3/26/2010 9:14 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Ruth changes her clothes
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ruth 3:3c
Message of the verses: “put on your best clothes,”
Naomi
tells Ruth to put on her best clothes before she goes to meet Boaz, and it is
possible that Naomi was still wearing clothes of morning for after all her
husband had died. Isaiah speaks of the
Lord taking care of those who have been morning and this could be a picture of
what Ruth was going through: “1 ¶ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And
freedom to prisoners; 2 To proclaim the
favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all
who mourn, 3 To grant those who mourn in
Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of
mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be
called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be
glorified,” (Isa. 61:1-3).
The
changing of clothes in the Scriptures is something that has meaning in a
spiritual way. For instance when Adam
and Eve sinned they tried to cover themselves, yet it took the shedding of
blood of an innocence to cover them. (My
feeling on this is that it was a lamb that was killed in order to get the
covering that they needed). In the books
of Ephesians and Colossians there is a picture of taking off the old and
putting on of the new in order to walk closely to the Lord. In the book of Luke where Jesus tells the
parable of the young man who ran away and then came to his senses and came back
to his father there is a picture of salvation as a changing of clothes: “"But the father said to his slaves,
’Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand
and sandals on his feet,” (Luke 15:22).
I
wish to do one more section from the outline given in “Be Committed,” which is
the commentary from Warren Wiersbe that I am following.
Ruth was learning how to present herself to
Boaz: Ruth 3:3d-4: ‘“go down to the threshing floor; but do not
make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
4 ‘It shall be when he lies down, that
you shall notice the place where he lies, and you shall go and uncover his feet
and lie down; then he will tell you what you shall do.’”
I
would suppose that I wondered in the past why it was that Ruth would do what
she did in these two verses, but in the commentary from Be Committed Warren
Wiersbe points out that this was the proper procedure for one to come to their
kinsman redeemer and that is why she followed this procedure.
Spiritual meaning for
my life today: I t seems that all
through this story of Ruth that one can see that it was love at first sight for
Boaz. Now when Ruth goes to the
threshing floor to lay at his feet, even if you haven’t read through this book
before you get the idea that the two of them will marry. But Ruth is more than a love story between
Boas and Ruth as it pictures the Lord Jesus Christ showing His love for aliens
and then paying the price for them when He lays down His life on Calvary in
order to provide for them eternal life so that they may live with Him
forever. The story of Ruth brings out
this fact of Jesus Christ’s love for His Church.
As
far as the part of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ in the proper way to worship
Him the Bible is clear as to how to do this.
Hebrews 10:19-25 speak of this procedure: “19 ¶
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by
the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and
living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and since we have a great priest over
the house of God, 22 let us draw near
with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope
without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one
another to love and good deeds, 25 not
forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging
one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” It must be remembered that the book of
Hebrews was written to Jewish believer in Jesus Christ who were ready to go
back to Judaism because they were coming under persecution from other Jews who
were not believers in Jesus Christ as Messiah.
I t must also be remembered that these people knew the OT order of
worshiping the Lord and so I can learn a lot of worship by reading and studying
the OT which I have been doing for the last almost three years.
As
far as the order the first thing one must do in order to worship the Lord it to
accept His as your Savior and Lord and then there are other things that you
must do. Keep up a good devotional time
with the Lord as you meet Him each day in His Word, and have a good time of
prayer speaking to Him each day. Keep
your life clean from sin as you take off the old and put on the new in order to
worship the Lord. Jesus Christ said to
the woman at the well that “you must worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.” John writes in the first chapter of
Revelations that he was in the Spirit on the Lord ’s Day, and that is Sunday,
the first day of the week the day that Jesus Christ arose from the dead, and
the day that corporate worship is to be done.
I believe that Psalm 139:23-24 are something that needs to be done
everyday by every believer, and something that I need to do more myself: “23
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious
thoughts; 24 And see if there be any
hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” In order to worship the Lord in a way that is
pleasing to Him I think that I need to put on my spiritual armor each and every
day too even though the tense of the Greek verb indicates that it is a one time
thing to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
- Worship the Lord in Spirit and truth.
- “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”
- “14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.”
3/26/2010 10:08 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment