On our last day in this great love story, we will focus on the heart of Paul's Letter to the Philippians. By meditating on the Hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 we will understand that we have not only been rescued, but that by being like Christ we participate in this rescue. We will do well, then, to remember that we are treading on holy ground, a privilege that is given to us not to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, but to transform our lives.
Nov 29, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 221
By reading Ruth we have not only received a beautiful story, we have also learned how we can be rescued from our desperate condition. In this gospel reading we will see how our rescue takes place. Our rescuer will die for us. It will be good to read John to understand how we can apply to our own lives what we have read in Ruth.
Nov 26, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 220
When reading the Old Testament quite soon we realize that the foundations are being laid here for an event to come. In our readings we have already learned that our common sense does not lead us to God, as the events of the Book of Judges and Elimelech's fateful decision showed. But from Ruth and Naomi we also learned that a "rescuer" can free us from our fate.
Nov 25, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 219
The great love story does not end with reading the Book of Ruth, on the contrary, it makes us look at Scripture with different eyes, because we want to see how this redemption comes to us. In the remaining readings in this devotional series we will focus on some passages that will help us see how we, in the third millennium, also enjoy this restoration and rescue.
Nov 24, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 218
The fairy tales that we listened to as children, many times ended by saying "and they lived happily ever after." None of those stories take into account the 'forever', it is simply a hyperbole that emphasizes the happy ending of the story. In our case, in this story, we really can say "they lived happily ever after." Because their zeal to act correctly opens a window to eternity for all of us. Here we will learn how normal people can illuminate the history of all humanity. A better way to summar...
Nov 23, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 217
In our previous reading, when Ruth comes home, Naomi literally asks her who are you? What Naomi wants to know is whether Ruth is still Mahlon's wife or is she already Boaz's wife. Ruth informs him that she is still Mahlon's wife, but that is soon going to change. Boaz is determined to fix the matter as soon as possible. On giving her barley before returning home, he told her, " Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed. " Today Naomi's future is going to change. Do you remember Naomi’s bi...
Nov 22, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 217
A feature of any good story is that it engages us. We want to move forward, to know what will happen. When reading a good story we are not passive, the only way to extract all its message is to be active in reading it. This is what happens to us when we read the Book of Ruth, this great love story. We all want to know what will happen in the threshing floor where the barley was harvested! It is no longer just the story of Ruth, it has become our story.
Nov 19, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 216
Our previous reading opened up a whole area that we didn't know about. There are those who can rescue these women and get them out of the precarious situation they are in. In this great love story, we can finally see 'the light at the end of the tunnel'. Our passage takes us to "one day", which is not specified, but which is close because it is the time when the barley grain is winnowed. Ruth’s telling Naomi that she was gleaning grain in Boaz's field made her see the situation from another pers...
Nov 18, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 215
In our previous reading we witnessed the industriousness of Ruth, who leaves her family and country to take care of Naomi, her mother-in-law. In this reading we will witness the conversation of these two women once Ruth returns home after spending the whole day gleaning at the fields. And we will learn more about Boaz. All of this will help us understand why Ruth is a love story that points to THE great love story.
Nov 17, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 214
This passage will allow us to have a clear understanding of all the protagonists of this great love story. Here we will meet Boaz, who is presented in very good terms by the author of this book.
Nov 16, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 213
Naomi has returned empty-handed to her land, but here we will see that the community had established ways to help people like Naomi and Ruth. Once again, we can see the hand of God taking care of those in need.
Nov 15, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 211
Even without knowing the rest of the story, we can already guess that better times lie ahead. The generous commitment of Ruth has changed our perception of the events reported here. For generations, her generous and unconditional sacrificial giving has motivated the readers of this book to praise and bless God. It has also allowed them to understand how great and immeasurable is the love of Christ for those in need. In this portion of the book, we will see what happens when these two widows arri...
Nov 12, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 211
In the midst of so much pain, Naomi (Mara) receives a ray of hope. Dwelling in a foreign land, she learns that the famine that had affected Israel has passed, and she decides to return home. But this return to her home country is dramatic: she returns alone since both her husband and her two sons have died in a pagan land and she no longer has anything that makes her look confidently to the future (she has no offspring). Her two daughters-in-law decide to go with her, but Naomi asks them to go b...
Nov 11, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 210
In this great love story that is the book of Ruth we see that although Israel turned her back on God, that does not mean that God abandoned His people. There is a future for them, not because they deserve it, but because God is determined to give them a future. God's people are not going to vanish into the haze of history and oblivion: beginning in this section of the book of Ruth we will see God acting to restore this family that went to live in a pagan land.
Nov 10, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 209
The title of this series of devotionals is "A great love story." It is for this reason that we will begin this devotional with a quote from another great love story, Pride and Prejudice , by Jane Austen: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." In just a few words, Jane Austen gives us the great plot of the entire novel. Ruth has a similar beginning. In verse 1, with less than 40 words, the author of Ruth has describe...
Nov 09, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 208
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab . Ruth 1: 1 NIV. One of the things that should call our attention is that God's plan to establish a kingdom through Christ is not carried out in the neatness of a laboratory, but in the untidiness of the daily life of humanity.
Nov 08, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 207
The account of Judges shows the deeper causes of the spiritual degradation of God's people. This section of Judges gives us details of this rebellion and its consequences. Let us pay attention to what we are told here, as it will allow us to read Ruth with a greater understanding of the context.
Nov 05, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 206
Judges is a book that continues the story of the possession of the land started in Joshua and what happened in the country once Israel settled there. This prepares us to read and understand the great love story that is Ruth. Relying on the power and glory of God, Israel managed to defeat their enemies and was able to face the many challenges they faced living in God's land. But Judges tells us that not everything was successful. We are told that the people succumbed to the temptations represente...
Nov 04, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 205
In our preparation to understand and enjoy the greatest love story, we continue with the farewell words of Joshua. If you wish, you can read this chapter from the beginning. In its first part, Joshua reminds them of the great blessings they have received from God with a discourse from the Lord, which ends this way: ‘So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ (v. 13). In God's l...
Nov 03, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 204
It has been several decades since God spoke to Joshua on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. The people have already taken possession of the land and the generation that entered the land is already old and it is time to "pass the baton" to the new generation, the first to be born in God’s land. Here we will see what are the things that this new generation must consider when living their freedom in God’s land.
Nov 02, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 203
Welcome to a great love story For a whole month we will be reading a short and beautiful book, the Book of Ruth. This book is quite easy to read, it contains all the elements to make it interesting: a dramatic background and credible, noble characters. It contains situations that, despite the distance that separates us from the story, everything that is told here is easily understood today. Another element that helps us when reading Ruth is that its protagonists are ordinary people who face diff...
Nov 01, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 202
As we complete our series of reflections in the Gospel of John this last reflection comes with a big reading as I suggest you read right through John 1-4 to get the whole sweep of what John has been saying.
Oct 30, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 201
In the final incident John records in John 4 we see a tragedy in the making. Jesus is back in Cana and he meets a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum, a long distance away.
Oct 29, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 200
In our passage today we find Jesus still talking with the women at the well when his disciples return. They realise it is an awkward moment as Jesus speaks to the woman.
Oct 28, 2021•5 min•Ep. 199
Our world is full of divisions. People are different from one another. Race, gender, wealth, class…the possibilities are endless for us to think of ‘us’ and ‘them’; to consider people as ‘other’ than us.
Oct 27, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 198
In the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgement Day Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg who comes for the future to rescue a mother and her child from attack from another deadly cyborg. The problem is that Arnie looks exactly like a cyborg who had previously tried to kill the mother in the first Terminator movie.
Oct 26, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 197
Apparently, Plato said that we can forgive a child for being afraid of the dark, but the real tragedy is when people are afraid of the light.
Oct 25, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 196
Nicodemus was right. It is impossible for anyone to be born again by their own effort, whether this understood physically or as a word picture of a spiritual reality. ‘How can these things be?’, he asks before fading into the night.
Oct 22, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 195
Would the child you were be proud of the person you have become? No doubt the answer to this is mixed, but many of us can feel weighed down by the past, the decisions we have made, the errors and sins we have committed. At times we may catch ourselves thinking that it would be great if we could have a fresh start, a new beginning, a clean sheet of paper. But is this possible?
Oct 21, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 194
In John 2:13 we find Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem at the time of the Jewish Passover. He looks around and sees cattle, sheep, and doves. He hears the noise of these animals and the clink of coins instead prayers and conversation about God.
Oct 20, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 193
