Health update and Three Articles That Might Change the Way You See God
How Hosea, Daniel, and Ezekiel Paint a Beautiful Portrait of the God Jesus Came to Reveal
I want to do something a little different this week.
Instead of one long piece, I want to point you toward three articles I have written recently that belong together. They are part of the Old Testament series I have been working through, and taken together, they tell a story I think you need to hear right now.
These three books of the Bible, Hosea, Daniel, and Ezekiel, are the ones people are most likely to avoid. Too strange. Too hard. Too far from everyday life.
But here is what I have discovered: underneath every vision, every symbol, every strange and difficult chapter, the same message is beating like a steady pulse.
The Father refuses to give up on His people.
Maybe that is exactly what you need to hear today.
Start Here: The Love That Never Quits
The first article is from the book of Hosea, and I want to tell you why this one hit me differently than almost anything I have written in this series.
Hosea is not primarily a book about how bad Israel was. It is a book about how relentless God is.
There is a sentence in Hosea 14 that may be one of the clearest declarations of grace anywhere in the Old Testament. God says, “I will love them freely.” Not conditionally. Not after sufficient repentance. Not once they have earned it back.
Freely.
Religion has always tried to turn love into a transaction. Do enough. Be enough. Earn your way back into God’s good graces. Hosea destroys that idea completely. God’s love comes before Israel’s restoration. His love is what draws His wandering people home.
The article looks at one of the most moving passages in all of Scripture, Hosea 11, where God asks the question that should stop every reader cold: “How can I give you up?” That is not the language of an angry judge. That is the language of a Father whose love will not let go.
If you have ever wondered whether you have wandered too far, read this one first.
Read: The Love That Never Quits
Then This: Hope In Exile
The second article comes from Daniel, and I want to be honest with you about something.
Most people open Daniel looking for prophecy charts. They want to decode the statue and identify the beasts. And they walk right past the most important thing in the book.
The Holy Spirit put Daniel in your Bible to introduce you to your Father.
Here is the passage that stopped me while writing this piece. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the furnace. The fire is so hot it kills the soldiers who throw them in. Then the king looks inside and sees four figures walking around, not three.
The fourth man is in there with them.
The miracle is not only that they survived. The miracle is that they were not alone. Whatever you are walking through right now, that is the Father the Spirit wants you to know. He does not set up a watching post outside your suffering. He enters it with you.
The article also walks through Daniel’s exile, and what it means that God went to Babylon with him. Daniel does not discover God after things get better. He finds God in the middle of everything falling apart. So can you.
And Then This: He Comes Looking for You
The third article is about Ezekiel, the book most people skip entirely. Spinning wheels, strange creatures, end-times charts. Most ordinary believers assume it is not for them.
But Ezekiel may be the most tender picture of the Father’s heart in the entire Old Testament.
There is a moment in Ezekiel 36 and 37 where the entire tone of the book changes. God stops describing what His people must do and starts declaring what He will do. Count how many times He says “I will” in those chapters.
I will search for My sheep. I will gather them. I will give you a new heart. I will remove your heart of stone. I will put My Spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in My ways.
That is not a God standing at a distance saying, “You figure it out.” That is a Father rolling up His sleeves and saying, “I know you cannot do this. I am going to do it.”
Every one of those promises became “It is finished” at the cross.
The article also spends time in Ezekiel 34, which I believe is one of the most important chapters in all of Scripture for anyone who has ever been wounded by religious leadership. God does not defend the shepherds who hurt His sheep. He confronts them. And then He says something that reaches right into that wound: “I Myself will search for My sheep.”
Not better leaders. Not a new program.
God Himself.
Read: He Comes Looking for You
Why I Want You to Read All Three
These are not just three separate articles about three Old Testament books.
They are three angles on the same truth.
Hosea shows you the Father’s love does not quit. Daniel shows you the Father’s presence does not leave. Ezekiel shows you the Father actively searches for you.
Taken together, they draw a portrait of a God who is nothing like the distant, demanding, disappointed deity that religion often hands us.
He pursues. He enters exile. He gets in the fire. He speaks life over dry bones. He buys back the wanderer at whatever price it costs.
That is your Father.
Set aside some quiet time this week and read through all three. I believe the Spirit has something specific to say to you through them, and I would love to hear what lands when you do.
If these articles have encouraged you, the best thing you can do is share them with someone who needs to know the Father’s heart today. And if you are not yet subscribed to Followed by Mercy, this is a good week to join us. We are going through the entire Old Testament together, book by book, looking for the thread of grace that runs from Genesis to the prophets.
It is the same thread that finds its end in Jesus.
Come walk through it with us.
A Personal Word and a Prayer Request
Before I close, I want to share something with you.
This week I am in the middle of five radiation treatments targeting two tumors in my left lung, each about the size of a green grape. I am asking you to pray specifically for the efficiency of the radiation, for the wisdom and steady hands of my doctors, and for my body to respond exactly the way God intends.
People with stage 4 kidney cancer have, on the whole, roughly a 15 to 20 percent chance of surviving five years.
This week marks five years.
God still has me going strong.
I do not say that to boast about anything in me. There is nothing in me that earned another day, let alone another year. I say it because the same Father we have been reading about in Hosea and Daniel and Ezekiel, the One who says “I will love them freely,” the One who gets in the fire with His children, the One who speaks life into dry bones, that is the Father who has kept me here.
And I am grateful. Deeply, quietly, overwhelmingly grateful.
If you have been praying for me, thank you. You will never know, on this side of heaven, what those prayers have meant to Betty, me, and our family. Keep praying. Not because the battle is over, but because the God who hears prayer is still on His throne, and His mercy has not run out.
Five years of extended grace.
That is where I am standing today, and I am standing here because of Him.
Austin Gardner has spent over fifty years in ministry, including decades as a missionary and church planter in Arequipa, Peru. He writes at waustingardner.com for those who are weary, wandering, or simply desperate to know the Father’s heart.
Hey, Austin! Kristi and I are praying diligently for you! Thanks for the update. Yes, our God of Mercy and Grace is still on the throne and He always writes the last chapter. We can trust Him!
Grace and Peace to you and Betty!
You continue to be in my prayers my friend 🙏🙏, blessings, Noralyn