Thursday Thoughts for Parents | "Dark Days"
May 17, 2018 by SGCL Staff
Luke, Sunday Sermon, Discussion Questions, Parents, Thursday Thoughts
This post is based on C.J. Mahahey's sermon, Dark Days, given on May 13, 2018.
This past Sunday, we heard Pastor CJ open God’s Word to us from the Book of Ruth. In this “most beautiful short story ever written,” we see God’s hand of grace in the midst of judgement, grief, and suffering. One of the ways that this book is a gift to us is that for all who are familiar with suffering, we are able to see how God works in unseen ways “in the worst of times” “doing a thousand things no one can see but Him.”
Through each of the characters and the actions that they take, we are reminded not just of the fervent love and fierce loyalty that Ruth has for her mother-in-law but of the workings of God for the good of His people, the glory of His name and the plan to bring us Jesus, our promised Redeemer.
Read:
As a family, read Ruth 1
Discuss:
In verse 1, Elimelech took his family from God’s land of promise and led them to a foreign land to live, stay, and assimilate.
- How else could Elimelech have responded when the people of God were under judgement for “doing what was right in there own eyes” and living in opposition to God’s commands and Law?
- When times of hardship come on us, how can we turn each other back to the Lord?
In verse 20, Naomi tells those who met her in Bethlehem to call her by a different name, and Pastor CJ told us that Naomi’s bitterness made her blind to the kindness of God in the midst of her grief.
- In verses 6 and in verse 22, what evidences of God’s grace do you see toward Naomi?
- What evidences of God’s grace do we see in each other’s lives?
Pray:
Family: Thank the Lord for His Word and our pastors who teach it to us. As a family, thank the Lord for the evidences of His grace we have seen and ask Him to help us to point each other back to Him in the days and years ahead.
[Post by Carl Hirst]
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