Dear Family at Christ Community,

This Sunday as we finish our time in Hosea we will also have the opportunity to partake of the Lord’s Table.  This Table teaches us, as few things in this world so visibly can, that God loves us.  The bread teaches us that our sin has received a decisive answer in the broken body of Jesus. The cup teaches us that our resurrection to new covenant life has been decisively obtained by the poured-out blood of Jesus.  When we are low in our sins, and feel unsure that we could really have hope and peace, God invites us to a feast!

Hosea 14:4-7 reminds us that broken sinners, weighed down with guilt and without any hope in themselves, are loved freely by God because of His great mercy and grace.  He is loving, and that just is the reason for His love for us.  So we come to the Table to see this truth and to feed upon Jesus.  How can people like us be sure God is favorable to us?  Just because we are united to Jesus!  Spiritually feeding upon Jesus at the Table, with a heart that receives Him by faith, is a sure way to know this great truth is true for you:

“I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.  I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his roots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.  They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.”  

The Table teaches us the same weighty things that we have seen in Hosea.  It teaches us that God’s judgement is redemptive—the discipline He brings in this life is meant to lead His people back to Him, and the wrath He poured out upon the Son at the cross ransomed His people from the penalty of our sin.  The Table teaches us that God’s love is covenantal.  It is sure, longsuffering, and unfailing because it is based, not on what we have done, but on His unbreakable promise.

As we prepare to partake of the Table this Sunday, let us humbly reflect upon the truth that we bring nothing to God except our sinfulness.  Let us throw aside all attempts to earn His favor by our own striving.  Let us instead embrace Him as our loving Father, who disciplines us for the moment so that we may see, love and enjoy Him forever.  Let us rejoice in the New Covenant life He has purchased for us, loving nothing so much as to hear about again and have it shape our hearts, affections and minds.

In Christ,

Robby