Ways You Can’t Explain

My son Arun (2022)

Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” (Ruth 2:5)

My son Arun is a hard-working, thoughtful, kind, giving, loving, innocent, smart, good looking man. He answered my question saying it was hard to find a good woman in Los Angeles; women prefer “bad boys.”

Since he goes to the gym every day, I suggested looking there. He laughed, saying he gets a lot of attention at the gym, but it’s all from men!

Boaz wasn’t looking for a wife or praying about marriage when he went to check on his farm. But he did notice young Ruth working at the edge of his field. The field boss complimented Ruth as polite and humble. She’d asked to collect leftovers from the grain field without demanding her rights under the law, acting with entitlement, or requesting handouts from what others had worked to harvest. Ruth was a woman of excellence.

Ruth willingly accepted what was left behind and worked hard from sunrise. Despite this, the farm boss twice referred to her status as a “foreigner”. She was a Moabite, a descendant of an incestuous relationship between Abraham’s nephew Lot and his daughter (Genesis 19:30-37).

What was it about that day? What did Boaz see in the widowed Ruth? There had to be other women in Bethlehem better suited to a godly man of wealth and prestige.

And in this picture of Ruth the Moabitess, we have a mirrored image of ourselves.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:3-6).

The story of Ruth foreshadows your own story of salvation. The Father choose you before the foundation of the world, before you’d done anything impressive or good. He drew you to Himself in love. He brought you near to Himself in ways you can’t explain. By grace, He made you a partaker of every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

* Click here to listen to this sermon on Youtube.

Chosen by Love

My son by choice, Partha Lee Rice

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4-6).

The man on the other end of the phone claimed to be a long-lost cousin and asked if they could meet. The caller had photos and information that might be interesting to Marvin.

The man showed Marvin information revealing Marvin wasn’t who he thought he was. Both men had submitted a DNA sample to a popular genealogy company, and the DNA testing revealed they were unknown blood cousins, and that Marvin wasn’t the biological grandson of a German doctor as he’d always believed.

Two generations earlier, the German doctor awakened to find on his doorstep a newborn baby. The doctor and his wife took the baby into their home, gave him their name, and bestowed upon him all the rights and privileges as the doctor’s natural born son. He was the son of the doctor by loving choice rather than by birth, and never said otherwise.

The baby grew to be a man and moved to the United States prior to World War Two. He married and raised two sons of his own, carrying on the name of the loving doctor who accepted him, loved him, and raised him. He was the son of the doctor and nothing less.

This amazing love by choice in no way diminishes the natural love of a parent for a birth child; rather, it highlights the extraordinary love of a parent for a child by choice, like my son Partha, my child by choice.

By grace through faith in Jesus, God the Father has accepted and made us His own children. Entrance into the divine family is from eternity, not because of who we are today, choices we made yesterday, or things we do tomorrow. Inclusion in God’s family also isn’t by natural birth, but by a new birth and adoption by love and the pleasure of His own will. This choosing by choice – by God’s choice – exalts the glory of His grace.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1).

Accepted in the Beloved

Lunch with my son (RLR 2021)

After Sunday worship we stopped for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. While we ate I noticed the employees stop for lunch at the other end of the room.

When they were done eating, our server who has worked there over 30 years now, came to clear our table and I asked what he’d eaten for lunch. The employees ate lobster and duck. Saturday had been a religious festival. They’d brought sacrifices for their gods and offered prayers. Eddie said they hoped all the ancestral gods would hear their prayers and accept their sacrifices for a good year ahead. Then Eddie laughed and added, We never know if the gods will hear us and accept us.

As Christians, people who have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, we are truly blessed. We don’t bring sacrifices or make offerings to try and gain the favor of God. In Christianity, God provided His own offering, He made His own sacrifice by sending His only-begotten Son to die on the cross for the redemption of Adam’s fallen race, to redeem sinners, and to make us His own dear and adopted children. Ephesians 1:5 and 6 informs us that according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, He has made us accepted in the Beloved. That makes Christianity unique among the world’s religions!

We don’t worry about God hearing our prayers either. The Apostle John in his first epistle wrote, Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15). We don’t bring sacrifices and “hope”, we are confident, assured, we are certain He hears us and answers us when we pray according to His will.

We don’t try to buy Him off or earn His favor. Jesus is His favor. He became the favor making a perfect, seamless, and eternal way near to the heart of God. He is the Door. He is the Way. And those who come through Him, God’s own Lamb of salvation, He will in no wise cast out.

A Son by Love

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4-6).

The man on the other end of the phone claimed to be a long-lost cousin and asked if they could meet. The caller had photos and information that might be interesting to Marvin.

The man showed Marvin information that revealed Marvin wasn’t who he thought he was. Both men had submitted a DNA sample to a popular genealogy company, and that DNA testing revealed they were unknown blood cousins, and that Marvin wasn’t the biological grandson of a German doctor as he’d always believed.

Two generations earlier, a German doctor awakened at night to find on his doorstep a newborn baby. The doctor and his wife took the baby into their home, gave him their name, and bestowed upon him all the rights and privileges as the doctor’s natural born son. He was the son of the doctor by loving choice rather than by birth, and never said otherwise.

The baby grew to be a man and moved to the United States prior to World War Two. He married and raised two sons of his own, carrying on the name of the loving doctor who accepted him, loved him, and raised him. He was the son of the doctor and nothing less.

This amazing love by choice in no way diminishes the natural love of a parent for a child; rather, it highlights the extraordinary love of a parent for a child by choice.

By grace through faith in Jesus, God the Father has accepted and made us His own children. Entrance into the divine family is from eternity, not because of who we are today, choices we make today, or things we do today. Inclusion in His family also isn’t by natural birth, but by a new birth and adoption by love and the pleasure of His own will. This choosing by choice – by God’s choice – exalts the glory of His grace.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1).

We Reformed People Have a Big Problem

… in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began … (Titus 1:2).

We who hold to the theology of the Protestant Reformation have a big problem.

Wesleyans and Roman Catholics say God saves sinners because of what He saw in the future the choices they make today. As they tell it, before time began, the future was a total mystery to God. Curious about what would happen, God stared down the corridor of time and saw who would choose Him. He noted the good works of some. He noticed the potential in us, and decided to give us grace based on our merit, love us for loving Him, and choose us for choosing Him.

The problem we Reformed folk have is simple: there is not a single good reason in me for God to save me … or you! Salvation is all of grace.

From eternity God planned every detail of time and space – leaving nothing in His universe to chance. He fashioned humanity from dust, feeble as frail. He determined that we would sin and be separated from Him by our blatant rebellion. Everything our hearts and minds set out to do would be corrupted by sin. Rather than love Him, we would love ourselves and make decisions based on that self-love. There would be nothing worthy in any of us. Everything He does and gives would be by grace alone by His mercy alone.

God didn’t move to save a remnant of humanity because we had potential and tried hard. He accepted us, as the Apostle Paul wrote, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:5-6). He accepted us in Christ Jesus because it pleased and glorified Him. He didn’t return our love, but quite the opposite: We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). He redeemed us because of a promise He made to His Son in eternity (Titus 1:2).

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses … that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-5, 7).