RUTH’S CHOICE
Today’s Reading: Ruth 1-2
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
Ruth’s home country of Moab was located east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, and south of the Arnon (Numbers 21:10-15). Today, Moab is within the Kingdom of Jordan. It was in the Plains of Moab, opposite Jericho (Numbers 22:1, 26:63, Joshua 13:32) that the Israelites made their last encampment before they entered the Promised Land.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verse: Ruth 1:16
But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.”
In the midst of the time of the Judges comes this beautiful love story. The book of Ruth is an account of one of the most moving acts of loyalty, and of the way that God honoured that love and loyalty. Even while evil and corruption seemed so prominent in Israel, there were many honourable people who loved and served God. That number included a Moabite woman who had married an Israelite and was now a widow. In a time when Israel was often in apostasy, she left her idolatrous religion to embrace the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and her mother-in-law Naomi. Ruth is a bright shining light pointing to the way of faith in the One true God. Over 1,000 years later, Jesus, the Son of God, would be born in Ruth’s adopted hometown of Bethlehem. From the lineage of Ruth comes the Messiah, the Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, Ruth and Boaz were your great-great, etc. grandparents. You are 100% Human and also 100% God. As a Human, You show me how to live as a man. You are my Mentor, my Example, and my Hero. Please give me grace to follow You more closely today than yesterday. In Your loving Name I pray. Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I was thrilled to participate in the wedding of our second daughter, Ellen, to Nizar Shaheen, an Israeli Arab who is ordained in the Nazareth Baptist Church. As a part of the ceremony, Ellen quoted, in the Arabic language, the words of our key verse. What a powerful moment. Israeli television co-operated with TV networks in Canada and the USA to carry the wedding live across North America. In advance, we had distributed thousands of copies of a document called, “A Marriage Covenant.” I encouraged married couples everywhere to renew their vows as Ellen and Nizar said theirs at the Church in Nizar’s home village of Cana of Galilee. Jesus, His mother, and several of the disciples were guests there at another wedding 2,000 years before, and Jesus did His first miracle of turning the water into wine (read John 2:1-11). The people of Cana still call the wedding of Nizar and Ellen “the other wedding” (click here for Ellen saying the words of Ruth to her beloved Nizar).
Today, Nizar and Ellen are all over the Arabic-speaking world on TV and on the internet, winning thousands of precious people to Jesus through Light For All Nations.
Yours for love and loyalty,
David
Madaba, Jordan, just near mount Nebo where Moses looked out over the Promised Land, has a church named The Church of the Map. The church is also known as Church of Saint George. The mosaic floor map (pictured below) has the oldest known map of Jerusalem and its surrounding Biblical regions.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Thank You, Lord God, for Your Word and for keeping us in Your care. Thank You for the faithful ones who came before us and for those who will come after us. Most of all, thank You for being the Author and the Finisher of our faith. In Jesus’s great name, amen
Meanwhile, from ‘Daily Light’ for March 11, from Anne Graham Lotz:
“The Lord bless you and keep you.
The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. § You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.
He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand … The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. § I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day.
Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me … While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept.
The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
Num. 6:24; Prov. 10:22; Ps. 5:12; 121:3–5, 7–8; Isa. 27:3; John 17:11–12; 2 Tim. 4:18
Thank you again for these words,Rob;words my mouth fails to gather but my heart knows well.Blessings
Amen
Amen , Thank you Rob for your prayer and Anne’s devotion. Wonderful!
God bless you all.
Agreeing with all the saints, Rob. Amen, amen, and amen to your prayer and Anne Graham Lotz’s devotion. 😇
Thanks Rob. Amen to that.
Amen Doreen. 😇
Loyalty is but one form of love and mortar that holds relationships,churches and even countries together so pray for this mortar to increase in our nations.(Perhaps,especially in the US?)Here is a free movie of Ruth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW5WyJ1QNpM
Amen William. 😇
A belated thank you Beverlee, Joyce and Teresa and any others who prayed for me. Also I agree in prayer for Joseph and Luisa and thank you Rob and William for your postings. Am trying to sort things out and believe that anxiety is as bad for one’s blood pressure as salt in your diet. Blessings everyone.
May the Lord calm your anxious thoughts, Ger. For sure, anxiety will elevate the blood pressure, I know from personal experience.
I ask the Lord to cover you with the blanket of His Shalom Peace !