Today's THE day to dig into Ruth: Introduction

Welcome to our study of the book of Ruth!

Today is our introduction of this six week study. We would love any discussion or comments that you might want to contribute. Feel free to let us know if you'd like to be added to the Thirsty Thursdays w/ Glenda Facebook group. You may also follow on FB by clicking the networked blog badge to the bottom left OR feel free to simply follow the blog by clicking on "follow" on the left. Either way, we're glad you're here.

Our schedule will be:

Week 1-Introduction

Week 2- Chapter One
Where do we go when life gets tough?

Week 3- Chapter Two
Where do we turn when we are empty?

Week 4- Chapter Three
Where are we supposed to go in a new place?
Week 5- Chapter Four
Who turns emptiness into fullness?

Week 6- Conclusion

Introduction
Before we get started, it would be great if you would take minute and just write down what you
already know about the book of Ruth. When we finish our study, you can compare what you know then to what you know today.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about this book, but I was mistaken. This is a book about faithful love and friendship but also a book about how God can take our struggles and bad decisions and redeem them for His glory.

God himself is the main theme of this book. We will see Him in every chapter. It is a reminder to us that He is with us in every chapter of our lives and He has a plan of blessing for all of us.

When we think of Ruth, we think of one person--Ruth. However, we will take a little time and look at several other people and places in order to fully understand the whole book.

Ruth takes places during the period of the judges (a very dark period) in the towns of Bethlehem and Moab. Bethleham being the place of Gods blessing and Moab being the place of bereavement.You will see that as we move through this book. Naomi and Elimilek lived in Bethlehem and decided to move to Moab because of a famine in their land.

Moab
Moab was only 50 miles from Bethlehem and they could see it in the distance. Moab means "fertile crescent," but it was really a steep rocky mountain with a fertile plateu.

Read Genesis 19:34-37

The descendants of Moab are known as descendants of Lot. Lot was a righteous man that decided to live in an unrighteous place. It affected his family and eventually he was decieved into sleeping with his daughters. From this deceit, Moab was born.

Naomi
The very first verse of Ruth tells us that Naomi and her husband just up and decided to leave Bethehem. It seems they didn't necessarily sense any call of God. Things were uncomfortable. Life got tough where they were (judges ruling=dark+ famine) and they just decided to move. Do you see a pattern of "taking matters into your own hands" here?

Ruth, first and foremost, seems to be a picture of what happens when we take matters into our own hands.
BUT good news! No matter what we do, God, in his mercy, is there.

GOD
His name is mentioned in the form of Yahweh 18 times. We will also see him as Elohim and El Shaddai.

Yahweh means "to be" or "I am". He is the constant presence in the middle of all the chaos.
Elohim means "commander of the army."
El Shaddai means "God Almighty."

Look for God through these words as you read the book of Ruth.

Conclusion

As we wrap up, some important things to remember are:

• Elimilek and Naomi knew God before they moved to Moab.
• Moab was a land that worshipped another god.
• You can hear Naomi's faith in her words and her example to Ruth.
• Ruth is not a Hebrew name and she comes from Moab, a land that worshipped another god, but in her observance of Naomi, she became a believer in the One true God.
• Naomi is an example in her grief to all of us of how we are to cling to God in blessing and in sorrow.

The book of Ruth is going to encourage all of us to call out to God for direction and to cling to Him when life is good and bad.

I look forward to studying it with you!

For next week:

• Read Ruth
• Write down all references to God.
• What do you learn about Naomi and Ruth in the first chapter?
• What does it say?
• What does it mean to you.
• Write down ways that you have made decisions without hearing from God.
• What happened?
• Did you eventually see God in that situation?

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Thirsty Thursdays starts tomorrow.

Studying Ruth will be an uplifting and encouraging time. You are going to be able to apply so much of this study to your daily life. Ruth will teach us about friendship and love but the most important thing it teaches us is that GOD has a plan for every life and HE can redeem any situation and circumstance!

If you get a chance today read the four short chapters of Ruth and write down what it says about God.

Until tomorrow, be blessed!

Love,
Glenda

Test

Hi ladies!

We're in the process linking the blog page with the Thirsty Thursday Facebook page so please bear with us while we work out the kinks. We apologize for cluttering your newsfeeds and inboxes. Thank you for your patience.

Starting January 27: Thirsty Thursdays!

Beginning this upcoming Thursday, January 27, a group of young moms will begin walking through the book of Ruth together. We'd love to have you join us! Keep checking back b/c I'll soon be posting a little something to give you a head start. Looking forward to spending time in the scripture with you!

Glenda

Jesus is Enough

We are not meeting this Wednesday but I would like to share this article with you. Along with what we have shared here with you through scripture, this article is a testimony of the Lord's faithfulness, mercy, grace and power. It is an example of how you can experience joy (calm delight) only through Him, regardless the situation.

Wonder of the Word trivia: What verse is referenced in this article that we have discussed here at Wonder of the Word?

James 2: 1-13

James is writing to people of faith and talking to them about their faith. Chapter one says that our faith is foundational for dealing with trials in our life and that our faith will indeed be strengthened as we endure and come through trials and difficulties. Our faith will be the glue that gives us focus and stability in the midst of the storms that life will bring to each one of us.
Chapter two tells us that people of faith should have an attitude of humility toward everyone. The picture from the passage in chapter two is of a teacher in a sanctuary sitting in a chair and a poor man walking in and the teacher full of knowledge just sits in the chair making the poor man sit on the floor. From this passage are three points.
1. As Christians our attitudes are not to be of superiority but humility. We should never be so arrogant about what we know or have that we can not be loving to someone that is not a believer or does not know or have all we have.
2. Treat everyone with honor especially the poor. We have to remember that this is not just the financially poor person but the spiritually poor person. REMEMBER how poor of spirit you were before you asked Jesus Christ into your heart and life.
Read Matthew 5:3 and see that the very first beatitude is about the poor in spirit.
Read I Corinthians 1:27 God's systems and perspective are way different than ours and He considers poor rich. It is a matter of the heart and if the man with money places more loyalty to his money than Jesus, he is to be considered poor.
3. Let faith make your motives pure. Pray that God give you His mind about the people and world around you.
Remember:
1. You were poor in spirit before Christ. For a perfect picture of this look at Zach. 3 and the man in Joshua's vision. It is a perfect picture of who we were before Christ and who we are after asking Jesus into our lifes.
2. Alot of these people were poor because of Christian persecution and no fault of their own yet the rich believers were taking them to court for unpaid debts. It is important that we not make assumption about someone's state and let our main priority be love and bringing people to Christ.
If we willingly show partiality to the rich over the poor we have a false value system and are in sin. God honors the poor and weakness of man, in fact He uses it to glorify Himself.
Read Luke 12: 19-21
Matthew 25:31-40
Lastly, faith prompts action and I have challenged myself, our study group and now you in blog world to pray that God show them a person or circumstance that He wants them to act on. It can be an encouraging word, a step to mend a relationship, a meal taken to a sick friend and the list goes on and on. We are going to take action this week and share what happened as we did next week. I am praying for you and you pray for me until next week.
I love you all.