'As a man thinks, so is he', is probably the most quoted expression of all time in motivational books, but few realise that this famous text is taken from the Bible at Proverbs 23:7.
I do not wish to debate the application of that text given by various coaches and self help experts, I only want to point out that far more inspiring texts are to be found in the Bible for our encouragement.
I shall now examine a small book taken from the Bible which is unique in being only one of two books named after a woman.
This book is called 'Ruth' and the other one is 'Esther'.
Whereas Esther was a Jewess who became a Queen, Ruth was a foreigner who married a Jewish man, who later died, leaving Ruth and her mother in law Naomi in poverty.
Here follows the basic circumstances that befell those two women.
Naomi was married with two sons and lived in the town of Bethlehem, a village that later became famous as the birth place of King David and his descendant Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately there was a famine in the land and Naomis' husband decided that the family should leave their country to reside in Moab for economic reasons .
Does that sound like a familiar situation? I left the UK in 1979 for partially the same reasons and moved to Germany for 11 years and then onto Botswana for 5 years, before returning to a different prospering UK.
Though I had many excellent experiences, still, residing as a foreigner, especially in Germany, had its down moments.
For Naomi the down moment were more serious because her husband and two sons died in the land of Moab, leaving her with two widowed daughter in laws, one of them being Ruth.
Just as I heard after many years that the UK was prospering, so Naomi heard that her home land was doing well, so like myself she decided to make the long journey back.
Naomi tried to encourage her daughters in law to return to their parents and to their former society, as they were both foreign women.
Now comes one of the most inspiring texts found in the Biblical record.
In reply to Naomis' request, Ruth spoke these words: 'Do not urge me to go back and desert you.
Where you go, I shall go, and where you stay, I shall stay...
Where you die, I shall die, and there be buried...
Nothing but death will part me from you' I am sure we can see in those words the beauty of loyalty and commitment towards family members, in their hour of crisis!! On entering Bethlehem Naomi cried out 'Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the almighty has made my life very bitter.
I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.
' Apparently the word 'Mara' in Hebrew means bitter.
I am sure Naomi did not mean what she said, after all, under stress how many crazy things have we come out with? Now things get really interesting and events start to turn the tables around full circle.
Ruth goes out to work a field, as it is now harvest time, and of all things she decides to work a piece of land, which unknown to her belongs to a distant relative of Naomi - talk about coincidences!! The owner of the field is called Boaz, a man of deep spirituality and understanding.
Boaz made sure that Ruth would take home the fruit of her labour.
To cut a short story shorter they both ended up getting married which brought this distant relative even closer to Naomi.
What a man to have close by in one's old age! Better still Boaz and Ruth had a son of which the account says of Naomi, 'Bless be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next of kin..
the child will give you renewed life and be your support and stay in your old age.
' So that's Naomi and Ruth looked after at last - What's more the child born named Obed, was to become the grandfather of King David the ancestor of Jesus Christ.
How poverty can lead to such Riches is truly beyond our understanding!! Who can benefit from this inspiring account? Are you an economic migrant? Are your family members loyal to each other? Are you willing to work for one another like Ruth did for Naomi? Are you an employer like Boaz treating your workers well? Do we get upset at the sayings expressed by those under stress? Do we believe that current adverse situations can be worked around? How do you view coincidences? Finally, what is our view of women? In the days of Jesus, women were looked down upon.
Indeed in John 4:27 it reads 'his disciples were astonished to find him talking to a woman.
' So what did Jesus do to correct their understanding? He used women to announce to the disciples that he had been resurrected! See John 20:18.
However according to Luke 24:10,11 the women's reports are received as being nonsense.
Of course if a man had reported the same news it would have been considered SENSE.
This is very important because if the resurrection was a hoax then you would never send a woman to report it as such, due to the then prevailing attitudes towards women.
If the resurrection was a hoax you would make sure that a male had reported the hoax, in order for the story to have any credibility.
One final point, the quotes from the Bible in this article are from the NEB.
I wanted to use the Readers Digest Bible instead, but suddenly realised there are no chapters and verses found in that version - Don't you learn something new everyday! Copywrite 2006 Robert Hodgson
I do not wish to debate the application of that text given by various coaches and self help experts, I only want to point out that far more inspiring texts are to be found in the Bible for our encouragement.
I shall now examine a small book taken from the Bible which is unique in being only one of two books named after a woman.
This book is called 'Ruth' and the other one is 'Esther'.
Whereas Esther was a Jewess who became a Queen, Ruth was a foreigner who married a Jewish man, who later died, leaving Ruth and her mother in law Naomi in poverty.
Here follows the basic circumstances that befell those two women.
Naomi was married with two sons and lived in the town of Bethlehem, a village that later became famous as the birth place of King David and his descendant Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately there was a famine in the land and Naomis' husband decided that the family should leave their country to reside in Moab for economic reasons .
Does that sound like a familiar situation? I left the UK in 1979 for partially the same reasons and moved to Germany for 11 years and then onto Botswana for 5 years, before returning to a different prospering UK.
Though I had many excellent experiences, still, residing as a foreigner, especially in Germany, had its down moments.
For Naomi the down moment were more serious because her husband and two sons died in the land of Moab, leaving her with two widowed daughter in laws, one of them being Ruth.
Just as I heard after many years that the UK was prospering, so Naomi heard that her home land was doing well, so like myself she decided to make the long journey back.
Naomi tried to encourage her daughters in law to return to their parents and to their former society, as they were both foreign women.
Now comes one of the most inspiring texts found in the Biblical record.
In reply to Naomis' request, Ruth spoke these words: 'Do not urge me to go back and desert you.
Where you go, I shall go, and where you stay, I shall stay...
Where you die, I shall die, and there be buried...
Nothing but death will part me from you' I am sure we can see in those words the beauty of loyalty and commitment towards family members, in their hour of crisis!! On entering Bethlehem Naomi cried out 'Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the almighty has made my life very bitter.
I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.
' Apparently the word 'Mara' in Hebrew means bitter.
I am sure Naomi did not mean what she said, after all, under stress how many crazy things have we come out with? Now things get really interesting and events start to turn the tables around full circle.
Ruth goes out to work a field, as it is now harvest time, and of all things she decides to work a piece of land, which unknown to her belongs to a distant relative of Naomi - talk about coincidences!! The owner of the field is called Boaz, a man of deep spirituality and understanding.
Boaz made sure that Ruth would take home the fruit of her labour.
To cut a short story shorter they both ended up getting married which brought this distant relative even closer to Naomi.
What a man to have close by in one's old age! Better still Boaz and Ruth had a son of which the account says of Naomi, 'Bless be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next of kin..
the child will give you renewed life and be your support and stay in your old age.
' So that's Naomi and Ruth looked after at last - What's more the child born named Obed, was to become the grandfather of King David the ancestor of Jesus Christ.
How poverty can lead to such Riches is truly beyond our understanding!! Who can benefit from this inspiring account? Are you an economic migrant? Are your family members loyal to each other? Are you willing to work for one another like Ruth did for Naomi? Are you an employer like Boaz treating your workers well? Do we get upset at the sayings expressed by those under stress? Do we believe that current adverse situations can be worked around? How do you view coincidences? Finally, what is our view of women? In the days of Jesus, women were looked down upon.
Indeed in John 4:27 it reads 'his disciples were astonished to find him talking to a woman.
' So what did Jesus do to correct their understanding? He used women to announce to the disciples that he had been resurrected! See John 20:18.
However according to Luke 24:10,11 the women's reports are received as being nonsense.
Of course if a man had reported the same news it would have been considered SENSE.
This is very important because if the resurrection was a hoax then you would never send a woman to report it as such, due to the then prevailing attitudes towards women.
If the resurrection was a hoax you would make sure that a male had reported the hoax, in order for the story to have any credibility.
One final point, the quotes from the Bible in this article are from the NEB.
I wanted to use the Readers Digest Bible instead, but suddenly realised there are no chapters and verses found in that version - Don't you learn something new everyday! Copywrite 2006 Robert Hodgson
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