11/17/19 - Hosea and Community

Good morning friends! 

This past week we pressed on in our Gospel Project study of the Old Testament! We took a look at the book of Hosea and the parallels that exist between his persistent and unconditional love for Gomer and God's love for us. Hosea is a fairly graphic book of the Bible, using strong imagery of prostitution and unfaithfulness to describe how we "sell" ourselves to things other than God. Your students all have a copy of a daily discipleship guide that might make for an interesting talking point at home! 

At youth group we talked about the importance of living in Biblical community. That's a pretty big buzz word right now, because social media makes it easy to feel connected to someone without any depth of relationship. I encouraged students to think about the support that their friends provide. the Bible often refers to us as sheep and God as our shepherd. Sheep are not particularly bright, but they survive much better in flocks, and we do too. Being friends with someone often doesn't require a depth of trust that could lead to accountability and many friendships are conditional, but we need that unconditional love and support. I encouraged students to let their close friends know that they held them in high regard and try to establish that kind of community. 

Next week we have our Costa Rica fundraiser on Saturday, and business as usual on Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!