For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The only sure course to find security in this life is to allow fear of the Lord to guide our actions.

    Reading this psalm reminds us that God uses the hard times, the difficult times, to shape blessings for us. No matter how bad things may seem, they are part of God’s plan to shape us so that we are ready to experience the blessings He has in store for us.

    This passage is a challenge to us when we pray for healing. First, there is Jesus’ response when the official asked Him to heal his son. Are we like this, where we only turn to God when we want something from Him? Do we only believe in God when we need Him to do miracles for us? There is another part to this story as well. The father begged Jesus not to let his little boy die and Jesus granted his request. When the man met his servants, they told him that his son started to get better at the time when Jesus had told him his boy would live. When we pray for healing, or anything else, do we expect it to happen right away? Do we have the faith to say to those who come to us for God’s intervention, “Go, your son will live”?
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    When Boaz discovered that Ruth was gathering grain behind his workers that they had missed as they harvested the crops, he told his workers to not harass her and to intentionally leave some grain for her to gather. He invited her to share the meal he provided to his workers and encouraged her to drink from the water he had drawn for them. Boaz did all of this because he had heard what she had done for Naomi. Later, when Ruth snuck in and spent the night sleeping at his feet, he did not take advantage of the situation and took care to protect her reputation. Since she had made it clear that she would welcome marrying him, Boaz went out and did what was right in order to do so.