Covenant

The Bitter Soul

Ruth 1:19-20

 So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?²⁰ And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

Sometimes you wonder how many people go to follow God trusting him that he will lead them down a good path. Yet as they follow him he leads them down roads that leave a tough taste to get out there mouth! Bitterness! Imagine being Naomi walking with God and then famine comes, her husband dies, and then her two sons die, leaving her with no grandchildren. Oh okay God thanks!Now what?

 When you walk with God for sometime after a while you understand that really their is no where to run and that he really is in control. He opens doors of opportunity for you, closed doors, directs your paths, ect. Now im not saying that just because he does all these things that whatever path your on leads to heaven because thats not true because not all roads lead to you having eternal life in heaven, or all roads apart of Gods will for your life. 

Think about Jonah! Jonah Ran from the Lord! Like when I read this I wanna yell Jonah where are you going God see's you! God came to him and said Arise and Go to Nineveh yet instead of him doing that he ran in the opposite direction! Yet sometimes you wonder was their things in which God had asked Jonah to do before hand along his journey that he was just like God the more I try to do what you want the more you wont let up can you just give me a break! Maybe Jonah was tired and fed up. People are not always the easiest to work with. God had told Jonah to Arise get up maybe Jonah just wanted some rest. Yet even on the ship as Jonah rested a storm came to wake Jonah up! Kind of as to say Arise Jonah like I said I have something for you to do! It's like you hear your parents calling you in the morning to wake up for school but you just go back to sleep for a little. Not right now give me 5 minutes or a year or two!

On the Road to Discouragement 

Discouraged  

Cause (someone) to lose confidence or enthusiasm. How many failures in life or bad things does someone have to go through before they just give up! Seem's like you lose way more than you win! Talk about discouraging! It's like in all honesty I just don't want to do this anymore but your like how do you just quit! Growing up I was very suicidal yet i've tried to commit suicide so many times that even trying to take my own life and failing so many times at trying to do it got discouraging! Like God do you need me here that much honestly? Like  i suck at life you must see my future and see that I suck at death to!

Elijah wanted to end his life he even went up to the mountains and God said to him " What are you doing here"? Maybe in his mind he was like trying to get away God " What are you doing here" Like I said before how can you really run from God there is no where to go! It's like even if your still attending church and tuning God out, still preaching his word because its what your called to do, still letting him use you as you go through the motions but your not really there and the only thing that keeps you from really doing what you do is the fact that you know their is really no where to run!

It's like Hey it's me God I see you( Your Name)" What are you doing here"? 

 Matthew 7:13-14

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because^[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The path to God's will is not going to be the easy way we often think it would be but it's not. The Road is Narrow! Yet reguardless of how narrow the Road is in the end everyone has to die!It's like this it's either you can deal with God now or face him later on judgement day. It's not like you can time your death either because tomorrow is never promised and if you died in next minute would you be right with God or is he asking you " What are you doing here"? basically saying your not suppose to be here i have somewhere for you to Go!

Romans 14:11-13
¹¹ For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.¹² So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.¹³ Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

Think about Saul on his Road to Damascus! You would have thought he would never bow down to Jesus! That he would never stop running his race because the Road he was going down her thought he was 100% right that Christians where lying, hypocrites, that blasphemed! Christian Killer! He didn't think that on that day as he went down his Roads of life that he would be stopped by Jesus! Saul you think your hurting these people is good because you think your right but Saul why are you persecuting me because when your hurting them your hurting me!

Acts 9:3-6

³ And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:⁴ And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?⁵ And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.⁶ And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

You can imagine Saul getting up off the ground wondering why Jesus wanted him to go into the city. Is Jesus going to kill me like ive been killing his people? No He was going to give him a new vision for his life! So he sent Ananias. Can only imagine Ananias as he heard God. Lord you want me to do what? Saul he kills Christians ummm yeah! Jesus your trying to kill me!!

^{Acts 9:10-1210} And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.¹¹ And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,¹² And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

Not knowing what your road looks like a head of you or were it will take you can be discouraging especially after a failure, or realizing you been going the wrong way for a long while and Jesus needs to show you the true direction. You think wow look at all that time i've waisted doing nothing! Look at all the time I wasted living a lie ! Discouraged!

                                             Pushing Away Your Redemption

re·demp·tion

  [ri-demp-shuhn]deliverance; rescue.

I can Imagine as Naomi walks back to her home town trying to think of all the accomplishments she had made being away and all she had to show for her life's journey was nothing! NOTHING! So she thought! Ever have something good in your life finally that you don't take notice to it! Your just waiting on the day when things would be the same well your just going to die to on me and ill be alone!

^{Ruth 1:16-18}  And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

Not Ruth she was ready to be dedicated until then end even die where Naomi died! Yet Naomi almost pushed the one person who God would use to restore her away! You gotta be on the look out because sometimes we can push away the people that God is trying to us in out lives! Or not be like Jonahs because we could be the one person God wants to us to help people be redeemed from their sin!Yet we push people away or we run from what God wants who God wants to use in our lives!Think about Jesus while he was here on this earth the rejected Christ and Crucified him because some didnt believe  that he was the savior.  How many times has Jesus came to you and approached you with salvation and you have rejected him! How many times has God sent you someone to change your life but you have rejected and crucified them when all they wanted to do is love you. Just as Christ all he wants to do is love people yet they reject him and crucify him! 

Yet Ruth still held on to Naomi no matter how much she tried to push her away! Just as Christ hopes and waits for us no matter how much he tries to push us away he waits and he waits and he hopes! That one day we will be willing to accept his redemption!





Cleaving I don't care what you do Im Not Leaving!


cleave ²  (klv)

intr.v. cleaved, cleav·ing, cleaves

1. To adhere, cling, or stick fast.

Its kind of like you just gotta hold on no matter what you go through! Walking with Christ is like a marriage for better or worst if you would leave Christ in hard times you would probably leave your spouse!Yet sometimes you just get to appoint where you don't want to be there but you are just their just to hold on until you get to the other side of what it is your going through. Ruth was going through her own stuff in life to She lost her husband he father in law and brother in law and was barren yet she was still going to not let go of Naomi in the hard times! 

That's how we are to be we are to cleave to Christ and when we get married we cleave to our spouse. Even when we end up on Roads of discouragement! This season of my life has been hard yet the harder it has gotten the more i have clung on to Christ! He is the keeper of my soul I don't know how I could have gotten through out my year without him in my life as much as he has been there! 

Even though he's not here physically i know that he is here and he will never leave me nor forsake me! We are one when you give your life to Christ he and you become one and Christ now lives in you. Kind of like one a man and a wife get married they now become one and the woman takes on the mans identity by taking his last name. This is like with Christ we cleave to Christ and the more we cling to him the more people see us and when they look at us they see Jesus! We are now apart of him! Salavation gives us the right to heaven  when oneday we will really cleave to him! Like a woman as she cleaves to her husband . Jesus ( Groom) cleaving to Church ( Bride)

Genesis 2:24

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

When that day comes and we cleave to our redeemer things will no longer be the same. No more bitter soul! No more tears !!! No more sorrow or pain !

Revelation 21:4

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.