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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Judges 17-18; Mark 15; Psalm 89

“Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6) Mixing elements of true worship of God with practices unacceptable to Him is man’s attempt to bring him God’s favor. In dry times when I cannot feel God or hear Him, I try desperately to control my negative thoughts, often using the coping strategies so common now. I listen to calming music, practice breathing techniques, and use muscle relaxation exercises to ease the tension that grips my shoulders. Yet only when I meditate on God’s word do I receive the physical relief and quietness of soul that I seek.

There are other times, however, when the pressures of work, concerns for family, and health issues pour over me. I can relate to the lament of Ethan the Ezrahite in the Psalms. “Remember how short my time is; For what futility have You created all the children of men? What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave?” (Psalm 89:47-48) My fears rise, and I am in danger of becoming despondent and disillusioned. In answer to my cries for help, God’s Holy Spirit prompts me to look to God for deliverance, to surrender to His will, and to wait.

I am strengthened and reassured once more remembering how God demonstrated His faithfulness and fulfilled His promises to save us. Not at our expense, though we may suffer. Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son paid the ultimate price for our ambivalence and unbelief, to deliver us from the power of the grave, and without a doubt, to show God’s favor to us all.

For Christ was arrested while praying in a garden to God the Father; charged with blasphemy by religious leaders, condemned though innocent by political rulers, scourged by soldiers to the point of death, mocked, spat on, and forced to wear a thorny crown. This before dragging His own cross up a hill where He was nailed to its wood and hung there until dead. (Mark 15:9-33)

Of course, crucifixion was not the end of an historical account of Christ…nor are my troubles left hopelessly in the dark. But remembering the darkness of that bitter Friday is as necessary to me as envisioning Christ’s brilliant burst from the tomb. For through it all, my spirit is lifted with that as the Apostle wrote, “…neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38, 39)

Father God, I cannot fathom the love You have for me. You would allow Your own Son to suffer to bring me near to You forever. I adore You; I trust You; I worship You. Please forgive me if I fail to obey Your prompting or to speak Your word. Let the strength of my testimony be that You have saved me and filled me with Your steadfast love. Christ Jesus, there is no other name but Yours by which I am saved.

Judges 9-11; Mark 13; Psalm 49

Jotham hid himself to protect his life.

Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. ⁵ And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself.

Judges 9:4b-5, ESV

He ran away and fled.

²¹ And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother.

Judges 9:21, ESV

Hiding and running away might not seem like brave acts, but when you’re being hunted (and outnumbered) by “worthless and reckless fellows” and a power-hungry brother out for literal blood, there’s wisdom and prudence in taking cover, of seeing a threat and acting on it.

²² Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. ²³ And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, ²⁴ that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.

Judges 9:22-24, ESV, emphasis added

Jotham wasn’t able to fight for his life or avenge his brothers on his own. In God’s timing, and with God’s way, it was handled for him. It took three years. So Jotham lived in Beer for three years because of his brother, and I imagine he was always on guard.

The disciples are wonder-struck by the architecture of a temple. Jesus gives them food for thought to really wonder over:

² And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Mark 13:2, ESV

He goes on to tell them of things that will come–war, famine, persecution, hatred, deception.

These are but the beginning of the birth pains. ⁹ But be on your guard … ¹³ And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved … ²² For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. ²³ But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand … ³³ Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. ³⁵ Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— ³⁶ lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷ And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

Mark 13:8b-9, 13, 22-23, 33-37, ESV, emphasis added

Jotham didn’t know how long he’d wait. And Jesus tells us we also won’t know when the time will come when God will act and Jesus will return, but in his love he gives warning.

Lord, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? (Ps 56:3-4, ESV) Your word is hidden in my heart. I trust in you and your timing. I trust in your strength and your promise. Help me to live alert, expectant, and hopeful. I thank you for all the doors you’ve closed to protect me.

Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
    when the glory of his house increases.
¹⁷ For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
    his glory will not go down after him.
¹⁸ For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
    —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
¹⁹ his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
    who will never again see light.
²⁰ Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Psalm 49:16-20, ESV

Courtney (66books365)

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)

Numbers 35-36; Deuteronomy 1-2; Acts 23

The Lord stood by Paul and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.” (Acts 23:11)

Moses exhorted the Israelites to have faith, saying, “Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.” (Deut. 1:21)

Once I have received my own divine ‘marching orders’ from God, I usually must face my human fears and discouragement about what lies ahead. Recently, I was presented with challenges on every front of my work as a counselor and supervisor in all three locations to which I travel. This is where I know God has positioned me to serve Him; that is, by serving persons addicted to opioids. After prioritizing and scheduling what was in my control, the preparations began. I felt anxious and overwhelmed after realizing the limits of my time, wisdom, energy, and leadership qualities. Yet, I marched on. Not because I believed in my ability to handle multiple, stressful situations, but because I recognized the impossibility of completing all or any of these challenges well without the Lord’s divine intervention.

Did I burn the midnight oil? Definitely. Did I seek assistance? With all humility. But most of all, I breathed deeply the peace that passes all understanding. My pastor preached a few weeks ago that the mystery of the Gospel and all God’s words, works, and love is what strengthens my inner being. Because Christ dwells in my heart and flames my faith, I can be filled with His power and fullness.

With this in mind, my primary strategy for resolving any battle or challenge is to bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6,7)

This is my prayer for you, too!

Janet