(June 16, 2020) Ruth 3:11 “…don't be afraid. …you are a woman of noble character.” One of the most pervasive and unwritten deceits in the church goes something like this: we must work really hard in order to be a “good Christian” so that others will then think well of us, and God will accept [...]
(June 15, 2020) Ruth 3:11 “And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character.” We left last time with Ruth’s [...]
(June 12, 2020) Ruth 3:9 “He said, ‘Who are you?’ And she answered, ‘I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.’” Read Ruth 3. Now with the scene fresh in your mind, [...]
(June 10, 2020) From Ruth 3:15 “…pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.” One of the foundational moments in the life of God’s People was the Exodus. It has been – and is – core to our identity that we have [...]
(June 9, 2020) From Ruth 2:3b “It just so happened to happen that Ruth found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.” This sentence begins in a very interesting way and is a little difficult to translate literally: “It befell her to chance …” or “Ruth chanced [...]
(June 8, 2020) From Ruth 1:19 “So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem.” So Naomi finally returns to Bethlehem. It has been so long and so much has happened that you might imagine how much talk was going around that small town. “Naomi is back!” But Naomi responds: Do not [...]
( June 3, 2020) From Ruth 1:16-18 “…Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.... May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.” Sometimes we resist [...]
(June 2, 2020) From Ruth 1:16 “…For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God...” Yesterday Naomi offers her two daughters-in-law a gift: the freedom to remain. Orpah accepts it; Ruth doesn’t. …But why the difference? It is easy to understand [...]
(June 1, 2020) From Ruth 1:8 “But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.’” Naomi finally returns home because the famine is over and God has visited His people (1:6). [...]
(May 27, 2020) Ruth 1:7 “With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.” There is far too much to Moab for just one day. When Naomi’s husband died she was “left with her two [...]
