http://templateinstitute.com Mon, 12 Aug 2013 14:13:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.40 http://templateinstitute.com/old-testament-template-chapter-17/#comment-565 Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:59:43 +0000 http://templateinstitute.com/?page_id=458#comment-565 This chapter brings to mind the passage in Hosea 2:14-16, talking about the final restoration of Israel to what God intended. It also serves as a template for our maturity as Christ followers. Here we are led into the desert, a place of need, no other distractions – a place of simple contemplation – and then God speaks. We need to hear His voice, just as Jesus had His word from the Father at baptism, we too need to hear, and believe the truth of God’s statements about us. From this we move to fruitfulness, reliance and hope in His promises and provision, to praise and worship and back to our first love. The final position is where we finally recognize our Lord as husband with all the attendant benefits, provision and priviliges, not just Lord. Just as Jesus gained His promised authority, rule and reign via obediance, in God’s time and manner, we too gain all He promises, not by our efforts, strategies, and doing – rather we gain our rest by understanding and living in the quiet obedience of thinking, believing, and doing what He instructs, that and no more – nothing at all to prove!

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