Ruth 3-4; Galatians 2; Psalms 64, 65

A theme of redemption.

⁹ He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” ¹⁰ And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. ¹² And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. ¹³ Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”

Ruth 3:9-13, ESV

¹⁷ But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸ For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. ¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:17-20, ESV

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
    and to you shall vows be performed.
² O you who hear prayer,
    to you shall all flesh come.
³ When iniquities prevail against me,
    you atone for our transgressions.
⁴ Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
    to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
    the holiness of your temple!

Psalm 65:1-4, ESV

This is comforting to me–God is provider and protector. Christ, who lives in me, who loved me and gave himself for me. Who atones for my transgressions.

Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple.

Why would one rebuild what he tore down?

Lord, thank you for doing and being all that I could not on my own. Redeemed.

Courtney (66books365)

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Joshua 18-21; Mark 8

We recently took a trip through parts of Tennessee and North Carolina. I love the mountains. We drove roads where people had blasted a way through solid rocks. My husband was in wonder of the effort and ability of early surveyors marking out a territory. We took a tour through the Biltmore Estate, and the bus driver conveying us to the house gave our group some information. It was once a 125,000 acre property, reduced to 8,000 acres. According to our driver, the sale of the land contained a condition that it would be a national park, and that the park would keep the name Pisgah in it.

“It has a biblical meaning, and that’s all I can say about that,” she finished. I immediately looked up the meaning of Pisgah. It was the mountain (not the one in North Carolina!) where God showed Moses the promised land he would not enter.

In Joshua:

² There remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. ³ So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? ⁴ Provide three men from each tribe, and I will send them out that they may set out and go up and down the land. They shall write a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me. ⁵ They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall continue in his territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall continue in their territory on the north. ⁶ And you shall describe the land in seven divisions and bring the description here to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God.

Joshua 18:2-6, ESV

But where I land is here:

⁷ The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their heritage.

Joshua 18:7a, ESV

I sit with those words and treasure them.

In Mark 8, Jesus performs miracles–feeding thousands from a little bit, and yet the Pharisees want a sign from heaven.

¹¹ The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

Mark 8:11-12, ESV

And even his own disciples lose focus.

¹⁴ Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵ And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” ¹⁶ And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. ¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” ²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Mark 8:14-21, ESV

Later:

³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

³⁴ And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:31-38, ESV

Lord, help me to always maintain my focus on you and your kingdom. I don’t want to be so caught up in the things of this world that I fail to see you and your work at hand.

Courtney (66books365)

Job 42:10-17; Psalms 1:1-5:7

These passages pulse with life. I notice the line separating before from after. It is a significant mark. Life before the trial. Life after. My own life is marked by before-and-after events, so I pay special attention to Job’s story.

¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. ¹¹ All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

¹² The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. ¹³ And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶ After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. ¹⁷ And so Job died, an old man and full of years. (Job 42:10-17, NIV, emphasis mine)

This story has a sort of happy ending, but I always wondered if the restoration ever made the loss go away–especially when it came to Job losing his (before) children. In life after, he has ten more children. I take special note that his daughters’ names are mentioned specifically. In addition, they are seen as beautiful. And even more than that, they were given an inheritance along with their brothers. They were treasured and honored. While the Bible doesn’t speak of this directly, as I read this paragraph, I notice life post-loss with a new appreciation. Post-loss, life and all the things that can be taken away reveal their value. And it’s not to say these things/people weren’t valued before, but that in light of loss, moments in the after seem more precious. Maybe that’s why Job’s daughters’ names were mentioned, and that they were so beautiful, and that he made sure to leave something for each of them as well–because he had a new appreciation for life and its abundance.

Lord, I am so grateful you know my name. I’m so grateful that you love me. This reading is a gift to me.

Courtney (66books365)

Numbers 1:42-3:32

There’s a lot of order, the way God has the families placed, their duties, and when they are to set out.

³⁴ So the Israelites did everything the Lord commanded Moses; that is the way they encamped under their standards, and that is the way they set out, each of them with their clan and family. (Numbers 2:34, NIV)

One year for my birthday, I got a genetic test to find out about my health odds. I don’t know a lot about my relatives from previous generations, and I wondered what I was predisposed to. Honestly, I don’t hold much confidence in the test, because it got some things wrong (about hairline, cilantro preference, and other anecdotal things). But what I did find curious was where it suggested my family originated.

I remember wondering, “Why would you leave such a beautiful area?” What were they running to? What were they running from? When did they get here?

Scriptures like today’s reading have me think about God’s plan. His purpose for a family or an individual. From where they live, to what they do and when they go.

Father God, I’m really looking forward to the day when I will see how all the pieces, places and events fit together in your perfect plan. But while I wait, help me to keep a kingdom focus, to be where you want me to be, doing what you want me to do, with courage, strength, and love.

Courtney (66books365)

Genesis 49-50; Galatians 4

Dear God,

Thank you for freedom. Thank you for knowing me, loving me, calling me your own–a daughter, your child. Thank you for fighting for me, dying for me, delighting in me, singing over me. You give me what no one can ever take away. Today, I celebrate.

⁴ But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. ⁵ God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. ⁶ And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. (Galatians 4:4-7, NLT)

Today, I celebrate freedom.

⁸ Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. ⁹ So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? ¹⁰ You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. ¹¹ I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing. ¹² Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles—free from those laws. (Galatians 4:8-12, NLT)

Freedom.

²⁸ These are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said as he told his sons good-bye. He blessed each one with an appropriate message. (Genesis 49:28, NLT, Jacob’s last words to his sons)

I filled in the blank of the goal planner when asked my definition of success: being true to who God made me to be, living (it out) unapologetically and free.

Father God, you know my heart and you bless me deeply. Thank you for giving me the only blessing that matters–yours.

Courtney (66books365)