Cost of Following

Ruth 1
Great picture of Lordship. Last Sunday, at ANC, Brandon talked about the aspects of accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. That they go hand in hand. You cannot accept Christ as Savior if you aren’t willing to make him Lord. I believe this is where most people get the notion of their ‘Christiandom’ without true faith. This is where Cheap Grace comes from. Grace is truly not cheap if you truly make Christ Lord….because there is a cost, and the cost is high.
Ruth, Naomi’s daughter-in-law, after the death of all the husbands in the family said the following;
Ruth 1:16-17 "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
What a great picture of Lordship….or even a marriage covenant. There is a great cost to what Ruth has said she would do.
I wonder what Ruth was thinking as Naomi addressed the people in Bethlehem in verse 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.
The Lord provided Naomi with a daughter-in-law who made this awesome covenant, basically reminding me of the Lords promise to “never leave us or forsake us” and she says she is empty.
How self focused and wrapped up in herself to say this in front of Ruth…I am sure Ruth was very gracious, allowing her mother-in-law the time she needed to grieve. But Ruth had loss too.
Seriously, what do we ever have to complain about…..yet we do. Can you think of one thing that we complain about….that in the eternal scheme of things, doesn’t sound so stupid? Cost of living, gas prices, stock market, seriously…I can’t think of anything that when compared to Christ’s sacrifice doesn’t sound so self-focussed and petty.