Hold On For Dear Life

 This Bethel Sunday we had a guest speaker who I hold in high regard. Bro. Dorion Norton preached a timely sermon entitled, " Hold On For Dear Life". The main text was from Ruth 1:1-17. Bro Norton is an excellent preacher and he was fully tapped into the Spirit today. I will share some of my notes here with you, but I highly recommend that you watch/listen to it here.  There is much more to the sermon, than what I will be sharing.  Bro. Norton first started off by explaining what the word commitment means. How a singer for the church is committed to leading in praise and worship. Then he shared the difference between the chicken and the pig when it comes to bacon and eggs. The chicken is included in the breakfast as a contributor, but the pig is committed. The chicken gives the eggs and carries on with life. The pig gives his life for the bacon. He then touched on when a guy is committed to a relationship with a girl, he is in it no matter the cost. His love and commitment supersede the cost.  Ruth was a woman of commitment. First you must understand that she was a Moabites. If you look in the Bible at the history of her people you will see all negative things. Her history was all dark things. The people were not allowed to be in the presence of the Lord, they worshiped idols, and were enemies of Israel. Ruth was a Moabite who married  an Israelite. They lived in a foreign land. For ten years they learned of the One true God. Her Mother in Law was Naomi.  A war came and the father died to be followed by the two sons. Here was Naomi with two daughter in laws and no sons. She had no other sons to offer to Ruth and Orpah. Naomi told them to go back to their people and their gods. Orpah kissed her Mother in Law goodbye and went back to her people. Ruth chose to stay. She choose to go to the  people of Naomi. The people of the One True God. She chose to return knowing Naomi had no son to offer her. She chose to hold on for dear life to a woman who could promise her nothing in return. The beautiful thing about this is because she choose to go a path that was unknow to her, God blessed her with great things. Ruth chose to hold on for dear life to the one true God. She gleaned in the fields of Boaz. Boaz became her kinsman redeemer. Boaz married her and ensured the line of Naomi. When Ruth married Boaz she went from being tied to a past that was shunned by God to God flipping it completely and putting her in the linage of Jesus Christ.  By this simple act of walking away from all she had known. By clinging to her Mother in Law and the one true God, she became a part of the genealogy of Jesus. Her simple act of being willing to walk away from the  known and into the unknown changed her life forever. No matter the circumstances in your life, no matter how bad it may seem, hold on for dear life to God. Choose to  not go back to who you once were. Choose to not go back to the way things were. Hold on for dear life to God. Trust Him as he leads you in an unknown direction. For when you do this, what God has for you is so much better than you could have ever imagined. Trust Him. Go into the unknown that God is calling  you into. It may be unfamiliar territory, but if you hold on tight to Him, He will change your destiny. God is good.


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