Category: Devotions

2. Knowing why He came and why He didn’t

Mark 2: 17 Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I have not come for the worthy.
I have not come to those who look good but who are not good.
I have not come to the proud.
I have not come to the reluctant to Go.
I have not come to the observers.
I have not come for those who reason out everything.
I have not come to those whose goal is to break no more rules.
I have not come to those who are emotionally unattached.
I have not come to those who cross the road from the sick and destitute.
I have not come to those who do not admit their need.
NO
I have come to those in mourning.
I have come to the humble.
I have come to the leper.
I have come to the paralysed.
I have come to the rejected and dejected.
I have come to the disturbed physically, mentally and emotionally.
I have come to those with nothing to live for.
I have come to those who are not the person they should be by now.
I have come to those who smile on the outside but cry on the inside.
I have come to those whose eyes are on the floor.
This is why I have come.

Knowing why He came and why He didn’t

Mark 2: 17 Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I have not come to call the righteous.
I have not come to those who swing from the victory chandeliers of their temples.
I have not come to people who tick all the right boxes.
I have not come to those who have meticulously accomplished every Christian experience.
I have not come to those who cannot be taught anything.
I have not come to those who know all there is to know.
I have not come to the caretakers of Christianity.
I have not come to the ghostbusters for God.
I have not come to those who snuff out the sinner.
I have not come for those who demand justice.
NO
I have come to call the sinner.
I have come to those who have missed the mark.
I have come to those who have missed their purpose.
I have come to bring peace to the broken.
I have come to the bruised reed.
I have come to the smouldering wick.
I have come to the diseased.
I have come to those in severe pain.
I have come to the demon possessed.
I have come to the poor in spirit
This is why I have come.

The end is another beginning! – Ruth 4: 13-22
Final part: the end is another beginning of a brighter future.

We hopefully will be renewed and sustained in our old age and run the race to the finishing line. But then what?
The end is another beginning.

All their life in this world … had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
C.S.Lewis on heaven.

There came a day when Ruth went home to Naomi and said “Naomi I’ve seen him, I’ve seen Boaz!’
At the beginning of our end, on that day we will see him, we will see him whom we have given our lives to.

Oh, that will be … glory for me …
Glory for me … gory for me …
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me
Charles H. Gabriel

There came a day on seeing Boaz when Ruth dropped to her knees and bowed down with her face to the ground.
John writes: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!” Revelation 1:17-18
Ruth’s destiny was Boaz and yours and mine is Jesus. He is alive and he is waiting for us.

Friends I hope these thoughts from this amazing story of Ruth have blessed you.

The end is another beginning! – Ruth 4: 13-22
Part Three: the end is a new beginning for our future
v14 Praise be to the Lord who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer… He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.
How will you end your days? Will you be renewed and sustained so that you cross the finishing line as a faithful servant of Christ? Age is not the issue. Jesus finished his days at 33. The finishing line is not controlled by a chronological date. It is controlled by what your ordained and allotted years have been decided upon before one of them came into place. Every day is another day spent of your life. The finishing line is drawing near. The time of your life is right now, the opportunity is now. This is not a rehearsal for something else. No one can run the race for you. You are not racing against any other runners. Your greatest opponent is yourself. The race is against yourself to be all that your Creator designed for you to be.
The Apostle Paul was fast approaching the finishing line. In his final hours as the curtain was coming down on his life he gives once again, he reaches into his life one more time and he finds there’s one more thing he can do, he can write some more advice to his son in the faith, Timothy, the next generation. He writes ‘Timothy don’t you give up, keep going, reach for your destiny’ 2 Timothy 4: 6-8
It doesn’t matter how you start. It only matters how you finish.

The end is another beginning! – Ruth 4: 13-22
Part Two: the end is a new beginning of service!
And we know that in all things God works for good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. Romans 8:28-29
It is God’s primary goal for your life to reproduce the image of His Son in you. But what does that look like? Jesus gives the answer:
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45
It is very appropriate that Obed’s name means ‘Servant’.
Something very basic to our faith seems to be diminishing in the body of Christ. With the arrival of Christian satellite and the mega church it would appear that many arrive on Sunday mornings with the attitude of seeking to be served and given to rather than that of Christ Jesus, of serving and giving. “Please me” “Entertain me” “Make me feel good or else” has replaced servanthood.
Let us all open our hands again and serve like Jesus.

Lessons from the unknown redeemer – Ruth 4: 2-12

3b He wouldn’t risk his own security.

v6 “I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate.”
Are you a might-be person? Always thinking the negatives will happen and not the positives?

If you want to walk on water, then it will most probably not be a calm day when you get the call. But it will be windy, stormy and a whole lot of risk involved. Miracles only occur when you need them not when you want them. Miracles occur not at base camp but on the summit.

Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven’s tableland.
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

There was a man who chose the higher ground. His name was Caleb. (Joshua 14) Forty-five years previously Caleb had spied out the land of Canaan, the land or Promise, bringing back a good report. But his dream never became a reality. Now the Israelites are in the process of taking the land.
I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land…but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly… So here I am today, eight five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day …Then Joshua blessed Caleb .. and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. Joshua 14: 7-13

What was in your sights a few years ago, maybe even 45 years ago? You never saw it realised. But maybe it’s still in your heart. Maybe the Holy Spirit is restoring vision to you as you listen to this. Yes you’re older now but still you know you are called for higher ground. You are not called for the foothills, but for the summit. Like Caleb you cry out ‘God give me one chance, grant me the opportunity of higher ground.’

Lessons from the unknown redeemer – Ruth 4: 2-12

3. He wouldn’t risk his own security.
v6 “I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate.”
This unknown redeemer existed on the ‘might be’ of life.
He was selfish and stubborn but he also wanted to stay safe.
He did not want to take any risks.

“One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do”.
Henry Ford

People who focus on their fears become paralysed and never grow beyond what there present stature.
The great tightrope artist, Karl Wallender died several years ago after a 75 foot fall from a tightrope. Throughout his life he showed no signs of fear. He once said ‘Being on a tightrope is living. Everything else is waiting.’ But prior to his death certain things were taking place. His wife said after his death:
All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to walking across the tightrope was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that. And it seemed to me that he put all of his energies into not falling, rather than walking the tightrope.

This is what can happen to us in our Christian walk. We can so put all our energies into not going under that we often fall right in and because we have lost sight of our goal we end up going under.

Lessons from the unknown redeemer – Ruth 4: 2-12

2. His cannot was really I will not.

v6 “I cannot redeem it … You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
It wasn’t that he couldn’t, he wasn’t willing to jeopardize his future and all that he had worked for.
How many ‘can-not’s’ have really only been camouflaged ‘will-not’s’?
How many in the body of Christ are not moving in their destiny because they simply ‘stuck to their guns’? There are so many.
How many are experiencing an unknown life simply because they wouldn’t climb down, admit they were wrong and change their opinion? There are so many.
How many have become defenders of their position and not defenders of the faith? They entrench themselves in their position using every excuse possible, blaming others, the church, their families, their upbringing, their present condition, even God Himself. There are so many.

Matthew 6:21 Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What is important to you right now? Is it your house, car, job, family, inheritance, your decisions. These treasures can become giants in our lives when faced with making decisions that in some way affect them. We need to be able to say to our God ‘I don’t want anything to consume me. Instead, I want to be consumed with You.’ If we don’t we will miss out on God’s purpose and opportunity.
Can you be described as willing? Is your heart pliable? How easy is it for you to give up your own desires and say ‘I will’?

Lessons from the unknown redeemer – Ruth 4: 2-12

1b. He responded with a qualified ‘Yes’.
v4 “I will redeem it,” he said.
Yesterday we saw how that was held within his own personal agenda.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

We worship a God who knows sacrifice and asks us to follow him in this way.
Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

A missionary society wrote to the African missionary David Livingstone saying “We have some people who would like to join you. Do you have some easy access roads to get where you are?” Dr Livingstone wrote back and said:
“If you have men who will come only if there are good roads, I don’t want them. I want men who will come even if there is no road at all.”

This way of life will cost you. But if you “no longer live but Christ lives in me” then as a dead man you don’t have any rights anyway. Lets not give lip service to a God who sacrificed His Son for us. Let us realise that all that we are and all that we have is God’s anyway, so let us get on to the altar of sacrifice with no conditions and let God truly have our lives for Him and His work. The unknown redeemer gave a qualified ‘Yes’ because he was selfish and it robbed him of a destiny in God.

Lessons from the unknown redeemer – Ruth 4: 2-12

1. He responded with a qualified ‘Yes’.
v4 “I will redeem it,” he said.
He had a personal agenda that was hidden behind his Yes. Naomi was known in the town, he knew that she was no longer a woman of child-bearing age.
“… Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband ..” 1:11-12.
Therefore Naomi would be a safe buy, there would be no chance of a levirate son, the land would be his and stay within his own family and so he says ‘Yes, I’ll redeem it.’
The kinsman – redeemer was under no obligation, he had to be willing to sacrifice. But this man was operating out of his own selfish desires.

We must stop qualifying our commitments to God. I will do this if you do that.
There is in the body of Christ a developing worldly doctrine of self-esteem, a feel-good sense of fulfilment as being the aim of Christianity. Pleasing self is on par with pleasing God. As a result no one talks about sacrifice anymore. When they do, it bears no resemblance to the sacrifice of two generations ago. So we hear of people sacrificing by giving their tithe to God, by witnessing, by turning the television off and praying instead or going to church as being a sacrifice of something. It is no such thing. Such sacrifice never existed in our grandparents nor does it in many parts of the world today.
Where has true sacrifice gone in the body of Christ? It has been replaced with personal agendas, with selfish living, with conditional commitment.