Driven Before the Lord

One of my goals for the year is to get another book study kicked off. The idea is to push myself and appeal to a different audience than joined me for The Chronicles of Narnia. Well, earlier this year, Pastor Ed kindly reminded me of my goal, and so I started actively looking for a book to focus on. That's when Elizabeth mentioned that she was reading a book based on the story of the prophet Hosea. All I could remember of his story was that God told him to go marry a prostitute. I'd always read the story as God creating in Hosea's life a microcosm of God's relationship with Israel. And no, Israel does not choose to play the role of the loving husband. Elizabeth, as usual, took up the perspective of the one character I hadn't given enough thought to. Not Israel, but the actual prostitute. Of course, Jesus would expect us to pay the most attention to the "least" character. I had to read this book. So I had Elizabeth give me the pertinent info,
Redeeming Love, a novel by Francine Rivers. I finally got around to ordering it last week, and I started reading last Friday during the Nor'easter that brought us snow, sleet, and generally deep frozen ickiness. It intrigued me right off the bat, even if I did fall asleep reading it on the couch. (I'm sure that had more to do with the amount of energy it takes to drive around in the snow, sleet, and generally deep frozen ickiness all morning.) This week, it went in huge chunks, and last night I couldn't put it down. The story, and the Good Lord speaking directly through it, had ahold of me, and so I gave in to it. It was the wee hours before I got to bed, but it was worth it.

I'm totally starting a book study of this one, folks. Just as soon as I can pull it together. Considering that it's still Lent, that might mean it'll take a while. (And no, I haven't had any caffeine to counteract the lack of sleep...!) But I was blown away, and inspired, by this one--and I plan on sharing that with others!

Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
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