Old Testament Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:12 – 17 (KJV)
Rth 1:12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;
Rth 1:13 Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.
Rth 1:14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.
Rth 1:15 And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.
Rth 1:16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Rth 1:17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:7 – 16 (KJV)
Php 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Php 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
Php 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
Php 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Php 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Straining Toward the Goal
Php 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
Php 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;
Php 3:16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
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Transforming Power Statements:
1) Once we realize that God has dealt with our sin issue perfectly by offering His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ as full payment for ALL of our sins, everything in our lives from then on must be viewed differently, and the course of our direction in everything we do must be changed to suit the high calling of God rather than the goals of men.
2) Just as Ruth did when she determined that the God of her previous husband and Naomi was the true God and that she would cling to Him to the very grave; and have no regard for whatever might happen to her, even against Naomi’s bitterness and negative projections about her future, but somehow in the Spirit trusting that this TRUE God would make a good way for her no matter what happened along the way… This is the attitude of the saved!
3) Taking the instructions of Paul to the Philippians let us plot our course with a similar attitude as Ruth had, to forget the things that are behind and look forward to the better things that are before, ( based solely on the promises of God to complete the good work that He has started in us Phil 1:6 ) setting aside everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:3 – 5) and let us press toward Christ-likeness full steam ahead as we prepare to go into the coming year with the wind of the Holy Ghost in our sails!