Coming Up: First Corinthians
Some of you know that after I follow my regular daily reading plan, which leads me through the New Testament twice and the Old Testament once, I tend to give the remaining months of the year to a particular book of the Bible. I have been considering, to which book I should give special attention over the last quarter of 2019. I trust that I have picked the right one, as I decide to take on 1 Corinthians. I have already written out an introduction, so I would like to put it before you at this time, to help you with a little background, before we face the actual text. Please consider joining me in this expositional study and, if you do, please pray that God will give, to you and to me, light from heaven so that we can really profit from it in our inner beings.
Introduction to 1 Corinthian
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| At the Corinthian isthmus with two Greeks and a Spaniard |
Daniel’s Life of Prayer
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Important messages
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| Shelley and Dan |
I am happy to be able to give
you another message from our oldest son, Dan, something I haven’t done for
quite some time. Dan, Shelley and family
were mission-aries in Macedonia, where Dan and others in his family still have
many dear friends. They return to visit from time to time. Dan also ministers
in other places in Europe.
Dan frequently shares
exciting, sometimes astounding, testi-monies with us, of the clearly evident
work of God in people’s lives. I chalk that up to the fact that the people in
Swanton Christian Church are faithful to come together for prayer. Dan is
pastor in Swanton, Vermont, only a few minutes from the Canadian border. He gave
this message a few Sundays past on September 1, 2019. It is an encouraging and challenging
word from the Lord, containing some very pithy statements.
Daniel’s background
One day,
while Daniel was still living in his parents’ home, the Babylonians came and
took him captive. Many think he was a young teenager. We don’t know if his
parents were killed in the raid and we don’t have a clue, as to what this would
be like. Three of his friends, whom we know better by their Babylonian names:
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - I will just go with those names - were
taken with him into Babylon. They were all of the nobility, but more
importantly they were noble in character. Those were tough days; it was a long,
hot journey and they were taken to a land, in which they couldn’t understand
the language. They were forced to go to a school to learn the language. No one
would choose to be treated this way.
A Rest
Labels:
Important messages
Our text
today is taken from the book of Ruth and the words are spoken by a
mother-in-law, Naomi, to her daughter-in-law, Ruth.
Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My
daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Ruth 3:1
Ruth
determined to follow Naomi back to her native land: “Where you go, I will go,” she said, “Your people shall be my people and your God my God.” In chapter
2, she begins to take part in the benefits and blessings of this Promised Land.
She actually had no rights to it, because she was a Moabitess and her people were
forbidden to even enter the land. However, long before she existed, God devised
a plan, and Ruth, though not one of the people of God, but a foreigner, was
received into His plan. That was a high and undeserved privilege, but it was
not the end of the story.
Ruth’s
mother-in-law desires more for her. It already was going very well for Ruth,
but Naomi would look for a “rest” for her. What does she mean by “rest”? She
meant that Ruth should find a place of satisfaction and fulfillment, that would
secure her future. It was a place, where she could put down roots, settle in,
and be established. She was speaking of a home.
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