If we’re not paying attention, a glorious Spring season can come and go without reviving our souls or making us glad. After the cold of winter, one would think that Spring would bring a deep sense of gratitude and great joy alongside the greening of the grass and the blossoming of flowers. Unfortunately, some people hardly notice the glory of Spring. In the same way, a season of growth like what we are experiencing here at Cornerstone ought to make us glad; I hope none of us miss it.

I’m thinking primarily of the growth of our kids. I’ve been seeing the remarkable growth for years. I catch a glimpse whenever I pop my head into their classroom on Sunday mornings, just before the Sunday service starts, to greet the kids. And I’ve heard reports from the Sunday School teachers. 

But this Spring, I saw it for myself. I had the opportunity to teach them myself. Erin Hernick and Ayesha Dickerson were tremendous helpers that I couldn’t have done without. We spent three months together with about 15 of the kids on Tuesday evenings, getting to know them, and teaching them a Bible verse for every letter of the alphabet.

I am overjoyed by what I saw in our kids. They all did a great job memorizing all or most of the 26 Bible verses (A-Z) we covered. But more than rote memory, they also talked through the meaning of the verses and how they are applying the Bible verses to their lives. Watching them grow over the course of the three months was like noticing the Spring.

In addition to the Bible Memory Club that we had the privilege of teaching in the Spring, there are dozens of other Cornerstone kids who are growing right before our eyes here at our church. There is an expression about kids “growing like weeds,” but the kids of Cornerstone have been growing like beautiful flowers and strong trees. The girls and boys of Cornerstone are thriving. As a parent, that my own kids are thriving is all I need to make me insanely happy. In the same way, the thriving of the Cornerstone kids ought to make every spiritual mother and spiritual father (for that is what we are) full of the joy of the Lord.

It’s not just the little ones who are thriving either. Our Cornerstone teens and young adults are also getting rooted like trees (Colossians 2:8) and growing up right before our eyes (Psalm 1). I get to rub elbows with some of them on the basketball court. Others I see in groups that meet at the church or in houses. Still others we see as they go off to places like Costa Rica, Montenegro, and Birmingham, England on mission trips. I’ve even seen one of our college students on a Christian podcast. I see another meeting with some of his friends from High School to read the Bible with them. Another will be teaching a session at this year’s Men’s Retreat! Still others are preparing for ministry at Seminaries and Bible Colleges! Everywhere I look, I see Cornerstone teens and young adults growing strong in the Lord. 

Church, let’s rejoice in a season like this. Notice the weddings, the babies being born, the baptisms by the dozens, and the remarkable growth of our young people.

While we’re noticing, take a look at what God is doing in all facets of life at Cornerstone. The Women’s ministry has new fellowships, while the parking lot remains full on Tuesday mornings. Then you’ve got those Security Team guys; they’ve made this place safer than Fort Knox (they’re protecting more precious treasures!). The TDHP podcast has clips going viral and making a big difference in the world, especially in defense of Jews (Romans 11). The Truth Fellowship is now mentoring 5 young pastors. Cornerstone hosted a banquet for Handi-Evangelism to serve the needy. We largely funded the building of yet another orphanage in Malawi. ConnectCare has been serving needs right here in our own congregation. Marriage Matters just helped another group of couples. A new study on The Shared Life just helped a bunch of believers to abide in Christ. Behind the scenes, our Benevolence fund has helped our own through great difficulties. And I could go on and on for several more paragraphs just like this one. It’s remarkable.

Suffice it to say that Cornerstone is experiencing an incredible Spring. Rejoice in the Lord always! A dozen of our kids could quote you that verse, so I’ll say it again, rejoice! When God does great things for us (Psalm 126:3a), the appropriate response is to be filled with joy (Psalm 126:3b). If we’re not, then we’re like grumpy bears emerging from the winter but failing to see the beauty of all the growth of the Spring. We hole up in cave when we ought to be frolicking in the warmth of Spring. Don’t be a grumpy bear; rejoice in the season we are in.

Before the coming of the dark days of the Tribulation, the Church is destined to enjoy this season of growth. The mustard seed grows to become the largest garden plant (Matthew 13:31-32). And one wouldn’t expect a stone to grow, but the Kingdom of God is also like a stone that expands and becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth (Daniel 2:34-35). How could anyone miss that? Yet somehow we sometimes fail to see the glory of what we are living. Christ our Cornerstone is building His Church right before our eyes. Somehow we miss the growth of the Kingdom right before us like someone might miss the delights of the coming of Spring. 

When we come to church this Sunday, let’s not miss the faces. Philip the Evangelist, now also known as Philip the Preacher, made the incredibly insightful point in his sermon that people don’t have names in hell. The “rich man,” over against the man named Lazarus, doesn’t need a name, because in hell there is no fellowship. There is no recognizing faces. There is isolation. But when we come to Church this Sunday, let’s look at the glory of God in the faces of our brothers and sisters in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). 

C.S. Lewis, in his book Til We All Have Faces, taught us to not be hypocritical, to take off disguises, and to see each other. We ought to notice the glory of God in every Christian we see. 

In the year I was born, Lanny Wolfe wrote “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. I can feel His mighty power and His grace. I can hear the brush of angels’ wings. I see glory on each face. Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.” I grew up seeing glory in the church (Ephesians 3:21). I’m seeing it now more than ever.

Let’s together give glory to God for the great things He has done and is doing at Cornerstone Church. Come and contribute your joy.

With Joy in Christ,

Pastor Jeff

Imagine eating the same exact meal, every meal of every day, for forty unrelenting years. What if this meal wasn’t your go-to plate from your favorite restaurant, but it was a pile of bread-like flakes that looked like coriander seeds and tasted like “cakes baked with oil” (Numbers 11:8)? If that was your portion for forty straight years, it would be a tough pill to swallow! But in the case of the Israelites, that indeed was their daily bread.

But which came first, the chicken or the egg? In the case of the Israelites, they were the ones that laid the rotten egg that caused their forty-year wandering in the first place. With the forty-year suspension came the monotonous diet. They could have enjoyed a gloriously short passage from captivity in Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. But they themselves created the forty-year ordeal. They set their own table.

How did they do it? How did they get stuck in the wilderness and stuck with the same bland meal for forty years? The problem that led to God’s discipline was that the people of Israel would bellyache about everything. Even the manna in the wilderness, which was originally received as a delightful provision, quickly turned into another thing for them to complain about. It turns out that forty years of manna was just what the Doctor ordered to cure them of this horrible disease in the camp. Israel did not suffer from a physical malady; they had a disease of the soul. It was their besetting sin—complaining.

Complaining is draining. It empties the love tanks of those who have to hear its constant dripping. Moses wanted to die after so many years hearing Israel’s constant complaining. “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness” (Numbers 11:12-15). God didn’t kill Moses; He sent him seventy faithful men to help him carry the weight of the complaining nation.

But do you know what’s worse than the draining effect that complaining has upon others? It is the scorn with which it addresses God; complaining dishonors the God who is always providing everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). See how offensive it is to God when His people complain:

“And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned among them” (Numbers 11:1-3). “Taberah” means burning. Complaining is a constant drip against the glory of God that makes God’s anger burn.

So, God raised the young ones to know nothing but manna, and when their hearts learned to be thankful, He gave them better food in the Promised Land. But those who never learned to stop complaining, this entire generation of ungrateful Israelites, God would silence their complaining by making them fall one by one in the desert, until the nation was purged of this disease of complaining.

Lest we think that God no longer deals harshly with the particularly odious sin of complaining, read Hebrews chapters 3 and 4. God makes the point that nothing has changed with Him. In fact, the generation who fell in the wilderness is put before us as an example of what not to do, lest we suffer a similar fate. The warning is that complaining is a wandering step toward apostasy. Complaining is the opposite of gratitude; as soon as a soul stops praising and thanking God, there is a real danger of falling away altogether. God warns us not to be like the Israelites who fell in the desert.

So, if you perceive a complaining spirit in yourself, nip it in the bud. Kill it before it kills you, before it makes the people around you want to die. Moses himself failed to enter the promised land because of a creeping sense of entitlement and victimhood that finally resulting in him striking the Rock. That Rock was Christ, prophetically speaking (1 Corinthians 10:4), the very Rock that that gave him his manna and water. The constant dripping he heard from the people had made Moses himself a little bit leaky. Did you notice that Moses himself was complaining a little when he said he wanted to die because of all the complaining he had been hearing?

Complaining is sin. Just because it’s common doesn’t make it acceptable. Miriam complained and got hit with leprosy (Numbers 12). Aaron complained and suffered shame, not to mention the fear of seeing his sister afflicted with what would have been a preventable disease, had Aaron not joined in the complaint against Moses but counseled her to stop complaining.

It’s easy to complain, but it should be easier to maintain a heart of gratitude. After all, think about all that we have to be thankful for. Every day we are “better than we deserve,” as Dave Ramsey likes to say. We deserve eternal “Taberah” for our previous complaining, but here we are, alive. And not only alive, we are blessed beyond measure. God gives the sun to light and warm the earth. God gives clouds to water the earth and mute the overwhelming force of the sun, lest we be burnt. It’s only by grace all the time that we are not burned.

And God gave us better Manna from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. “‘For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst’” (John 6:33-35). How can we who have the Lord Jesus Christ ever complain?

How can we who have the abundance of food that we have in this country ever complain? The Israelites complained because they didn’t have “the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic” (Numbers 11:5). We complain because we have to eat our vegetables! Brothers and sisters, this ought not be.

When Jesus broke bread, He gave thanks. So, let gratitude be the defining characteristic of your life. If you are not sure that it is, just ask a few people around you, “do I complain a lot?” Others can see us better than we see ourselves. Hopefully they will answer that question honestly. If it turns out that complaining is a problem in your life, then make a practice of listing the things you are thankful for. Let those lists of thanksgiving be the carrots that attract you toward gratitude. And you also need a stick. Read Hebrews 3-4 every day until you stop complaining. Let God’s Word tell you how God feels about your complaining. Don’t let forty years of spiritual wandering go by. Let the Word of God be the tough pill that when swallowed delivers you from your complaining.

Jeremiah battled depression. He sat alone and wrestled with his thoughts. But in Jeremiah 15 we learn where he found his victory. “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts” (Jeremiah 15:16). Eat the manna of God’s Word every day and find deliverance from complaining.

For The Joy of the Lord is Our Strength,

Pastor Jeff

The older we get, the harder it is to remember things. The processing power of the brain peaks in our late teens. The ability to remember names and faces peaks in our late twenties. Our “working memory” peaks in our thirties. Because of the fall of man, death entered the world, so the processing power of our brains begins to diminish as soon as we reach adulthood. With healthy aging, the hippocampus shrinks by about 13% from age 30 to 80. Chemicals in the brain, like dopamine, also reduce gradually over the years. The connection between cells (synapses) diminish over time. Let’s not forget to say thank you to Adam and Eve for all of this when we see them in heaven.

But the diminishment of our brain power does not mean that our intelligencediminishes as we age. Although the raw power of the processor may decline over the years, the data we download into the brain can continue to increase until the day we die. While the speed and working memory of the brain declines, our knowledge can actually keep increasing. Vocabulary, emotional intelligence, and other “software” we upload into the brain can keep improving until very late in life.

It appears to me that Donald Trump, for example, is a much better thinker as he nears age 80 than he was in his 50s or 60s. He has always been “big brained,” but he makes better decisions now. His thinking has even improved markedly in the last six years. The 2026 version of Trump’s brain is much better than the 2020 version. It appears he has learned a lot, even gaining the ability to course correct (a little bit).

By contrast, Biden’s cognitive decline while in office was legendary. The attempted coverup of his brain problem was one of the worst scandals in American history. What made his choices so disastrous for the country was actually not even the decline of the processor, which reached ridiculous levels for any sitting President. But it was the fact that he uploaded corrupt software into his brain for all the years of his public life. That was the real scandal. He imbibed the Democratic Party Platform (abortion, LGBTQIA, feminism, democratic socialism, big government control, etc.) for a lifetime, so when his processor stopped functioning properly and he was flying on autopilot, the autopen spit out the party line. The danger Biden posed to the country was actually a life-long software problem, not an end-of-life hardware problem.

What we put into our brains is what we become. What we put in is eventually what we put out into the world. If a guy listens to everything Joe Rogan has to say, then he’ll become a little funnier for it and he’ll probably develop some common sense, but he’ll also have the spiritual wherewithal of a fifth-grader in a CCD class. If a woman watches The View everyday, then she’ll develop a strong antipathy for masculinity, capitalism, and biblical Christianity. But if men and women listen to voices like Rod D. Martin and Wes Huff in the public square, they listen to their pastors in the pulpits, and they listen to the people God has placed in their lives—men being sharpened like iron by other godly men (Proverbs 27:17, 1 Corinthians 16:13-14) and women being counseled by other godly women (Proverbs 31:26, Titus 2:3-5), then the fruit of our lives will be good. You are what you eat.

Now, remind me why I decided to write about all this. Oh yeah, I remember. Church, we’ve got to get back to studying and memorizing the Bible. We need to keep memorizing Scripture until the day we die!

I have been amazed to watch the sheer brain power of our kids as they learn the A-Z Bible verses. Remember when our brains worked like that? But let’s say your brain’s processor has diminished 13%, or maybe 30%. So what? God has designed our brains to be capable of life-long learning. Of course, diseases like Alzheimer’s, which are a result of the fall of man, can disrupt our learning, but healthy brains keep adding knowledge. God designed the human brain to never run out of storage capacity. So, even if it takes us a little longer to cut new pathways in the brain, why should that keep us from doing so at all?

And here’s the kicker: Memory work actually slows the shrinkage of the brain! Some adults take to puzzles and gameshows to keep their brains sharp. That’s good. But how much better to use God’s Word, sharper than any two-edged sword, to keep the brain sharp?

Our kids are adding 26 verses to the unlimited storage of their brain’s capacity. We can’t beat them in the speed with which they will be able to do it, but why not join them? Print this email and start plodding. Your spirit will be better for it, and even your brain itself will retain more of its functionality for putting it to work. Make Bible memory a life-long habit, not a memory, fading into the past.

The memory work actually becomes fun as you get into it. Moreover, it becomes useful in a variety of ways. For example, when I get to the painful part of a run, my mind will naturally default to calculating how much distance and time I have left to go. That only makes me think about the pain. But if I control my mind to start quoting some verses, I get distracted from the pain and before I know it, there’s the finish line. Scripture memory can keep us healthy—mind, body, and soul.

Let’s get it:

A—All Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16)

B—Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31)

C—Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right (Ephesians 6:1)

D—Do everything without complaining or arguing (Philippians 2:14)

E—Every word of God proves true (Proverbs 30:5)

F—For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

G—Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19)

H—He alone is my rock and salvation (Psalm 62:2)

I—I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)

J—Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8)

K—Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies (Psalm 34:13)

L—Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30)

M—Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4)

N—No man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24)

O—O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you (Psalm 63:1)

P—Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Q—Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry (James 1:19)

R—Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice (Philippians 4:4)

S—Seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33)

T—Trust in the Lord with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5)

U—Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain (Psalm 127:1)

V—I am the vine; you are the branches (John 15:5)

W—Walk as children of Light (Ephesians 5:8)

X—Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior (2 Samuel 22:47)

Y—You are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)

Z—Do not be lacking in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord (Romans 12:11)

Memorize the Bible. “Sin will keep you from this Book, or this book will keep you from sin.” I can’t remember where I heard that, but I know I heard that somewhere.

With Joy in Christ,

Pastor Jeff

In these times of war, we can expect to hear much about the price of oil. Twenty percent of the oil that the world consumes must pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but a demonic enemy of mankind threatens to destroy the oil tankers if they dare to pass. Under these circumstances, the media would have us believe that our world revolves around the price of oil. But what if crude isn’t even the oil that we need to be concerned about?

Jesus told a parable (Matthew 25:1-13) about foolish virgins who paid too little attention to their oil. In their case, the oil of concern was not crude oil but olive oil. They needed a full supply of olive oil in order to keep their lamps burning at night, because the bridegroom was coming at night and they would need to trim their lamps and go out to follow Him.

So, is it actually olive oil about which our Lord is concerned? Clearly not. The referent of the parable is an oil far more valuable than that.

Interestingly, the price of oil is not the problem in the parable. When the foolish virgins were reduced to beggars, they did not bellyache about the rising price of oil. When told to “go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves” (Matthew 25:9), they went, because evidently they had enough money to make the purchase.

The problem the foolish virgins faced was not financial; it was the problem of neglect. “For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them” (Matthew 25:3). That neglect had disastrous consequences. Unable to see their way to the Bridegroom, they stumbled their way to the oil sellers. We’re not sure if these foolish virgins ever actually bought the oil. It’s just as likely that the sun came up and they followed the sound of rejoicing to the great hall where the marriage feast was taking place. We know that when they got to the door, they begged to be let in, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” (Matthew 25:11). But the reply they received was heartbreaking, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you” (Matthew 25:12).

No price of oil is too high to pay if it means avoiding those dreaded words. But the best news of all is that the Lord offers His oil free of charge. The only obstacle we face is that of our own neglect. The wise take flasks of oil wherever they go (Matthew 25:4) but the foolish neglect to do so.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:15-18). God puts it on us to come to Him and be filled with the oil of His Holy Spirit. The wise do so. The foolish do not.

There is, in fact, a war against our oil. The feckless enemy cannot face up to us, because “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Asymmetric warfare is all the enemy can do. He can attack our oil supply.

Those attacks often come in the form of distraction. The enemy’s ballistic missiles are “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches” (Matthew 13:22). The drones against the Christian mind are the mind’s own wandering after “earthly things” (Philippians 3:19). Like floating mines in the Strait of Hormuz, anxieties threaten to destroy our usefulness. Since “the Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:5), we are told not to be “anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:6). The distractions of anxiety and worldliness are what threaten our oil.

Jesus tells the lukewarm Laodicean church to buy oil for their spiritual blindness (Revelation 3:18). Here the oil analogy is to an eye salve, curing some kind of conjunctivitis. As with the foolish virgins who lacked olive oil for their lamps, the problem is still an inability to see. They cannot see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Maybe they are saved, but they are not beholding the glory of Jesus. Where is the light that shone in their hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6)? Lukewarm Laodiceans have the same problem as foolish virgins, whichever analogy is used to describe the problem. The problem is neglecting the holy things of God.

The answer is to “be being filled” with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18, as the Greek is more exactly rendered). The Spirit of the Living God is our oil. God has already made us who believe to be new wineskins, fit to be filled (Luke 5:38). The infinite Spirit is always in abundant supply (John 10:10). We must only ask for the filling like a child asks a father for food (Luke 11:9-13), which is pretty much incessantly. The Father is pleased to give the Holy Spirit to His children who ask.

Ask Him right now. Don’t neglect your flask of oil. Pray something like this: “Father, forgive me for my neglect. These days are evil and I’ve been foolish to neglect the oil of your Holy Spirit. I’ve been lukewarm, and I want to burn for you again. Make me hungry for your Word and satisfy me today with your daily bread. Teach me to pray incessantly. Send me to tell others about the coming Bridegroom; let my cup overflow to others. Please fill me with your oil until it’s flowing over my head and body. Anoint me with your precious Holy Spirit. When the Son of Man comes, I want to be found with faith, active faith that ministers in the church and witnesses in the world. Find me with oil in my lamp. In Jesus Name, I pray, amen.”

Because the Oil is Free,

Pastor Jeff

Of all things that we must learn from our Teacher, how to pray is near the top of the list. The “Lord’s School of Prayer” (Luke 11:1-4) outlines 7 aspects of a strong prayer life. Continued teaching on the subject (Luke 11:5-13) and some object lessons (Luke 11:14-28) round out a 10-point lesson on how to pray.

Point #1 Address God as “Father” (Luke 11:2), recalling his love for you. Ordinarily, we pray TO the Father, THROUGH the Son, BY the Spirit.

Point #2 Begin your prayer with words of praise, like “hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2).

Point #3 Align yourself with His Kingdom (Joshua 5:14), saying “Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2), and examining yourself to remove anything that stands opposed to His rule.

Point #4 Request His provision for needful things, asking Him to “give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3). Notice the plural “us” indicates praying with other believers.

Point #5 Confess your sins and ask Him to “forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4).

Point #6 Deal with unforgiveness in your own heart, in order to honestly say, “for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). Forgiveness in the heart often comes before trust is rebuilt. Rebuilding trust is a process that takes time. Rebuilding trust may require that boundaries be set in place for a time.

Point #7 Ask God to “lead us not into temptation” (Luke 11:4). God cannot tempt (James 1:13), but He can transform the desires of your sinful heart to holy desires (Romans 12:1-2). Genuine freedom is not being caught in the lurch, wavering between competing desires (1 Kings 18:21) and possessing libertarian freedom to be the deciding factor. Rather, genuine freedom is to be wholly captured by holy desires and free from desire to sin (Psalm 51:10).

Point #8 Persist in asking for things that appear to be consistent with God’s revealed will (Luke 11:5-13). It is counterintuitive, but persistence in asking is submissive to God.

Point #9 Be aware that spiritual warfare happens when we pray (Luke 11:14-26). For the sake of those who are possessed or oppressed by demons, grow mighty in prayer (Ephesians 6:10-20, especially 6:18). Consider the spiritual warfare about which Daniel was informed, relative to his three-week prayer marathon (Daniel 10:2, 10:12-14).

Point #10 Pray the Word of God back to God (Luke 11:27-28). Don’t pray to saints or rely on human traditions. What we hear from God must inform what we speak to God.

Application: Like anything else we learn to do, to pray well takes practice and constant refining. Keep the 10 prayer principles in mind. Right them down, and grow by applying them. Think of Sunday night prayer meeting as a training session. What keeps you from attending the prayer meeting this Sunday night at 6:00pm?

Keith Green wrote a modern-day song that will likely be remembered forever as one of the great hymns of the Church age: “There is a Redeemer.” In the simplest of terms, Green captured something of the value we find in having a redeemer. “There is a redeemer, Jesus, God’s own son, Precious lamb of God, Messiah, Holy one.” Let’s look to the life of Boaz to help us think about the glorious truth that Keith Green was celebrating, that there is a Redeemer.

Boaz was a Kinsman Redeemer who paid some money (Ruth 4:5) and handed over a sandal (Ruth 4:7) to acquire Naomi’s field. In the transaction, Boaz won Ruth as his bride. Better by far, Jesus is the Kinsman Redeemer who received the ends of the earth as His possession (Psalm 2:8) when He handed over the bread and cup of His own body and blood to win the Bride that is the Church. Jesus is the greater Boaz.

Interestingly, when you read the book of Ruth, we are reminded right away that the birth of the one Savior would be in one distinct place—Bethlehem. Have you ever noticed that Bethlehem is mentioned in the first verse of the book of Ruth? Check it out. Verse 2 even reiterates that Elimelech’s people were Ephrathites, underscoring the importance of Bethlehem Ephrathah to the story that follows.

The prophetic significance is that, in contrast to obedient Joseph and Mary, who would one day travel to Bethlehem for the birth of their son, Ruth 1:1 tells us that disobedient Elimelech and Naomi travelled away from Bethlehem. The righteous arrived in Bethlehem for the birth of their son and the disobedient abandoned faith in the God of Bethlehem only to suffer the death of their sons (Ruth 1:5). It is clear that they were disobedient because the sons took Moabite wives, contra Deuteronomy 7:3, “You shall not intermarry with them.” The marriages would have been OK if the women had renounced their gods and identified themselves with the God of Israel, effectively becoming Israelites, like Rahab had done when she married Boaz’s father. But the flow of the narrative of Ruth 1:1-5 is decidedly away from Bethlehem, away from God and toward assimilation with the nations.

Elimelech turned away from Israel and led his family toward the nations, but this is actually only the background narrative (Ruth 1:1-5). The story itself is about turning back to Israel, going back to Bethlehem, and there finding redemption in the God of Israel (Ruth 1:6-4:22).

When Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem, it is purely for utilitarian reasons. Ruth 1:6 tells us that she heard that things were better back in Judah. But her heart appears to be unconverted, because out of the abundance of her heart, she speaks blasphemously, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law” (Ruth 1:15). Many Christians read this verse through their modern lens of multiculturalism and view Naomi’s counsel as if it were good and reasonable. The author of Ruth expects the reader to understand that she was advising toward idolatry!

The first sign of grace in the story appears in Ruth’s rejection of Naomi’s advice. “But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16 emphasis mine). This is a wholesale rejection of Moabite idolatry and a miraculous reception of Israelite identity. She will make a break with the world she has known all her life and place her life in the hands of the God of Israel.

It is the conversion of Ruth’s heart. It is also the first sign of grace toward Naomi’s heart. At the time, “she said no more” (Ruth 1:18), but that tacit acceptance was a glimmer of hope that the woman who called herself Mara, meaning bitter (Ruth 1:20), would one day believe the message of grace preached by the women of Israel, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel” (Ruth 1:14).

The Gospel is the message that Jesus is the blessed Lord and the crucified and risen redeemer of all sinners who repent and believe in His Name. Naomi repented and believed a Gospel preview, that Boaz is a redeemer sent by God to Naomi.

Boaz was a kinsman, the one who secured the right to take Ruth under his wing. Jesus was our kinsman, because He became fully human by supernatural conception in the womb of Mary. He was born in Bethlehem to take headship over all who come to Him in faith. Because He is our kinsman, being fully human like us, all of us can find our rest under Him (Ruth 3:1), under His cloak as it were.

Remember the story. “At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet!” (Ruth 3:8). Remember also that Boaz was only a type of Christ. He had limited knowledge. So, he was startled when he discovered that Ruth had snuck up on him. “He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer” (Ruth 3:9).

Better than Boaz, Christ always knew He was our Redeemer. As a twelve-year-old boy, He knew He was the Son (Luke 3:49), when even his parents did not fully understand (Luke 3:50). Christ also knew from all eternity whose names were “written from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8); Christ knew who of us would come to Him from a far away land, fall down at His feet, and say “Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” Jesus Christ is omniscient, so He knows what we will do. More than that, He is the author of our salvation (Hebrews 12:2), not just the finisher. He is the one who gave us the grace of having some Ruth in our life that would bring us to the Redeemer.

The story of Ruth is the story of grace, not only to Ruth but also to Naomi. It is a type of how grace works in our lives. We must come to an end of ourselves in Moab. We must run out of hope in our idols before we turn our attention toward Bethlehem. But when we come home, it is only because He drew us home. And when we find Him there to be our Kinsman Redeemer, it is only because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Apart from grace, no one can say and no one would care to say, “There is a redeemer, Jesus, God’s own son, Precious lamb of God, Messiah, Holy one.”

“While it is called today” (Hebrews 3:13), return to Bethlehem. Start by thanking God for whoever it was that brought you to Christ. Who was the Ruth to your Naomi? Think about how the grace of God upon their lives spilled over into yours. Thank God for them. And thank God for providing you with the Redeemer, the greater Boaz. Boaz redeemed Ruth with a sandal (Ruth 4:8); Jesus redeemed us “not with perishable things such as silver or gold” (1 Peter 1:18b), or any mere sandal, “but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Jesus is the greater Boaz, our Kinsman Redeemer.