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Life is perplexing. It has been ever since we broke this place. And that means we get perplexed. There is a very natural and seductive way that we deal with our perplexities that this Scripture powerfully addresses. Even more powerful, however, is the way the Lord teaches us to properly deal with our perplexities. Listen in!
There is one last tragedy in the book of Ruth that we see in the life of Naomi. It's the suspense we feel as we live out our own stories. The suspense that holds us back from fully engaging own our lives. The internal suspense that makes us too afraid to let go of our fears. While that kind of suspense makes for a good story, it makes for a tragic kind of life - a life where you are always dragging around past baggage. The Spirit ministers to the human spirit in this Scripture giving it strength to fully hope in the last word of every believers' book. Listen in!
There are many, many legal details in this scene of Ruth. It is difficult to wade through. There are so many details that it can be appealing to focus on the lower story here - the story of a biblical beauty and a biblical prince who end up together, but there is a higher story here and a greater magic that we have to see. Right here in this Scripture we get to see divine love. Who knew legal details could be so saving? Listen in!
We all face spiritual paralysis in life. Sometimes it means that we will even stare at an open door and do nothing; or see a crack of daylight and not run for it. This is a sermon redeeming the listener from that hopeless kind of life. The redemption comes in the form of trusting God's living presence in our lives. Listen in!
A writer once said, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." That, of course, means we spend most of our lives working - 96,000 hours or so of it the statisticians say. That is a very significant part of our lives that can sometimes seem so futile and empty. That, in turn, can lead and has led to feelings of depression and resentment about our jobs for many of us. This is a sermon designed to help the listener better understand why we feel that way and to hand back to us all joy in our work.
Christian Cryptids are ideas, sayings, altruisms, and wive's tales that are associated with Christianity but are just plain un-Christian. This wouldn't be a big deal if it weren't for the false, frustrating, and dream-crushing results these lies make part of many Christian lives. Let's put our hope in real promises of God, promises that come from the Bible and not from a Facebook feed, and lets think about how we can share this real hope with those who are misled. This a sermon reflecting on the cryptid called the Beast of Bladenboro.