close to home.

Terror attack.  Westgate Shopping Centre.  Nairobi, Kenya.

I don't know if you have heard the story of what happened in Nairobi about a week ago now, but it hit me close to home.

Perhaps people who frequented the World Trade Center Towers or the Pentagon before September 11th can relate.  I am having a hard time explaining my feelings to people at this moment.  You see, Westgate Mall was a place to which I went often when I was in Nairobi, Kenya (about every three months of my two years overseas).  The pictures and videos are all too real.

Me and friends at Westgate in July 2012

I walked those hallways.  I shopped in that supermarket.  I ate at the outdoor cafe.  I saw movies in that theater.

The hospital to which they took victims was the hospital where I spent six days last June, being treated for a kidney infection.

The photos from a distance of the smoke rising from the mall were taken from the homes of my friends in Nairobi.

And more than all this, a dear missionary family was trapped inside.  Please read this article about the Suels: http://www.commissionstories.com/africa/stories/view/imb-missionaries-recount-terrorists-seizure-of-nairobi-mall Then, please join me in thanking and praising God for their safe escape and His protection.

And continue to pray for all of those hurting in Nairobi, Kenya and around the world.  Over 60 people were killed, and 175 injured.  There are still people missing.  Many are in shock.  Pray that His great grace would meet each person where they are.  Pray that this terrible event draws people to Jesus. Pray for those who were behind the attack...God desires that all men may know His name and repent.

When the Lord speaks to Moses as He delivers the Israelites from Egypt, He declares:

"I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”  Exodus 7:4-5

But His demonstration of His might in Egypt is not only for the Egyptians...

"Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord."  Exodus 10:1-2 

Whether this hits close to home, or not:

Pray that ALL would know that HE is LORD.

common men for His glory.

Continuing the theme of my last post...speaking of Jesus and His twelve apostles...

"Notice the natural progression in their training program. At first, they simply followed Jesus, gleaning from His sermons to the multitudes and listening to His instructions along with a larger group of disciples...Next...He called them to leave everything and follow Him exclusively" (22, Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur)

 They, like Ruth, possessed nothing in themselves that made them worthy of redemption and were not gifted in any area as to be loved and brought close.

"Although they were uncommon men, theirs was an uncommon calling. In other words, the task they were called to, and not anything about the men per se, is what makes them important" (22).

It is the kinsman-redeemer who makes Ruth complete again.  It is Christ who called the Twelve to His side, that He might make them whole and train them in Truth.  It is the Holy Spirit who empowered them to follow Him and love like Him and further the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth.

“Brothers think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”  1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Thank You, Jesus, for being my kinsman-redeemer.  Thank You for accepting me and choosing me that Your Name might be seen and known.  Thank You for creating me to glorify You.  I am complete and whole and satisfied when You are exalted in my life.  May I never boast of anything in me.  May my boast always be of You.

gleaning and great grace.

This week I had the opportunity to join the Jardin de Milagros crew (a farm that gives all produce to the Food Pantry in El Paso) in gleaning a chili field of another farmer.

While I was gleaning, I thought of Ruth.  Ruth the Moabitess, who after her husband’s death, left everything behind to follow her mother-in-law back to Israel.  This land was foreign to her, and in it she was an outsider.  Because by nature she was of a different people, she had no right to harvest alongside the Israelite people.

“So she went out to glean and begin to glean in the fields behind the harvesters” (Ruth 2:3)

And it so happened, that the field she gleaned from belonged to a close relative: Boaz.  When Boaz noticed Ruth gleaning, he protected her and said freely, “‘My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here…’” (Ruth 2:8).

Some people think that when Jesus reveals Himself as Lord and He calls all people to believe in Him and repent that He merely says, “Come and glean.  Stay here with Me.  Let’s be acquaintances, even friends. Your home is elsewhere, as is your heart, but stay and take what you need and what you want and then you may go as you please.”

But the story of Ruth continues.

Next, Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, realize that Boaz is not only a close relative but “‘he is one of [their] kinsman-redeemers’” (Ruth 2:20).  He is the answer to all of their problems!  By his blood, he is the rightful person to be husband to Ruth and son to Naomi (and son of her late husband and therefore heir of his estate).  By his blood, he is the only one who can provide for them the home, and all that a home entails, that they desperately need.

But there was also another person who was in line to be redeemer to Ruth and Naomi.  He was, however, concerned more for his own estate.  He was unable to perform the task required of him by the laws of Israel.  He told Boaz, “‘You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it’” (Ruth 4:6).

And Boaz did. 

Ruth came to him in the night and “lay down…at his feet” (Ruth 3:7-8).  She said: “‘I am your servant…Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer’” (Ruth 3:9). 

And Boaz said to Ruth: “‘And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask’” (Ruth 3:11).   Ad Boaz declared to the people: “‘I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife’” (Ruth 4:10).

Ruth went being nobody to being somebody.

From foreigner to member of the people of Israel.

From outsider to gleaner to wife. 

She was not just provided for,

or invited to,

but pulled all the way in!

What GREAT GRACE!

And what a true picture of what Jesus does for those who come to His feet and cry out, “Lord, I am your servant!  Be my redeemer, and cover me with all that You are.”  He does not merely provide for needs.  Or save from eternal destruction.  But He answers and does more.  By His blood, He is able to take those who come to Him as His bride.  He frees from sin that we might walk in life, abundant life.  That we may not only glean, but grasp and dance around in His great grace.  That we may be His, and He may be ours.

What happened to the chilies and me?  Well, all the chilies we picked went to the Food Pantry downtown to feed the families who pick up food baskets from there.  And I was fortunate to take home about ten!  My friend Hilda chopped them up and made them into salsa.  And not just any salsa, but one that was muy picoso, or very hot!  Even in my life, the gleaning led to so much more.  I thank God for teaching me real life lessons with simple things like picking chilies.

“‘Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left [us] without a kinsman-redeemer’” (Ruth 4:14). 

Praise be to Jesus Christ who calls us to glean and then to gather and then to grasp and then to give His great, great grace.