Thought for September 23

 History:

• 1779: John Paul Jones "I have not yet begun to fight"
• 1806: Lewis and Clark arrive back at St. Louis
• 1889: Nintendo founded to produce playing cards
• 1912: First Mack Sennett Keystone Comedy released
• 1952: Nixon makes Checker's speech
• 1955: Mississippi jury finds defendants not guilty of murdering Emmett Till--inspires civil rights movement
• 1957: President Eisenhower sends federal troops to support integration of Central High School in Little Rock
• 1969: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid premiers
• 1986: Congress selects rose as national flower
• 1990: PBS airs The Civil War
• 1994: The Shawshank Redemption premiers
• 2003: NCIS premiers
• 2020: Trump refuses to commit to peaceful transfer of power at news conference
• Born: Euripides, Augustus Caesar, Kublai Khan, John Sevier, William McGuffey [Readers], Typhoid Mary, Walter Lippman, Walter Pidgeon, Mickey Rooney, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Julio Iglesias, Mary Kay Place, Bruce Springsteen,Larry Mize, Jason Alexander, 
• Died: John Wesley Powell [Grand Canyon], Sigmund Freud, Pablo Neruda, Chief Dan George, Bob Fosse, Carl Rowan, Gale Sayers, 

On this day in 1857, the Fulton Street Prayer Meetings began. If you ever wonder what the Lord can do through the obedience on one person, here is the story for you. Jeremiah Lanphier was a tailor in NYC. A local ministry urged him to engage in evangelistic work, so he closed his business and became a missionary on the streets of the city. A financial panic was in progress and every person  he met seemed burdened, sad, afraid. He decided to start prayer meetings at noon, inviting people to stop in for prayer. September 23 was the first meeting and 6 people showed up late. The next week there were 20, then 40 and soon many churches were opening for prayer at noon and were flooded with people. Thousands came to Christ, and then the revival spread along the East Coast and then to Chicago and beyond. One business man from Nebraska said he traveled from Omaha to NYC along a 2000 mile prayer meeting. One of those impacted by the revival in Chicago was Dwight L. Moody. Then the revival spread to Great Britain. Within a year, 1 million were converted out of a US population of 30 million. Today our population is 330 million. Think about what would happen if in the next year 1 in 30 were converted--10 million people transformed from death to life. It all started when one man heard the call to pray. 

Thought:

Reading the story of Ruth today and focused on chapter 4. Here I see a great spiritual truth. You may recall the story. Naomi and her husband Elimelech leave Judah during a famine and go to Moab [a son of Lot via incest with his daughters]. There Naomi's sons marry Moabite women. The sons die and when the famine in Judah ends, Naomi wishes to return. Oprah decides to stay in Moab but Ruth makes the statement often used at weddings [1:16-17]. When they return to Bethlehem, Ruth works in the fields of Boaz collecting grain left for the poor and widows. She catches Boaz' eye. Boaz was a kinsman of Naomi and very wealthy. Eventually, Boaz decides to redeem the land of Elimelech but there is one closer kinsman. This is where I find a spiritual lesson today. 

Boaz tells the closest kinsman that he can redeem the land and the kinsman says certainly I will. then Boaz reminds the kinsman that if he redeems the land he will also need to marry Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the son of Elimelech and produce offspring in the name of that son to continue his line. Now read 4:6. The kinsman changes his mind because he might risk some of his inheritance to the line of Ruth. Boaz redeems the land and marries Ruth. What about his inheritance? Think about it. Boaz and Ruth became ancestors of Jesus. The knisman feared what he would lose, Boaz was moved by love and compassion and received the rich inheritance. Notice--

• We know Boaz' name. He is listed in the ancestors of David [4:22] and Jesus [Matthew 1]. We never read the name of the other kinsman.
• The other people blessed Boaz for redeeming the family of Elimelech [4:10-12]
• Make your home like Rachel and Leah. [4:11]. The mothers of the 12 sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes. In Christ, the seed of Boaz redeemed the Israelites and all who would believe. 
• May you achieve wealth in Ephrathah and fame in Bethlehem. [4:11] King David was born in Bethlehem and Jesus was born their as well. 
• May your house be like the house of Perez born to Tamar through Judah. Perez is also an ancestor of Jesus and David. And Boaz was so blessed.

As you read this story think about the two kinsmen. One was afraid of what they would lose, the other was blessed by what he gained. One tried to protect his earthly inheritance, the other received an inheritance in the earthly line of Christ. One's name is known only to God. the other we read about today. Makes me ask, what am I afraid to lose by committing fully to Christ? What do I value more than knowing Him? 

Blessings

Larry