Leaving on a Jet Plane

Thank you all so much for your prayers and financial support (we raised the full amount and more!) as I embark for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For the next two weeks, (4/13-4/28), Scott Duley and I will have the privilege of teaching the Bible to seventy-two pastors-in-training. These men are preparing to be sent out, two-by-two (in another couple of years) to plant 36 churches in totally unreached areas of Ethiopia!

Given my gifts (and my limitations), I can scarcely imagine a way for me to be more effective in the cause of global missions than the one God has given me. I get to use the gift for methodical teaching that I believe God has given me (and the Sermon on the Mount series which I preached at PRBC in 2005)…but I get to use that gift to train men who know the Ethiopian language and culture, and thus will be more effective at getting the good news to the unreached people of Ethiopia than I could ever dream of being! I cannot wait to get home and fill you in on what God will do with two American boys from the Deep South and seventy-two Ethiopian pastor trainees!

I wanted to write and give you a few prayer requests…

• How can you pray? Good question! Answer: Specifically! So, how can you pray specifically?
  
• Pray that all our travel plans would work out well (we only have an hour layover in Frankfurt!).
  
• Pray that if said plans don’t go as we expect, that I’d handle it with patience!
  
• Pray that our bodies would react well to the altitude (7,000 ft.) and the native food, etc.
  
• Pray we’ll get adequate rest after the jet lag.
  
• Pray for stamina…I’ll be teaching six hours a day.
  
• Pray that I will walk closely for the Lord for these two weeks…spending time feeding my own soul daily on His word.
  
• Pray for the translator, Haileyesus. He’ll be translating my lectures for about half the group.
  
• Pray that the lectures would be clear and helpful to these men.
  
• Pray for the men themselves…that God would give them clear minds and hearts as we study together.
  
• Pray for Amber and Anthony as they host us and handle a ton of logistics for these two weeks.
  
• Pray that these seventy-two men would get many souls when they are finally sent out to preach the gospel and plant churches in unreached areas.
  
• Pray that the Lord Jesus would be glorified in the way we teach, act, and interact with the people.
  
• Pray we make it back safely and on time!

I will be periodically (maybe 4-5 times) updating the blog while I am away. This will keep you informed on the most up-to-the-minute (as WLW says it) prayer requests. Blessings in Jesus...

Another Ethiopia Update

So far, we have collected $2741.00 for the Pastor's Training Institute this April! Several churches and individuals have also already forwarded money for the next round of training, to happen in May and June!

Thank all of you...and Thank YOU faithful Jesus!

Redeemer

For three weeks we've been studying the book of Ruth in this little column. And in each of the three main characters, we have noticed a foreshadowing or reminder of the coming Savior. But we have yet to notice the primary way this little short story points forward to Jesus.

In the Old Testament, God made careful provisions for how a widow was to be cared for—particularly one who had no male children. Since women in ancient times were very hard-pressed to earn a living, this was a stroke of pure mercy from the LORD. The plan went like this: When a man died, leaving behind a wife (and no sons to care for her and continue the family name) his closest male relative (usually, but not always, a brother) was obligated to take the widow as his wife, care for her, and raise a family with her to keep his brother’s name alive. This closest male relative was called the “kinsman redeemer” (“closest relative” in the NASB).

This is what Ruth chapter 4 is all about. Ruth was childless and had been widowed. She had now way to provide for herself (thus she is in the fields picking up stray kernels of grain in chapter 3). She also had no son to keep her husband’s family name alive. But she had come back to her husband’s home town. Surely there would be a kinsman redeemer in Bethlehem who could take her in and raise up children in her husband’s name. And guess who that closest relative happened to be? Boaz—the man who had already showed her such kindness in his fields! God moves in a mysterious way!

Boaz was the kinsman redeemer! Boaz was the one man who had the authority and ability to redeem Ruth from her distresses. And in this sense, he is an amazing reminder for us of Jesus, our Redeemer. Sin has left us as destitute spiritual widows. We cannot rescue ourselves. We have no lasting inheritance. And Jesus Christ is the only one with authority and ability to pay the necessary price to redeem us from our spiritual widowhood! And He has done it! On the cross he paid the redemption price; He betrothed us to Himself; and He is, in heaven, preparing a wedding feast and a house for His beloved bride!

So Boaz is another tiny Old Testament arrow pointing us forward to Jesus! He redeemed Ruth. And through Ruth, he redeemed her mother-in-law, Naomi. But in a much greater sense, Jesus has redeemed His bride! So let it be said of Christ as it was of Boaz:

Blessed is the LORD who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel (Ruth 4.14)!

Ethiopia Update

So far, we have received $566.00 (largely from readers of this blog) to sponsor Ethiopian men to attend the Pastor's Training Institute in March. Thank you!

To be brief - and frank - we still need $3,034.00, in a hurry! Please continue to pray for the Lord's provision. And see the PTI post below for more info.

Woman of Excellence

Here we are in our third week of looking closely at the book of Ruth…and we have yet to say very much about the girl for whom the book is named! But there is much to say about Ruth—and there is a reason why history knows this little short story by her name. She absolutely shines in these four brief chapters. And she is rightly called (3.11) “a woman of excellence.” But what was so excellent about Ruth?

First, notice her commitment (ch.1). Her husband had died. Her mother-in-law was moving to a foreign land. She had every reason to cut ties with Naomi and her married family. In fact, her sister-in-law had not needed much persuasion to cut the cord (v.14). But Ruth would not be swayed. By marrying Mahlon, Ruth had made a commitment to care for his mother, too. As Naomi grew older, it would be Ruth’s job to be the mother of the household—and the support of her aging in-laws. But now she had a good excuse to lay all that responsibility aside. Instead, she kept her vow. And her speech to Naomi, in 1.16-17, is such a beautiful poem of commitment that we often use it today in ceremonies that mark the greatest human commitment—weddings!

Second, notice Ruth’s ingenuity (ch.2). Now both she and Naomi were hungry upon arriving back in Bethlehem. One of them was going to have to start pounding the pavement in search of some income. Now you would think, given that Bethlehem was her hometown, that Naomi would have taken the initiative. Even if she herself was too old to work, it seems she would have been the one directing Ruth as they sought daily bread. But notice verse 2. It was Ruth who approached Naomi with a work-proposal. And, as you read on in the chapter, you find that Ruth was quite the industrious worker, too (v.17). She worked the same long hours as the robust farmhands! Ruth was a hard-worker!

Thirdly, notice Ruth’s submissiveness (ch.3). Naomi gave her some strange instructions at the beginning of chapter 3. ‘You want me to sneak down to the threshing floor at night, uncover Boaz’s feet, lie down on the floor, and suggest a marriage arrangement?’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘OK. “All that you say I will do”’ (v.5). Isn’t that great? Don’t you wish your kids would obey like that? Don’t you wish you obeyed God so quickly and unquestioningly? I do…but, somehow, I don’t obey as I should. And Ruth’s submissiveness—under much stranger requests than most of God’s requests of me—rebukes me.

So, Ruth was indeed “a woman of excellence.” And, as such, she is an example, not only to women, but to us all. Women can learn from Ruth’s excellence as they seek to relate to in-laws, husbands, and so on. But all of us could stand to have a little more Ruth in our relationship to the LORD! Are we as committed to Him as she was to her mother-in-law? Are we working for His glory as hard as Ruth worked? Are we as submissive to our Head as she was to hers? Probably not. So we have some growing to do as we think about Ruth!

But let us also think about Jesus! No, we are not fully committed, passionately working, or totally submissive to our God. But Jesus is! And He Himself is our righteousness! So…let us learn from the good example of Ruth. But let us look beyond her to the One who not only sets for us an example, but who is also able to save those of us who do not follow it as we should!