I have been researching Hosea, as God has put it on my heart to write a study out of Hosea next – and let me tell you, it has convicted me, it has torn my heart apart, and it has opened my eyes to the parallels between the unfaithfulness of ancient Israel and today’s culture; it haunts me. And it scares me. To know that God has put it on my heart to speak against the corruption of today’s society – of the evil that we have accepted as normal and even celebrate and relish it. I pray that He gives me the courage and humility to speak His truth as He wills it.

…the words from Hosea 4:6 have been ringing in my head for days – they refuse to be silenced:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
    because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you from being a priest to me.

1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” My point is this: We who call ourselves Christians are priests of God. We are chosen as a holy priesthood to proclaim the glory of God.

As I ponder upon the words of Hosea 4:6, I just keep thinking, “Have we rejected the knowledge of God? Have we turned our back on His statutes and the things of His Word and accepted the cultural norm?”

It is our job to spread the knowledge of the Word of God; it is our job to teach others how to live righteously. Are we doing that? I feel like we have failed – we are continuing to fail our family, our friends, our children – because we are not teaching them the way to live according to the Word of God.

Culture teaches us that premarital sex, abortion and homosexuality are normal, more than that, they are to be celebrated as liberty and freedom – landmarks of our country’s open policies. Are we teaching them the Word of God and that it says the exact opposite? Here’s what I see – I see our young people being inundated with these ideas from the insane amount of cultural propaganda from social media; then these people come to church and there nothing but a message of grace. These youth learn that everything they want to do is ok because the church says that God will forgive them because of grace. Instead of teaching them that these things are wrong according to God’s Word, we enable them to use grace as an excuse – as I once did. I believed and actually argued with my then-boyfriend that it was perfectly acceptable to have pre-marital sex as a self-professed Christian because God would forgive me afterward. Oh how I wish I could speak to him again and tell him how incredibly wrong I was; God forbid he believed me. It is exactly this idea that we are teaching our students through our omission of teaching His statutes. I know the modern church is so focused on reaching the de-churched and un-churched people that we preach a message of grace, lest we make people feel like we are judging them, but we must find a way to teach without judgement, to love well while staying firm in the truth of God’s Word.

Let me be clear – there is a very distinct difference between teaching someone what is right and wrong according to Scripture and judging them for their behavior. We teach with all the love and humility God gives us, and then love each person no matter their situation and trust God to do the convicting. That is the job of the Holy Spirit! It most certainly is not mine. Praise God for that. We teach them the hard things that are counter-cultural because we love them so much. The words from Hosea haunt me: My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. And it is our fault.

Lord I pray that you give us humble and open hearts to hear your words – to not reject the knowledge that your Word imparts because it is counter-cultural. I pray that you give us the courage to teach your Word with the utmost love and humility, so that others may not perish for lack of knowledge. I pray that you would send your Holy Spirit among us and set a fire in our souls to reach the lost; give us compassion and broken hearts for the broken of this world.

In Your most Holy Name,

Audrey