Hosea 8:12

God had set Israel apart for a higher purpose, but instead their actions would make them a common people who did not know the Lord. Instead, God said, “They set up alters to sacrifice on, but they were alters of sin.” They set aside God’s Word to follow false teachers, who would lead them far from the truth. That’s why God’s Word became a strange thing to them. The Word of God was alien to them. They thought it didn’t apply to them and that it was written for someone else.

How many times do we sit in church and think, “Boy, my husband or my wife needs to hear this message?” Or maybe it’s your boss, neighbor, or kids. We need to understand that God’s Word is for us first.

We need to first apply God’s Word to our lives, hide it in our hearts, and allow God to change us by His truth. Then we can rightly give it out to others. God’s Word should be a familiar thing to us, not a strange or foreign thing, given to us by our Heavenly Father, who has set us apart for a higher purpose.

Pastor Doug Hardin