22 February 2011

Psalm 121, 122, 123; Ruth 1:15-22; 2 Cor. 1:12-22; Matt. 5:13-20

Ruth will not be dissuaded from following Naomi, she has completely cast her lot with her mother-in-law. Her declaration is that she will go where Naomi goes, stay where she stays, accept her God and her people as her own. This is to be the declaration of each of us as Christians. He is now the guide and conductor of our lives and we are to go wherever He leads and His people are our people. Why would Ruth have done this? What could she possibly have seen of Naomi’s God that made her willing to accept Him? Naomi’s own testimony in Bethlehem was that she had gone away full and come back empty, that the Almighty had judged her harshly. Ruth, however, must have seen something that caused her to be willing to go with her. Little did Naomi know at this point the blessing this Moabite woman would bring into her life and into the nation.

Our lives are meant to reveal the greatness of our God. We are intended to show to the world the light that is in us, not hide it. Jesus also says that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. What hope is there for anyone if that is the case? Jesus is our righteousness but through the Spirit we are also capable of a greater righteousness. Their was based on keeping jots and tittles of the law and Jesus commends that but there is a difference between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law and Jesus came to reveal that difference. We have the law written on our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit that teaches us how to keep in God’s way and also His encouragement to keep it. What does the world see in your life as its light?

Paul continues to speak to the Corinthians that he came to them not in worldly wisdom but in the power and folly of the cross. He was never duplicitous with them or solicitous of them, he loved them in simplicity and godly sincerity. He sought nothing from them and his boast is in their faith. He allowed his light to shine before them and that light was Jesus, he brought to them nothing other than Him. While Paul had wanted to come to them sooner he was delayed because of God’s control over his life, it was a case of God’s will triumphing over Paul’s and he is glad to allow Him the ability to do that in all things. Paul was a man whose life was God’s life. His hands were God’s hands to do His will, his feet were God’s to go wherever He led, his mouth was God’s to preach the Gospel, and His heart was God’s with which to love His people. He and Ruth had much in common. Do we have much in common with these two?

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?