“For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.” Ruth 3:18b Read Ruth 3:14-18 So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.”15 He also said, “Bring me the shawl…
Tag: Christian encouragement
Lessons from Ruth, Part V
“This kindness is greater than that which you have shown earlier: You have not run after the younger men, rich or poor.” Ruth 3:10b Read Ruth 3:10-13 “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or…
Lessons from Ruth, Part IV
“Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.” Ruth 3:2 Read Ruth 3:1-9 One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. 2 Now…
Lessons from Ruth, Part III
“May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth 2:12 Read Ruth 2: Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose…
Lessons from Ruth, Part II
“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. …
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 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 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,…
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…