Ruth 1:15-18 (KJV)
And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.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: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.When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

I know this is Old Testament and cannot be applied definitively to New Testament practice but there is something here worth contemplating. Naomi did not urge her daughters in law to come with her to Israel and to worship the true and living God. She gave them liberty to choose their old life if they were of a mind to do so.

It seems strange, even wrong, to encourage them to go back to false gods. I suppose one could chalk it up to Naomi’s self confessed bitterness. I am not sure that’s all that is here. Can you imagine taking a false believer back to the Promised Land where she mind find a kinsman redeemer and lead him into idolatry? Better to let them have the world than to bring them home and bring the world with them. It was only after Ruth made a strong profession of faith that Naomi left off speaking to her and led her to the people of God.

Good churches have been and are being destroyed by being too willing to let “converts” bring the world with them into the church. The spirit of Balaam is at work in our world. These churches don’t curse the people of God. They just spoil them by mixing them up with the people of the world.

Naomi had it right. These Moabite girls were welcome in the Promised Land but only after they had completely disavowed their: worldly culture, religion and associations.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie

My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Ruth 1:15-18 (KJV) Not So Fast!

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.