A Famine Not of Bread

"Bethlehem" by Vasily Polenov Click here to listen to this sermon. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,     who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for Me     One who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old,     from ancient days. Therefore He shall give them up until the time     when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of His brothers shall return     to the people of Israel. And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord,     in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they shall dwell secure, for now He shall be great     to the ends of the earth. And He shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2-5a). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “A special memory from a pilgrimage to Palestine by one of the great American preachers of the nineteenth century...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you’” (Ruth 1:16-17). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It seems fitting that on the day of the year our congregation celebrates the faithfulness of the women of the LWML that our text would highlight the faithfulness of a woman—Ruth, a young widow who refused to leave her widowed mother-in-law, or turn her back on the Lord, the covenant God of Israel, even though it meant an uncertain future, a life likely filled with hardship and loneliness. Imagine moving to a foreign country, a place where your people are considered the enemy. A place where you know only one other living person. Not ...