Often I find a nugget!
I refer to a revelation about a scripture as a nugget because it is like gold to me - rare and precious.
So, the other day, I was writing out Hosea 14:1-2
Hosea 14:1-2New King James Version (NKJV)
O Israel, return to the Lord your God,
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
Take words with you,
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him,
“Take away all iniquity;
Receive us graciously,
For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
Take words with you,
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him,
“Take away all iniquity;
Receive us graciously,
For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
Offering the sacrifices of our lips stood out to me. Praising on a consistent basis, regardless of our circumstances or situation, praising is the same thing as offering a sacrifice. So simple and do-able and yet such a neglected practice!
As I often do, I looked up the same verse in other versions:
Hosea 14:1-2Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)
O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled and fallen, [visited by calamity] due to your iniquity.Take with you words and return to the Lord. Say to Him, Take away all our iniquity; accept what is good and receive us graciously; so will we render [our thanks] as bullocks [to be sacrificed] and pay the confession of our lips.
Hosea 14:1-2Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Israel, return to Yahweh your God,
for you have stumbled in your sin.
Take words of repentance with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to Him: “Forgive all our sin
and accept what is good,
so that we may repay You with praise from our lips.
for you have stumbled in your sin.
Take words of repentance with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to Him: “Forgive all our sin
and accept what is good,
so that we may repay You with praise from our lips.
That last translation really grabbed my attention ... "We may repay You with praise from our lips." Repay?
No, we certainly can't earn favor from the Lord. Nothing we do is acceptable. If we could earn righteousness (right-standing) with God, why ... there'd been no reason for Jesus to lay down His life for us!
However, in gratitude, we can dedicate our lives to Him. And we can begin, daily, hourly, minute by minute to repay Him by reminding ourselves of His glorious love, power, compassion and holiness.
He is everything!
~~~
And that is what is on my mind this morning. What is on YOURS? I'd love to know! Leave a comment and share.
This post will be shared at the community at Jennifer Dukes Lee's #TellHisStory, and also Becoming Press' Writer Wednesday linkup.
Your writing of Scripture is kind of like my new "thing" that I'm finding to be very challenging: paraphrasing the passage I'm working on. In re-writing it in my own words, I reveal to myself that I really DON'T understand it as well as I think I do. This is both good -- and bad.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to hear from you!
I enjoyed this and I do enjoy other translations but my absolute fave is the NKJV.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny but I was in HOsea this morning!!
I love how you refer to the Scriptures as nuggets. I like to relate them to jewels or treasure. Gold included. :) Writing the verses out brings the richness. What we might have missed before jumps out. Even if it's only a single word from a verse. Sometimes you could preach a sermon just from that. God's Word is so good!
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