Called Out

I just got home last night. The drive was long, but at least I didn't hit any major traffic around DC (a miracle of miracles, to be sure). I'm grateful to be done with this past semester, as it was a tough one in many ways, but I'm slightly worried about this time that will be spent at home. Being home generally means falling back into habits and patterns that you normally don't keep up while at school. It's easy to become lazy and spiritually apathetic.

How does one fix this? An idea came to me last night, and that was to do devotionals or meditations on different ideas/concepts and post them here, on my blog, throughout the Winter Break. It seemed like a good idea, until I considered my motivations. Who am I doing this for: God or the people that read this blog? I thought to myself, "No, I need to keep this private."

But then something a friend told me once made me reconsider that thought -- "Don't let the wrong motivations stop you from experiencing growth in God." (or something like that, anyway.) It's likely that there will be at least a little bit of selfishness in a lot of the things we do, but that still shouldn't stop us from partaking in what could be a very growing experience.

Ultimately, what sold me to this idea was the fact that I will need accountability. I'm more likely to study God's Word if I have other people making sure that I am. Posting what I learn on this blog is a form of accountability.

It's not going to be a public display of what is going on privately between God and I, though. It is more or less going to be posed in the form of a question that I found upon studying the Word, and my personal answer will remain between God and me. This means they will likely be rather short entries. The only reason this one is fairly lengthy is because there is a lot of preface to it.

A recent revelation that I had has led me to study the book of Ruth this Winter Break. It's a very short book, so I may have to read another one later on, but we'll see how far it goes. I will most likely be reading only a few verses a day so it may last the entire month I'm home.

In my study Bible, in one of the notes, it says this: "Set in the dark and bloody days of the judges, the story of Ruth is silent about the underlying hostility and suspicion the two peoples -- Judahites and Moabites -- felt for each other. The original onslaught of the invading Israel tribes against towns that were once Moabite had never been forgotten or forgiven, while the Hebrew prophets denounced Moab's pride and arrogance for trying to bewitch, seduce, and oppress Israel from the time of Balaam on."

The history of the Moabites is not a good one. In Genesis 19, the birth of this people is described (Lot's older daughter slept with him, and bore a son whom she named Moab, and he is the father of the Moabites). Essentially, the Moabites seem to be pretty nasty people. Born in and of sin, and then called proud, arrogant, bewitchers, seducers, and oppressors by Hebrew prophets. They are the typical "children of the world" that Israel has been ordered to set herself apart from. And yet, God raises a woman from this heritage to be an ancestress of David and, more importantly, Jesus Christ. (Ruth is 1 of 5 women mentioned in the Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, the others being Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Mary.)

The title of this entry is "Called Out." Normally when this phrase is used, people think of being called out in front of others, or some sort of weakness of theirs being made public and reprimanded by someone else. But in this case, I am not referring to God calling us out ON sin, but calling us out OF sin. We may be nasty people, born of flesh and sin, our very nature making us enemies of God. But He is calling us out of this muck and filth and beckoning us to become His, to leave behind all that makes us children of Satan and to become new creations -- to be adopted into God's family instead.

Ruth was a Moabite, and therefore associated with all that the Moabites were called by the Israelites and by the history of her people. She was not considered as an individual by the Hebrews, but rather lumped into one big category: "She is Moabite, therefore she is..."

Do we do this to others? "He parties all the time, therefore he is..." "She just follows the crowd - she's not her own person at all! Therefore she is..."

Do we do this to brothers and sisters in Christ? "She's not leading a Bible Study, therefore she is..." "He doesn't get in the Word everyday, and he missed church this morning. Therefore he is..."

God uses sinners in His will. Look at the 5 women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus: Rahab was a prostitute. Bathsheba was the object of David's lust, representative of a huge mistake for a man who was supposed to be after God's own heart. Ruth was a Moabite.

This is good to remember not only when we are looking at other people, but looking at ourselves as well. What have you been called in the past (perhaps even by fellow Christians) that God is calling you out of? Ruth was called proud, arrogant, a bewitcher, oppressor, and seductress by definition of her people. But God called her out of the sins of her people and her own personal sin to life with Him. He called her humble, beautiful, and loved. He called her out of Moab and to a new life in Bethelehem!

Others may have their own perceptions of you, and to an extent, they may be true. But our identity rests in Christ and Christ alone. What does God call you?