January 5th, 2009--Day 1

Ruth 1

I was only supposed to read the first chapter...haha! Ruth is an amazing book of the Bible, and only four chapters, so i read the whole thing. But I'll only blog about chapter one today!

This book is absolutely amazing...heartbreak, loyalty, family, romance, love, and a happy ending to boot! Not to mention, some of the most beautiful passages of romantic scripture:

"Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." ~Ruth 1:16-17

That passage is often used in weddings, but it actually is spoken by the Moabite woman, Ruth to her mother-in-law, Naomi! Pretty incredible, huh? The book begins with Naomi. She has a husband and two sons, and they are living in Moab. They are Hebrews, believers in the one true God. Moab is a country in the Bible that always causes a lot of problems for the Israelites. Moabites are pagans...they have many gods. Naomi's sons marry Moabite women (which they technically aren't supposed to do.) One of those women is Ruth.

After several years, Naomi's husband and her sons all die. She is grief-stricken, and upon hearing about better financial situations in Bethlehem, she decides to move back there. At first both of her daughters-in-law go with her, but Naomi releases them to go back to their families. Only Ruth will not return home. She speaks the words quoted above and in an amazing display of love and loyalty, she goes with her mother-in-law.

Commentary: I LOVE this story. It's amazing to me that God can take dire, awful circumstances and use them for good. And not just their good...we know the story turns out well, but Ruth is an ancestor of Jesus. This pagan woman made a crucial choice after a very important relationship (her husband) was over. She was devastated, but she made a WISE decision not to go back to what she had been living in before, and to surround herself with Godly people, and to choose to serve the Lord. She positioned herself for success and happiness, and not only that, but destiny...

Every choice we make is important, and some are life-altering...in the case of Ruth...some are history-making! When we are in the most difficult of times, we can remember Ruth and know that as long as we make the choice in those times to worship the Lord, to obey Him, and to surround ourselves with his people, we will come out on top! His blessings are sure!

Psalm 1

Same theme...

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and nigh. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. WHATEVER HE DOES PROSPERS." ~Psalm 1: 1-3

John 1: 1-34

I love John's gospel because it's the point of view of Jesus' best friend and it's so eloquently written!

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or of a husband's will, but born of God." ~John 1:12-13.

And finally, it struck me today when I was reading, that after John the Baptist had baptized Jesus, the Bible says, "Then John gave his testimony..."

Testimony is the word that struck me. A testimony is the story of how we first meet Jesus. It's not when we first heard about him, or learned about him...it's when we MEET him! John knew about Jesus long before (they were cousins), and he knew that he was preparing the way for Christ (he knew he was the messiah). But John's testimony is about when he actually met him for the first time and his whole life changed!

I love hearing people's testimonies. I love hearing about how they first encountered the Lord in a real and unmistakeable way...how it changed them. I know He changed me.

**I think the theme of today's reading for me was that "Decisions for the Lord=real and lasting Change for the Better."

G'night!