Reading Ruth

Ruth has continually been a book in the Bible that I've struggled to get or understand, surprisingly. I say surprisingly for a few reasons. First, it's such a short book. Second, it is such a commonly heard story. Thirdly, it's exactly that; a historical story.

Whenever I read books from the Bible, I'm always searching for higher meaning, or a greater purpose. Because the Bible is essentially the Word of God, I continually feel that I have to search for the reason why each book is included, each sentence, each word. This can be a good thing, but sometimes it takes away from the overall experience of reading the Bible. A balance has to be found between a search for factual knowledge and enlightenment, and for personal application.

So, when it comes to Ruth, while I continually search for that factual enlightenment, or amazing tidbit of insight, I should also be searching for the personal impact or lessons that can be applied to my life. For some reason, I never consider that God may have included these stories simply for the lessons applied to the present.

Wikimedia

So what personal lessons can be taken from Ruth? Actually, the book is chalk full of them when you read through it with that goal in mind.

First, family is extremely important. Ruth is the person that God is using as the model in the story. Her first defining quality that is revealed is her dedication to her family. While the easiest decision would have been to stay in her home country and get re-married, she was so dedicated to her family, and her mother-in-law that she uprooted her whole future, just to be with Naomi, and to support her.

Second, she was extremely obedient. Whenever anyone asked something of her, or ordered her to do something, she did it wholeheartedly, without ever complaining or asking any questions.

Thirdly, Ruth is an example of how to live through pain and come out of trials in the end. Ruth must have been extremely distraught with the death of her husband, and most of her family. Yet, she struggled through it, and ultimately came out on top, with a new husband, who was extremely respected, and wealthy. She herself was also respected in a small community she could call family, and she bore sons who would grow to become great men historically.

Commonly Ruth is used as an example of a Gentile being accepted into God's family from the Old Testament as a lesson. I chose not to include this, because there is no proof that Ruth actually accepted God into her heart. The most likely conclusion is that she did, based upon her statement that she wanted Naomi's God to be her God, yet there is no evidence past this. As a local pastor once said, "assumption is the lowest form of knowledge." While it does make for a great story, I would choose to draw other, stronger conclusions from the book, rather then just possibilities.

Reading Judges

Recall the discussion of the two-fold promise of God in Deuteronomy? The one where He promised amazing things if the Israelites obeyed Him, and extreme punishment if they disobeyed Him? The book of Judges provides a crystal clear historical example of the results of that promise.

The cycle in Judges is stupendous. You'd think that the Israelites would have learned from their mistakes after a few times of doing the same things over and over again, and having the same results every time. However, they didn't, and the cycle continued on and on.

Here's what happened in that cycle. It all started with the Israelites choosing, much like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, to disobey God. They chose to attempt to follow false gods, or idols, or things of the world. By doing so, they basically turned their backs on God, and decided to place themselves before His will. This sparked God's punishment, which was essentially returning the favour, and turning His back on them. Much of the punishment came in the form of foreigners attacking, terrorizing, and ruling over the Israelites for many years.

Here's the difference between man and God though. While we may turn our backs on God, and God turns His back on us, He is extremely willing to turn right back and around and reconnect in that relationship. In fact, He continually looks over His shoulder while we continue our disobedience, hoping we will see our foolishness, and putting people and situations in place to shake us awake.

Thus begins the next step in the cycle. God hand picks certain people to lead the Israelites back to Him. Most times this happens through a certain warrior who conquers the terrorists of that time period. By freeing the people of that outside influence, this warrior or judge leads the Israelites back to worship of God. When this happens, the people experience a time of safety and fruitfulness.

However, for some unstated reason, the Israelites would always abandon that safety, and would choose to turn away from God. Thus the cycle starts all over, back to the time of choosing false Gods, and being punished. Now we can speculate that the reason for disobedience might be dissatisfaction, longing for more, sinful nature, outside influence, and on and on.

Even though we may state that this should have been the easiest decision in anyone's life, and that the Israelites must have been blind not to see the cycle in front of them, we do the same thing as the Israelites and constantly disobey God. And we have more then the Israelites did in that time, in the form of history from the Bible. Yet for some reason, we continue to disobey God.

Now, there has been an argument made regarding if obeying God actually produces times of perfect happiness and such. Ultimately, my opinion on the subject is that trivial things that used to bother you won't anymore, and that when bad things do happen, you are able to go through those situations with a better frame of mind, or perspective, and therefore with a better attitude.

Ultimately, the book of Judges should provide a lesson for us, one that may be difficult to apply, but is extremely important to at least attempt to take to heart.

Reading Joshua

Wikimedia

Commonly, the focus when discussing Joshua is to look at the principles of a "Just War". The topic remains a huge discussion point amongst Christian circles, and a huge apologetical issue. It is extremely hard for many to understand why the Israelites would completely wipe out entire nations in this book under the premise of a "holy war" when the Bible does state that we are to turn our cheek. Ultimately, there is answers for such questions, but I will be addressing this "Just War" one in a later post.

For this book review, I want to focus on the person of Joshua. To me, he remains one of the best Old Testament biblical men to model your life after, due to multiple reasons.

First, Joshua had the perfect start to his career in leadership. He found someone who had immense knowledge, a wealth of opportunities, and a strong relationship with God. Moses was the perfect mentor for Joshua. Much of his success comes from the fact that he spent so much time learning and developing under Moses, and then modelling himself after that figure.

After that, Joshua remained wholly committed to his task. He knew what God had called him to do, and he never wavered from that purpose. Everything he did was to achieve his task of settling the Israelites in the Promised Land. His whole life was dedicated to that purpose, and Joshua threw himself passionately into that work throughout the book. There's a huge lesson there that we need to apply to our own lives.

Joshua was also a commanding leader. The people respected him, and followed him whole heartedly wherever he went. They listened to what he said, and obeyed immediately. That kind of leadership doesn't just happen.

In Joshua's case, I'm going to bet the people saw God's hand in his life, just as it had been in Moses', and because of that, they were willing to crown him their leader. When success dominates your life, people are willing to follow you until failure creeps in. However, when you deal successfully with failure, you will never lose your following. They will respect you and hold you in high regard, doing whatever you ask of them. Joshua possessed that character, mainly because he remained wholly focussed on God.

While commonly Joshua is idolized because of his warrior escapades, a trait that is coveted by men of every age, I think we should start respecting him because of his character instead. While there is no question that he was a warrior by nature, he was also a leader, and a servant of God. Everything he did was to glorify God. Men of every age need to start coveting that trait instead.

Reading Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy is perhaps my second favourite book of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, behind only Genesis. I love that the book is basically a synopsis of the Israelites' journey thus far, from the man (Moses) who was unquestionably the greatest leader during that time. It's a firsthand account of perhaps the greatest moments of history for Christianity.

Putting aside that uniqueness of the book, I noticed another major theme that prevailed for the entirety of Deuteronomy. Much like the other law books, with all the rules and numbers, there seems to be a special perspective on much of the same content as the other 4 books.

Over and over again, throughout Moses' recap, he offers two promises. They both are structured so that they contradict or contrast each other.

The first is if the Israelites obey God's commandments, He will bless them beyond belief. They will enjoy a time of peace, freedom, happiness, joy, and fulfillment. God will be with them always, and everyone will know that the Israelites are God's people. Basically, life would be great for the people, if only they would obey God's commandments.

The second promise regards the results if the Israelites disobey God's commandments. Not only will God strip away all His blessings, but He will take further action and punishment. He will make sure that the Israelites do not rest at all, are constantly concerned for their safety, are slaves, are unhappy, discontent, afraid, and despairing. Basically, the opposite of the blessings of God. He will be distant from them, and the Israelites will no longer be God's people.

This is continually repeated by Moses, chapter after chapter. Not only does it show how much God cares about His people that He is giving them due warning, but also how much Moses cares about what God is attempting to do. Even though Moses' lifetime has been filled with frustration over the disobedience of the Israelites, he is still working with God to try and help the future generations to avoid those past mistakes. He is making sure that they fully understand God's two promises, the two opposite ends of life.

Even though this was presented in the Old Testament, I think it can still apply to our lives today. Obviously, we can see very clearly throughout the Old Testament that God was not kidding with these promises. Continually the Israelites went through a cycle where they would obey God, and everything would be great, and then they would turn to a different God and times of great pain would ensue. Ultimately, this promise served the greater purpose for the Old Testament people, but in a way, it still stands today. While not as direct, the results of our choices produce similar results to what Moses warned in Deuteronomy.

If we obey God, we live in a better way. While we may still experience trial and pain, we are closer to God, and therefore experience greater happiness and joy in heavenly things. We see life in a different way, and therefore live our lives in a different way. However, if we disobey God, it is only a matter of time before our choices drag us down. While some may say that without God they are doing just fine, they are covering that sense of something else that is dominating their lives. Really, they are ignoring the search for God, that is trying to grip their souls. Pain will be greater, hopelessness will overcome the life, and all happiness will be gone.

God has done His part in warning us, we need to do ours in obeying His commandments. Really, these warnings are for our benefit, and not His.

Year Review/Preview

This was my first year as a blogger, and the start of this Christian themed blog, For Whosoever. While partnering my efforts with my musical blog Delayed Distortion, I saw For Whosoever reap the most results. Over the course of the year, the page view count has almost reached 1000, with multiple posts achieving close to 40 views. My most popular post was titled Homosexuality, which reached around 120 views alone.

I'm not only rating the success of this blog on numbers though. I found other areas to produce benefits as well. My opportunities for discussion of theological topics have greatly expanded to Christians and non-Christians alike. I've been able to broach religious topics with non-Christians more then ever before.

Personally, this blog has also helped me develop. I've found that just writing down my thoughts helps me organize what I believe, and what I need to research to find stronger answers. Throughout the year, I have solidified many areas of my religion so that I can give a clear answer as to what I believe regarding certain topics, and I've also identified weak spots that I myself need to work on, and the rest of Christians also need to work on. I've also strengthened my skills discussing religious topics with non-Christians, in order to effectively talk about subjects that are important, and sometimes controversial. At the start of the year, my methods were extremely weak, but at the end of the year, I feel more confident in being able to talk about subjects such as homosexuality in a way that doesn't ruin what Christians stand for, but also doesn't compromise what we believe. This year, this blog has also expanded my experiences, and given me valuable situations that I have muddled my way through, only to be able to more strongly get through in the future. Ultimately, this blog has been an extreme blessing to me, and for me.

For this upcoming year, I plan to stick to my original goal for the blog, but also try expanding a little. Currently, I have multiple series that I am working on. My ethical series, which includes my posts about homosexuality, will grow, with plans for posts on topics such as divorce, abortion, and war already in the workings. However, I am gearing towards making this series less confusing. Originally, many took offence at my first few ethical posts. The confusion arose from the purpose of my posts, which I tend to make much clearer in the next few posts. I am aiming to discuss the issues from a Christian worldview perspective, and while it is important to debate the results with non-Christians, my goal is to stick with simply summarizing what Christians do and should believe about the specific topics.

I am also working on my apologetic series, which began with the case for a God. This will be my main focus in the blog catering to non-Christians. I will be spending a lot of time with this series, finding facts and hard evidence to support the Christian case.

My recent synopsis or thoughts about each book of the Bible will continue, as I make my way through a YouVersion Bible Plan. After I finish each book, I post my thoughts on a couple of main themes that stuck out to me as I was reading. You can join me on the reading plan by searching JPRam1 on Bible.com.

Finally, I will continue to post about the various odds and ends of the Christian faith. This includes things we are currently succeeding at as the church, and also things that we need to work on.

Ultimately, all this falls under my new motto for the blog; Extensio animi ad mangna, which means Stretching the souls to great things. To follow along with this, I plan to add a few more dimensions to my posts.

I plan on posting more reviews of famous books, Christian movies, and sermons. I would also like to begin posting my own sermons, through video or audio format on the blog, as well as starting my own YouTube or SoundCloud site for that specific purpose. Finally, I also plan on expanding For Whosoever to include news postings about situations that influence or include the Christian audience.

2014 was an excellent start, and I can only pray that 2015 brings even greater results. Again, I plan on utilizing this blog to inform, inspire, and motivate others to achieve great things in God's name.

Reading Numbers

This past month, I was listening to a devotion where the speaker was stressing a specific theme. While he was talking about the book of First John, I think we can extend this theme to all the books of the Bible. If anything, it should help us to fully grasp what we are reading in these law books, such as Numbers.

The speaker who was leading this devotion was stressing the fact that the writers of these books in our Bible were real people, who really walked on this world, and breathed in the same air we breathe today. A lot of the time we read the Bible as if it was a fairytale, or a fictional storybook. The other extreme is sometimes we even read it as a non-fictional textbook. Either way, we never really think about what we are reading, or internalize it. It never seems real to us.

What this speaker was trying to title as important is that we see what we are reading as real words. The Bible isn't a fantasy, it is a reality.

Numbers is another one of those difficult books to read through. However, applying this reading method makes it a lot more interesting.

Just think! Thousands of years ago, someone, supposedly Moses, wrote these very words down on pieces of papyrus or stone. He, while actually living in the desert, resided in a tent, and spent a lot of time either writing himself, or dictating to a scribe. These words describe the very situation that the Israelites lived through, again thousands of years ago. The fact that we have those words still is amazing; picturing the people of God living by these words is astounding.

The thing with the Bible is we tend to make it distant. Sure we may have read the Bible from cover to cover, but we read many books from cover to cover. Something has to make the Bible different, aside from the fact that it is God-inspired. Realizing that these stories and words are very real is the beginning process. With that realization comes the eagerness to learn more, and to research. Eventually, there comes a point where you begin to apply the lessons learned to your life, and you begin to transform your thoughts and your soul. This is where the true transforming power of the Bible lies.

Numbers is no different then any of the other books of the Bible. It is as real as any other, and provides to God's Word in the same amount. We should not undervalue, or skip it merely because there are a lot of rules and numbers presented. Those rules and numbers serve a purpose, and have meaning. It is our job to see the purpose and meaning in the historical context, so we can realize what it meant to the people then, and what it can mean to us now.

Reading Leviticus

It's time to get down to the nitty gritty of the Bible. Leviticus along with Numbers, and partially Exodus and Deuteronomy are the most difficult books of the Bible to read through, based upon their listing of numbers and laws. Commonly, many will fall away from reading plans, or will be steered away from finishing the Bible because of the struggles of getting through these books.

As I suggested from the tail-end of Exodus, one way to get through these books is to hold onto one main theme, or a key idea that is present throughout the whole book. Sometimes you know what this main theme is going into the book, but other times, something sticks with you as you make your way through the book. The latter is what occurred to me as I spent the past few weeks reading through Leviticus.

As a side note, commonly because these law books are so difficult to read through, we refer to them in a derogatory manner. I feel like we should work on staying away from this trap. Every single book in the Bible has a purpose, one that God has specially chosen. Anything that God has had a hand in, we should automatically revere. Even if it is dry content, it is still the words of our Lord, and these books need to be treated as such.

Anyways, as I was reading through Leviticus, I noticed this key theme; "You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from the nations to be my own." This is repeated in one sense or another over and over again. It almost seems that after every chunk of law, God states this.

It got me thinking on a couple of levels. Obviously, the question is why include this statement so often? What's the purpose behind including this in a book of laws?

The amount of laws that God gave the Israelites is overwhelming, even just for the reader. Imagine how it must have been for the people actually living during that time. God definitely knew the weight of what He was demanding from His people. I think He ties in this statement for a few reasons.

When I think about a lot of the laws that we have today, we keep the ones that we understand the purpose behind, whereas the ones we don't understand we break. Using the examples of teens and taking away the extreme cases, the majority of youth today drink alcohol underage because they don't fully understand why they are being restricted from doing so (amongst other reasons). Whereas, the majority of teens won't go out and murder, because they understand why they are told not to.

I think that issue will remain no matter the age, no matter the time in history, no matter the situation. Having all these laws, the Israelites must have looked at them, and asked why they had to obey all these rules. God clearly states why; because you have to be holy like I am holy. The reasons for all these laws are to set apart God's people from the rest of the world. His goal was to have a godly nation modelled after Himself.

What does that then say about God's character? First, that He truly cares about His people. He was doing everything He could to build that relationship between His people and Himself. The purpose of these laws was to create a level with which the people could communicate with God, and live with Him. Secondly, it states just how holy God is. The amount of the laws, the extent of them, and everything that goes with that, such as punishments, shows that God is holier then anything we can even imagine. Because He is so holy, He can't dwell where there is sin. That's why He was trying to help these people become holy. That's why He sent Jesus to die for our sins, and pin them on Himself.

The whole issue that all these laws are dealing with isn't creating a perfect nation, or perfect people, or a better group. God was attempting to let His people have the chance to become set apart for Him, to live with Him in their midst, to have a relationship with the Israelites. When the people failed Him, God was extremely disappointed, but His plan continued on, and He kept offering more and more chances.

This applies to us today as well. We should be striving to be holy, as God is holy. We all remain set apart for Him, even though we may not all be Israelites. We are each set apart for a personal relationship with God, for a personal purpose, for a personal reason. While we know that we can't be holy without God, because Jesus came into the world and sacrificed Himself in order to rip down that divide, and granted us the gift of the Holy Spirit, we now have God in us. With God, we can be holy. But it doesn't just happen. It requires every ounce of human effort, and then the finishing miracle of God's hand.