The Best for Last

"So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son." — Ruth 4:13

You’ve heard it said in a variety of contexts about saving your best for last. Sometimes it’s said when a basketball player hits a clutch shot at the buzzer to win the game. Or an actor gives a standing-ovation performance in the final show before closing. Or a student aces the final exam. In each case, they saved their best effort for the last possible moment – and it helped win the championship, earn accolades, or pass the course!

In a way, I think that God saved his best blessing for last in the story of Ruth. As we come to the final chapter in this short book, Ruth and Naomi’s situation has changed dramatically from one of hardship and a bleak future to one of restoration and healing, and a bright future.

Why Did Jesus Need to Be Baptized?

Alfred Edersheim

Theories abound on the reason that Jesus submitted to baptism. After all, if He was sinless as the New Testament claims, then His baptism must have held some ulterior motive. Perhaps John and Jesus plotted or conspired together to gain attention for Jesus's ministry; perhaps Jesus came as a representative of the sinful human race; perhaps He submitted to baptism as foreshadowing His death and resurrection; or perhaps His baptism made the act of baptism work for everyone else.

Each of these theories, however, misses a few key elements. For example, we have no evidence that John or Jesus spoke prior to the time of the baptism, even though they were cousins. John lived in the wilderness and only knew what sign to look for. But most of all, John's baptism was not primarily a baptism of repentance (the turning away from sin). Instead, the submersion in water identified the person with the coming Messianic Kingdom.

The Spirit Moves

Rick Joyner

And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters (see Genesis 1:2).
With the first mention of the Spirit, He was moving. The Holy Spirit is the agent of God who does the work. He is ever moving, working, and bringing forth the purposes of God. It is crucial for every Christian to know the Holy Spirit, and learn how to follow Him in all things. In order to do this, we have to keep moving. The nature of the Christian life is to be moving and going somewhere.

The Christian life is never stagnant, but flowing like a river. We have a destination and a work to accomplish with the Holy Spirit. In the beginning "the Spirit of God was moving," and the Spirit continues to move. That is why the River of Life is a river, not a pond or lake. A river is always going somewhere.

The Designer of Your Destiny

by Jack Hayford

Throughout all of Church history there has been a great debate as to what degree things automatically happen, with the tilt leaning both in society and in theology toward fatalism. It reminds me of the story of a classic theologian who believed that everything was preordained by God. He was coming down the stairs from his study one day when he tripped and tumbled all the way to the bottom. When he got up, he brushed himself off and said, "Well, I'm glad that's over," presuming there was no way he could have avoided falling because it must have been foreordained.

There's no such thing revealed in the Scripture, but neither is there any such thing as the human capacity to make things happen by our own power. All you and I have is the power of choice, and even that does not provide the engine to bring about what is needed to make our lives work. I can push my car only a little bit and not very far. Certainly not up hill. But I can choose to turn on the engine.

The vanity of the flesh is the supposition that we can on our own achieve the best purposes for our lives. That's not an invitation to passivity any more than faith in the providence of God is a call to fatalism. Fatalism and passivity can be opposites, or they can go together: "Well, I'm just along for the ride." We're on a journey with the Lord to a place only He can take us, but there are things we need to do, choices we need to make, while we are on board.

You Will Be Rebuilt

When hardships come your way, you may feel as if though God has taken his wrecking ball, swung it at you, and shattered your life. But the Lord gives us the promise that with his love, we will be rebuilt!

Download MP3 Next ProgramPrevious Program

Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada. Thanks for joining me on "Joni and Friends.”

You know, there are so many lessons, so many things from God's Word that I have learned from these years of paralysis; so many scriptures that became solid anchor for my soul. And I love sharing these things with you, really I do, because if I can help lift your spirits, focus your heart, or point you to a Bible passage that God used to change me (sitting in this wheelchair), well … then these few minutes together are more than worth it!

I'm thinking of one particular verse that I run to even now, after so many years. Back when doctors first told me I would never walk again or have use of my hands, I was devastated. I felt like He took this wrecking ball, swung it and shattered my entire life: everything was in shambles. I had no idea where to begin, or how to begin rebuilding my life. 

The Problem with Genderless Parenting

Chuck Colson

You may have heard the public outcry over the parents in Toronto who have decided to keep their baby’s gender a secret.

When Kathy Witterick and David Stocker sent an e-mail to friends and family announcing the birth of their baby, Storm, they wrote: “We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now -- a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation.”

According to Yahoo News, “only the parents, their two other children (both boys), a close friend, and the two midwives who helped deliver the now 4-month-old baby know its gender. Even the grandparents have been left in the dark.”

Witterick and Stocker say they hope that what they’re doing will make the world “a more progressive place,” but that doesn’t seem to be working out too well.

Waiting on God for Maximum Effectiveness

Debbie Przybylski, Intercessors Arise

" We experience the adventure of intercession to the degree we have learned to wait on God. Everything about our human nature rebels against waiting. To those of us who were born in 'overdrive', waiting is not our favorite pastime. However, we discover that waiting on God in humility and faith because of who He is, and obeying His signals according to His timetable, are really where the exciting action is." Joy Dawson

How many of us rush around and have not learned the secret of waiting on God. In order to move with God's direction in the end times, we must learn this secret. The truth is that it is in waiting that we will accomplish the most for God. It is in waiting that He will give us His secrets to kingdom living. It is in waiting that we will live as overcomers and walk in joy, peace and contentment. How much time is wasted when we run down the wrong road?

Waiting on God in prayer brings forth his maximum purposes.

I am a very active person and over the last several God has taught me and my husband to wait on Him. All the world was rushing around us but He stopped us and disciplined us into waiting on Him. And now is waiting is often the place of joy because that is where God tells us His secrets. Many of you are learning the same lesson.

Waiting is going to be the key to our effectiveness. God is not looking for soulish activity. Anyone can do that. God is looking for those who can wait and let the flesh die so that the spirit can truly live for His purposes.

It is in waiting that the very highest direction for our life can come forth on a daily basis. What may look like a loss of time is really only time multiplied on our behalf. God is able to do things with a lot more efficiency than we are. The unnecessary falls to the ground and the very purposes and wisdom of God come forth in purity, holiness and power. "My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him (Psalm 62:5).

"Waiting is a discipline that has tremendous rewards. And yet vast numbers of Christians, including many who pray for others, seldom, if ever make it a way of life."

What are you waiting for today in prayer? Don't give up. Make it a way of life. It is in waiting that we make room for God.

"The tests of our willingness to wait patiently for the Lord come almost daily for most of us.Waiting requires patience -- a willingness calmly to accept what we have or have not, where we are or where we wish we were, whomever we live or work with. To want what we don't have is impatience and mistrust of God. A spirit of resistance cannot wait on God. It is this spirit which is the reason for some of our greatest sufferings. It is here and now that we must win our victories or suffer defeats. Spiritual victories are won in the quiet acceptance of ordinary events, which are Gods 'bright servants' standing all around it. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands. Can I not then wait patiently? He will show me the way." Elisabeth Elliott

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. ... I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 27:14, 40:1).

Together in the Harvest,

Debbie Przybylski

Intercessors Arise International

deb@intercessorsarise.org

http://www.intercessorsarise.org

http://www.crosswalk.com/church/worship/waiting-on-god-for-maximum-effectiveness.html

God-Talk About Healing

Healing is a divine mystery. God does not provide the same things to everyone, nor the same thing all the time to any one person. The gifts are measured according to the Kingdom's standards, not our standards, and are given entirely for God's purposes. It's not a 'health and wealth' thing where one presses a prayer button marked 'gimme' and out pops a new Mercedes or a faith healing. The idea of automatic blessing is presumption and control, not faith. Yet, charismatic Christians take issue with the church in general for not seriously believing that God will lead, heal, or empower. They believe that God can and DOES step into our lives. They trust that God will do right by them when they are ill (Matthew 6:19-33).

However, there's a serious problem among some churches. It's especially severe among fundamentalists and fringe Pentecostals, but the problem can be found in members of just about any church. The problem starts with a simple idea: that unconfessed sin can cause illness. The Bible teaches that (Psalm 107:17; Micah 6:13). Life experience teaches that. I myself have gone through serious physical distress because of what an unconfessed sin did to me from inside, twisting me into such knots that I developed itchings and sores and headaches and bodily weakness. I knew it, too. I confessed it, then started doing something about it, and indeed, it went away.

The problem is that many Christian churches teach this in reverse: if you're ill and it doesn't go away with prayer, then it must be caused by unconfessed sin or the absence of faith. Baloney! It usually isn't caused by unconfessed sin. Illness is made possible by the sinfulness which comes with being a part of this created world -- the sort of sin which Christians mean when saying that all human beings are 'fallen'. This 'fallenness' (having to do with 'original sin') has put us all out of kilter and made us un-whole. Our state of sin is what makes it possible for us to become ill, and guarantees that we will die. But all the confession in the world has never once gotten rid of that state of sin. It's with us till the Kingdom comes. Specific sins are usually not what gives a specific person their specific illness at a particular time. You may make the causal connection that sin A led to illness B, but the logic does not hold in reverse - illness B can also be caused by germ C, or gene D, or accident E, or someone else's sin F, or other things G through Z.

Yet I can tell you of dozens of people I have met (and hundreds I have heard about) who were scolded, berated, shunned, shamed, and labeled as a grave sinner just because they happened to be ill and it didn't go away when they were prayed over. I've seen this happen with my own eyes more times than I care to recount. Most Pentecostalists I know of are aware of this, and say that they don't believe that the failure to be healed is always from unrepented sin. Yet, even for those people, old habits die hard. Often, the first thing that even those believers will do when someone isn't healed is to start interrogating the unhealed person about the parts of their life that personal sins are most expected to be found - usually involving sex. Tens of thousands of people every year are driven away from the church by this belief. They flee because instead of being loving people who gave grace to someone in need, the church was an angry, superstitious, bitter, legalistic, elite clique which showed no love at all, and indeed showed exactly the opposite of such love. This is not the way of Christ: Christ made contact with the ill, Christ treated them personally, Christ healed them, Christ showed them love. If your church doesn't do that, either change churches, or if possible, cause the church to change. It is a matter of the Gospel.

http://www.spirithome.com/healings.html