running in a wedding dress

"WEDDING DRESS" 

DEREK WEBB

If you could love me as a wife 

and for my wedding gift, your life 

Should that be all I?d ever need 

or is there more Im looking for 

and should I read between the lines 

and look for blessings in disguise 

To make me handsome, rich, and wise 

Is that really what you want 

I am a whore I do confess 

But I put you on just like a wedding dress 

and I run down the aisle 

and I run down the aisle 

I'm a prodigal with no way home 

but I put you on just like a ring of gold 

and I run down the aisle to you 

So could you love this bastard child 

Though I don't trust you to provide 

With one hand in a pot of gold 

and with the other in your side 

I am so easily satisfied 

by the call of lovers so less wild 

That I would take a little cash 

Over your very flesh and blood 

Because money cannot buy 

a husband's jealous eye 

When you have knowingly deceived his wife 

Hosea 2:5-22

“For their mother has played the harlot; 
She who conceived them has acted shamefully. 
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, 
Who give me my bread and my water, 
My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, 
And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. 
“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; 
And she will seek them, but will not find them. 
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, 
For it was better for me then than now!’

 “For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, 
And lavished on her silver and gold, 
Which they used for Baal.  “Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time 
And My new wine in its season. 
I will also take away My wool and My flax 
Given to cover her nakedness. 
“And then I will uncover her lewdness 
In the sight of her lovers, 
And no one will rescue her out of My hand.  “I will also put an end to all her gaiety, 
Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths 
And all her festal assemblies. “I will destroy her vines and fig trees, 
Of which she said, ‘These are my wages 
Which my lovers have given me.’ 
And I will make them a forest, 
And the beasts of the field will devour them. “I will punish her for the days of the Baals 
When she used to offer sacrifices to them 
And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, 
And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the LORD.

Restoration of Israel

 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Bring her into the wilderness

And speak kindly to her.

“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,

And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.

And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,

As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

“It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD,

“That you will call Me Ishi

And will no longer call Me Baali.

 “For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,

So that they will be mentioned by their names no more.

“In that day I will also make a covenant for them

With the beasts of the field,

The birds of the sky

And the creeping things of the ground.

And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,

And will make them lie down in safety.

“I will betroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,

In lovingkindness and in compassion,

And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.

Then you will know the LORD.

 “It will come about in that day that I will respond,” declares the LORD. 
“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth, And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and to the oil, 
And they will respond to Jezreel.

Jesus provided a radical and unusual avenue for relationship: Grace. 

No matter what we say and do, no matter how many steps we think we take away, no matter how long the separation we create between us and our Father; there is grace. 

No matter how often we leave Him alone, disregard promptings, or alienate people; there is grace. 

Grace = God did It. 

God has left us alone without us, without our coping mechanisms, without our typical passages to life, like Gomer (above)...that leads us to brokenness. And that brokenness makes us aware that we have reached the end of ourselves and shifts our perspective back up to Grace. 

I have been Gomer. I have not sold my body or given it away. 


I have absolutely seen through the lens of self in such a way that I didn’t need anyone or anything[really because I was afraid and hiding]. “I did this thing, I made this thing happen….” 


I have trusted self more than God [because I sensed that somehow with me, I was safe]. 


I have absolutely desired my needs to be met in wrong ways. I have been the judge about appropriate action in defining the needs, labeling the needs, and tempering the needs to fulfillment.

I have been Gomer. I have been a prodigal.
Because I have nowhere else to go, when I even feel like I am my own worst enemy, and there's no place better for me: I am running in a wedding dress down the aisle to my BrideGroom who is smiling and waiting for me there.

"For your Maker is your bridegroom, 

his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!" Isaiah 54:5 (MSG)