Summer Series

Naomi seems incapable of imagining the memory of the pain will fade, let alone expecting it. Yet this first chapter of the book ends with a statement that is full of promise: “And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest” (v. 22). The famine is over. There is a harvest, and Ruth and Naomi have arrived at a time of reaping. The rest of the book will be about Naomi discovering, or rediscovering, God as her Redeemer and being overwhelmed by his rich generosity to her.

In our technology-dominated culture we are not short of sociological analysis about why Christianity is in decline in the twenty-first-century Western world. There’s nothing wrong in such diagnoses, but they do not provide a remedy. The only remedy lies in the Word of God, in the hands of the Spirit of God and in the prayerful obedience of God’s people.
God’s amazing work in such unlikely places ought to be enough to help all of us move forward into the world with great confidence and holy hope.

When studying a persons life and the legacy they leave, It can be helpful to look at the end of a life. That’s because it gives us a chance to consider the lasting impact they leave. We all have opportunities to leave a legacy, because life is filled with endings – moving away, death, changes in job or church. Have you thought about how will you be remembered? How will your children remember you? Your co-workers? Your family? Your community?

Although the story of Tamar and Judah is a strangely unique one it reminds us of how God breaks through our sin by the sending of His Son.