I hope all you moms who are reading this had a good Mother’s Day yesterday. We had a really good Mother’s Day service at Friendship Harmony; I’ll tell you about it in a minute.
Last week I shared a prayer request concerning my wife, Miss Bessie. Last Monday afternoon I took her for an X-ray, and after reading the films, the radiologist told us to go straight to the Cape Coral Hospital Emergency Room. The ER physician looked at the X-rays and ordered a CT Scan. The scan showed that she had 4 broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a partially deflated lung with a touch of pneumonia. This was on top of the fractured wrist we were already of. The CT also showed bruising on her liver, but they were not too concerned about that. As I said last week, our orthopedic doctor, Michael Jugan, believes her hip is the problem and the reason for the fall. Thank you for your prayers, and I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday I gave much thought to my own mom, Alene Cooper. She was a tremendous mom. Every night at bedtime she would come in and sit on my bed and listen to my bedtime prayers. She taught me two. One was, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the LORD my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the LORD my soul to take. A-men.” The other was, “I see the moon, the moon sees me. God bless the moon, God bless me. And God bless mommy, and God bless daddy, and God bless …..”
Did you pray either of these prayers? The lessons she taught me about prayer stays with me to this very day. The first prayer was a prayer of faith. It was faith in God and faith in prayer. The second was a prayer of thinking of others. I would later learn that was called an “intercessory” prayer. I may not have known the theological technicalities of it in the late 50’s and early 60’s, but I did learn about the importance of prayer.
As I said earlier, the service at Friendship Harmony was tremendous. I know it seems like I always say that, but it is true. The attendance was good and the Spirit in the service was awesome. I thank our Lord Jesus Christ for meeting with us at church. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit, we would be just a club.
The message was called, “Mother Of The Year: Naomi. The message came from selected passages in the book of Ruth. We talked about Naomi being acquainted with sorrow and hard times, yet knowing the LORD was sufficient to see her through. Untested faith is shallow faith, and Naomi’s faith was deep and steadfast. This was from Ruth 1:3-5.
We saw from chapter 1 verses 7-9, we saw that Naomi was considerate of the needs of others. She had buried her husband, then her two sons, leaving herself and her two daughters in law. Naomi was going back home to Israel and told the girls that they could return home and find husbands among the men of Moab.
In chapter 1, verses 16-18 we learned that Naomi was a highly treasured woman. Her daughter in law Ruth said this to her. Ruth 1:16-18
“And Ruth said, ‘Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: [17] Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.’ [18] When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.” What a fitting compliment for a fine lady.
We saw that Naomi was a descerner of God’s will. To accomplish this she had a close personal walk with the LORD. Are you able to descern the will of God? If not, perhaps you need to draw closer to Him. This we saw in chapter 3, verses 1-4. From this wise counsel of Naomi to Ruth, Ruth and Boaz eventually marry and have a son named Obed. He grows and has a son named Jesse, who in turn has a son named David. David would not only become Israel’s greatest king, but from him one day the Messiah, Jesus would be born. Naomi knew the will of God for Ruth, and her simple act of faith blossomed into a Messianic line.
Finally we learned Naomi was known to others as a person blessed of God. From verses 14 and 15 of chapter 4, we saw how others recognized the hand of God at work in the life of Naomi. May we all, women and men alike, follow the fine example set forth by dear Naomi.
May the LORD bless your upcoming week with the blessings of good health and Spirit filled days. There is no video being posted tomorrow, so I’ll see you next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!!©
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