This final episode of the series encourages and challenges believers to break up fallow ground and seek the Lord until God rains His righteousness on them. (Hosea 10:12) The series has lately highlighted how genuine and consistent seeking after God doesn't just lead to righteousness but encounters with God Himself. The psalmist in Psalm 84 consequently longs for God's dwelling place, and in psalm 26:8, David calls it the place where "His glory dwells." Taken together, the Scriptures call for believers to balance the call to deny themselves in breaking up the fallow with the ultimate reward of being so transformed that God Himself, the river that never runs dry, satisfies the longings of the Christian. The latter part of the episode addresses the challenges of breaking up fallow ground. While it definitely includes hardened sinful habits, the program deals with the thought life of many believers that, while not overtly sinful, nevertheless amount to vast fields of wasted mental engagement on things that go nowhere. God wants to dwell in our minds, so the initial daunting task of reorienting thought life around what is pure, noble and excellent (Philippians 4:8) is nevertheless a mandate. The episode closes with a practical challenge to seek God consistently through prayer and reading of the Scriptures, to the exclusion of social media and even news.
Are You REALLY Seeking after God?
This episode contrasts "crises searches" with "love searches." Many seek God principally based on crises and don't pursue Him on a regular basis. The ideal is that we seek God continually, based on our desperate need to be molded by Him into the image of Christ. Hosea 10:12 highlights the positive motivation behind love-searching.."until He rains righteousness on us." Many unfortunately don't transition from crisis seeking to love seeking and consequently "invite" more God-orchestrated crises into their lives till they seek Him continually based on love. The latter half of the episode addresses the model "love search" of the psalmist in psalm 84:1-7. The psalmist is only happy in God's "dwelling places," and "highways to Zion" characterize his heart on perpetual pilgrimage. The program then applies the highway metaphor to Ephesians 3:16-19, the sanctification road in which Christians who abide in Christ are empowered by God and come more and more under His Lordship, resulting in greater capacity for God's presence.
Seek His Face, Not Just His Hand
This episode addresses the motivation behind searching for God. While God honors "crisis" seeking, where He aids us in crisis moments, He intends that all believers become life-long "love"-seekers who hunger and thirst for God Himself. The program addresses the dynamics of how God transforms crisis-seeking to love-seeking, often by making lasting victory over sin and circumstances elusive, requiring persistent seeking after God Himself. This resting in God is discussed based on Ephesians 3:16-19, where progressive abiding in Christ leads to greater capacity for His rule, potentially leading to being "filled up with all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:19) This quasi beatific vision is based on an intimate knowledge of the love of God where the diligent search for God is rewarded. The episode repeatedly emphasizes that mere crisis searching is unacceptable. Love seeking is the Biblical ideal that culminates in the knowledge of God.
Don’t Settle for Forgiven
Coming from Hosea 10:11-14, this episode emphasizes the hard work of searching after God after receiving God's righteousness in Christ. Many believers today content themselves with the imputed righteousness of Christ, where God declares them positionally righteous because of the blood of Christ, but don't make their actual condition a priority. Hosea tells us that we need to seek the Lord "until He reigns righteousness" on us. The righteousness here spoken of is actual righteousness where believers reverse bad sowing and plant new seeds of righteousness. Much of the episode addresses hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Mt 5:6), which is only satisfied when our condition matches our position in Christ. This craving for actual righteousness manifests in a life-long searching after God. The outcome of this search is transformation into the image of Christ AT THE SAME TIME we grow in the knowledge of God. We progressively know Christ, who is the Truth, and are made free. (John 8:32, John 14:6) It culminates in the beatific vision, where we are so radically transformed that we see God face to face. (1 John 3:2)
No Holiness Without the Yoke
This episode mostly focuses on the early stages of sanctification, in which new Christians are faced with the arduous task of reversing bad sowing. Many despair in the process as they discover that modifying their behavior is difficult, if not impossible. But that's the whole point of the yoke. The episode highlights the fact that all spiritual progress in sanctification is predicated on the yoke, our connection with Christ. The yoke softens our heart to the will of God, making sin distasteful. The imperative "break up the fallow ground" presumes already being yoked to Christ, which is the essential component in addressing a hard heart and the strongholds that come from it.
Are You Cooperating with the Yoke?
Coming from Hosea 10:11-14, this episode narrowly deals with the yoke, the means by which Christians yoked to Christ reverse both the effects of bad sewing and bad sewing itself. Christians are connected to Christ with a yoke which acts as the means of sanctification. Both the Son and the Holy Spirit enable believers to "sew with a view to righteousness and reap according to kindness." This sewing involves uprooting bad crops and underlying evil seeds and replanting Life-giving seeds, leading to a harvest of righteousness characterized by God's mercy. CRITICALLY, Christians can choose whether to cooperate with the yoke or not. The episode highlights the consequences of bucking against the yoke and the natural corruption that ensues (Gal 6:8). On the flip side, cooperation with the yoke leads to life and peace.
Not Growing in Jesus? Maybe Eisegesis is the Problem
Expanding on the previous 2 programs from Hosea 10:11-14, this episode highlights a balanced approach to sanctification in which sewing is just as important as reaping. Christianity in America is comparable to the Israelites in Hosea 10, in which the prophet noted that they loved to thresh (the final stage of reaping) but didn't sew with a view to righteousness or break up the fallow ground. This overemphasis on reaping/threshing over sewing has produced a "get-spiritual-quick" landscape that is shallow, superficial and Biblically illiterate over themes and issues not immediately relevant to many Christians. The episode hammers home the problem of eisegesis where both preachers and Christians consistently read into the text based on their threshing mentality, instead of letting the text of Scripture set the agenda. This pervasive tendency in American Christianity highlights an imbalanced approach to sanctification, where believers are anxious to reap without patiently sewing with a view to righteousness.
“The Fruit of Lies Hides a Harvest from Hell”
"This episode mostly focuses on the destructive effects of ""the fruit of lies"" which is the product of ""plowing wickedness"" and ""reaping injustice."" (Hosea 10:13) Spiritual growth is challenging because uprooting the fruit of lies (repeated sinful behavior and thinking) requires addressing both the original lie and the self-reinforcing baggage of the lusts of deceit. This baggage corresponds with the fruit of lies. Once we persistently act on lies, going outside of the will of God, we regularly eat of the apparent benefits, the veritable fruit of lies. Lusts of deceit naturally magnify benefits and minimize negative consequences, and the natural cycle of sewing and reaping means that the harvest of corruption is not immediately realized. Because of the self-reinforcing dynamic undergirding the fruit of lies, magnifying benefits and minimizing costs, sin is not easily abandoned. In the case of full-blown strongholds (2 Cor. 10:5), ""thoughts"" have matured into ""imaginations,"" and finally ""strongholds."" Tunnel-vision has set in, and satisfaction of a lust of deceit consumes the thought-life. The episode concludes with the way of deliverance: patient sewing of new seeds of righteousness which eventually yield the ""peaceful fruit of righteousness"" characterized by ""the fruit of the Spirit."" Christian sanctification therefore requires persistent uprooting of the fruit of lies till genuine godly fruit manifests through patient ""sewing with a view to righteousness.""
Do You Have the Mentality to Grow Spiritually?
This episode is an overview of Biblical spiritual growth based on Hosea 10:11-14. Substantive spiritual growth that endures temptation and the natural ups and downs of life is a thorough work that mirrors the agricultural process of sewing, reaping, and threshing. Many Christians unfortunately adopt a "get-spiritual-quick" mentality towards spiritual growth and emphasize the final stage of threshing without doing the hard work of "sewing with a view to righteousness." "Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh." (Hosea 10:11) The answer to superficial spirituality, according to the rest of the passage, is seeking the Lord by receiving the yoke. (see Matthew 11:28-30. Taking the yoke makes "sewing with a view to righteousness" a priority, understanding that reaping takes time as real transformation is God-directed. The episode highlights that subsequent reaping (looking more like Christ) is a mercy from God, based on his covenant loyalty. Significantly, genuine spiritual growth is a lengthy process in which believers take thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and plant new seeds based on God's Word. Spiritual growth consequently takes time and is God-directed, as the Holy Spirit conforms us into the image of Christ.
“Hear the VOICE, and glorify..with your voice”
This episode highlights the imperative of Psalm 29:1-2, contending that Christians incorporate its mandate as an objective of holistic salvation. "Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name." The New Testament version of this imperative is 1 Peter 2:9, where believers are called to "declare God's excellencies." Glorifying God is therefore a principal objective of the Christian faith. Psalm 29:3-9 implicitly suggests the means of glorifying God. The resounding theme is the overwhelming "voice of the Lord" governing storms. The description culminates with the almost out-of-place comment that "in His temple everything says, 'Glory!'" The logic of the psalm is therefore the following: 1) Believers acknowledge the imperative of human existence, to glorify God, 2) Believers attune themselves to the sovereign VOICE of God, 3) Believers respond with their VOICE, crying out Glory. Christian salvation largely follows this pattern. Christians seek to glorify God by submitting to Christ. They abide in Christ, attending to His sovereign voice, bearing fruit as they verbally declare God's excellencies. The latter part of the episode emphasizes the imperative in the "shema," "HEAR oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." This basic axiom of Judaism is more than a confession of monotheism: the emphasis is on the response of believers who are called to hear and obey the VOICE of God. Interestingly, Jews often referred to God as "hashem" or "the name." So with respect to the imperative of Psalm 29:1-2, Christians are called to glorify Christ by eagerly LISTENING to His Voice, glorifying His name in response. It is, after all, the NAME of the entire trinity in which all Christians are baptized, and the basis for glorifying God.