The Narrow Path

  Saturday, June 14, 2025 Psalms 108; 109:20-30 Ruth 4 Acts 3:17-4:4 To Perpetuate The Name (Ruth 4:10) Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.” There was a certain European aristocrat, a man of noble birth. One day he received a call from God to leave his wealth, his palace, his family and his homeland to go and be a missionary. His humility and love for the Gospel over his own self-interest is admirable. Ironically, he is remembered for a quote: “preach the gospel, die and be forgotten.” Far from being forgotten, Nikolaus Ludwig, the Count von Zizendorf, is still remembered over 300 years later, both for his famous quote, and his famous aversion to fame. Our desire to be remembered after our death; to have done something of wo...

  Thursday, June 12, 2025 Psalms 99; 100 Ruth 2 Acts 2:37-47 Whose Are You? (Ruth 2:5) Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” It’s not a bad question that Boaz raises, and it’s not a bad question we should ask ourselves. “Who am I?” is a question that seems to confound the modern thinker; and the modern answer seems to be “whoever you want”. Yet I would like to keep thinking about how this book of Ruth tells us our family history. Because our family often defines who we are. Think about your own immediate family: are you the type of person who hugs? That is a family tradition. How do you use cutlery? Do you scoop your rice with your fork, or do you push rice onto the back of your fork with your knife? That is a family tradition. Do you consider coarse language a sign of ones social class or intelligence? That is a family a tradition. All these little things we pick up from our family all add to...