Come Closer

The book of Hosea is built on imagery of Israel's wandering from the Lord - the prophet, Hosea, and his relationship with a wayward woman named Gomer is an illustration of the God's unfailing love
for His people. In Hosea 10, we read:
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
13 You have plowed wickedness; You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, Because you trusted in your own way, In the multitude of your mighty men.

The Bible calls us to seek the ways of the Lord - He wants us to walk in righteousness and experience His mercy...no one is too far away to be brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He is seeking to save the lost and He is desiring to bring the saved into a deeper walk with Him - so we have to respond to His invitation, lay aside the sinfulness that the Bible says "so easily" entangles us, and allow the risen Christ to set us free.

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In Hosea 6, we see an invitation from the Lord to come closer to Him, to "come home" to Him, in a
sense:
1 Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

On Fridays, I like to take a look a God-sightings in pop culture, and there are several instances that recently attracted my attention.

The world of popular music is certainly an outlet for creative expression, but it is highly competitive. One instance that illustrates that came this week.  According to ChristianHeadlines.com, relaying a story from HelloChristian.com, when pop superstar Katy Perry "was attending Sunday’s Grammy awards, she was asked why she recently had taken a break from music." Perry said, "It’s called taking care of your mental health.” She added, "I haven’t shaved my head yet.”

This was thought to be a reference to fellow singer Britney Spears, who had a "period of erratic behavior in 2007, including shaving off all her hair, which some allege was a way to cover up for her drug abuse."   Spears responded by posting a Tweet featuring a picture of two hands making the figure of a heart against the backdrop of a sunset - and the Tweet said, "Her mouth speaks from that which fills her heart...Luke 6:45."

The HelloChristian website has another story about the Spears family.  You may be aware that Britney's niece, Maddie, the daughter of sister Jamie Lynn Spears, was driving an ATV which went into a pond. The report says:

Miraculously, first responders were able to free her just in time. Britney believes that God answered their prayers, and that this was a total miracle.

"So grateful Maddie was able to go home today," the pop singer posted to her Facebook account. "It's truly a miracle. Our prayers were heard, and they were answered." Maddie was in critical condition for two days but finally regained consciousness and is now recovering.

On February 7, according to the PEOPLE Magazine website, the hospital gave the site a statement that "Maddie was awake talking with no signs of neurological damage, and by Friday, she was discharged and able to go home, with doctors saying 'she is on the way to a full recovery.'" Reportedly, Jamie, her husband, and the child's father, all held hands and prayed as they sat on the child's bed.  A friend of the Maddie's father said, according to another PEOPLE article: “Everyone knows this was a God thing,” adding, “It could have gone either way; they almost lost her. But God wasn’t ready to take her back … She’s getting stronger, and they have their Maddie back — and that’s all that matters.”

You may remember, Lynne Spears, Britney's and Jamie Lynn's mother, wrote a book a few years ago called, Through the Storm, released in 2008.  A CBN.com story said that the book is a "moving memoir of a mom who has come to grips with and learned from her mistakes, but the book is not about feeling guilty. Though she openly admits her parenting errors, she encourages other parents to not dwell on their shortcomings."

In writing about Britney, Lynne wrote: "Someone told me once that no one is immune to prayer, no one is so rich, so famous, so lost, that she is outside the power of petitioning God on her behalf. So I move toward God and pray for fresh eyes and fresh faith to see his hope for my child. She is not out of his reach.”  

Certainly, the Spears family has been through its share of trials, and the choices of the daughters have played out in the public eye and caused great concern, especially for the mom.  But, there's a reminder to all of us that no one is beyond God's reach.  And, you can easily see where God could be working in a profound way here, even through the tragedy of Maddie's ATV accident and her recovery.   

There is an awareness of God in the lives of these two daughters - Britney just posted Scripture on Twitter, and Jamie Lynn has trusted the Lord for the healing of her daughter.  You could possibly attribute that awareness to some degree to the faithfulness of a mom who taught them about the ways of the Lord.  Parents can trust that seeds of faith will produce a harvest in the lives of their children.

A Christian singer recorded a song a few years ago dedicated to Britney Spears - it contains these words:

Britney, I do believe that love has come
Here for the broken
Here for the ones like us

I know love goes around the world we know
And you never see it coming back
You never see it coming back

And I know love goes around the world we know
And you never see it coming back
But I can see it coming back

(*-from Google Play)

That was co-written by Bebo Norman, who told New Release Tuesday, now New Release Today:

"'Britney' is a song about what our culture says and does to young women these days," said Bebo Norman in a recent conversation. "It's about the lies we tell them about fame and money and what's beautiful and what will give them life. It's an apology for those lies. But more than that, it's an invitation to the truth about a God who is bigger than the pain this world so often leaves them in."

For everyone, those who have been blinded by the power of the enemy and the lure of sin, God's love is reaching out, and He is inviting people who have strayed, who are struggling, or who are in trouble, to "come back" to Him, or experience Him for the very first time.