Did God Say to Go? Just because there is a famine in the land doesn’t mean you uproot your family and move to a place you deem better. Just because it is expensive or getting increasingly liberal doesn’t mean you leave a place God called you to. We walk by faith and not sight. We are beginning a series in the book of Ruth where we will see how, mercy triumphs over judgment, the least become the greatest, famine leads to harvest, and despair turns into delight. The story of Ruth is a beautiful love story between Ruth and Boaz, an intermarriage between a Jew and a gentile. This Old Testament book of Ruth foreshadows to the New Testament, pointing to Jesus our Kingsman-Redeemer. As we embark on this series in this book, we see two distinct character qualities that depict who Jesus is: Faithful and Redeemer. Ruth is one of two books in the Old Testament named after a woman, Esther being the other. Ruth was a gentile who married a Jew and became an ancestor of our Lord Jesus. Esther was a Jew who marred a gentile and ended up saving the Jewish people. Because of marriage, Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David and was in the lineage of Jesus the Messiah. The story of Ruth begins with a famine and ends with the birth of a baby- Obed which means worshiper or servant • Our story also begins in famine, we were in a spiritual famine before we chose Christ. • The divine birth of Jesus the ultimate servant, gave us an opportunity to become true worshipers unto Him, receiving the benefits of our Kinsman Redeemer. The book of Ruth takes place during the middle of the book of Judges: where everyone did whatever they wanted to do. Judges 2:11 Yet, even when a nation rejects and abandons the Lord, a remnant of faithful, committed people always exist and one of these committed people was a young, non-Jewish Moabite women who would soon commit her life to live for God and change the whole course of her life. For more information on this ministry visit www.cathycoppola.org or www.houseofglorychurch.org