{"id":24944,"date":"2023-01-26T22:00:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T05:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ruth-4_1-12-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-01-17T14:21:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T21:21:16","slug":"ruth-4_13-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ruth-4_13-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Story is Part of a Much Greater Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruth\u00a0 4:13-22 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today we finish the book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0with\u00a0Ruth\u00a04:13-22.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Ruth 4:13-16 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the\u00a0LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a013-16: \u00a0The book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0began with Naomi as a weeping, empty, bitter widow, having lost both her husband and her two sons.\u00a0 It ends with Naomi as a busy and a grateful grandmother.\u00a0 As much pain as Naomi had endured, I believe Naomi was able to say “He made all things beautiful in His time.”<\/p>\n

Consider this: \u00a0Naomi left God’s chosen people the Israelites because she and her husband thought they could find a better life in a place that didn’t worship God.\u00a0 There she lost almost everything, including her husband and sons.\u00a0 Like the “prodigal daughter of the Old Testament” (as Pastor Jon Courson describes her), Naomi returns home to Israel and God restores her, renews her, and fills her life again.<\/p>\n

Naomi’s life is a parable for us:\u00a0when we get away from God and God’s people, we end up empty and bitter.\u00a0 But if we will come home to God and to God’s people, He will fill our lives and ultimately replace our bitterness with His peace and joy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Let’s run to Him today.<\/p>\n

Ruth 4:17a (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 17a:\u00a0 Wait!\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t this Ruth\u2019s son?\u00a0 Yes, naturally.\u00a0 But the women of Israel were saying, \u201cNaomi has a son\u201d because remember: Boaz was acting as a kinsman redeemer for Naomi (verse 14) in place of Naomi\u2019s deceased husband and sons (see verse 9).\u00a0 This new born baby, Obed, would take on the legal name of Naomi\u2019s deceased husband.\u00a0 In this way, it\u2019s as if Naomi had received a new son with the birth of Obed.<\/p>\n

Ruth 4:17b-22 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u2026He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron,
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab,
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed,
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 17-22:\u00a0\u00a0When Boaz and\u00a0Ruth\u00a0welcomed their son Obed into the world, no one could predict that Obed would one day become the grandfather of King David and an ancestor of Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0The love story of Boaz and\u00a0Ruth\u00a0was just one small part of a much bigger love story<\/strong>: the story of how God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 God’s perspective is so much wider than ours.\u00a0 His plans are so much bigger than ours.\u00a0 I can be so focused on me and the situations immediately in front of me.\u00a0 Naively I think I’m “thinking big picture” when I consider what God might do with my life 10 or 20 years from now.\u00a0 But God’s perspective is much wider than 10 or 20 years from now.\u00a0 He’s thinking about how He will use your life to impact people generations after you die.<\/p>\n

So don’t be discouraged or frustrated if things aren’t going your way today.\u00a0\u00a0Like\u00a0Ruth\u00a0and Boaz, just do your best with what is in your control and trust God with what is not in your control.\u00a0 He will make all things beautiful in His time — and not just for you, but for the generations that come after you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we finish our look at the book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0today, as part of your GAME time take 5 to 10 minutes today to review what you’ve been learning in the book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0and try answering the following questions:<\/p>\n

1. What was the most impactful lesson you learned from the book of\u00a0Ruth?<\/p>\n

2. What was your favourite verse from the book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0and why?<\/p>\n

3. How would\u00a0summarize\u00a0the book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0and its main message in one or two sentences?<\/p>\n

4. In what way do you want to be more like\u00a0Ruth\u00a0or Boaz?<\/p>\n

Thank\u00a0<\/em>You\u00a0Heavenly Father that You really do make all things beautiful in Your time. Thank You that in Your kingdom, weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today we finish the book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0with\u00a0Ruth\u00a04:13-22.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Ruth 4:13-16 (NIV)
\n13\u00a0\u00a0So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
\n14\u00a0\u00a0The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the\u00a0LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!
\n15\u00a0\u00a0He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
\n16\u00a0\u00a0Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a013-16: \u00a0The book of\u00a0Ruth\u00a0began with Naomi as a weeping, empty, bitter widow, having lost both her husband and her two sons.\u00a0 It ends with Naomi as a busy and a grateful grandmother.\u00a0 As much pain as Naomi had endured, I believe Naomi was able to say “He made all things beautiful in His time.”<\/p>\n

Consider this: \u00a0Naomi left God’s chosen people the Israelites because she and her husband thought they could find a better life in a place that didn’t worship God.\u00a0 There she lost almost everything, including her husband and sons.\u00a0 Like the “prodigal daughter of the Old Testament” (as Pastor Jon Courson describes her), Naomi returns home to Israel and God restores her, renews her, and fills her life again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24944"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24947,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24944\/revisions\/24947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}