12.12.07 -- Ruth 3:1- 4:17

RE:flect
Know your role? How about do your role, be faithful, pray and do the right thing. Maybe we need less to think about what are "role is" and less about figuring out all that God is up to. Naomi was a caring mother in law. Boaz was a caring kinsman redeemer (able to buy back land, and father Ruth's family). Ruth was a single, faithful daughter in law. There were no great promises. No angels visiting them, no prophets visiting them. How could the elders of the town know what they were saying when they asked God to bless Ruth like ... "Rachel and Leah" (who mothered the nation--The wives of JACOB?). And yet, here are 3 faithful people doing the right thing, two older people helping a younger women. And what is God up to? “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Did you get that? The father of Jesse... the father of... who? DAVID? (and who came through the line of David - born in a manger?).

RE:act
Will you be faithful today (even if it means looking out for your future, like Ruth trying to figure out her future)? Will you do the right thing (like Naomi, looking out for a close relative or friends benefit and not yours)? Will you look to receive the blessings of God (like Boaz, being a faithful relative, but even greater -- to receive a wife, a family, a household of laughter)? Be determined today NOT to try to figure out all the stuff God is up to with your life, with your family's life, with our church. Look at what is before you. And be faithful to it. Again. Just do it!

RE:ply
Lord, you are good. Your love endures forever. You take the lowly, the forgotten, the foreigner and make them grandmothers of kings, and the line of a Messiah.
Lord, I seek not such fame. I seek fame for your name in the world. May your name also be renown in our generation through my life.
Lord, be faithful to me. Lead me. Bless me. So that all may see you are good and your love endures forever.
Lord, I come with open hands. I await your respond, your desire and I will do your will.
Lord, help me to see what I need to do today. And do it.
Amen.

"Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful." James 5:11