Reflexion, A Spiritual Community

I think you most likely know that I love the Scriptures The more I read them, the more I get from them, - and the deeper I go, the richer my experience • however, the journey is not always pleasant, and ◦ some parts of the Bible are not as easy to digest as others ◦ Hosea is not one of my favorite books • still, there are verses in it that are among my favorites ◦ other than those few, working my way through Hosea, is like crawling through a long, dark tunnel ◦ but the Bible doesn’t have to p...

Years ago, I was engaged in a conversation with two friends In making a point, one of them quoted a famous evangelist, “People change–but not that much” - okay–so I reacted immediately, but kept my mouth shut • this same person stood in front of large crowds, ◦ promising them that Jesus would transform their lives ◦ that in Christ, they would become a new creation • that is the essence of the evangelical message ◦ it’s what we’ve been singing for the past 250 years “I once was lost, but now I...

Since it has been a couple of weeks, let me remind you . . . The book of Hosea is a love story – but not like a romance novel - it was never meant to entertain • God’s message came to Israel in a graphic illustration, ◦ played out in the life of his prophet • first, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute ◦ the point was to give Israel a living re-enactment of ◦ their history with God – deserting him for another god or other gods - Hosea and his wife had three children who were placed onto the s...

Kelsey Kappauf speaking at Reflexion

If what I read doesn’t match your Bible, there are two reasons First, I’m reading from Robert Alter’s translation of the Old Testament – so obviously that is different from other standard translations • but another reason is that Alter worked from the Hebrew Bible, ◦ and in that version, chapter 1 has only nine verses ◦ in our English Bibles there are eleven verses in chapter 1 • so those two verses missing in chapter 1 are the beginning of chapter 2 in the Hebrew Bible (If you didn’t g...