day no. 17,387: three hundred eighteen

Genesis 14:14

When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

Abram had 318 men ready to rock n roll. He did not have to scramble when the crap hit the fan. He had planned ahead. He had men he had trained. He had equipped them for the catastrophe so that when it came, he called up the troops. He did not have a standing army and he did not have a castrated crew. He trained them and trusted them not to use their skills against him and he trusted the Lord enough not to keep a corps on constant standby.

*as an interesting historical side note, the traditionally accepted number of bishops who attended the First Council of Nicaea is 318. That may be a simple historical oddity or coincidence, but it is a striking one. 318 is an interesting number. It is interesting in that it is so specific and yet not immediately associated with anything else. That is, until the Council of Nicaea. It will forever live rent free in my mind as a correlation. The one will always make the think of the other. Trained men ready to rock n roll defending the deity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

day no. 17,386: cannibals or cousins?

“Christmas is utterly unsuited to the modern world. It presupposes the possibility of families being united, or reunited, and even of the men and women who chose each other being on speaking terms. Thus thousands of young adventurous spirits, ready to face the facts of human life, and encounter the vast variety of men and women as they really are, ready to fly to the ends of the earth and tolerate every alien or accidental quality in cannibals or devil-worshippers, are cruelly forced to face an hour, nay sometimes even two hours, in the society of Uncle George; or some aunt from Cheltenham whom they don't particularly like. Such abominable tortures cannot be tolerated in a time like ours…It is intolerable that such sensibility should suffer the shock of the unexpected appearance of her own mother, or possibly her own child. It was never supposed that Parents were included in the great democratic abstraction called People. It was never supposed that brotherhood could extend to brothers.” ― G.K. Chesterton

The embittered consider the cannibalism of a stranger more endurable than the politics of a parents. They would rather come face to face with a devil worshiping foreigner than have any face time with a boring relative.

"If all cultures are equal, then cannibalism is just a matter of culinary taste." — Léo Strauss

Where Christ is not obeyed, the cannibalistic butchery of the barbarian can be tolerated, but the antiquated customs of your cousin cannot. In some exceptional cases, cannibalism may even be adopted by some as a way of trying to take the bite out of the whole situation.

Galatians 5:15

If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Some people would rather run the risk of chewing others up for the chance of getting to chew others out. They'd rather be friends with those who consume men than be friendly to those men God has called their brothers. But the best measure of a man is not his ability to get along with those he has to travel a long way to meet, it is his willingness to get along with those he has to travel home to see again.

"The best way that a man could test his readiness to encounter the common variety of mankind would be to climb down a chimney into any house at random, and get on as well as possible with the people inside. And that is essentially what each one of us did on the day that he was born." ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

All of our neighbors were once strangers, including our parents. We do not prove our mettle by finding new strangers to admire, but by finding new ways to admire old friends.

"When we step into a family, we step into a world that we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy tale." ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

We can choose our surroundings, but God chooses our foundings. Everyone is born into something somewhere. Everyone belongs to someone and owes someone something. We must love our neighbors as ourselves which in this case means realizing that they may feel just as stuck with you as you feel you are with them.

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” ― G.K. Chesterton

It is easy to get along with people you share nothing in common with. Getting along in that case is easy, it costs you nothing. They don't need anything from you and demand nothing from you. You have no obligation to any of them and they do not owe you anything. The fact that you don't share anything in common means you have less to fight over because neither of you want the same thing.

"In a world of increasing disconnectedness, the very act of gathering together at Christmas is an act of defiance." ― Ryan Whitaker Smith, Winter Fire

In the end, it will be Christ or chaos. There will be connection in Christ and there will be disconnectedness outside of Him. As the world around us chases chaos, we must gather around Christ. This includes coming together for Christmas. We are at war with the world and one family sitting around home with one prayer before one meal is a nuclear family bomb. It is devastating to those who bow before devastation.

day no. 17,385: back when the pagans were orthodox

"The England of the 17th century was so saturated with Biblical, Puritanical, Protestant theology, that everybody was orthodox, even the pagans." — Douglas Wilson, Plodcast #426: Why Aren't More People In Jail

The pagans of yesteryear were more orthodox than the professing Christians of many in our day. Christendom had so saturated the world in 17th century England that the most reprobate sinner knew his catechism. He knew what he was rejecting and he knew that he was rejecting it. He did not reject the existence of God or His claim over him per se, he rejected his duty to obey Him. He did not dispute the duty, he simply failed to fulfill it. This is not a better situation for the unconverted per se, at least not eternally, but it is a better situation for society in general and arguably better for even the unconverted in the meantime as it provided the option of repenting of their unrepentance.

"Everybody was ostensibly a cultural Christian. Almost all of them had been baptized in infancy into the church. But the Reformation had been so thorough and so widespread that everybody knew the categories: these are the converted people and these are the unconverted people... In these days, it appears from how Baxter talks to them that he is fully expecting the unconverted to identify themselves as unconverted: 'Yes, I'm a Christian. Yes, I'm baptized. Yes, I go to church. And Yes, I'm unconverted." — Douglas Wilson, Plodcast #426: Why Aren't More People In Jail

Christendom does not guarantee that everyone will be Christian in the sense that they will go to Heaven when they die, but it doe guarantee that everyone will be Christian in the sense that they will belong to the visible church and have to break with it in the invisible recesses of their heart. It required an honest rejection of the claims of Christ without rejecting His right to claim them.

Oh, that we may once again live in a land where the most unconverted neighbor is conversant in the catechisms. This brings the weight of the law to bear on everyone, even those who do not claim to worship its Giver. This is Calvin's second use of the law with it acting as a restraint or a deterrent to the behavior of those who were not believers, and whose depravity could otherwise manifest into all manner of lawlessness. Those who oppose Christian Nationalism on Christian grounds are depriving pagans of their opportunity to be better men.

They shall come mild as monkish clerks,

With many a scroll and pen;

And backward shall ye turn and gaze,

Desiring one of Alfred's days,

When pagans still were men.

— G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

Unbelievers and believers used to have more in common. Pagans knew enough to know that they were looking for answers. In that, they and the Christians agreed. Life had a meaning somewhere out there and we are all obligated to obey whoever it turned out to be and whatever it is they wanted from us. They disagreed as to who or what it was, but agreed on the premise that there must be a who and a what in order for everything else to hold together.

C.S Lewis' Christmas Sermon for Pagans emphasizes the same sentiment as Chesterton does here. Give me a good ol' fashioned pagan any day compared to what we have now. The intelligentsia of the enlightened modern man refuses to look up for answers. While the old fashioned unbelievers saw animals in the stars, they at least were looking in the right direction. Modern unbelief doesn't only refuse to believe in the one, true God, but fails to believe or take the time to consciously concoct an alternative. That doesn't mean they don't have a belief system, but highlights the fact that they don't know that they even hold to one.

"The modern world is filled with men who hold dogmas so strongly that they do not even know that they are dogmas. It may be said even that the modern world, as a corporate body, holds certain dogmas so strongly that it does not know that they are dogmas." — G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

The problem with modern man isn't that he has become modern, but that he is no longer a man.

day no. 17,384: frogmarches and feast mode

1 Peter 5:8-9

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

What do our enemies want to do?

Devour us.

So what does God do?

He frogmarches them into our presence and sets us up before their salivating jaws.

Psalm 23:5-6

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Does He give us over to our enemies?

No, He gives us a feast and forces them watch.

day no. 17,383: the perversion of perversion

“Young people today are routinely tempted by things that their grandfather didn’t find out about until his second year of medical school.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing As Bad Words

Once upon a time you had to publicly admit that you were a pervert in order to gain access to perverted things. You had to ask the cashier for the magazine behind the counter, you have to drive to the seedy part of town, you had to look the hotel clerk in the face when you paid your room bill, etc... That said, someone was still producing those perverted things and there was a way to lawfully purchase them, so it wasn't heaven on earth, but hell at least felt the need to hide itself in back alleys or behind the counter.

Today, perversion is being marketed in broad daylight. It is being sold and purchased in front of everyone like that guy with his Moabitess through the camp of Moses. We have perverted the nature of perversion. We have stressed the "normalness" of unnaturalness. We have declared the delusional to be sane and the kinky to be in line. We are told that the abnormal is normal. Which begs the question... what is abnormal? Apparently it is one man and one woman coming together as husband and wife for one lifetime and raising children together. That is the new perversion that the modern marketers want to keep behind the counter. That is the thing which they want young people to feel ashamed for wanting.

Adam and Eve really did learn something about evil by eating that fruit before it was time to take it. They learned something new, but not the way they were meant to learn it. They did not develop the discernment to tell the difference between white and off white, but they did learn what wickedness tasted like. That is a lesson no one ever needs to learn, but that is the subject of most advertisements and academia in our day.

day no. 17,382: fallen empires are good fertilizer

“Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success— in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, from a letter to his son Christopher

Fallen empires make good fertilizer. The advances of evil are only ever tilling the soil for the seeds of good to grow. Corruption always clutches defeat from the jaws of victory. It cannot help itself. It is contaminates the container it works so hard to build. Its rot and decay create a compost for the kingdom of God. The wicked are always chasing the wind and winning. Their hands are full of emptiness.

day no. 17,381: the humble touch the heavens

"Although they would have us believe they are in charge, as the prophet Isaiah pointed out, all these petty lords of the earth can do is breath through their noses (Is. 2:22). They are midges in a sunbeam, plotting an overthrow of the sun." — Douglas Wilson, Eliot and Lucia

The worst person you know still has to draw their breath from the same air as you. The best person you know still has to use the toilet sometimes. No one is so high and mighty that they have become a different kind of person and no one is so lowly that they are beyond sharing the same dignity of life and breath as we do. We all still use our mouths to eat and our eyes to see.

If there is a secret cabal attempting a coup somewhere, they are like ants on a sidewalk. From their vantage point, they really are making some headway, but the kid on the bike didn't even notice that he knocked down their highest achievement. The wicked walk on stilts in order to make themselves feel tall, but the humble bow down low in order to touch the heavens.

day no. 17,380: pentecost: what does this mean? (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Pentecost

May 24, 2026

What Does This Mean?

THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Acts 2:1-12, these are the words of God:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

INTRODUCTION

According to the church calendar, today is Pentecost. But what exactly is Pentecost and why is it today? The word “Pentecost” literally means fiftieth and it occurs fifty days after Easter. Before it was a Christian holiday, however, it was a Jewish holiday, as we observed in our reading. It was often referred to as the Feast of Weeks since it took place seven weeks after the sabbath of the Passover, in other words, the day after seven sets of seven. In the English-speaking world, Pentecost has also been called “Whitsun,” which is a shortened form of White Sunday, since on this day those who were to be baptized traditionally wore white garments to church. According to the Jewish calendar, Pentecost was a harvest festival where the first fruits of the fields were reaped and enjoyed. According to the Christian calendar, it is also a harvest festival, but the first fruits are not those which come up from the ground, but those which came down to us from Heaven. On this day, the Holy Spirit came down to dwell with us just as Jesus had promised and the church was born. For that reason, today is also sometimes recognized as the church’s birthday. Let’s consider our text.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples of Jesus were all together. They were in one place and they were of one accord. That peaceful scene, however, was violently interrupted by a loud noise. A nose so loud it filled the entire house and sounded like a blowing wind turned up to eleven. As they sat there, likely holding their ears, cloven tongues of fire appeared and rested on each one of them and they began to speak in other languages. Now, because it was a feast day, Jerusalem was filled with devout men from every nation under heaven who had gathered to celebrate, but the party at the apostles’ house was apparently such a rager that many of them came to investigate. What they discovered when they got there was a bunch of Galileans speaking in foreign languages. And if that were not shocking enough, what they were all talking about was the mighty works of God. As a result, they all looked at each other and asked the obvious question, “What does this mean?”

THE CURSE OF BABEL

In order to help answer that question, we need to go all the way back to the book of Genesis and the story of the tower of Babel found in chapter 11. After the flood, God told Noah and his sons what He had once told Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” Instead of spreading out, however, several of them decided to settle down. They decided to try to make a name for themselves instead of making a name for God. They did not want to look up to God for direction, they wanted other people to look up to them. Not surprisingly, God did not smile down upon this, but instead put an end to their attempted coup by confusing their language. 

C.S. Lewis, in That Hideous Strength, made use of the same tactic when he had Merlin invoke the curse of Babel on the bad guys at Belbury. Here is how he put it: “They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.” We see this in our days as well; e.g. those who despise the Word of God cannot define what a woman is. Back to Babel, note that God did not tear down their tower, He broke down their ability to communicate. As a result, they voluntarily abandoned their group project and moved away in different directions. This got them closer to where they were supposed to be geographically even if it left far from where they were supposed to be spiritually.

THE CURSE REVERSED

Fast forward now to Pentecost. What happened there was not so much a reversal of Babel as it was a reversal of the curse of Babel. The languages remained, but the confusion was now gone. Pentecost did not reintroduce a common language, it introduced a way for people with different languages to understand each other. That way being the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. When God confused the tongues at Babel, the result was that men scattered, divided by their different languages. When God gave different languages at Pentecost, the result was that man gathered together to hear the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

Babel is the photo-negative of Pentecost. At Babel, men came together to defy God's command to fill the earth. In response, God confused their tongues in order to prevent them from working evil together any longer.  At Pentecost, men came together to hear God's command to come together in Christ. In response, they obeyed, and the church was born. In Christ our distinctions are no longer sources of division. Men and women can understand each other. Jews and Gentiles can reconcile. In Christ, the beauty of diversity destroys the curse of diversity.

APPLICATION

So, that is what Pentecost means, but what does it mean for us? It means diversity is not our strength, Christ is. It means that our particular way of doing things is not our strength, Christ is. In Him, diversity is a blessing, but outside of Him it is a curse. As Babel reminds us, unity among people is only as good as what unifies them, and diversity among people is only as bad as what divides them.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we often prefer the curse of individuality to the blessing of community, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be related to this or others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Most holy and merciful Father, we acknowledge before You our sinful nature and our many offenses. We are prone to do evil and slow to do good. You alone know how often we have sinned in wandering from Your way, in wasting Your gifts, in forgetting Your love. Lord, we are ashamed and sorry for all the ways that we have displeased You. Father, teach us to hate our rebellious acts, cleanse us from our secret faults, and forgive our sins for the sake of Your Son. Help us to love You with all our heart and mind and strength. And give us the power of Your Holy Spirit so that we may walk in Your ways and serve You all of our days.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! The assurance of pardon today comes from 1 John 1:8-9 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If Christ has paid for your sins, there is nothing left for you to pay. God would be unjust to charge you for something Jesus already paid for. But God is not unjust. He will not double bill anyone. And that is very Good News because that means in Christ your sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now, let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,379: fighting with joy, not for it

"The joy of the Lord is our strength. We are not called simply to fight with the evil around us, but rather we are called to fight this evil with a song in our hearts. We do not fight for joy, but rather with our joy. If God has assigned to us the role of being dragon slayers, why should we be distressed to discover the existence of dragons? You were born for this hour. All of this surrounding mayhem is your duty station. You were put here on purpose. You were written into this role by the Author of the story, into this time, and His judgments are perfect. As I said earlier, it is a daunting task, but you were fitted for it."  — Douglas Wilson, Eliot and Lucia

We are not simply called to fight the good fight, we are called to enjoy it. We have received the dangerous duty of delight. We must not merely to march in the Lord's army, we are to sing marching songs as we advance. We are not fighting for joy, we are fighting with it. The one who is laughing is winning. The one has lost their temper has lost the argument. Let us, therefore, rise to the occasion by letting a song and laugh rise from our lungs. We were born for such a time as this. Let us not shrink back from this stage.

day no. 17,378: unendurable vices (and their remedies)

In Douglas Wilson's recent post titled, Christians, Gerrymandering, and the Legitimate Uses of Political Power, he referenced the following quotation:

"These present times, in which we can endure neither our vices nor their remedies." — Livy, Ab Urbe Condita Praefatio 9

One of the worst consequences of being caught in sin for a long time is that you get used to it and prefer the pains of staying in the chains to the pains of learning to walk again. Good muscles atrophy from lack of use and any attempt to use them again is painful. Like the lame man by the pool of Bethseda, you get used to where you are and are not particularly motivated to move. The difficulties of moving only then reinforce a desire to stay put.

Sin is not a long-term strategy and anything that can't go on forever, won't. And so we have reached the point where we can no longer sleep in the bed we have made. It is too uncomfortable. But we are also too weak and to tired to carry our old mattress out. We can no longer get rest from the things we used to and we do not have the energy or ability to do the work real rest requires.

We cannot continue to drink poison without dying, but we cannot stand the taste of the medicine. And so, we waste away... unless God, by His grace, should intervene.

day no. 17,377: pocket-sized perdition

“Each one of your teenagers today is walking around with Bourbon Street in his pocket, or in her purse. And in many cases, always downloaded. You are driving off to church, and your (inexplicably sullen) teenager is in the way back, AirPods in, preparing his heart for worship by listening to 'effin’ on the blim blam, n-word in the vocative plural!'" — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing As Bad Words

You don't have to go to Mardi Gras anymore, it comes to you and you don't have to wait for that one week per year to cut lose, it's available online all year round. Such is the state of things. The lay of the land is licentiousness. Once upon a time, you had to have the courage to seek out wicked things. You had to look someone in the eyes and ask for the thing behind the counter. Now, it comes looking for you. It pops up as a window while you are online, it comes through as a text on your phone, it is a direct message from a stranger on an app. Everywhere we are assaulted by things we did not ask for. It is in the commercial you can't skip between videos you curated, it is the advertisement on the radio between the songs you wanted to hear, it is the billboard on the side of the road on the way you wanted to go. Never have the words, "Be on guard," been more applicable than they are today. Perdition is now pocket-sized. The world has not only gone to Hell in a handbasket, it has found a way to fit Hell into the palm of your hand.

1 Corinthians 16:13

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

Do not let your guard down. Sin never sleeps, so don't sleep on sin. Keep your head on a swivel, your mind on His law, your heart in faith, and your hands in obedience. Do not take your eyes off the eternal prize or give any attention to the booby prizes the world offers (let the reader understand).

Philippians 3:13-14

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Let the past rest in the empty tomb of Christ and lay the future at the foot of His throne where He sits at the right hand of the Father destroying all of His enemies who are chasing you or waiting in ambush. Even though Hell can now fit in the palm of your hand, it once strove through the palm of Jesus'. Hell was nailed to the Cross. Christ came down off of it, but the gates of Hell were cast away. The grave is empty and the threats of Hell are emptied.

day no. 17,376: politicks

“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” — G.K. Chesterton; Illustrated London News, April 19, 1924

Because progressives are always thinking in terms of solutions instead of trade-offs, they are always creating the next problem to be solved. They are also shocked to discover that new problems came up and even more shocked to discover that they were a direct result of the last solution they proposed. 

Because conservatives are always thinking in terms of trade-offs, they are always seeking to keep the problems they are comfortable with rather than adopt some new problem they have never dealt with before. They are shocked when the new problem is pushed through and even more shocked to discover that they are merely conserving the progressive mistakes of the past.

"Conservatism is a party which never conserves anything." — R.L. Dabney

Progression and conservatism are only as good as what they are progressing toward and what they are conserving respectively. Progressing in the Spirit of God is good and conserving the work of the Spirit in the past is good. But if you merely value tradition, you will find that your grandchildren will be conserving the values of those you are currently fighting because by then it will simply be the way it's always been done.

"Conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition." — R.L. Dabney

Secular progressives wants to drive off the cliff at 80 mph, but secular conservatives fight back and argue that we should only be going 50 mph. No one is arguing about not driving off the cliff, however.

"The only practical purpose which conservatism now subserves in American politics is to give enough exercise to Radicalism to keep it 'in wind.' and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy, from having nothing to whip." — R.L. Dabney

At this point, conservatives primarily help progressives raise donations. The fact that anyone still opposes the radical nonsense of the Left is enough to fill their coffers with campaign support. This truth is so apparent in our day that some left wing organizations have begun funding right wing radicalism in order to generate more support from the left wing. It turns out you get a good return on your investment. You get more money from libs if you give them nazis to fight. 

When it come to politics, both parties are politicks sucking the lifeblood from their donors. And if that wasn't bad enough, they also found a way for the ticks to transmit diseases. So, not only are you losing your lifeblood, but they're corrupting the blood they cannot get to.

day no. 17,375: the immoral high ground

“We live in a time when progressives can sport bumper stickers that will tout the ticket of Shagrat/Slubgob 2024, and still manage to look down on you and your kind as ethical retards.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing As Bad Words

The demonic have always called evil "good" and good "evil." The degree to which something is demonic is the degree to which it embraces this standard. The troubling nature of our current dilemma is not that some are willing to call evil things "good," that much has always been true, what is most troubling is that many actually believe that evil is "good." As Pastor Wilson points out, someone could sport a bumper sticker promoting satanism and still believe they have the moral high ground in a conversation with a Christian. They do not just call Christianity "evil," they believe that Christianity is evil. They do not just call their demonic worship "good," they believe that the demonic is good. They have the immoral high ground which turns out to be the slough of despond.

“‘Have you ever noticed,’ said Dimble, ‘that the universe, and every bit of the universe is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point?’ His wife waited as those wait who know by long experience the mental processes of the person who is talking to them. ‘I mean this,’ said Dimble in answer to the question she had not asked. ‘If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family – anything you like – at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder.’” — C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

As a result of our current condition, there is less hypocrisy, but there is more blatant heresy. No one has to pretend to be orthodox in an environment that throws shade at orthodoxy. The dark is getting darker and more comfortable being dark in broad daylight. The light then must get brighter and more comfortable with making other people squint.

day no. 17,374: two times two (knox and eulalie turn two)

Happy Birthday, wonder twins!

Today is two times two day. What a blessing!

Knox, you are the butteriest boy. Of all the buster browns, you're the busty browniest. You are a quiet little lad. You keep to yourself. You are calm until you aren't. When you get frustrated you melt into a puddle. You are a tiny mama's boy. There are some problems no one else can solve. Sometimes you just need your mom and she is the only one who will do. You have a great laugh. You dig deep when you find something really funny. You like to shake hands unless you don't know or recognize the person and then you don't even want them looking at you. You retreat somewhere deep inside and hope that they stop looking at you. 

Eulalie, you are the beaniest babe. Of all the beanie babies, you are the beanie babiest. You are a loud little lady. You are outgoing and energetic. You run everywhere. When you get frustrated you get loud. Or should I say, louder. You are a daddy's girl. There are some problems no one else can solve. Sometimes you just need your daddy. You like to smile with your teeth. You are a baby shark. You are smart and you like to babble. You like your milk cup full. If you take a drink, you want it filled up again before you take another. You like being the center of attention and seek out the spotlight.

You two are so much fun. You are so distinct and the contrast is only highlighted by the fact that you share a birthday. Of all people who you'd think would be the same, it would be twins, but in your case, you are very different. One is a boy, the other is a girl. One is pudgy, the other is wiry. One is quiet, the other is loud. One doesn't like attention, the other does. One ambles along, the other runs. One sometimes falls back from going too slowly, the other sometimes falls forward from going too quickly. You complement each other very well. 

I love you babies and I am so excited to watch you both grow up and become the grown up versions of what God has so clearly already designed you to be respectively.

Happy Birthday, da babies.

Love,

Dad

day no. 17,373: marriage material (sermon outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Ruth 2:17-23

May 17, 2026

…

OT READING: 1 King 11:1-8

NT READING: 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Marriage Material

READING OF THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Ruth 2:17-23, these are the words of God:

So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.” So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Thank You for Your Word. Help us to hold it in high and reverent esteem, persuaded that we do not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from You. Fill us now with Your Spirit that we might hear it, believe it, and do it. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Good morning! This morning, we are continuing our study of the book of Ruth. Last week we left off with Boaz and Ruth finishing their first meal together. Ruth had earned a good reputation for herself through her repentance, her loyalty to Naomi, and her hard work in the fields. Boaz took notice and then took the opportunity to get to know her a little better over some bread and wine. As an aside, that is a great context in which to get to know someone. When we take communion later, look around. You are sharing a meal with these people. Do not neglect regular attendance at this meal as is the habit of some. Then stick around after service for the fellowship meal and get to know some of them even better. You already know that you share the bread and wine in common, it stands to reason that you probably share other things as well.

Back to our story, after their meal, Boaz let Ruth get back to work, but he also prepared some good grain for her to harvest that she should work in it. He did not take the dignity of work from her, he made a way for her to be more profitable in her work. She had to work out what he worked in. This is just another one of the many ways the book of Ruth reminds us of the Gospel. God has prepared good works for us beforehand that we might walk in them and we are to work out what He has already worked in. That said, let’s review our text:

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

:17 “So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.” Ruth was no slacker. She did not stop until the work was done. That always includes cleaning up the mess the work made. Work is messy, but the job is not done until the worksite is picked up and the tools are put away. Ruth gleaned until evening and then she beat out what she worked so hard to glean. She did not quit until ALL the work was done. And when all was said and done, she had a pretty good haul. An ephah of barley was roughly 25-30 pounds and could feed a family for about 2 weeks. That is a good day’s work. It is a blessing, but it is a BIG blessing. And big blessings can be hard to carry. One of the biggest problems the faithful have is trying to figure out how to carry so much blessing around. For many of us, that reality is not hyperbole or hypothetical. We’ve been at the grocery store with all our kids and had someone say, “Looks like you have your hands full.” They say that like it’s a bad thing – as though having your hands full of blessing were a problem to be avoided. My wife’s stock reply to such comments is, “Yes, my hands are full… full of good things.” This is the problem Ruth now had. She had her hands full of barley. But like you, she found a way to carry it all, because we always find a way to carry the weight of the things we love. Our love for them does not make them any less heavy, but it does give us the strength to carry them. And that is what Ruth did.

:18-19 “And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, ‘Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.’” First, realize how relieved Naomi must have been that Ruth made it home in one piece. Remember, the world in which our story takes place was not a safe place for anyone to walk around alone, let alone a woman, let alone after dark. So, the fact that she was hearing Ruth’s voice at all was a relief to her. But then she heard the good news that Ruth had food for the pantry and leftovers to serve for dinner. 

Take notes young men. Boaz paid for dinner and then he sent Ruth home with leftovers to give to her mother-in-law. When you are trying to win a woman, you are also trying to win her mother and father. And if you try to win the girl without winning her parents, you will lose the girl, if she is a good one. Any girl who would let you swoop her out from under her parent’s authority, without their permission, is not worth having. And ladies, any guy who would try to get you away from your parents in order to try to win you to himself is not someone you should follow. As flattering as his attention may seem, he is not honoring you, he is dishonoring you, because he is dishonoring those who have been assigned to protect you.

So, Boaz had enough for himself, enough for Ruth, and enough left over to send back for Naomi. A man must carry his own load before he can offer to help someone else carry theirs. (Gal. 6:5) If he cannot carry his own load, he does not need a woman to help him carry it, he needs Jesus. He needs to yoke himself to the Lord and to get his life in order. And once he has done that, he needs a mission. At that point, he has something a woman could help him with. She cannot be his mission. He needs something bigger to invite her into. And ladies, he cannot be your mission. Man was made to tend to the garden and woman was made to tend to the gardener. If he does not have a garden, he does not need a woman, he needs a mission. Ladies, a man should not need you to keep him from falling apart. If a man needs to be fixed, you are not the person to do it. God gave Adam a wife, not a mom. Adam was a man with a mission who needed help, not a boy with bad habits who needed a mommy. If a man is messed up, he needs Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit. Do not try to be his Holy Spirit. You are not as good of a helper as God is. There are some things you cannot, and more to my point, should not, try to fix. And if you are offended by that, you are not in a position to help anyone.

So, a man must have his own house in order before he attempts to build a home with someone else. Consider Proverbs 24:27, “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.” Young men, you should not try to know a woman before you know how to hold down a job. You must do the good, hard work of getting things ready so that you have a life to invite her into. If you want to be married, but you are not ready, that is your cue to get things ready. Do what you need to do. Get a Bible that you read, a job that you go to, and a church that you serve. Then, invite a young lady into that. Too many young men pursue the girl before they pursue the Lord. They are like dogs on a country road. They bark and chase any car that goes by, but if any of those cars happen to stop, they have no idea what to do next. They just stop and stare. That is most young men: energetic, highly motivated, and totally unprepared.

Boaz noticed Ruth and he had the means to pursue her because he was already carrying his own load. He already had a field and it provided him with enough to take care of himself and enough left over to provide for others. If you want to get the girl, you are going to have to be more like Boaz. You may be able to land a low quality lady on spec, but you won’t be able to impress a high quality woman, or her father for that matter, if you don’t have something to show for it. 

Potential is good, but it is not enough. If all you have is potential, you don’t even have that. 

So, at this point, Naomi’s curiosity was likely piqued and so :19 continues, “So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, ‘The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz.’ :20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!’ Naomi also said to her, ‘The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.’” Boaz was not only a good man because he carried his own load, he was a good man because he forgave those who failed to carry their own. Elimelech was Boaz’s kin. Recall that Elimelech skipped town, but Boaz didn’t. Elimelech abandoned his people and his place, and as embarrassed and ashamed as Boaz may have been or as hurt by Elimelech’s decisions as he was, he was ready to forgive. He was not bitter. He was not brooding around Bethlehem with a chip on his shoulder. He did not rejoice when he got word that Elimelech and his sons had died in Moab. 

Notice what Naomi said. Boaz “had not forsaken the living or the dead.” He did not forsake Naomi and Ruth who were alive or Elimelech and his sons who were dead. He did make the living pay for what the dead had done. Consider 1 Timothy 5:8 “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Boaz did not forsake his relatives, even when they deserved it. He kept the faith when they didn’t. His love covered a multitude of their sins. Chesterton said it this way: “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” Boaz loved his unlovely family. His loyalty covered their betrayal. Be like Boaz; be like Jesus: forgive your family and friends.

And this brings us to another piece of dating advice. Ladies, watch how a man treats his mother; and fellas, listen to how a woman refers to her father. These are indications of how they will treat you. Men, if she will not respect the authority of her father, how will she respect your authority as her husband? Ladies, if he will not love his mother, how will he teach your children to love you? Boaz was ready to receive Elimelech’s family back into fellowship. He held the line when they left, but he did not hold on to bitterness when they came back. Consider Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” 

In order to cleave to a wife, a man must be able to leave his father and mother. If he leaves home in a fit of rage and unforgiveness, he is not leaving, he is holding onto a grudge and taking it with him wherever he goes. Leaving home begins by being in good fellowship with your family. Forgiveness allows you to move on. Unforgiveness tracks its dirt behind you wherever you go. Bitterness may feel like a break, like you are cutting someone off or cutting yourself free from something, but bitterness is actually a bonding agent. The more you try not to be like your dad, the more you are bound to him. It’s like trying to quit a bad habit by trying not to think about it all day. It won’t work. You end up being more consumed by the thing than before. Bitterness does not distance you from past hurts, it binds you to them. A man who walks in forgiveness is free. He is free to honor less than perfect parents and he is free to cleave to a less than perfect wife in marriage. He is safe and secure. The past does not have any levers that can move him off mission. And this makes him a safe place for others as well.

:21-22 “And Ruth the Moabite said, ‘Besides, he said to me, “You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.”’ And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, ‘It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.’” Even in those dangerous days, Boaz was able to produce a haven of peace. He has young men who are under control. Ruth will be safe around them. Here is another piece of dating advice. Bad company corrupts good morals. Ladies, get to know the young man’s friends. Who are the people he confides in? Who are the people he respects? Who is he loyal to? And who is loyal to him? What books does he read? What podcasts does he listen to? A good man will not surround himself with a bunch of skunks. He may be friendly to them, but he won’t be their friend. Boaz was surrounded by good men. They were not safe to be around because they were weak and incapable of violence, no, they were safe because they were strong enough to keep the bad actors at bay. N.D. Wilson says it this way: “Every hero needs to be part nightmare.” A hero must be dangerous. If he is not a threat to evil, he cannot be a hero. Villains do not feel safe around a hero, but that is exactly why people like Ruth feel safe around them. When you are under the shadow of their wing, the shady folk cannot hurt you. Conversely, a good woman is not safe because she would not hurt a fly, she is safe because she hurts bad men’s feelings. She does not entertain their evil suggestions and shuts down their nonsense by calling it what it is. She is safe to pursue because she is hard to get. 

Boaz created a safe environment for him and Ruth to get to know each other better. She could safely return to his fields and be around his people. His friends would get to see her in action and they would have plenty of opportunities to interact in the safety and presence of many witnesses. The modern dating scene is not safe. It takes two people out of their normal environments and puts them together with too much access to each other and not enough accountability and input from others. Getting to know a potential mate in a group setting gives you a better read on who they really are and keeps you from going too far down the road of increased intimacy. We think we need to get a person alone to really get to know them, but that is because we think of people as individuals, but as Rene Girard has noted, we are actually “inter-viduals.” We are molecular, not atomistic. 

For the sake of differentiation, we can speak of people by ones, but every person is a child, a friend, or a sibling. To get to know them, you need to understand what connections they have with whom. As Elder Behler pointed out a few weeks back, you need to ask, “Whose is she?” With whom is she already associated? Group dates and events are, therefore, a superior way to get closer to someone without getting too close and a great way to get to know them as a relational being. And that is what we see in our text :23 “So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.” Ruth honored both her mother-in-law and Boaz by continuing to work in his fields and by going home to Naomi. Boaz honored both Ruth and Naomi by providing a natural, normal way for him and Ruth to continue to get to know each other without stealing her away from the protection of her home.

THE TRIAL OF SINGLENESS

As you’ve heard us say before, the mission of any single person is simple: “Hurry up and wait.” You must work hard for what you want and be content with what you have. The best time to apply for a new job is when you are happy with the one you have. If you are desperate to be done with a particular job, that energy will come through in your interview for the new position. And if that interviewer assesses the situation correctly, they will be thinking, “How long before we are the company this person is eager to leave?” If you are complaining about your current situation, you will be complaining about your new situation in a few years. Now take that principle and apply it to the dating game. 

If you are a malcontent incel, you should not be looking to date anyone. That energy will go with you wherever you go and a girlfriend will not be able to fix that for you. You need to learn to be content with your current situation in order to enjoy a different one. That said, you don’t have to lie to yourself and pretend that singleness is a gift. Singleness is not a gift for those who want to be married, despite what the TGC says. Singleness is a trial. It is a blessing only in the sense that all trials are blessings. James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” One of those “various kinds” of trials is singleness. And you cannot bear up under that trial by wondering if it is the gift of celibacy. That is a gift, but it is a rare one. If you struggle with pornography, you do not have the gift of celibacy. If you desperately want to be a mother, you do not have the gift of celibacy. You have the trial of singleness. So, bear it well. Learn steadfastness and let it have its full effect that you may learn to say that in Christ you lack no good thing even when there are good things, like marriage or children, that you do not have yet. Singleness is one kind of trial, being married to the wrong person is another. And I’d like to help you avoid that.

In 1:12 James goes on to say, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” If you can conduct yourself with wisdom and faith in the trial of singleness, you will earn a crown of life in the world to come and you will qualify yourself for the crown of marriage in this life should the right person come along. If you cannot conduct yourself as a Christian in the trial of singleness, what makes you think you will conduct yourself as a Christian in the trials of marital conflict and childrearing? Marriage is not a solution, it is a different kind of problem. Everything has problems. If you are single, you have the kind of problems a single person has. If you are married, you have the kind of problems a married person has. “The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife.” (1 Cor. 7:32-33) So, some problems are better than others, but all problems are still problems. As Chesterton once noted, “Marriage is a duel to the death… which no man of honour should decline.” So, single people, take note: marriage will not solve all your problems. 

A man who has died to himself in order to follow Christ is well prepared to die for his wife, but a man who thinks his discontentment with life can be solved by a wife is simply assuming that a married man’s problems are easier than his… and that is a good indication that he is not ready to be married. A good man understands that becoming a husband is an increase in responsibility, not a decrease; It is a promotion, not a vacation. If you are expecting a spouse to solve your problems, you are forgetting that they have problems of their own that they expect you to fix. And in that kind of marriage, each spouse will be fighting for attention and accusing the other one of neglecting his or her needs.

UNEQUALLY YOKED

As we’ve also mentioned before, the two most important decisions you will ever make are (1) who you will worship, and (2) who you will marry. Who you worship and how you worship will determine who you marry and who you marry will affect how you worship, and sometimes even who you worship. We saw this in our OT reading with Solomon. The last thing that guy needed was another wife, especially when you consider his taste in women. His interest in strange women led to an interest in strange gods. His pursuit of multiple wives led to a pursuit of multiple gods. As Proverbs 7:26 points out, “Many strong men have been slain by strange women.” You cannot go after strange women without eventually going after strange gods. It doesn’t matter how strong you think you are. Solomon wrote that proverb and he still fell short of it. If he can be wise enough to write that and yet dumb enough to fall for it, don’t think it can’t happen to you. Be on guard!

That leads us to our NT reading from 2 Corinthians 6: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” The word picture of being unequally yoked has many helpful applications. The first and most obvious is imagining a yoke with two oxen facing the opposite direction. If any of you kids are drawing right now, draw a picture of two oxen facing the opposite direction. That is a picture of being unequally yoked. They might be under the same yoke, but they are not working together, they are working against each other. The more one pushes the more it pushes against the other. This is a picture of what it would be like for a Christian to marry an unbeliever. The two cannot work together. 

The other word picture he uses is that of light and dark. Imagine light and dark trying to move in together. It will not work. They can’t even be in the same room at the same time. Sound familiar? Have you ever been at such odds with someone that you had a hard time even being in the same room with them? That is like light and dark trying to live together. It’s not going to work. So, do not get yourself into that position. Make the decision right now: I will not pursue any interest in or receive any interest from anyone who is not a Bible-believing, God-fearing, church-attending, Christian.

Let’s go back to those oxen. Kids, let’s draw another set of oxen, this time with  them both facing the same direction. But let’s make one of them big and strong and the other one tiny and weak. They are going the same direction, so they are better off than our first pair of oxen, but they still have problems, right? They are unequally yoked. One is bigger and faster than the other. While this arrangement may be permissible, because they’re going the same direction, it may not be advisable. The same problem could be produced by having an old oxen yoked to a much younger one. Differences like these are worth considering: wide gaps in age, socioeconomic status, maturity in the faith, schooling preferences, secondary doctrinal issues, gender roles, cultural backgrounds, etc… These are not nothingburgers. They can be navigated successfully, but my point here is that they will have to be navigated. Being yoked to someone with whom you have a lot in common is hard enough at times, don’t make it harder by getting yoked to someone with whom you do not share important things in common with.

That said, laboring together under a common yoke in a common direction at a common speed is still work. Here is another great application point from the image of being yoked to someone. No one goes to all the trouble of yoking a team of oxen together unless there is work to do. They are yoked together to get things done. When Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He was not saying that we should come to Him if we want to quit working, He was saying that if we come to Him, He will help us with our work. He continued, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30) So, being yoked to Jesus does not make the work go away, but it does make the work easier to bear up under. The same can be said for being yoked to the right person in marriage. It makes the work easier to bear up under.

So, whatever being yoked to Jesus means, it doesn’t mean being free from yokes. You can either be yoked to your sin and suffer the consequences of trying to get things done while being bound to them or you can be yoked to Jesus and be freed from your sins to do the good works He has freed you to walk in. All that to say, there is no scenario where you are not yoked to something or to someone. There will always be some kind of work to do and it will feel like work sometimes. But if you yoke yourself to Jesus, He will carry the heaviest parts for you; and if you yoke yourself to a good spouse, you will increase the amount of ground you can cover. Two oxen plowing in the same direction at the same speed with the same purpose for the same Master is a great blessing to everyone.

CHOOSE YOUR LOVE AND LOVE YOUR CHOICE

But finding the right partner is hard. Men are often interested in what they can see right in front of them and women are often interested in what they can see in the future. As a result, both often end up frustrated. Here’s how it plays out: a man meets a young, thin, pretty lil’ lady and he likes what he sees, so he pursues her. But once married, she changes. She gets older. She gains a few pounds and maybe a few stretch marks as they have a few kids. She does not look like the girl in the wedding photographs anymore. If the man is still a child in his thinking, he will be disappointed. He will look at her and think, “This is not who I married.” And he’s right, she changed; but his expectations were wrong. He needs to grow up. As the great love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13 says in :11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

On the flip side, a young lady sees potential in a young man. Sure, he spends a lot of time playing stupid games winning stupid prizes now, but he will grow out of that, or so she hopes. So she says, “Yes” to his potential and she marries him. But he does not change. He does not grow out of anything except his old pants which no longer fit him. So, she looks at him and thinks, “He is not who I thought he would be.” And she’s right. He never became the man she hoped he would, but her expectations were wrong. He is exactly who he was when she married him. He is the same man she said, “Yes” to.

So, here is the point: young men, you must marry her for the things that do not change. That way she can change and grow as a person without you resenting her for not being the same person she was when she was single. Can you love her? That is the question. You will be required by God to love your wife as she gets older, gains weight, and changes through childbearing. So, young man, let me ask you a question: are you currently attracted to 60 year old women? No, right? But listen: if you get married, someday you will be required to. Your wife will need to be your standard of beauty. You don’t get to be into young women as you and your wife get older. So, you better make sure there are things about her that you love that can’t be taken away by time and gravity. A gentle and quiet spirit is precious in God’s sight and it does not get wrinkles. The hidden person of the heart is renewed daily even if the outer person needs a constant and ever increasing supply of lotions just to keep up from falling or drooping. The young woman that you fall in love with will change just as God made her to do and you will either join God in loving that about her or you will resent her and your God for it. 

As Chesterton once observed, “Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. So long as you have one good wife you are sure to have a spiritual harem.” Young man, you don’t need a harem, like Solomon, to be happy. You need one good woman that you love until death do you part. And when you do, you will begin to see that stretch marks are simply tattoos with better stories. They are badges of honor, not blemishes. So, marry someone who is going to join you in the battle, not someone who is going to try to keep their armor from getting dinged up.

And young women, you must marry him for who he is. That way if he does not change, you cannot be disappointed. If you don’t like who he is right now, don’t marry him. There is no guarantee that he will be somebody else ten years from now. Of course he can and should grow up and mature, but if he doesn’t, could you still respect him? That is the question: do you respect him right now? If not, you cannot marry him right now. You will be required, as a wife, to respect your husband. So, if you can’t respect who he is, but you think you might be able to respect who you hope he might be someday maybe… don’t marry him. There is no guarantee that he will ever be that guy, but in the meantime, you will be the one disobeying God by refusing to respect the man he is, the man you said, “Yes” to.

The puritan, Henry Smith, summarized it well when he said, "A man must choose his love, and then he must love his choice.” So, choose wisely. Marriage is a metaphor. It is a profound mystery that refers to Christ and His church according to Ephesians 5:32. Every marriage, therefore, is saying something about God. It is either lying or it is telling the truth. It is either proclaiming the Gospel or it is preaching heresy. Who you worship must determine who you marry because who you marry will determine how you worship. So, choose well and love well so that your marriage looks like Good News to those who are watching.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank You for the book of Ruth and the insights into marriage it provides. Thank You for the example of Your Son who is faithful in His pursuit of His bride, who washes her in Your Word, and who saves her by His sacrifice. I pray that those who are single would hear Your Word and be blessed in their future marriages as they put these principles into practice today. I pray for those who are already married that they would be reminded of Your grace and Your goodness as they seek to love the choices they have already made. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and we offer up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing...