Beyond - Five Minute Friday

GO

Beautiful pots of mums.  Seasonal decorations.  Candles lit.  Wreath on the door.  Every detail imagined prepared.  Every speck of dust removed.  Carpet vacuumed.

Photo Credit: www.sweetadditons.net

The girls arrived for food, conversation, and a game.  They eat the scrumptious food prepared.  The house is perfectly decorated to every detail.  Every picture hung.  Every piece of furniture in its place.  The table cloths perfectly arranged.  Hor d'oeuvres ready.

The women clamor in ready to eat.  Ready to talk.  Ready to play. 

The conversation is of football, Halloween costumes, and things lingering on the surface.  There is no smell of anything cooking beyond what we see.

And yet I long to go beyond.  To see inside the hearts.  To see beyond the surface and into the depths of them.  Does this perfectly manicured life truly satisfy?

While everything is beautiful and nothing is wrong with any talk or detail, I wonder as I watch how Jesus is allowed to go beyond the pristine image, beyond what appears to be, into the fullness of broken hearts hidden.

I linger, watch, and wonder if I will ever know their beyond.  I hunger for more.

It all appears the abundant life, and yet it is unlike the abundance Jesus promises.  Is He allowed entrance into every heart chamber?  or is He, unlike me, allowed to see what is really within?


STOP
 

Vlog Day 20: Ruth 3:10-13

A woman of noble character

 A wife of noble character who can find?
   She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
   and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
   all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax
   and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships,
   bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still dark;
   she provides food for her family
   and portions for her servant girls.
She considers a field and buys it;
   out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously;
   her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,
   and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff
   and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor
   and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
   for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed;
   she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate,
   where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
   and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
   she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
   and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
   and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
   her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things,
   but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
   but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned,
   and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:10-31

Vlog Day 19: Ruth 3:7-9

ps.  yes, that is my son you occasionally hear in the background defeating sith lords.

Also check out this great song by Mandi Mapes called "Sweet sweet Grace."  It is an amazing song about covering.  {I couldn't find an embed code for it.}

Vlog Day 18: Ruth 3:5-6

 "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission." 1 Timothy 2:11

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 1 Peter 5:5

Vlog Day 17: Ruth 3:1-4

Day 16: Ruth 2:14-23

***Today I will finish Ruth 2 and tomorrow I hope to be back to vlogging."

See Ruth 2:14-23.

Now we see Boaz also offering her bread dipped in wine vinegar and a seat with the harvesters.  She ate until she was full and had some leftover, just like I talked about yesterday.  She can now feed someone else if she chooses with the overage. When He fills us to overflowing, we can feed others with His provision.

Boaz instructs his men not to embarrass her if she picks up in areas where she was really not allowed.  But instead he tells them to pull some of their own stalks out and drop them so that she can glean them.  She continues gleaning until she has 22 liters worth of barley.  Can you imagine?  Sounds like a lot to lug around to me.  She goes back to town at the end of the day to Naomi.  She does choose to feed Naomi with her leftover bread.  Naomi wants to know where Ruth worked and blesses the man who took care of her.  Ruth tells her that she worked for Boaz.  And now, for the first time, Ruth finds out who Boaz is to her and to Naomi.  He is their close relative and kinsman redeemer.  As Ruth talks, Naomi reinforces what Boaz has said to Ruth about working with his girls and says that in another field she would be harmed.  And Ruth continues working there until the end of the harvest season.

This is a really big deal for Naomi to find out that Ruth is working for Boaz - her kinsman redeemer.  Perhaps in her heart she is swirling with the possibilities of what might happen with this situation.  Remember Naomi doubted God's goodness to her, but here is more hopefulness, and she acknowledges God's goodness.  In verse 20 she says, "He has not stopped showing his hesed to the living and the dead."  She planted seeds of doubt in Chapter 1, but God is going to be faithful to plant hope and faith to reap a harvest of blessing.  You see His covenant with His people depends on no one but Himself.

The kinsman-redeemer was to buy back a relative from bondage, to avenge a kinsman's murder, to redeem and object such as land through payment, act as a redeemer for a deceased kinsman as in marry his widow.  This is huge!  I want to shout Hallelujah for Ruth and Naomi, don't you?  But wait, it's gonna get even better!

You may be in a situation of doubt and hopelessness, but if you are His child, God is working it out for your good.  You may be in a situation of desperation, where you have nothing, but He is working it out to provide for you!  He is faithful to His children.  And He is faithful to those who put their trust in Him.  Allow Him to show you to measure of His goodness and send His reviving to you. 

Listen to this song, "Give Reviving" by Chelsey Scott.

Day 15: Ruth 2:8-13

***Please accept my apologies for the break during a blog series.  Oops.  Today I aim to get back on track and keep blogging through the end of the month.***

So we are in Ruth 2:8-13.

This is the first time that Ruth and Boaz meet.  He tells her to continue gleaning in his field - that it is a safe place to work for her.  Being a foreigner made it dangerous for her to work in the fields because men of ill repute were likely to take advantage of her.  Her position was lower than a servant girl.  But he was making her at least equal to a servant girl, allowing her to glean with the freedom from harm and allowing her to drink from the water jars when thirsty.  He was providing for her needs both of hunger and thirst. 

The Lord  wants us to come to Him hungry and thirsty for Him, and He fills us up to overflowing with more of Him.  If there is only one thing I am known for at the end of my days, I want it to be that I was hungry and thirsty for God and He filled me to overflowing so that others became thirsty for Him too.  I'm not sure I am there yet.  But He is a great provider to the hungry and weak just as Boaz was for Ruth. Psalm 107:9 says, "for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things."  But looking to Matthew we see that after Jesus came not only are we to hunger and thirst Him we are to provide for the hungry and thirsty just as Boaz did: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in" Matthew 25:35.

But also, we see in a Ruth a humility like that of Jesus.  She was lower than a servant girl, but still seeking to do her part.  Hebrews 2:9 says, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death."  She didn't let her position stop her from working and in doing so she was blessed.

We see Ruth asking "why me?" to Boaz, and he explains that she is known for her love of her mother in law in leaving her family in Moab and coming to live in Judah.  Doing this must have been at least as rare then as it is now.  He blesses her and says, "May the LORD repay you for what you have done.  May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

It is a repeat of the promise that God would cover her as He covers His own people.  Psalm 91:4 says, "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

She thanks him and says he has spoken kindly to her.  The word here for kindly is labe meaning heart.  It means he spoke with great passion and favor toward her.  He was obviously genuine and compassionate toward her, and she acknowledges it.  It also implies courage - perhaps it was courageous of Boaz to act in such a way toward her.  But nonetheless, she is on his heart.

Oh, sweet friends, you too are on His Heart!  He loves you with an everlasting eternal kind of love.  Never ending, never failing!

Day 10: Ruth 2:1-3

I've been thinking about Ruth and Orpah a lot.  God has stirred in me some thoughts about a controversial topic of which I'd rather not think about or write about, and truly I'm not ready to write about it.  But as He continues to stir these thoughts, I began to think about Ruth more, and her decision to leave Moab.  She had to accept that His ways were higher and better than the ways of life in Moab, even if His ways did not seem to jive with what she felt was true.  I wondered what drew her into this truth.  In what ways did she sense His goodness and love for her?  You see Orpah thought life was good enough in Moab so she didn't leave and presumably she missed a blessing.  We don't know what ultimately happened to her or if she remarried, but she missed an opportunity for a greater relationship with Yahweh.  What was different about Ruth?  Or was it simply her accepting an invitation?  a softness of heart?  A hunger for something different?

That aside, today we are looking at Ruth 2:1-3, which says,

"Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz.  And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor."  Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.”  So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech."

Here we see more evidence of God's behind the scenes work.  What are the odds that Ruth would find herself gleaning in a field owned by a relative of Elimelech and therefore, Naomi?  Was it mere chance that she picked that particular field?  Or was her footsteps directed in some way by a loving God?

"In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."  Proverbs 3:6

"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."  Psalm 16:11

I read over at Gypsy Mama today that success is found in obedience.  {You will be blessed if you go read this post.

I wonder how God is directing your path today?  Be still and surrender to Him.

Vlog Day 9: Ruth 1:19-22

This song by Sandra McCracken, "O Heart Bereaved and Lonely," reminded me of Naomi.



 

Vlog Day 8: Ruth 1:16-18

The voice and the video do not match up and so you may want to just listen rather than watch.  I know why this happened this time, but I wasn't sure I would capture what I wanted to say in another video, so left it as is.



Meditate on the precious promise of God's presence and love in this song:

Vlog Day 7: Ruth 1:11-15

Day 6: Ruth 1:8-10

 

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home.  May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.  May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband."  Then she kissed them and they wept aloud and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people."  Ruth 1:8-10

{Today I'm writing instead of vlogging.}


Naomi has packed up and prepared along with her daughters in law to go back to Judah.  Then as they are leaving, she tells them to go back to their mothers, which is slightly unusual.  Then she says something infinitely more interesting and intriguing to the story.  She says "May God show hesed to you, as you have shown hesed to your dead (my sons) and to me."  She kissed them.  All three wept.  And then both girls exclaimed that they would continue on with her.  She is telling them in essence, "Stay here to find another husband."

Why would either girl go with Naomi?  As Moabites, wouldn't it be hard to find another husband in Judah?  What did they have to gain?  Did they both agree to go purely out of a love and loyalty to Ruth? 

This is where we see whether any of them loved one another with an everlasting love - a love as powerful as God's.

So let's look at hesed.  Hesed is a Hebrew word usually translated, "kindness," "love," "loving-kindness," "mercy," and at least one scholar suggests it should be translated, "loyalty."  When used of God, hesed refers to God's unconditional covenant He made with His people, that no matter what they do He would keep going with them and never turn away from them.  In fact, He promised this knowing that they would indeed be unfaithful to Him.  In regards to man or in this case woman, it means kindness to your fellow woman in doing favors, mercy, may mean lovely appearance, and in rare circumstances means love of Israel to God.

Truly all three woman are showing hesed as defined by woman to woman.  They have loved one another. All three of them are heart-broken widows.  Who will take care of them now?  Where will their hope come from?  Who will mend the brokenness? and restore new life?

Naomi recognizes that because these woman have married Israelite men, they are now under God's covenant.  But in asking the girls to go home, Naomi is not practicing hesed as in eternal bound for life with you loving kindness.  She does hope that God will display this to them. She is thinking in a worldly sense that their only chance of remarrying is in staying in Moab. She loves them dearly, do not get me wrong, but at the same time, perhaps there is a sense in which she no longer wants to care for them.

Have you experienced God's hesed in your own life?  You know the kind of love that sticks with you even if you commit adultery again and again.  God's love for us is like that.  And now, it is offered to everyone, even you!! 

Have you ever given Godly hesed to someone else?  This is a convicting question, and at the end of the month, what I hope to find is that I've learned how to love infinitely more than I do now.

Perhaps we will find as we dig into Ruth, "comfort for those who mourn, and provision for those who grieve, that He will to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair" (Isaiah 61:2-3).   My heart keeps going back to Psalm 126. 

"He who goes out weeping,

   carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
   carrying sheaves with him."

Psalm 126:6

May we find God's love in unexpected places today!  A harvest of hope is coming!

Press On

Because I have not been posting regularly prior to this 31 day challenge, there is a good chance that not many are reading my blog or pressing the play button on my vlogs. But that is okay. I speak, I write, for the One who calls me and urges me to write and speak words that would please Him.  I fret, I worry, I wonder, I hope that what God says to me in the depths of my heart is true.  He has spoken before, and still I wait to see if what I believe He has said will come to pass.  So instead of acting on the fret and worry, I dismiss it.  I act on hope and continue to write and to speak.

There are over 700 blogs participating in the 31 day challenge.  A few of the blogs that I am reading are:

• 31 days to change the world.  Emily Freeman's www.chattingatthesky.com
• 31 days of rest.  I am blessed to find Ashley at www.oneordinaryday.com
• 31 days of devotionals.  Stephanie Hanes blog at tjsmhanesfamily.blogspot.com

I list these because Emily has a way of inspiring you to keep on keeping on doing the thing God is calling you to do, and that's how we change the world.  Earlier this week I read on her blog a quote from Mary DeMuth's new book, "11 Secrets of Getting Published," which says this:

"Did you know that George Clooney appeared in The Golden Girls’ episode, “To Catch a Neighbor” in 1987? He was one of the two police officers who stayed in the women’s home as protection. And now what’s he up to? Anything he wants. But George had to work. He had to pretend he was a young police man on The Golden Girls. He paid his dues."

The idea of pressing on toward the goal I believe God has me on helps me persevere.  I'm not saying that I will be George Clooney one day, but that God will achieve his purposes in me as I do what often feels a lofty goal, being transformed from novice to learned.

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:12-14

So I write, I vlog, as one working for a goal, but I also blog as a way to rest.  Stop by the blogs listed above; you will be blessed. 

Vlog Day 3: Ruth 1:1-2

Today we are looking at Ruth 1:1-2.




Additional reading:

• Judges 2:10-19  (what the period of judges looked like)
• Genesis 19:30-38 (how Moab came to be)
• Deuteronomy 8:2-5 (why God allows famines sometimes)

Some helpful background information that I did not cover in my video:

• Bethlehem means "house of Bread."
• The time of the judges followed after Joshua's death.  Joshua was Moses's successor as the leader of the Israelites.  He led them into the promised land of Canaan.
• Prior to this the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and had seen many miracles:
• Parting of Red Sea
• Provision of manna
• Providing water when there was none
• Making water sweet when it was bitter
• Allowing their clothes not to wear out
• Crossing of the Jordan River
• God's presence at Mt. Sinai
• The Commandments
• Under the period of the Judges they did not achieve success against their enemies when they turned away from God. 

Here is a map that shows where Moab is located in relation to Bethlehem.

Things to think about:

• Have you ever turned away from God?  What were the consequences?  
• What specific things did God tell you to do that you did not do?
• Do you believe that God has specific plans for you?

Vlog Day 2: Intro to Ruth

You may have been able to guess that I am just now learning how to make graphics for my blog.  So just smile and play along with me.  :)

Vlogging Devotional Day 1

Vlog Day 20: Ruth 3:10-13
Vlog Day 19: Ruth 3:7-9
Vlog Day 18: Ruth 3:5-6
Day 17: Ruth 3:1-4
Day 16: Ruth 2:14-23
Day 15: Ruth 2:8-13
Day 11: Ruth 2:4-7
Day 10: Ruth 2:1-3
Vlog Day 9: Ruth 1:19-22
Vlog Day 8: Ruth 1:16-18
Vlog Day 7: Ruth 1:11-15
Day 6: Ruth 1:8-10
Vlog Day 5: Ruth 1:3-7
Vlog Day 4
Vlog Day 3: Ruth 1:1-2
Vlog Day 2: Introduction to Ruth

I have not been able to make my audio match my video.  I'll keep playing until it gets better.

Rest for our Souls

Click over here to see my post on our Valleydale Women's Ministry blog on finding rest when we feel weary.

Safe People

Something I've been learning about lately is safe people and God's protection in our relationships. It is something I've never really thought in depth about before, and I don't have a lot of wisdom in this area. So what I'm saying here is just a few things I've learned, but I'm not claiming to have it all right. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

I have always thought that you should stick with someone no matter how much they hurt you for the sake of the gospel message.  Love God Love People is the motto I've always tried to have, although it is just a motto and I fail at doing both things all the time.  I think as a people pleaser, in the past, I often put Love People ahead of Love God, and I didn't realize it. 

God showed me his grace, took me out of the deep pit I had dug, and set me out into a spacious place.  He healed me and set me free.  All of God's chosen people throughout history, be it the Israelites or Christians, have been called to be a set apart people, a holy nation.  Being set apart usually means separation.

If someone causes you to actively sin and is a stumbling block, they are not a safe person, and it is okay to separate yourself from them.  God may allow them back into your life as you mature, but that's His decision.  As Priscilla Shirer illustrated in her One in a Million study, you don't have to keep falling into that hole.  You can walk around the hole, and you can even take a different path.

So it is okay to cut yourself off from people who cause you to sin.  For example:

• that man or woman who always leads your thoughts down the wrong path even though you are happily married.
• the girls who grow insecurity in you because you never seem to fit in and are always striving to get them to like you.
• the girl who is easily angered and always yells
• the woman who regularly talks behind others backs and you wonder if she's taking your trusted secrets and giving them away.
• the woman who never seems to get around to asking you about your struggles but always finds time to talk your ear off about herself.
• ladies who never mutually share struggles; if you are the only one sharing, you cannot grow together.

In some way or another these men or women are unsafe, and it is okay to separate from them for a season until you grow in maturity or until God grows them in maturity to a place of mutual safety.

Though it hurts my heart to think it, I am probably an unsafe person to someone, and so are you.  It absolutely breaks my heart to hurt someone and I worry about it for days if I know I have hurt someone.  I seek to be gentle in spirit, but even then, sometimes I am unknowingly harsh.  Though I am highly sensitive myself, I don't always understand the sensitivities of others.  Sometimes when I've written blog posts, I haven't used the verbiage that pleases everyone.  Even though we can be unsafe and though we find others unsafe, as God's child, actively seeking after Him, He may use distance from others, short or long, to set us free from those sins we struggle with :  lust, insecurity, lack of self control, gossip, self-centeredness, inability to be transparent, and more.  This is God's manner of protection (though there are more I am sure), His wings gently hugging us closer to Him for a time or a season, until we can provide others grace without stumbling. 

Often we worry or fear that our separation will cause an unbeliever not to know Him.  However, He is a big God who can heal us and save him/her at the same time.  Allow Him to do His work and follow wherever He leads.

Lotus Focus

The Wii fit has a game called "Lotus Focus."  Today I mastered it.  It is a "zen" type of game where you sit on the wii balance board and try to focus without moving or getting distracted.  If you master it, it is completed in 180 seconds.  There is a candle on the screen and the rest of the screen is dark and if the flame starts shaking or wombling, you are not focused.  When the candle blows out, the game is over.  So the idea is to stay focused for as long as possible to keep the flame lit.

Today I learned some really cool things about focusing from this game.

1. First of all, if you close your eyes you may able to focus better for a little while, but then you will lose focus by the sounds on the game because you cannot see what is really there.  You are in darkness with your eyes closed, and the distracting sounds will fool you and distract you.
2. The longer you are able to stay focused, the more things the game tries to distract you with sounds and visuals to make you lose focus.
3. The only way you can win is to be absolutely still.  Legs crossed.  Hands on legs, and eyes only on the light.
4. If you turn your eyes away from the light for even a second, it will cause you to lose focus and ultimately, you will not be able to win.

Spiritual lessons learned from this exercise:

1.  You cannot win or remain focused if you stay in the dark.  Your eyes must be on the light at all times.
2. The longer you follow God, the more Satan will try to distract you away from focusing on Him.
3. You must be still before Him.  Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
4. Keep your eyes open and on the one thing that matters - God's glorious light, Jesus Christ!

 "God is light; in Him, there is no darkness at all."  1 John 1:5

Enough

When I am lost and cannot find my way

When I feel like giving in

I will listen to all that you say

I will allow You to win

the battles and I struggles that hold me down.
Perhaps I will feel less of a clown.

Righteousness is where you lead.
You fulfill every hope, dream, and unmet need

I come to you hungry and weak,
You say you will fill

so You are the One I will seek.
I lay down me and my will.

Even though I often feel alone
I will learn how not to moan and groan.

You've promised you are always by my side.
Never leaving, always seeking, my continual guide.

You are enough to satisfy.
Every ache and desire.

In my darkest desperate cry
you pick me up out of the muck and mire.

Even when I do not understand,
You are always leading me to the promised land.

You are enough for me
my forever friend you will always be.