“So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.” Ruth 1:22 Read Ruth 1:20. “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almightyhas made my life very bitter. Naomi’s anguish was so great, she wanted to change her name. …
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Lessons from Ruth, Part I
“When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law had prepared to return home from there.” Ruth 1:6 Read Ruth 1:3-15 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women,…
Forgiveness, Part II
“Restore to me the joy of my salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Psalm 51:12 Hurts can sometimes overpower us. Instead of giving them center stage in our minds, we need to focus on Christ. As Psalm 51:12 states, allow your joy over who Jesus is and what He’s done overtake…
Forgiveness, Part I
“Surely you desire truth in the inner parts, you teach wisdom in the inmost place.” Psalm 51:6 You’ve been hurt. But, you’re polite as a good Christian should be. You smile and speak kind words, all the while your heart is seething with unspoken anger. As the psalmist wrote, “surely you desire truth in the inner…
Satan’s Snares, Part IV: Unforgiveness
II Corinthians 2:11 ” In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Read II Corinthians 2:10-11 “Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan…
Satan’s Snares, Part III: Pride
“If you are the Son of God…” Luke 4:3a, 4:9b Read Luke 4:3-4, 9-12 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone. The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him…
Satan’s Snares, Part II: “An Opportune Time”
“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” Luke 4:13 Read Luke 4:1-13 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted[a] by the devil. He ate nothing during those days,…
Satan’s Snares, Part I
“For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into the solitary places.” Luke 8:29 What happens when you’re alone? Does…
Bloom Where You’re Planted: Jesus, Part V
Read Matthew 26:47-54 And even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the leading priests and elders of the people. 48 The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to…
Bloom Where You’re Planted: Jesus, Part IV
“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39 Read Matthew 26:36-45 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took…