For everybody who assumed that everybody in the Bible is nice, the message this morning is that everybody in the Bible is real, and God loved them anyway!

Our subject this morning is Gomer. Not Gomer, Ohio, but the not-so-nice wife of the Prophet Hosea. I have never preached about Gomer before. And, quite honestly, I probably would not be preaching about her now, except that I have to.

The CSS Publishing Company, here in Lima, has asked me to publish a book of sermons next spring on the Old Testament lessons for the middle of next summer. The story I read is one of them. The only way to get this done is to preach the lessons in the middle of this summer. So here we are hoping to hear God's word in this story about Hosea and Gomer.

Because we live in northwest Ohio, the first thing I nee…