Ruthie's Inspirations

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:     But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.   Genesis 2:16-17 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.   Genesis 3:6 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:     Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.     So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every w...

  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD.     And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away; intreat for me.    Exodus 8:8, 28 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.      Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. Exodus 9:27-28 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go?      And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for e...

 "And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.   And they talked together of all these things which had happened.   And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.   But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.   And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?   And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger  in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?"     Luke 24: 13-18 As the two walked to Emmaus, their thoughts and conversation were focused on what had just happened. They were sad and confused. They were so caught up on the events that had just taken place that when Jesus waked and talked with t...

 From once upon a time to happily ever after! Oh, wait, oops! I'm thinking of a fairy tale romance. But did you know our relationship can be that way now? Having happily ever after in your relationship with your spouse (or future spouse) is highly dependant upon your relationship with your heavenly father.  So I ask this question: How's your relationship? I find there are a lot of varying opinions and standards when it comes to courtship/dating and what is and isn't allowed. I decided to look into it myself and see what the Lord would show me. I couldn't find a dating chapter in the Bible with a code of conduct for courtship. Neither could I find examples. Then I realized that, that makes sense. In Bible times there were arranged marriages and people were married at very young ages. That was the culture then. Courtship looks much different today. So I started looking for and discovering some practical applications. After doing some thinking and praying God reminded me t...

 "And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.   Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.   And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.   And Jesus said unto him, Friend , wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him."     Matthew 26:47-50 A couple things came to mind when I read this passage.  1. Judas has one goal in mind: to betray the Lord Jesus. After he gives Jesus the kiss of betrayal, Jesus looks and Judas and calls him friend. I can imagine the guilt that had to have washed over Judas as he heard that word straight from the Savior he had just betrayed! 2. How good our God is! To know that Judas had just given him the kiss of betrayal and still call him friend! He still loved Judas...

 " For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 As I was praying yesterday, I came across this verse I have in my prayer list. I started thinking about this verse and something occurred to me.  Now I know some of you will be like "duh", or "obviously" when you read this, and it's not like I didn't know this before but something just clicked and became real to me about this verse.  Confession time! One of the things I struggle with the most in life is fear. If I'm not careful, and not walking with the Lord like I should, fear permeates every thing. I'm not just talking about being afraid of the dark, or monsters under the bed and such. Although I do prefer not being in the dark...but who would? :]  I become afraid of everything from the crazy stuff that's happening in our world, to the unknown of the future, to losing the love and affection of friends or family to someone el...

 I have been reading my Bible in the book of Exodus for the last few days. As I was reading a couple days ago, an interesting thought came to me. I had just finished reading about all the plagues God had put on Egypt because Pharaoh would not let God's people go. I thought to myself, wow, it sure took a lot of persuasion to change Pharaoh's mind before he let Israel go. At the first visit, and after God removed each plague, he hardened his heart. After going through the plagues of all their water turned to blood, frogs, and flies, Pharaoh agrees to let them go and sacrifice but only in the land of Egypt. But Moses told Pharaoh that, that's not what God wanted and after the flies were gone, he hardened his heart and wouldn't let God's people go. After going through three more plagues, all the animals dying, the boils, and dangerous hail and fire along the ground, Pharaoh tells Moses if he asks God to get rid of the hail, he will let the people go. But when it's g...