A Heart open to God!

Every morning we read terrible news in the papers and through the electronic media.  Sometimes it is very difficult even to watch the news.  When we read of children being raped, women murdering their husbands, families committing suicides due to debt, and the gruesome honor killings we think the society has gone down way beyond redemption.  The decline of the moral and ethical fabric of the society we live in is horrific.  What is morally and ethically wrong is celebrated and what is right is mocked.  How should we live in such a society?  Should we shout from the rooftop that what everyone is doing is wrong?

The Bible has recorded two incidences to tell us about the spiritual and moral standards that existed at the time of the Judges which spanned about 400 years.  The stories of Micah's idolatry (Judges 17, 18) and the Levite from the mountains of Ephraim (Judges 19-21) demonstrate the apostasy of the people of Israel at the time the Judges ruled.  The Bible says that during the time of the Judges everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).  They were not following God and obeying His laws but were doing what was right in their own eyes.  Almost at the same time, when the Judges ruled, another story also unfolds in the book of Ruth (Ruth 1:1).  It is the story of Ruth.  Even though the people had gone way beyond the line, God was working out His plan in a heart that was open to Him.  God's plan of redemption was brought forth through Ruth, the Moabitess even during a time of general apostasy.  

The question that is facing us today is whether our heart is open to the Lord Jesus.  Whatever may be the condition of the world we live in, God wants to work out His plan through the one whose heart is open to Him. Ruth was a Moabitess but she had accepted the God of Naomi as her God and had followed her to Israel.  Because Ruth was committed to the God of Israel, He worked out His plan of redemption through her. It was through that one person the redemption story unfolds. 

My friend, is my heart and your heart open to God?  Are we going along with the world or choosing to walk with God?  These are the questions we have to answer today.

---