I’ve been working on a presentation for Thursday on the Book of Ruth.  It’s one of only two books of the Bible named after a woman, the other book bearing the name of Esther.

In preparation, I always read through the passages over and over to enter into the story so I can “become” Ruth, for example, in this presentation.  The introduction in my study Bible says a few things so perfectly that I can’t resist quoting it today.

In speaking about Ruth and Boaz (who will become Ruth’s husband and together are in the ancestry of Jesus), the commentary states,

[The author of Ruth] presents striking examples of lives that embody in their daily affairs the self-giving love that fulfills God’s law (Lev 19:18; cf. Romans 13:10).  Such love also reflects God’s love…[in] God’s benevolence such lives are blessed and are made a blessing.”

Ruth, a Moabitess, was an unusual choice to be displaying the loyal love of God to the Israelite family into which she married.  And yet, there’s something beautifully affirming that participation in the family of God is not a function of birth or blood, family legacy or inheritance passed down the generations like something on Antiques Roadshow.

For us on the other side of the Cross, we see that inheritance of the Kingdom is not by birth but by rebirth and the only blood that matters is the shed blood of Jesus Christ whose loyal love deserves our obedience.

Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestress of this same Savior, Jesus Christ.  Yet, her inclusion in the family of God is a direct result of the life of faith she had, demonstrated in the “obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5).

There’s something about a New Year.  It’s not really a clean slate, but it feels like one.  It’s not really new, but it feels that way.  It’s not really a fresh start, but why not make it one?

New Years are mile markers in life.  A fresh calendar on the wall.  A starting line for changes.  A place to date the resolutions you make as beginning.

Make this the year you resolve to agree with God that He’s the One who belongs on the throne. 

Make this the year you decide the world is too much for you to handle on your own.

Make this the year you live your life for something greater than yourself.

Make this the year you turn from behaviors, actions, and thoughts you know are destroying you and ask for God to give you the peace only He can give.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you’d like to know how to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, click the “contact me” button above.  Make a relationship with Jesus your resolution and may 2014 be the best year yet!  Happy New Year!

Many of us who have had loved ones with Alzheimer’s can testify to the beauty of a memory and the devastation to the person and the whole family when someone has lost the ability to remember.

Without a memory there is no past for that person. 

Without a memory, there is no planning for the future. 

Without a memory, there is only reaction to the present circumstances and we become like a leaf being blown about on the surface of the water.

The gracious gift of being able to remember is something that God has given us so that we might remember all that He has done for us.  It’s so we’ll remember Him.  And not to forget Him.  Yes, a memory is critical to any relationship including our relationship with God our Father.

As the hours of 2013 wane, take a moment to do more than count down.  Take a moment to remember so that you do not forget.

Deuteronomy 8:1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land– a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

As 2013 draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect.  There will have been 365 days of sunrises and sunsets that God has graciously given us to mark the time.  What will have been this year’s highlights?  What do-overs will you wish you had?  The very best use of a day will be to trust God with your time going forward, to place your faith in Him, and to seek His heart on the best use of 2014.  He’s already planning to mark the time with sunrises and sunsets.  How will you mark your time?

John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

It’s Christmas Eve and our series on Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up In-Person will be concluding.  In our passage for today, the Gospel writer John summarizes what he’s been saying about the reason Jesus came: to save the world!

Picture an entire pool of humanity under the cloud of sin since the Fall of Man.  That whole group has been under the “you-will-surely-die” condemnation and has been awaiting God’s eventual and inevitable wrath.  Each and every man, woman, and child has inherited a death sentence. We are all terminal since the day we were conceived.  It’s a gloomy picture of darkness, punishment, and death.

But then God does something miraculous! 

LOVE showed up as our Savior. 

The Father sends Jesus—the Word made flesh—to come into the world,

not to add further condemnation upon an entire people as a judge and a punisher. 

No, He comes in love and grace to make salvation possible. 

Of course, not everyone will believe in His Name, or take His offer of grace as the free gift it is, or agree to being pulled up to eternal life out of the death spiral.  But some will.  The Light of Christ draws those who want to see more LOVE, more grace, and more Light to be found in Him.  He draws us out of the gloomy despair of human life.  The Light shows us the way to salvation even though some will reject it.

To those who are sick  and tired of hearing (as from Phil Robertson and Duck Dynasty, for example) how the Bible condemns this group or that group and consigns them to hell, the truth is we were all destined for hell had Jesus not come to save us.

The question is not “Who is under the threat of condemnation?” 

The answer to that is question is “All of us.”

The question becomes “Who among us can be saved?”  The answer to that one is the one who believes in Jesus’ Name, obeys Jesus’ teachings, and steps into the light to live in the truth.

As you light candles at church tonight to sing Silent Night, think about Jesus’ being the Light of the World and how for the briefest moment, the aperture of the invisible opened…and we beheld the glory of the One and Only whose mission it was to save us.  What will be your response?