On September 19, I published ChatGPT on my assessment of my experience with that expression of AI. I concluded:

Bottom Line: use AIs with care.

Since then, I’ve read multiple articles, some positive, some apocalyptic, some cautioning the same issue that gave me pause: ChatGPT is pretending to be human. I’ve talked with people who use the technology productively. I intend to write something more comprehensive next week, but I’m still sorting it all out.

In the meantime, here’s something from Hosea that may apply. What do you think?

For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God...For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind… (Hosea 8.5 – 7, ESV)

Are we sowing the wind with AI, and will we reap the whirlwind?

My friend Pastor James Conley from Delta, Colorado, retired in July from First Baptist Church after more than 30 years of ministry there. At the Rocky Mountain American Baptist Gathering a few weeks ago, he shared some lessons learned.

First, one of his seminary professors shared with him early in his ministry five things the professor would have done differently:

1. Spend more time with my family.

2. Develop a deeper prayer life much earlier.

3. Study and prepare better messages.

4. I would not take myself so seriously.

5. I would be more understanding and patient with the church the Lord placed in my care.

A good list. James added “Four things that will sideline your serve:”

#1 SLOTH (laziness) Proverbs 19:15, 26:14; 2 Thessalonians. 3:11-12.

#2 SILVER (money) Ecclesiastes 5:10; 1 Timothy 6:10.

#3 SEX (Porn/adultery) 1 Corinthians 6:18-20; Ephesians. 5:3; 1 Peter 2:11.

#4 SELF (flesh) 2 Timothy 3:1-4; Galatians 5:13.

Another good list, which is remarkably the same (3 out of 4) that my friend Pastor Aaron Dorman in Estes Park shared with me in August:

1. Money
2. Sex
3. Pride
4. Distraction (that is, stick with the gospel, not politics)

Thank you, my brothers for your instruction AND your example.

So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. – Paul, Acts 24.16, ESV

PS “Retired” James is off to North Platte, Nebraska, to be interim pastor of a church there.

A friend wrote a few days ago to ask why I’m still involved in mission (evangelism and disciple-making) at my advanced age.

By the way, I just got a name tag from my church with the word “octogenarian” next to my name! They were honoring all of us born in 1946, the first year of the baby boomers. For some reason “octogenarian” makes me feel older than saying, “I turn 80 in December.”

So why am I still involved in relational disciple-making?

• It’s still the only form of ministry that makes sense.
• It can be done by anyone. I’ve written on this before, as in “Instant Participation, Instant Success” and “Epoxy and Disciple-making.”
• It can be done at any age. Jim Downing started doing Bible study with TV news anchor, Dianne Derby, when he was 99 years old. She spoke at his 100^th birthday celebration in 2013, and at his memorial in 2018. Her book Two Hundred Tuesdays is worth the read.

Jim Downing with Dianne Derby at his 100th birthday celebration.

• If I can leave behind a few men to carry on the ministry and help others do the same, I will have done something. I’m meeting with two men, leading them through Every Man a Warrior. They will both be leaders. One has already had serious discussions with men’s ministry leaders at a large church on starting Every Man a Warrior.
• I don’t think we’re supposed to quit. I hope to die with appointments on my calendar. “Sorry, Bob won’t be able to make lunch today…”

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

We just spent a few days at the world-class Colorado Springs Broadmoor Hotel celebrating our 58th anniversary. The hotel was built in 1919 by Spencer Penrose. His wife, Julie, built a small chapel, named after her granddaughter. Pauline Chapel became part of the Roman Catholic diocese but by the early 2000s, it was no longer in use.

Philip Anschutz, a strong believer who lives in Denver, bought the Broadmoor in November 2011, under the condition that he could have access to Pauline Chapel. He wanted to offer weekly Sunday services there for the guests. His friend Peb Jackson (Peb’s father was called “Rock,” and Peb was just a “pebble.” You can’t make this stuff up.) was very well connected and recruited local pastors and leaders of local Christian organizations to preach the services. One of the pastors was our former pastor, John Stevens, who had retired. They also needed pianists, so John called me. I played for the first three services beginning in June 2012. The services continue today with a core of Broadmoor neighbors who consider it their ministry to serve the guests who attend.

I write that to say I met Mr. Anschutz at one of those services and talked with him briefly. It makes for a good story, one that I shared on a walking tour while we were guests earlier this month.

Here’s the point of the blog. Over our stay, at least two Broadmoor employees spoke highly of Philip Anschutz. At least one talked about his humility. I learned that he doesn’t have a special room when he stays there. He wants the best rooms reserved for guests. Previously, an employee told me that he often gets up in the wee hours, gets a couple dozen doughnuts, and visits employees on duty to thank them for their service.

Humble, serving doughnuts to employees on the midnight shift, aren’t typical characteristics of the wealthy. And Philip Anschutz is wealthy – the richest man in Colorado according to Forbes Magazine as reported in the Denver Post:

Philip Anschutz remains Colorado’s wealthiest resident with an estimated net worth of $19.3 billion, which ranked him the 60th highest in the U.S. and 143rd in the world. Anschutz built on early successes in oil and gas to purchase railroads, including the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad, and leveraged that investment to build a national fiber optic network, Qwest Communications.

Railroad ownership also opened the door to highly valuable land holdings in city centers. Anschutz Entertainment now owns more than 70 arena and concert venues around the globe, including Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

A big soccer fan, Anschutz cofounded Major League Soccer. He has significant stakes in the LA Galaxy, as well as the city’s hockey franchise, the LA Kings. Closer to home, Anschutz owns the Broadmoor Hotel and the Gazette newspapers in Denver and Colorado Springs.

Anschutz’s holdings have benefited from a surge in the value of entertainment assets and sports franchises, driving a 78% increase in his net worth since 2023. – Denver Post, September 16, 2026

Mr. Anschutz joyfully practices Paul’s instructions to Timothy regarding the wealthy:

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. (1 Timothy 6.17 – 19, NIV)

Let’s remember as we continue through Hosea and the rest of the “minor” prophets (so-called only because the books are shorter) that the purpose of prophecy is not so much to foretell the future but to change how we live today. And we do that by identifying similarities between the people’s behaviors then and ours today.

Case in point, Hosea’s diagnosis in chapter 7:

Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. (Hosea 7.13, 14, ESV)

They pray but only for material things while they rebel against God. James called out the same behavior:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4.1 – 4, ESV)

We continue through Hosea where chapter 6 has some useful lessons for us all. The opening sounds good…

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6.1 – 3, ESV)

It appears to be a call for revival from the people themselves: “Come let us return to the LORD…let us know; let us press on to know the LORD…” After all, “he will come to us as the…spring rains that water the earth.”

Nice try. Here’s is God’s response:

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. (Hosea 6.4, 5, ESV)

Your love is transient. Therefore, “I have hewn them by the prophets… slain them by the words of my mouth.” Huh? Reminds me of recalcitrant military personnel. Say I have a guy who doesn’t like to keep his hair in regs. The regs are there; he just ignores them. But if I give him a direct order, and he doesn’t do it, I have “…slain him by the words of my mouth.” He’s not only guilty of ignoring written haircut regulations, he has violated a direct order from his commanding officer. Much more serious.

What does God want? Words? Ritual? Or relationship with him?

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6.6, ESV)

I desire love, not sacrifice. Knowing God, not burnt offerings.

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. (Isaiah 1.11 – 17, ESV)

A brief lesson from Hosea 5, remembering that the central approach of Hosea is to compare Israel’s disobedience to unfaithfulness in marriage.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD. (Hosea 5.3, 4, ESV)

But it’s not just ancient Israel. James uses the same language:

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4.4 – 10, ESV)

We move through Hosea, a prophet to “Israel,” the northern 10 tribes. What’s their problem?

Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is

• no faithfulness or
• (no) steadfast love, and
• no knowledge of God in the land;

there is

• swearing,
• lying,
• murder,
• stealing, and
• committing adultery;

they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. (Hosea 4.1 – 2, ESV)

Wow. We could stop right there, and there are 10 chapters to go! Sounds a lot like the US, does it not? No faithfulness or steadfast love (lots of divorces?). No knowledge of God. Check. Swearing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery. Check.

Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. (Hosea 4.3, ESV)

Is this the message of Romans 8?

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8.19 – 22, ESV)

We continue Hosea, tough to read at times, using the graphic imagery of prostitution to make the point that God loves Israel despite her unfaithfulness. And he uses the prophet Hosea as a visual aid. He takes a wife in chapter 1, and she proves unfaithful in chapter 2. Here is the first part of (short) chapter 3:

And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” (Hosea 3.1 – 3, ESV)

“So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and…barley.” One note says “430 pounds of barley.” That’s a lot of barley! Hosea’s charge to the woman he bought back: “You shall not play the whore…” That is, “Don’t do that anymore!” Reminds us of Jesus’ encounter with the woman taken in adultery:

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8.10, 11, ESV)

The rest of Hosea 3 ends with a prophecy:

For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days. (Hosea 3.4 – 5, ESV)

“They shall come in fear to the LORD…in the latter days.” And, by implication, the LORD will accept them!

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (Romans 3.21, 22, NLT, and a pastor friend of mine used to say, “…no matter who we are…or what we have done.”

Here we are, mid-September, and at five chapters/week, we are almost finished with the prophets. Just the “Minor” prophets to go, 12 shorter books bringing God’s message, not necessarily about the future, but about the present. How shall we live today? What did God want the original recipients to know about him, and how did he want them to live?

Recall the divided kingdom: “Israel” – the northern 10 tribes, no good kings – and “Judah” – the southern 2 tribes, some good kings. Israel was scattered by the Assyrians as recorded in 2 Kings 17. Hosea is a prophet to “Israel,” the northern 10, the last prophet before the kingdom fell:

Hosea has been called the “death-bed prophet of Israel” because he was the last to prophesy before the northern kingdom fell to Assyria (about 722 B.C.). His ministry followed a golden age in the northern kingdom, with a peace and prosperity not seen since the days of Solomon. Unfortunately, with this prosperity came moral decay, and Israel forsook God to worship idols. – from the Introduction to Hosea in the ESV

And how did God use Hosea to communicate to Israel? Eugene Peterson explains in his introduction to Hosea in The Message Bible:

Hosea is the prophet of love, but not love as we imagine or fantasize it. He was a parable of God’s love for his people lived out as God revealed and enacted it—a lived parable. It is an astonishing story: a prophet commanded to marry a common whore and have children with her. It is an even more astonishing message: God loves us in just this way—goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love. Once we absorb this story and the words that flow from it, we will know God far more accurately. And we will be well on our way to being cured of all the sentimentalized and neurotic distortions of love that incapacitate us from dealing with the God who loves us and loving the neighbors who don’t love us.

And there’s the message: “God…goes after us at our worst…Once we absorb this story…we will know God far more accurately…”

It begins:

The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. (Hosea 1.1 – 3, ESV)

And off we go.

This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. (1 John 4.8 – 10, MSG)

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4.19, ESV)