Blessings to you, family and friends of Bartimaeus Baptist Temple.  I’m looking forward to sharing with you again this Sunday.  We were missing some folks last Sunday, but we also got a visit from old friends.  Priscilla urged us to keep our trust in the Lord when the pieces of our lives don’t seem to fit together.  Pastor David made it clear that Jesus demands a choice from us.  We are either with him or against him.  Taking our stand may cost us even in our family relationships, but we must stand with Him.  If you missed out, the podcasts are available under the Media link.

Speaking of the podcasts, some time in the near future we’ll be upgrading the way we host them so that you can listen to them without having to click through.  When that happens, the ones we have up now will move, but we’ll be sure to provide a way for you to access them.  If you have set up a pod catcher you may have to update it.  Stay tuned!

Over the weekend, Linda was talking to me about what she was reading in the book of Ruth, and it suddenly came alive for me.  You might remember that I’ve been working on a series of sermons showing how Jesus as deliverer is pictured in the people that God used throughout the Old Testament.  It has been a while since I’ve done one and I wasn’t sure who would be next.  I almost missed Boaz!  If you don’t remember who he is, it is probably because the person you would remember in his story is Ruth.  It’s really her story, and it is a beautiful one.  It is she who makes the choice to leave behind everything she knows out of loyalty to her mother-in-law, Naomi (Ruth 1:16.)  Because of that choice, she is brought into God’s family.  Quite literally, because she became part of the lineage of Jesus.  There’s so much for us to learn here about the mercy of God and the importance of the choices we make.  Go ahead and read the whole book.  It’s a short one.  Come and join us as we worship and learn together.

In His love

Larry