A fun Christmas Eve celebration, thinking about Joseph’s experience and what we learn about Jesus. What does it mean that God saves and God is with us?

Boaz shows us a picture of redemption as he redeems Ruth and Naomi. Boaz brings them to the safety of his family. Likewise, by Jesus’ death for us, we are brought into the safety of God’s family and the relational joy this allows.

Ruth shows us gives us an example of the way the Lord Jesus trusts God the Father and serves us by his becoming human to die on the cross. Because of Jesus, we are able to trust God for our security and serve others sacrificially.

Bitterness does not mean abandonment and groaning is different to grumbling. Naomi’s story is a prelude to our redemption.

Being Christian is not about doing things for Jesus, but about giving yourself to Jesus.

Jesus gives us a framework for viewing marriage, divorce, remarriage and being unmarried. Hearing this enables us to deal with the diverse complexities of these relationships with God’s wisdom.

Focussing on humility and thankfulness, as well as the return of Jesus helps us to forgive as Jesus says we should. This, of course, is based only on God’s forgiveness of our insurmountable sin.

Jesus calls Christians to love each other deeply and to hate sin vehmently.

What is faith? Faith is a lifestyle of deep, personal trust. Faith says: I don’t doubt it, I can’t do it, I don’t know it, I won’t demand it. What achieves results isn’t a large quantity of faith, but the unlimited love of God.