Ruth Series

Series Intro: Never Seen Before in 2024

In a world filled with loss, grief, evil, chaos, trauma and even destruction, many are called but few are chosen – many will suffer loss as men and women do what is right in their own eyes. Evil is called good and good is called evil. Such is the time you and I live in.

http://www.whatsyourstoryonline.com/: Quote: Stories are powerful. Stories give meaning to who we are and how we became who we are. Stories help us understand how life happens, and they give value to our experiences. Some of the most powerful testimonies to Christian faith come not from lists of accepted doctrinal beliefs (though they’re important) nor from recitations of biblical principles (also important), but from the enlivened re-telling of how God has acted, overtly or covertly, in each of our lives.

Reference Tatiana’s Testimony!

Revelation 12:11: “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

Summary of our series Never Seen Before in 2024:

To see something we have never seen before requires us to hear the voice of God when it comes to our lives – we need to hear and see God’s intended destiny for our lives. If we listen and open up our hearts to the HS, we will see things never seen before by the hand of God but we will need to trust Him and step out in faith.

As I have been addressing some of the most important people of the Bible and Stories from the Bible, I came across this thought this week in my reading:

The book is called “Fresh Eyes on Famous Bible Sayings…”

Jesus’ remedy (To open our eyes to something we have not seen before is framed by His words): “You have heard that it was said, but I tell you . . .” He invited His listeners to break away from well-worn thinking to see something new and different. We need to look with fresh eyes at what we think we know well. A passage’s common interpretation may have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the line and been passed along like an urban legend. The application may need to shift in a different direction or include something not considered before. There’s new hope for our lives to change when we can say, “I never saw it that way before.”

Doug Newton, Fresh Eyes on Famous Bible Sayings: Discovering New Insights in Familiar Passages (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2018).

Prayer: Lord today I pray that those who are listening to my words today about Ruth see something they have never seen before as you open up their hearts and minds to see it! Let this message transform lives today – may it change my heart and mind too as I share it today!

Over that last month we explored the Biblical lives of the judges of the OT, we learned of generals and prophets, famous patriarchal fathers of the nation of Israel. But today we are looking at no-one as rich or as famous in the history of time. Yet this ordinary non-Jewish woman finds her story being told centuries later. Placed in the Bible by the Holy Spirit to help us see something we may have never seen before! She does not perform any miracles in her story, she does not change the course of a nation in her story, she does not do any supernatural miracles in her story, but she does become a heroin of God as she helps another person through the process of loss, grief and restoration.

This person’s name is Ruth!

Intro to Ruth:

In this opening section of Ruth, the author introduces the setting (1:1), main characters (1:2), and the primary dilemma facing this meek family from Bethlehem (1:3–5)

The book of Ruth takes place in the same time frame as the book of Judges – notice – it opens reminding us of the time frame of this:

Ruth 1:1: 1 In the days when the judges ruled, a there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 3 Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.