“But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.” Genesis 45:5-7 I have always been fascinated by the story of Joseph. Things started great for him in life, but quickly took a turn for the worst. How awful it must have been, and how betrayed he must have felt to be sold as a slave by his brothers. The very ones who should have had his back and loved him the most became those who would hurt him the most. He endured countless hardships, from false accusations to years in a jail cell. He was forgotten, betrayed, and lied about. He is finally reunited with his brothers (who were unaware of who he was at first) and could have exacted his revenge on them by turning them away and sealing their fate to die of starvation. Instead,…

“Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.” Acts 16:25 We sing songs in our worship services quite often about how worship can change a situation, and we proclaim and believe that worship can set us free. This story in Acts is a perfect example of that. Paul and Silas had been severely flogged. They were stripped, beaten, and publicly humiliated, then thrown into a dark and cold prison cell. Their feet were then fastened in stocks and thus began a very uncertain future for these two men. After all of this though, their immediate reaction is to sing praise. I’m sure most of us have never experienced anything remotely close to what they endured, but we have all had our fair share of turmoil and despair. We have all been at one time in our lives enslaved to sin and defeated by our situations and circumstances. What is our first reaction though to trouble? When they sang they not only loosed their shackles, but every other prisoner in that cell block was delivered as well. People are always listening to what we speak. Will they hear praise, or negativity…

“And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.” Ruth 2:20 When Ruth finished her day of gleaning in the field, she returned home to Naomi with much barley to show for her day’s work. She told her how well she had been treated. Boaz had invited her to eat lunch with his workers. She had heard him tell his young men to drop some handfuls of grain on purpose for her. He had instructed her not to go anywhere else to glean but to follow his crew throughout the harvest season. For a long time, Naomi had felt that God had forgotten and forsaken her. Everything she loved and held dear had been taken from her. But listening to Ruth’s account of the kindness that Boaz had shown, her heart began to awaken to God’s love, and faith was rekindled. The dark clouds of despair were lifted, and life seemed worth living again. She raised her voice in praise to the Lord.…

“And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.” Ruth 2:2-3 It is interesting to note that Naomi had returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest (Ruth 1:22). The Feast of Passover was celebrated at this time, commemorating the end of the Jewish exile in Egypt. Naomi had been in exile but now was back at home. She probably took pleasure in seeing the people busy in the fields reaping the golden grain. Ruth felt the responsibility of providing for herself and Naomi, and so she requested she be allowed to find a field where she could glean after the reapers and obtain food. No doubt she was concerned about her reception. Would she be rejected because she was a stranger? I can imagine that Naomi was concerned and prayed that the Lord would guide Ruth…