something to His people (for example, one time Ezekiel could only eat food cooked over human dung…).  This is what we see with the prophet Hosea.

The book of Hosea is a collection of poems written by, you guessed it, Hosea who was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II, one of Israel’s most evil kings.  Assyria had just conquered Israel, and the book addresses God’s people’s sin and unfaithfulness to Him.  God commanded Hosea to share a message with the people by marrying a woman, Gomer, who both God and Hosea knew from the start would never be faithful.  As soon as Hosea and his wife had children, she prostituted herself and eventually ended up enslaved.  God called Hosea to redeem Gomer from slavery and restore her to the family, even in the midst of her deep unfaithfulness.  The restoration of this marriage served as a comparison to the relationship between God and His people Israel:  although they were deeply unfaithful and had given themselves over to their sinful desires, resulting in their capture and slavery, God in His mercy would redeem them and restore His covenant with them.

We see through the story of Hosea and Gomer that there are consequences for sin, but in God’s love and mercy, He will rescue His people.  Although God was angered by the unfaithfulness of Israel, He never stopped loving them and He never rejected them completely.  However, He also didn’t enable their sins by extending to them unqualified mercy.  The people of Israel had to suffer the consequences of their disobedience by enduring a long period of capture and exile.

This book is composed of poems broken into three sections about Hosea’s marriage and a series of accusations and warnings specifically written to Israel.  It addresses their unfaithfulness, the hypocrisy of their worship, and their trusting in political alliances.  But then it ends with hope for the future.  It paints God as a loving Father whose heart is to heal and to save His people.  And although this book wasn’t written to us, these are long lasting truths that apply to us today.

A Helpful Companion to the Lent Journal [PDF]

Paul: A Brief Introduction — His Life & Key Writings

By: Rev. Blane Young

It’s been said that Paul might be the most influential Christian figure, outside of Christ and the disciples, in all of human history. Indeed, as the author of 2/3 of the New Testament, his influence is felt today. Additionally, his radical story of transformation along with his personal zeal for missionary travels make him worthy of study. However, it is important to remember that it would be his desire (and mine!) that any study of Paul would lead to a deeper love and knowledge of Christ. Or as it has been famously said, ‘Theology should lead to doxology.” In plain language, the study of God should lead to (greater) worship of God.

PAUL: HIS LIFE STORY
Basic Timeline (biblestudy.org)

PAUL: HIS INFLUENCE

Jack Wellman’s Summary Article (patheos.com)

PAUL: HIS KEY WRITINGS (LETTERS TO THE CHURCH AT CORINTH)

Part 1 (theologyofwork.com)

Part 2 (theologyofwork.com)

Meaning to the Maxims

By: Rev. Natalie Hill

The problem with maxims or common phrases we use to define our community is that they get cliché quick. Am I the only one who gets a bit nauseated using the same pithy statements over and over? It’s not that they’re not meaningful; on the contrary, we’ve said them repeatedly because they’re meaningful. But often when we say them so much, it’s easy for them to lose their impact and for us to get annoyed at the sound of them (or maybe I’m being too honest…).

But the fact is, these phrases were created because they’re true. In this series of devotionals, I want to unpack a few of the maxims we have here in DC Chi Alpha so that they’re not just clichés but real statements of our theology, our worship, and how we express those things in our community.

But Why The Holy Spirit?

By: Alexis Faubel

This was the question that a girl I was mentoring brought to me during my sophomore year of college. She told me that while she had grown up in church, she had never heard the book of Acts taught or preached on, and while she knew about the Trinity, she had never heard her pastors or church mention the Holy Spirit.

This seemed very strange to me, a person who had grown up in a thick Spirit-empowered, Pentecostalism culture, but I came to learn that my friend was one of many people who had never really had the chance to stop and think about the Holy Spirit before college. Now that I’m on staff, I want to name a couple of things that might be helpful for someone entering into a community that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, when they may not have heard of it before. 

For starters, we believe that the Holy Spirit is an equal and powerful part of the Trinity (The Godhead, 3-in-1). There is God the Father, Jesus His Son, and His Spirit is the third part, often depicted as a dove or as wind in the Bible. And while I think the name “Forgotten God” (Francis Chan), is a perfect description of how the Holy Spirit is often treated in the American Church, here in Chi Alpha we believe that the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to everything we do. In fact, Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the Spirit of Truth… You know him because he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)”. Jesus literally left Earth so that the Holy Spirit could be with us, and IN us, instead of Christ’s physical body. That’s a pretty important gift!

And with the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the scene, we believe that it is the same Spirit that lived in Christ, that now lives in us if we ask Him to come into our lives. We believe in a separate baptism of the Spirit for this reason, and we can see many times in scripture that the evidence of this baptism is the gift of speaking in other tongues or languages. We also believe that the Holy Spirit gives the gift of interpreting those languages/ tongues, along with giving gifts words of wisdom and knowledge, faith and healing, miracles, prophecy, healing, or even discernment between spirits (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). We believe these are all part of the Spirit’s power manifesting in our lives, and in our community for good. 

This is what it means to be Pentecostal. To believe that the same power that lived in Jesus, that comes from God, now is inside of us if we want the gift of His Spirit and the gifts that come with it. And if you are stepping into a community that believes these things that you may have never heard of before, I hope you feel encouraged, excited, and curious about the joy and goodness that come from this Loving Spirit of God.

pexels-jan-koetsier-2724373.jpg