Ruth 4:5-10 New International Version (NIV)
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the[a] dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.” 7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.) 8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal. 9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”
Tuesday November 17
"I can't do it." No one likes to say those words. We want to believe that we can do anything if we put our mind to it! We love to believe in the power of the human spirit and our ability to accomplish great things. In our daily lives we try to be all thing to all people. We try to be perfect. But we all know that this is a lie. We can't be perfect, so let's stop acting like we can! It is actually quite freeing to admit that we are humans, not gods. This "death" is where Jesus meets us and redeems us. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more than he already does. It is a free gift of grace given to us by God. We can't get that grace by any work or effort of our own. We have no power or strength to climb the ladder up to God to get His redeeming love. But Jesus has the power to come down and deliver that love to us.