Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a few days since I last posted.  We had a nice Memorial Day Weekend.  Todd went to B'town to help work on the new building there on Saturday.  The kids and I stayed home and worked around the house a little bit - did some laundry, cleaning, cooking... :)  Sunday we went to meeting in the morning, then to the gospel meeting at Jean's in the afternoon.  We stayed there for a good steak supper with her family and then Leslie came home with us for the night. 

Monday we had a real nice Bible study after breakfast.  We read the first chapter of Ruth about the time that Naomi, her husband, and daughters went down to Moab to "sojourn" because life was too hard in the promised land.  Leslie told us that Moab was a type of serving the Lord in word but not with a whole heart.  

Jeremiah 18:10-11 says "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.  Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. "

Malachi 1:17 says this about those that do the work of the LORD deceitfully: "But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen."

So Moab is a type of a person who knows about the Lord and may even make vows to Him, but when it comes to really living the life God wants us to live they aren't willing.  Jesus said "if your right hand offends you, cut it off" but Moab "kept back his sword from blood".  When they made wine, they would let the dregs settle to the bottom and then "empty it from vessel to vessel".  When we let God lead us through experiences that cause us to leave behind the dregs of our own wills, we become sweeter and sweeter to him. How sad to get to the end of life and just have our selfish human nature instead of the Spirit of Christ - "his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed"

When Naomi and her family left the promised land they thought they were lacking and in the middle of a famine, but looking back on that time Naomi could see that she had "gone out full".  It would save us from so many poor decisions if we could just understand our current situation from the perspective of eternity.  Through of all of Naomi's experiences, she kept her relationship with God alive so that when she returned to the promised land, Ruth wanted to go with her and said "your God shall be my God".  

After breakfast, we headed back to B'town for more work on the building - only we found out after we got there that the work had been cancelled for the day because of rain.  Todd had his phone turned off and hadn't gotten the message.  We ended up staying for the day - I had a nice time with Talisha, the kids, ours and theirs, played outside in the rain most of the day, and a few others showed up to work after all.  Brad came home with us for the night on his way back up north, so that was another really nice surprise.