Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Frederick Buechner has spent most of his life writing books to help open people’s eyes to the reality of God. When his daughter was a teenager, she fell into the grips of anorexia to such… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. According to the principle of Chekov’s Gun, there are no extraneous details in great stories. The Russian writer Anton Chekov (1860-1904) advised young playwrights, “If you reveal in the first act that there is a… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. It’s not unusual for pastors to receive late-night phone calls. But this was really late. It was 11:45 pm on a weeknight. I was only a few years out of seminary and struggling to lead… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Ten years earlier, Naomi had left her hometown of Bethlehem and crossed the border into Moab. She had been a wife and a mother of two sons. The rest of her life lay ahead of… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. In the Bible’s library of 66 books, Ruth is distinctive. Along with Esther, it’s one of only two books named for a female. No other book reserves the starring roles for two women (Ruth and… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Did you hear about the church that was frustrated with their new pastor? He loved to preach about baptism. In fact, he explored the finer points of baptism the first ten times he stood in… Read more »
Names were serious business in the ancient world. They were thought to reveal something of the character, identity, and even the destiny of those who bore them. That’s rarely the case in modern Western culture. Every few years I publicly reveal what the “W” of my middle name stands for. Back in the 1950’s, if my parents had been able… Read more »
Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Tucked away amongst the voluminous historical narratives of the Old Testament, like a Mom and Pop grocery store on a street that is lined with skyscrapers, there is a surprisingly humble Bible story called the… Read more »
