Amen, amen, good evening. Welcome. How you doing tonight?

All right. Well, you can be seated then.

Those of you go online, we're so glad you're joining with us.

Real quick, I just want to let you know that this upcoming Tuesday, September 3rd, is our prayer meeting, 7 p.m. here in the sanctuary. Hope

you're able to come and join with us. For those of you online, pardon me, the first part of the

prayer meeting will be live stream at 7 p.m. not 7.30, so note the start time on that.

Tonight we continue our trek through the Bible, book by book, chapter by chapter,

verse by verse, and we're currently in the book of Hosea.

And we're going to take and tackle two chapters tonight, chapters

five and six. And these chapters address one of the most perplexing paradoxes, if I can say it like that, that we ever experience in our Christian lives.

And what I'm speaking of is that of how God will oftentimes deem it necessary to bring about the afflicting in order that he may bring about the healing.

That's a paradox. You know what I mean by a paradox? It's like an oxymoron you know jumbo shrimp can I use Microsoft works I'll give

you a little more time on that one it's a paradox it's just a diametrically

opposed dynamic you got two things that are opposite the other

because you don't put afflicting in the same sentence as healing

because they are at odds with each other,

but not in God's economy and not in God's word and certainly not in

these chapters tonight because such is the case with Israel, who as we're about to see, is

torn to be healed, afflicted to be restored, and struck down to bind up.

That's just the way it is.

One of the things I'm learning in my own Christian walk is that the sooner that I embrace God's grace in this regard, the better.

In other words, the sooner I get this, the better because I'm prone just like anybody to fight God,

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