Devotional: Moab
(May 26, 2020) Ruth 1:4 “They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth.” As we read Ruth, one fact is inescapably clear: Ruth was a Moabite. The history of the origin of the Moabites is colorful. Genesis 19:30-38 tells us the story: simply put, Abraham’s nephew Lot lived in a cave with his two daughters. The daughters [...]
Devotional: Mahlon & Chilion
(May 22, 2020) Ruth 1:1-5 “…the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. ... But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and [...]
Devotional: Elimelech
(May 21, 2020) Ruth 1:3 “But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.” So here we are in the unsettled times of the Judges, with a famine in Bethlehem. And it is heartbreaking to say that this Jewish family had to leave the Promised Land for a time in order to survive. [...]
Devotional: Imagine That
(May 20, 2020) Ruth 1:1 “In the days when the judges judged there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live for a while in the country of Moab.” I never imagined I would write more than two months of devotionals when I began them! I thought we would be in [...]
Devotional: Cat Heaven?
(May 19, 2020) Jonah 4:11 “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” Some of you have remarked to me how much can be gleaned in even a small Book like Jonah. Truly, it is hard to [...]
Devotional: A New Word
(May 18, 2020) From II Kings 14:23-25 “Jeroboam became king in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord… He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel… in accordance with the word of the Lord, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai.” There is one reference to Jonah in [...]