International School of The Bible

 [You may access all of our books and lessons at www.isob-bible.org.  You may also listen to the audio for our Bible class at this web site, either online or through podcast.]

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A 12 year old boy followed his grandpa down to their favorite fishing spot, a small lake. The boy asked the old man, "Grandpa, how is it that you know God so well? When we are at church, you know more than the preacher. When I look into your eyes, I see sparkles. When you speak you speak with such wisdom and understanding."

The old man did not answer. Instead he took the youth by the hair and stuck his head into the lake. He held him there for quite a while. Finally as the boy began to fight and scramble for his life, he brought his head up. The boy let out a loud noise as he gasped for his first breath of air.

The youth said to his grandpa, "Why did you do that?"

The old man said to the youth, "When you want God as bad as you wanted that first breath, you will have Him."

You can have as much of God as you desire. However it will be in relation to how much of you that you give to Him! Usually only the desperate give it all.

Ephraim was a picture of a backslidden believer. The entire Book of Hosea speaks of God's unfailing love to the people who are bad in the world's eyes, and often in the eyes of the Church.

But look what God said about how Ephraim would respond to His unconditional love.

"Ephraim shall say, 'What have I to do anymore with idols? I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me'" (Hosea 14:8).

God's answer to the desperate is to reveal Himself to him/her. The response to seeing God will be like Ephraim's, "What have I to do anymore with idols?"

Larry Chkoreff January 2004