{"id":8384,"date":"2015-09-07T16:28:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T20:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=8384"},"modified":"2015-09-29T09:53:15","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T13:53:15","slug":"sleepless-in-pitman-83015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=8384","title":{"rendered":"Sleepless in Pitman (8\/30\/15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor Jim’s sermon on August 30 2015 took us to the book of Ruth.\u00a0 This book reminds us that God works invisibly and mysteriously all the time- even in the midst of tragedy and heartbreak.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Click the “Play” button below to begin listening to the recording (from the 9:30 service), then scroll down and follow along…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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The scripture reading was from Ruth 1:1-18.\u00a0 Pastor Jim was reading from the Living Bible…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Ruth 1<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

1 In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him.<\/span>\n2 The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. And when they reached Moab, they settled there.<\/span>\n3 Then Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons.<\/span>\n4 The two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and the other a woman named Ruth. But about ten years later,<\/span>\n5 both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her two sons or her husband.<\/span><\/p>\n

6 Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland.<\/span>\n7 With her two daughters-in-law she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah.<\/span>\n8 But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back to your mothers’ homes. And may the Lord reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me.<\/span>\n9 May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage.” Then she kissed them good-bye, and they all broke down and wept.<\/span><\/p>\n

10 “No,” they said. “We want to go with you to your people.”<\/span>\n11 But Naomi replied, “Why should you go on with me? Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands?<\/span>\n12 No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to marry again. And even if it were possible, and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what?<\/span>\n13 Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? No, of course not, my daughters! Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord himself has raised his fist against me.”<\/span><\/p>\n

14 And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi.<\/span>\n15 “Look,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.”<\/span>\n16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.<\/span>\n17 Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!”<\/span>\n18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Holy Bible, New Living Translation \u00ae, copyright \u00a9 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

A Ruthless Period…<\/span><\/h3>\n

The book of Judges is a dramatic record of how “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”<\/p>\n

\"Mt.Nebo.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the period in which this story about Ruth takes place…. Naomi’s husband decides to leave Israel to escape the famine… Naomi’s sons decide to marry women from Moab… Naomi encourages her daughters-in-law to return to “their gods.”<\/p>\n

Naomi was looking for “Comfort Food.”\u00a0 When things go bad, we look to the familiar; we want to go back to the way we were before and we don’t see where God may be trying to take us.<\/p>\n

But God has a different purpose.\u00a0 He uses one of these non-Jewish women (one of “Those People”) to carry on the blood line which led to David and eventually to Jesus.<\/p>\n

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What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love…<\/span><\/h3>\n

In a very real way, this is a love story.\u00a0 We get a vivid picture of the young woman (Ruth) hanging on to Naomi- refusing to leave her mother-in-law as her older sister turns towards the other direction and as Naomi returns to her people.\u00a0 Ruth says:<\/p>\n

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“Don’t ask me to leave you!\u00a0 Let me go with you.\u00a0 Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.\u00a0 Wherever you die, I will de, and that is where I will be buried.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is an amazing picture.\u00a0 What superlatives can we find to describe such love between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law?\u00a0 Our English word “Love” doesn’t cover it.\u00a0 The Greek language does a better job at capturing the various meanings of Love:<\/p>\n

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