Break through the lies
Break through the bog of fog
Break through the confusion of insignificance

Direct our paths
Direct clear leadership
Direct us to the cross

“One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.” – John Piper

I will open this series of Hosea posts with verse 1. I will rest solely with my morning prayer upon the opening “The Lord gave these messages.”

Prayer for an Open and Responsive Heart
Lord,
Your word is right,
Your path is straight,
Give us ears to hear “these” words, “these messages”

Lord,
Even Your children have trampled upon Hosea’s words,
I know I have called “these messages” dumb in my heart,
I know I have called “these messages” stupid by how I live,
I have considered them useless and not worth my time,
Hosea’s words to me, a prostitute, a sheep that has gone astray,

Lord,
Give ears, bless with repentance,
May paths be straight to provide a way for the King,
May Your prostitute cry, Hosanna!, and feel the weight of making an appeal for deliverance.

Speak to us in this study of Hosea, a study of our souls.

Now things have run amuck,
You, the Potter, but we the renegade clay,
Clay that flies off the Potter’s wheel in absurd rebellion,

We have lost their minds,
All we like sheep have gone astray,
We used to curse You and flip You off only in the darkness of night because we thought it safer,
But since we don’t feel Your immediate wrath, we in a dreadful miscalculation now give You the finger in the daylight as well,

It seems everyday our perversion grows and intensifies,
The weight of our sins crushes down heavily upon Your prophets,
Sins of non-Christians and Christians,
Those who attend church and those who do not,
Those kids in youth group, and the kids who aren’t,
By those who disregard Jesus, but with showy pride coveting external appearances hang their sign saying, “God Bless this Home,”

Who can save us from this destruction?
Who can save us from this spiral of death?
Who can save us from this pit of despair?
Who can save us from this extreme self-deception?
Will the roof of the church you grew up in protect you from the wrath of God?

Who can carry this cross of our tangled wicked sins?
Does humanity have plans to re-crucify the Christ?
Does bloodthirsty humanity seek to rise up against it’s Savior Jesus yet again?

With scorn and mockery in our hearts we wear our own crown of jewels and declare ourselves as kings and queens,
We give Jesus our homemade crown of thorns,
It’s our personal touch, hand picked from thorn bushes of our own sinfully overgrown prickly hearts,

Do we not know Jesus is also Judge,
Have we forgotten that the Judge was resurrected?
That the Judge is not finished, but is coming back to judge the living and the dead?

The body count rises, and death knocks at my door,
The Lord Himself raises His bow against me,
His arrows fly true and never miss,
Look, already His bent is bent, poised and aiming!
The prophets of old have told the same tale many times before,
And yet we in arrogance slough off their compassion filled warnings,
We say that’s nonsense and superstitious mumbo gumbo from days long ago,
We have come under the delusion that we are somehow better and more evolved from our Israelite ancestors,
What a self-deceived people we have become!

Where do our church leaders go to find answers for this mess,
Oh CEO pastor where is your strategy,
Oh small church pastor tell me our plan,
Will you introduce to me yet another program to cure my sinful heart and insult me once again?
Where is the cue to my woes?
There is no program for this, only JESUS the CHRIST!
Your plans are godless!
Your plans map out the road to ruin!

Living as manics, completely losing our minds with faith that hides in shadows and corners,
Frenzied hearts, and unsettled souls, you’re children cannot pick out Your voice from the other Master’s we try to serve simultaneously,

John the Baptist’s voice was cut short as his head was cut off,
But grant us Your voice once again we pray,
May Your prophet’s words from long ago still retain a faint echo,

Give us these kinds of eyes,
The eyes to see reality for what it is,
Let us see and wrestle with our condition, and let us see and rest in our Savior Jesus.

Jesus you’re our Savior, Redeemer, Restorer,
You are the Lamb of God,
You take away the sins of this world,
Dress your bride in white,
May the dirty be cleansed,
Oh what beautiful prayer this is!

But by your grace cut short our high sounding prayers,
Send conviction to your people,
Do not spare your discipline for your people have fallen into deception,
We hold you in reverence on our paper but not in our heart,

Therefore, bless us with repentance,
We praise you unworthily,
We defile your name unknowingly!
Take away our cheat sheets,
Let no scripted prayer be uttered,
Don’t allow us to parrot back Sunday morning Jesus,
Take away our pious prayers and replace them with something authentic from our hearts,

We call Jesus wonderful Savior and awesome Redeemer,
And oh how true it is!
But move us away from paper and into our hearts,
Here we treat you like a Heavenly Santa Claus, a Divine Vending Machine, and a Magical Genie,
We don’t love you for you but rather for what you provide,
That is why on Monday we wave palm branches and cry Hosanna, Hosanna!
And on Friday we cry crucify him, crucify him!

Your grace has not been sufficient for us,
We leave you to go beyond you,
We use you as a footstool and reach up in the cupboard for what we truly desire,
We push you out of the way after we have climbed over your back,
You are our magical flute, our special instrument we play to get to a better life,
We use you, force you, coerce you, and manipulate you,
We don’t want you, we just want to use you,

You are our sock puppet,
You fit so nicely on our hand,
We have made you in our own sinful image,
We project the god we want unto the God, “I am,”
We ask you to fulfill our plans, our purposes, our whims, and our wishes,

What a terrible thing we have made of you Jesus,
It is unspeakable,
We hold you in reverence on our paper but not in our heart,
Do not spare your discipline for your people have fallen into deception,
Give us eyes to see reality,
Give us eyes to see you,

Grant your people hearts that move past Jesus on paper, to confess the jesus in our hearts.

Merciful Lord, you are our only hope,
Patient Teacher, entertain our questions once again today,
Be patient with our doubts,
Remember your kindness when you answered John the Baptist when he doubted in the dungeon,
Remember our faith is fragile,
Your children are frail from the sins we have committed, and from the sins committed against us,

Do not turn away in anger,
If you shut your ear to our cry we are as good as dead,
When we move into darker places, do not leave us there,
Chase us out from darkness into transparent light,
Help our confession move away from vague generics,
May our confession be heartfelt and personal,
For you Lord are our only hope,
May your children learn about you at the foot of the cross.

The rocks cry out,
God’s goodness cannot be restrained,
all creation demands and yearns for it to be proclaimed!
Jesus’ gift of spit makes scales fall from blind eyes,
To see the Living God the first time!

Come and die, and therefore…
No longer I, but Christ!!
I picture a powerful Paul, a weak Paul, a joyous Paul, and a sorrowful Paul all proclaiming the same chorus,
No longer I, but Christ!!
May Christians shutter at the power of this gospel liberating truth!

To move from death to life,
To enter into freedom of a new life,
Death where is your sting?!
Are not principalities and powers but a footstool for my Lord?
Chains of bondage were broken 2,000 years ago,
But freedom seems new today.

…(pause and reflect)…

But when I wake will not temptation come again?
Will not the flesh howl for appeasement?
And will they not all pursue more angrily than before?
Surely they will!

They seek to exhaust me and crush my spirit,
My resolve cannot withstand the persistent bombardment of the Sirens sweetly singing the pleasures of this world,
The prostitute stands at the street corner and tries to lure me into her web of death,
I know the first seven chapters of Proverbs all too well,
By myself I am as good as dead!
Sin smiles and then unhinges it’s jaw to swallow me whole.

But now, Faithful One, bring Your sin defeating, death conquering gospel message to my mind once again,
God doesn’t expect me to fight,
In fact, God doesn’t even want me to fight,
Get on bloody knees and cry out to God,
For He is the Warrior, He is the Victor,
Not I, but Christ!!

So trials await, and is not my Savior poised to conquer?
In myself I find nothing but death,
No good thing lives in me,
But in Christ I find life!

Father, strengthen Your children today by Your Word.

When we cannot reach you,
Are minds are paralyzed with our candy culture and cannot grasp your glory,
Therefore, grip us,
Grasp hold of us,

Don’t give up now my friend!
God isn’t giving up pursuing you!
How God uses you, you barely have a clue,
God wants to use you in your life and in your death,
Every ounce you give to God,
God will use to magnify Himself,
Every fiber that God grabs hold of,
He will see to it that His name is exalted,
And so I pray simply, God take hold of us!
Take and magnify!

I pray it with force,
I pray it with tears,
I pray it with a broken spirit,
And now, when I pray it again, I can no longer pray it with strength,
I now pray it in weakness,
It is where in your grace you would have me at this moment,

Oh the Jesus I love in the garden,
He prayed in weakness,
He prayed in exhaustion,
He persevered faithfully until he proclaimed, “It is finished!”

Our Suffering Servant broken for us,
Yom Kippur now in the flesh,
The Day of Atonement in the most vivid of all displays,
Not two animals, just one sinless spotless lamb,
Jesus, my propitiation for my sins,
You diverted the wrath due to me,
You appeased the wrath of God who’s anger burned against me,
Your sacrifice satisfies the bloodthirsty God who required payment,
You became my substitute,
Your blood is the blood smeared on the door,
The angel of death passes over my soul,
Jesus, my expiation for my sins,
Jesus, the scapegoat sent away into the wilderness,
You cleansed your bride,
You dress me now in white,

Isaac carried his timber,
But you had Abraham spare us son,
But your son carried his plank across his pulverized back,
And you Father did not spare your son,
Oh God how you have suffered for humanity!
Oh Holy Spirit how you continue to grieve!
Lord, teach us today…
Teach us today.