Six hours, one Friday. To the casual observer the six hours are mundane. But to a handful of awestruck witnesses, the most maddening of miracles is occurring. God is on a cross. The Creator of the universe is being executed!
It is no normal six hours; it is no normal Friday. His own friends ran for cover. And now his own father is beginning to turn his back on him, leaving him alone. What do you do with that day in history? If God did commandeer his own crucifixion. . .if he did turn his back on his own son. . .if he did storm Satan's gate, then those six hours that Friday were packed with tragic triumph. If that was God on that cross, then the hill called Skull is granite studded with stakes to which you can anchor your soul forever!
From On Calvary's Hill
Ruth 4
Boaz Marries Ruth
Boaz went to the town gate and took a seat there. Just then the family redeemer he had mentioned came by, so Boaz called out to him, “Come over here and sit down, friend. I want to talk to you.” So they sat down together. 2 Then Boaz called ten leaders from the town and asked them to sit as witnesses. 3 And Boaz said to the family redeemer, “You know Naomi, who came back from Moab. She is selling the land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4 I thought I should speak to you about it so that you can redeem it if you wish. If you want the land, then buy it here in the presence of these witnesses. But if you don’t want it, let me know right away, because I am next in line to redeem it after you.”
The man replied, “All right, I’ll redeem it.”
5 Then Boaz told him, “Of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow. That way she can have children who will carry on her husband’s name and keep the land in the family.”
6 “Then I can’t redeem it,” the family redeemer replied, “because this might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land; I cannot do it.”
7 Now in those days it was the custom in Israel for anyone transferring a right of purchase to remove his sandal and hand it to the other party. This publicly validated the transaction. 8 So the other family redeemer drew off his sandal as he said to Boaz, “You buy the land.”
9 Then Boaz said to the elders and to the crowd standing around, “You are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. 10 And with the land I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahlon, to be my wife. This way she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today.”
11 Then the elders and all the people standing in the gate replied, “We are witnesses! May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 And may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.”
The Descendants of Boaz
13 So Boaz took Ruth into his home, and she became his wife. When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. 14 Then the women of the town said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord, who has now provided a redeemer for your family! May this child be famous in Israel. 15 May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age. For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons!”
16 Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast. And she cared for him as if he were her own. 17 The neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!” And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David.
18 This is the genealogical record of their ancestor Perez:
Perez was the father of Hezron.
19 Hezron was the father of Ram.
Ram was the father of Amminadab.
20 Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.[h]
21 Salmon was the father of Boaz.
Boaz was the father of Obed.
22 Obed was the father of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of David.
4:20 As in some Greek manuscripts (see also 4:21); Hebrew reads Salma
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 03, 2015
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:1-8
New Bodies
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.[a] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
Footnotes:
5:3 Greek we will not be naked.
INSIGHT: Paul uses metaphors such as “earthen vessels,” “earthly house,” and “tent” (2 Cor. 4:7; 5:1) to contrast the frailty and mortality of our earthly existence with the indestructibility, immortality, and glory of our resurrection bodies. When a believer dies, the body goes to the grave, becoming dust (Gen. 3:19; Job 34:15; Eccl. 3:20), but the spirit goes to be with Christ (Eccl. 12:7; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:21–25). When Jesus Christ returns for His own (John 14:3), our body and spirit shall be raised together for a glorious eternity with God (5:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:50-53; Phil. 3:21; 1 Thess. 4:16–18).
And Then You Laugh
By Julie Ackerman Link
[God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
Noise. Vibration. Pressure. Fireball. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield used these words to describe being launched into space. As the rocket raced toward the International Space Station, the weight of gravity increased and breathing became difficult. Just when he thought he would pass out, the rocket made a fiery breakthrough into weightlessness. Instead of lapsing into unconsciousness, he broke into laughter.
His description made me think of the days leading to my mother’s death. The heaviness of life kept increasing until she no longer had the strength to breathe. She was then released from her pain and broke free into the “weightlessness” of heaven. I like to think of her laughing when she took her first breath in Jesus’ presence.
On the Friday we call “good,” something similar happened to Jesus. God placed on Him the weight of the entire world’s sin—past, present, and future—until He could no longer breathe. Then He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’ ” (Luke 23:46). After being suffocated by our sin, Jesus received back from God the life entrusted to Him and now lives where sin and death have no power. All who trust Christ will one day join Him, and I wonder if we’ll look back at this life and laugh.
Father in heaven, words cannot describe our gratitude for Your Son Jesus, who bore the weight of our sins. Thank You that to be absent from this body with its heavy burdens is to be present with You forever.
The sacrifice of Jesus points us to the joy of heaven.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 03, 2015
“If You Had Known!”
If you had known…in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. —Luke 19:42
Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there– the pride of the Pharisees. It was a god that seemed religious and upright, but Jesus compared it to “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
What is it that blinds you to the peace of God “in this your day”? Do you have a strange god– not a disgusting monster but perhaps an unholy nature that controls your life? More than once God has brought me face to face with a strange god in my life, and I knew that I should have given it up, but I didn’t do it. I got through the crisis “by the skin of my teeth,” only to find myself still under the control of that strange god. I am blind to the very things that make for my own peace. It is a shocking thing that we can be in the exact place where the Spirit of God should be having His completely unhindered way with us, and yet we only make matters worse, increasing our blame in God’s eyes.
“If you had known….” God’s words here cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind them. These words imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. And “now they are hidden from your eyes” because you have never completely yielded your nature to Him. Oh, the deep, unending sadness for what might have been! God never again opens the doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut– doors which had no need to be shut. Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 03, 2015
The Hope of Easter: Graves with Doors and Pits with Ladders - #7365
"We own the finish line!" That's exactly what Vice President Joe Biden said at the memorial service for the Boston Marathon bombing victims. I heard those words and I just said, "That's Easter!" Death - life's finish line - has never been the same since Jesus blew it away that first Easter morning.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hope of Easter: Graves with Doors and Pits with Ladders."
Not long ago, I stood with some Native American friends at the graveside service of their dad who was suddenly gone. And I could say with absolute confidence as the casket was lowered into the grave, "Your Dad's not here" because ever since Jesus walked out of His tomb, graves have doors; a door that opens right into heaven. So all death can do to all those who belong to this death-beating Savior is to take them Home.
Because the Easter miracle is not isolated to one event in one ancient cemetery a long time ago. This conquering Jesus said, "Because I live, you will also live" (John 14:19). And Scripture pulls back the dark curtain of death to reveal that "when we are away from the body," we are "present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8).
So "Dark King Death," you have been dethroned! My grave will only be my doorway to an unimaginable forever. Oh, not because that's what I deserve. Quite the contrary. I deserve to be forever away from the God whose right to run my life I have totally usurped.
But then came those six words when Jesus hung on that cross, paying for my sin. First, He said, "Father, forgive them." With a self-sacrificing love that's beyond words, Jesus was forgiving me; sinful, prideful, selfish me.
Then three more words, "It is finished!" That's a strangely triumphant cry with His life-blood draining away. He didn't say, "I am finished." He said, "It is finished!" The work for which He had come, the bill for human sin, the bill for my sin, for your sin, for everyone of us has been paid and was paid in full as Jesus died there.
But I don't have to wait for my expiration date to experience the power of the Easter miracle. Oh, no! He's alive right now! God's great ambassador, Paul, was literally at the end of his rope. Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. He said, "We were under great pressure...beyond our ability to endure...we despaired even of life...in our hearts we felt the sentence of death" That's a pretty dark place to be wouldn't you say? A pretty deep pit. But do you know what he found in this pit? A ladder. A ladder out. The Jesus who crushed death.
Paul said, "But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." When I feel hopeless, when I feel desperate, when I feel dead inside, I lunge for Jesus. He is my death-reversing Savior! And when there's no me and when it's got to be all Him, I get a spiritual and emotional resurrection!
There's a door in the grave. There's a ladder out of the pit because of Easter. The question is, "Have you ever invited this living Jesus to become the leader, the driver, the Savior of your life? He's waiting to do that, and what better time of year to do it. Because He walked out of His grave so He could walk into your life today. It's no accident we got together today. He's come looking for you.
I'd love to show you how to get that relationship started or to make sure you belong to Him if you'll just meet in at our website ANewStory.com. Because of Jesus, we own the finish line.