Main Street Baptist Church

(Friday, July 4, 2008) We all know that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. That is a basic principle of physics. However when the object at rest is our body, it seems especially hard to get it into motion as far as health and exercise is concerned. When a person starts to exercise, or gets back to exercise after a long layoff, it isn’t easy. Everything is difficult, even painful. It’s easy to want to quit. But if we persevere it gets easier each day and as we get in shape we find it takes far less energy than at the start. When we get in the habit exercise and healthy living become a natural part of our lives.

Living the Christian life is much like that. Getting started (or restarted) takes effort, but when we put the necessary discipline into it then it gets smoother and becomes an innate part of how we live. When we indulge the flesh and give in to temptation, we have to confess it and get restarted once again. It takes self-discipline to live the Christian live, just as it takes self-discipline to live a healthy life. Paul himself says he ‘beats his body’ to keep it under control (1 Cor 9:27).

We take care of our body not only because it helps us live a better quality life now, but because it is much better for us now and in the future. In the long run we’ll be glad we did so. The same is true with living for Jesus. The quality of our daily life is much higher than when we are living for ourselves or the world, and in the future we’ll be eternally blessed and rewarded for it. We’ll certainly be glad we did it (Luke 14:27-30).

So what about you? Do you need to make more of an effort to live a healthy life? What about your Christian life – do you need to get back in shape spiritually as well? Don’t’ put it off! Starting may be a bit difficult, but when you get the momentum going there’s nothing better!

(Wednesday, July 2, 2008) When we think of glorifying God we think of praising him or telling others about Him – things done with our lips. We may even think of bringing glory to Him by what we do (or don’t do) – living a holy life, reflecting His love and grace in all we do. If we think of glorifying Him with our body it usually has to do with our morals or enduring physical persecution. Yet Paul refers to another way to glorify God, one we often ignore or neglect. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). Does that sound strange to you – we can glorify God by what we eat and drink? Isn’t eating and drinking just for our pleasure and comfort, our health and physical needs? I mean, we can eat and drink whatever tastes good, right? Wrong! Obviously there is more to it than that.

Eating can be as much a licentious activity as lust for sex, power or material possessions. They all seem to meet our physical appetites, but that doesn’t make them all right. So what does it mean to eat and drink for God’s glory? It means to be a good steward of our physical body. God only gives us one body for our time on earth and we are accountable to Him for how we take care of it. True, it is just a body that will die, but while it is alive it is the temple of God’s Holy Spirit, His dwelling place on earth (1 Cor 6:19-20; 3:16). Also, it will be changed into our eternal body which we will have forever in heaven.

Showing respect for our body shows respect for the One who created it and gave it to us. If someone should give you a very special gift you would want to take care of it as a show of appreciation. When we take care of the body God gave us we are honoring Him. We are responsible to be good stewards of the time, talents and treasure God gives us. Add to that list our body.

What about you? Are you taking good care of this special gift from God? Or do you abuse it by the way you treat it: improper diet, lack of exercise, not enough rest, neglecting its maintenance and upkeep? When you care for God’s dwelling place, His temple, you glorify Him by showing He is worthy of good care and attention. It’s the same as offering a gust in your home a room that is neat and clean. But when we don’t care for our body as we should, the message is that His dwelling on earth isn’t that special or important. Think about it. Are you glorifying Him by how you eat, drink and care for your body?

(Monday, June 30, 2008)   Many great novels have a story within as story. Dr. Zivago, for example, has a tender love story within a setting of violence and brutality. The same is true of the story of Ruth. Set in the time of the judges (actually the last four chapters in the book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible), the book of Ruth shows a story of love and faithfulness in a time of sin and apostasy.

RUTH’S RESOLVE (chapter 1) Because of a famine in the land, Elimelech and Naomi took their sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and moved to the land of Moab. There the boys married Gentile girls, Orpah and Ruth. Both moving to Gentile land and marrying Gentile women were disobedient to God (Deut. 7:1-3). Because of this God removed the father first, then the sons. This was God’s discipline of death because of their continuing in sin (I John 5:16-17; I Cor 9:11-30; Acts 5). Since the women have no way to support themselves and their resources have run out, Naomi decides to return home. This signifies an inner turning back to God, too (1:20-21). Orpah returns home, but Ruth commits herself to stay with Naomi. Her love and loyalty to Naomi as well as to God motivate her. She refers to God as YHWH, showing a personal relationship with Him (1:15-16). She decides to stay with God as well as Naomi.

RUTH’S RIGHTS (chapter 2) God made provision for poor Jews to work for food by commanding landowners to leave some grain standing around the edges of their fields which could be gathered by the needy. In this time of apostasy and greed, very few Jews let any grain stand, but a godly man named Boaz did. Ruth ended up in his field, gathering left-over grain for Naomi and herself. Her sacrificial hard work so impressed Boaz that he made sure she was safe and her needs were met. Perhaps the fact that Boaz’s mother was a Gentile, Rahab (Matthew 1:5), made him more sympathetic to Ruth’s plight. Instead of running after a husband, Ruth took care of aged Naomi. Because she put others first, God took care of her.

RUTH’S REQUEST (chapter 3) Realizing they cannot continue on indefinitely in this manner, Naomi encourages Ruth to request Boaz to come to their aid and redeem their property which had been sold for money on which to live. God established the law of the kinsman-redeemer in which a near relative could take the place of the one in need by paying the price to redeem that which was lost. “Redeem” means “to buy back” and is used of a slave owner who must purchase back a slave that was his but ran away. This is a picture of Jesus, who became one of us at the incarnation so He could do what we couldn’t do -- free us from our debt to sin. We were His by creation, then we got into sin so He had to pay the price for us on the cross.

Why didn’t Boaz voluntarily do this? Why did he have to be asked? He knew there was a closer relative, he didn’t consider that a young woman like Ruth would be interested in marrying an older man like him, and the practice all but forgotten for it wasn’t used much in those days.

RUTH’S REWARD (chapter 4) As it turned out, the closer relative was interested in getting the land for himself, but when he realized Ruth came with it and therefore any proceeds would go to her and any children she might have, he turned it down. Greed was his motive. Therefore Boaz was free to buy back Naomi’s inheritance as well as marry Ruth and provide a home for her and Naomi. They had a son named Obed, who had a son named Jesse, who had a son named David. This made Naomi the great-grandmother of David and an ancestor of Jesus. This is a beautiful example of how God gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him! If Ruth had gotten bitter at God over the death of her husband or sought to meet her own needs by trying to catch a husband, it would not have turned out as nice for her. How much blessing do you and I miss by impatiently taking things into our hands and trying to meet our own needs?

TITLE: Names after the heroine, Ruth

AUTHOR: Possibly Samuel

DATE of WRITING: During reign of David

PLACE of WRITING: Canaan

TIME COVERED: About 10 years during time of Judges. Ruth & Boaz married about 1120 BC

RECIPIENTS: Jews

KEY VERSE: Ruth 1:15-16 "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." 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.

KEY WORDS: “Kinsman” (14 times); “Redeemer” (9 times)

PURPOSE: To show there is a faithful remnant during times of apostasy (Judges) as well as how a Moabite woman became the great-grandmother of David and an ancestor of Jesus

THEME: Redemption illustrated by the example of the kinsman-redeemer.

Spend some time reading this book this week.

(Friday, June 27, 2008) Everyone likes to be liked. We all want to be accepted. Very few people are more interested in doing what is right than what is popular. Some people are especially susceptible to peer pressure. Like Peter, they have a hard time standing for the truth if they know they may be disliked for it. Aaron, Moses’ brother, was such a man.

Aaron was a nice enough guy. Everyone liked him. He seemed to have the gift of gab. That’s why Moses insisted Aaron be the spokesman for God and not he himself. Aaron was easy to like because he made himself likeable. He wouldn’t do or say anything to offend anyone. That’s why when the Jews asked him to make a golden calf to worship because Moses had been on Mt. Sinai too long and wasn’t coming back, he went along and did it. That’s why when Moses did return and held him accountable for this sin he blamed the people and the fire: “I just threw some gold into the fire and out came this golden calf!” And that’s why when Miriam attacked Moses in jealousy Aaron went along. After all, resisting big sister Miriam was not something Aaron was able to do.

There’s nothing wrong with being liked, with doing what needs to be done to please others, with being concerned about what others think – as long as the ‘others’ is God Himself and no one else. When we have to choose between pleasing Him and pleasing others we must always choose Him. He doesn’t put on the immediate pressure others do, but what He desires is always for our best as well as his. Jesus Himself said we are in trouble if everyone likes everything we do (Luke 6:26). Others just think about themselves, not us – but God has what is best for us in mind always. So watch out today for places where you give in to please others and remember God is watching. So who do you want to please today? Make sure it is God!

(Wednesday, June 25, 2008) Anger is one of those sins that we all struggle with. We seem to explain it away by saying it is the fault of the one who caused it, or it is just the kind of person we are. While there certainly is a right time and right way to be angry, most of the anger we deal with is destructive to ourselves and to others. Take Moses as an example. Moses was gifted, intelligent and a wonderful leader. But he had one problem that kept him from entering the promised land – his anger.

When trying to protect a Jewish slave he killed an Egyptian in anger. Later he got angry at Pharaoh for not allowing the Jews to leave Egypt. And when he came down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the law and saw the Jews sinning, he threw them down and broke them in anger. But the final straw, after a lifetime of God working with him so he would overcome his anger problem, was when he struck the rock, twice, instead of just speaking to it as God had said. Moses defeated many great enemies in his lifetime, but was defeated by one that overcame him – his own anger.

Anger that is sinful is a secondary emotion. Instead of feeling pain or fear (both primary emotions) we substitute anger instead. When we are hurt and don’t want to admit the pain, but turn it against other people or things in anger. When we are afraid of something we often try to control it by anger, for the adrenaline rush we get and the control we gain over others who give in to our anger seem to deed our misconception. But in truth pain can only be handled by feeling and working through the pain. Fear can only be handled by admitting and working through the fear. It’s harder, but healthier. What about your anger – is it a cover for pain, or a way of trying to control circumstances? Keep note today, you may be surprised by what you discover. The best cure for anger is to properly handle the primary emotion behind it – pain or fear.