INGEGRITY

ALOHA FAMILY & FRIENDS,  Beloved of God and me,   John 3:16-18

INTEGRITY         “WORTH CONSIDERING”     5/6/20   from Ken<><

Today’s Scripture     (In my e-mails this morning from Texas.)
“…So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife…and she gave birth to a son…Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David…”  (Ruth 4:13, 17, NIV)

Something Big
A young widow named Ruth left her home country and moved to her elderly mother-in-law’s home to take care of her. They barely had enough food to survive. Ruth went into the fields to pick up the leftover wheat that the workers missed. One day Boaz, the wealthy man who owned the field, noticed Ruth and told his workers to leave handfuls of wheat on purpose for Ruth. Now she didn’t have to work nearly as hard. God was meeting their needs, and she was so grateful. But God is full of surprises. Just when you’re satisfied and think you’ve reached your limits, God has something bigger in mind. Boaz fell in love with Ruth, and they got married. Now instead of working in the field, Ruth owned the field! And on top of that, their great-grandson was named David. Ruth went from barely surviving to ending up in the family line of Jesus Christ. God has something big coming your way!

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that You know every hardship and hurt, every unfair and difficult situation I have faced and will face. I choose to believe that You have more blessings and favor for me than I can dream. I believe that something big is coming my way. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Ken’s Thoughts:
A rather amazing story that is supported by many other stories like that in the Bible like Issac, Joseph and some fishermen.  Of course it is a story of faith as usual But faith in taking what is in your hand and to what ever you do, to do,  as unto the LORD.  Joseph, is an amazing story of Joseph being Joseph where ever he was.  It seems he continued to love his family even after his brothers except one, wanted to murder him.  And then in being sold as a slave he still did not sink into a great depression but did the best he could with what he had been given and soon was running the farm.  And even after falsely being accused and finding himself in the dungeons of Egypt he still was Joseph and did what he could in being helpful and ended up running the prison.  And if you follow the story Joseph ended up being 2nd in charge of Egypt and in saving both Egypt and his family and later was reunited with his brothers in love.

The Story of Ruth follows a similar pattern.  After Ruth and Naomi’s husbands died Naomi decided to return home .  We see a picture of  Ruth’s attitude in her remarks: “But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.  19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” Ruth 1:16-19.    So Naomi did not end up in a pity party of poor me and Ruth stayed with her Mother in Law in faith and love and ended up in Bethlehem.  (Now that is really a coincidence, is it not?)  .  But Ruth did the best she knew to deal with the dangers of being alone and gleaning someone else’s field in a foreign country.  It is obvious that she was not leaving a mess behind her.  What ever Boaz saw that encouraged him to try to help her was visible in the way she appled herself in his fields.  Most likely Ruth did not notice Boaz as she was intent in bringing food home for her mother-in-law.  Talk about a friendship, honor, faith, care and love, it is all displayed here in Ruth.  And this with only a mother-in-law.   Truly it seems that Ruth was right out of Prov.31:10.   This seems a beautiful fulfillment of God prime design in HIS creation of Eve for Adam. 

 18 Now the Lord God said, It is not good (sufficient, satisfactory) that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.  19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every [wild] beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name.  20 And Adam gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the air and to every [wild] beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper meet (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.  21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and while he slept, He took one of his ribs or a part of his side and closed up the [place with] flesh.  22 And the rib or part of his side which the Lord God had taken from the man He built up and made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.  23 Then Adam said, This [creature] is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of a man.  24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not embarrassed or ashamed in each other’s presence.

In counseling with young men, I often tell them that when you have prepared yourself to be a good husband then God will also have prepared a good wife for you to help you and be complementary to the work that God has called you to do.  So quit the shopping and dating.  Look what God did for Boaz, Isaac and for Joseph.   Of course this got messed up in the pride, rebellion and disobedience of Adam.  But in Christ Jesus it can again be restored.  And out of the generations of Ruth & Boaz, we find the generations of Mary & Joseph back through David as a validation of prophesy concerning Christ Jesus the LORD.  So look what God was able to do with Ruth’s faith,  humility, Integrity and obedience in gleaning a foreign field for grain to help her mother-in-law to survive.  It had nothing and everything to do with her future. “Little is much when God is in it.”  So it is not about what we must do, but what can we do?  So where every you go, look for, find, and do as you can to assist the Kingdom of God.   In eternity that will be all that counts,  1 Cor. 3:11-23…

Yours, in HIS great love and wonderful grace and mercy,   Ken<><   www.Trinity-Aloha.org

(Let us know if you would like to add or remove e-mail contacts:   Ken@Trinity-Aloha.org 
And past blogs of “Worth Considering” may be found
with the link: “Worth Considering” on our homepage.}

There is but one single Church of Christ Jesus on earth,
and all who truly Trust, Love & Obey HIM as LORD, are members.

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