Titus 2 shows us what a Spiritually healthy and attractive lifestyle looks like. This way of life can be characterized as respectable living, respecting one another, and doing works demanding respect. Life is a quest for godliness among those who know Jesus Christ. And others whom we evangelize should find this something that they want for themselves because they see it in us.

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Labels: godliness, good works, health, lifestyle evangelism, respect

Titus 1 tells us about a sound (that is, healthy) church. Such a church has a healthy leadership and members who submit to them. Such a church has healthy teaching and teaches it with their words and deeds. Such a church has healthy living that flows out of that teaching. Thus one thing all healthy churches have in common is the word of God publicly proclaimed and privately pondered. This message will improve your Spiritual health if you take the medicine it prescribes.

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Labels: health, leadership, submission, Sunday worship, teaching

Ruth 4 shows us what is in a name, a Scripture allusion, and a genealogy. For us the answer to all of these questions is Christ. A name is to be remembered -- remembered is resurrection language -- in other words, it is only important for us to be remembered by God in Christ Jesus. A Scripture allusion points us to God's story, which is the story of Jesus. And our genealogy to memorize is quite simple -- God the Father is our Father, Jesus is our elder brother, and we who are in Christ are brothers and sisters in Him. Do you know if your name is in the book of life? Are the stories of Scripture your story? Are you a part of the family?

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Labels: eternal life, genealogy, name

Ruth 3 is a midnight madness situation. Naomi told Ruth to do something that was more than just very risky but downright dangerous. The passage has all kinds of sexual overtones so that we will not miss how messy this could have been. But thankfully because Ruth was a worthy woman and Boaz a righteous man they acted right in the middle of this mess. The passage does teach us something about dating and about dating the church. Most importantly it shows us Boaz taking an oath that he will redeem Ruth if others will not step up. Christ took an oath to redeem you His bride and He has done it.

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Labels: dating, oath, ruth

Ruth 2 introduces Boaz who makes Ruth feel lucky. She was lucky to come to his part of the field because he did not make excuses to turn a blind eye but saw her and had compassion upon her. She was lucky to come to his part of the field because he not only satisfied the letter of the law, narrowly interpreted, but went far above and beyond that. Actually there is no such thing as luck, it was the providence of God that brought her to the worshiping congregation where she could feel lucky, whereas in another field she might have been assaulted.


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Labels: church, law, luck, moab, providence, ruth

Ruth 1 leads us to reflect on this snowy day on the radical commitment of church membership -- a radical commitment to one another. The passage shows many contrasts. Bethlehem means "House of Bread" and Moab is the people who would not give Israel any bread when they came out of Egypt. The church is where we feast on the bread of life. Ruth and Orpha are another contrast. Here is where we see the text as a challenge to radical commitment -- marriage like commitment to one another. And then Ruth and Naomi are contrasts as well. Ruth as a type of Gentiles coming to Christ and Naomi as a type of the Jews coming to Christ. Both Jews and Gentiles coming together to form one church.

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Labels: bread, church, Gentiles, membership, moab, ruth

Matthew 2:1-12 shows us the cost of Christmas. Usually we mean this negatively -- what is Christmas going to cost me? There is a dark side to Christmas as Herod kills the infant children in the region of Bethlehem. But the cost of Christmas we tend to think of is money. Instead, I propose that the "cost" (if we even want to call it that, though it would be considered a cost to unbelievers) of Christmas is rejoicing exceedingly with great joy whenever someone sees the path to Christ, falling down and worshiping Him and nothing else, and giving our treasures to Him. All of these are gifts we give to God. God wants us for Christmas.

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Labels: herod, joy, money, offering, Sunday worship