The Joy of Jesus International Sunday School Lesson

Acceptance in the Community (Ruth 2:5-12; 3:9-11)



The coach of the local football team began his season opening address by saying he wanted his team to be relevant when the league’s playoff picture began taking shape in the last few weeks of the season. I don’t ever remember hearing a coach use the term relevant to measure the success or failure of his team.

Relevant. Important. Impactful. Vital. Significant. A team could play well for a few games and still have no bearing on the championship. A team could be surrounded with enough drama to grab the headlines of the evening news and the daily paper and still have a stranglehold on last place. Its roster could be loaded with players capable of padding their individual stats, making all-star teams, and shattering performance records, and still be irrelevant in the hunt for the prize.

Relevant for Her Works
Ruth was relevant. By her good works, she caused people to notice her and she made a positive impact on those around her. Having turned down her mother-in-law’s “greener pastures” offer, this Moabite woman stood by Naomi. She unassumingly toiled behind the regular harvesters, content with the leftover grain rather than demanding the best the fields had to offer. She also expressed kindness and loyalty to Boaz. He noticed, and word spread to all of the people of the area who had taken notice of Ruth’s character (Ruth 3:11).

Motivated by His Love
There are plenty of people in our communities who pull on the jersey of faith and attempt to be players for Christ. Some on our team want to exercise their world-class criticism talent to point out the faults and sins of others. Many of us are more tactical. We boycott and denounce ideas and initiatives with which we disagree. A few of us even look to pad our stats of the faith by serving on every civic committee and community watch group we can find.

But if these things are not done in the name of the love that Christ demonstrated for each one of us, we risk becoming nothing more than the clanking, out-of-tune instruments Paul writes about (1 Corinthians 13:1).

We may show up for practice every Sunday. We may grab the attention of the local media with our marches and sit-ins. We may outwardly wear the uniform with pride. But without the sincerity, humility, and devotion that Ruth showed, we are unaccepted by our community. Then the message of Christ we try so desperately to deliver falls on deaf ears, and we are irrelevant to the cause for Christ.

I recently watched the local team play a game that had championship relevance. Late in the game, one of our players tackled an opposing player for a short loss. The tackler sprang from the turf, pointed at the downed player, and celebrated as if his team had just conquered the world.

In reality, his team faced a 30-point deficit and had not scored a single point. One great tackle, as flashy as it was, had no impact. No one cared. It was irrelevant to the outcome of the game.

Example to Our Neighbors
So, as we go through the seasons of our lives, let us do so with humility and motives like Ruth’s. If we’re in the game for fame and glory, self-promotion, or for reasons other than wanting to bring people closer to a relationship with Christ, then we run the risk of our actions having no relevance in the very community we are trying to serve. The people of Bethlehem noticed how Ruth went about her work as much as they did the deeds themselves. Likewise, we need our neighbors and coworkers to know we feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and love the unlovable because Christ first loved us.

My playbook tells me that gentleness and meekness will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). My Coach also tells me that, after this season of life is over, his postseason definitely is worth the training!

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*All Scripture references are from the New International Version, unless otherwise indicated.

The Joy of Jesus Church Bible Study for Life

Doing God’s Will
The Bible must be our only authority in religion if we want to please God and go to Heaven. People must give up all the various false doctrines that propagate the many different kinds of denominations and go back to only the Bible. There were no denominations in the New Testament times and there would be none today if only the Bible was taught and practiced. There would only be the Lord's one true church, the church of Christ.

How then do we make sure that we are among the few who are saved and not among the many who are lost? Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness". If you believe and call Jesus, "Lord, Lord", you are still lost if you have not done what God says. If we are not obeying God, we are practicing lawlessness. If we ever hope to go to heaven, we must do the will of the Father. This is the only way. Not the will of men, but God’s will. Not our own will, but God’s will. Just because we call Jesus our Lord, this will not save us.

We cannot go to Heaven by just calling Jesus, "Lord, Lord". Jesus says in the above scripture, on the Day of Judgment, many will be pleading with him, calling him Lord, Lord, and reminding him of the many wonderful works they had done in His name, but He will say unto them, "I never knew you, depart from Me you who practice lawlessness". Why? Why? Because they had not done the will of the Father in heaven. Oh, they thought they had, but they hadn’t. They had done their own will or the will of men in their many differing denominations. This will be the worst thing that will ever be said to an individual, when the Lord on Judgment Day says to the majority of people, "I never knew you; depart from Me". The majority of people will be told this and be punished forever in Hell. There will be no appeal to this decision. There will be no second chance. We have to get it right the first time.

These people in the above scripture seemed to be honest, but they were honestly mistaken as the majority of people are today. The people seemed to be sincere. There will be many surprised but lost people on the Day of Judgment who thought that it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. To believe this is to believe a lie of Satan. If it doesn't matter what you believe, then it doesn't matter if you believe at all. Apparently many were good people, because they had "done many wonderful works". But they had not done the will of the Father who is in heaven. Man generally wants to do things his way and he doesn't really care what God thinks. We cannot obey God without doing what God says to do, when God says to do it, how God says to do it, and for the reason God says to do it. Nothing is more important than pleasing God by doing His will so that we can go to Heaven.

We learn from the above scripture, that we don't go to Heaven by doing the will of men, or by doing what we think is right. The only way we can go to Heaven is by doing the will of the Father, and that will is found right in our Bibles. Do we really know what the will of the Father is so that we can be sure of going to Heaven? This is too important a matter to assume we do know or to take someone else’s word for it. One must know what the will of God is before he can obey it. Do you really know what the Bible says that God wants us to do in order to be saved?

What must I do to be saved? This is a very important question. Many people would answer this question in many different ways. The many different denominations give many different and conflicting answers. Only God's way is correct. The Bible is the only reliable source we can go to for our answer, since it is our soul that will be lost if we follow man's advice. Our obedience to Christ is a very serious decision and must not be taken lightly. It must be on the Lord's terms as laid out in the scriptures and not on our terms.

We have already seen in Matthew 7:13-14, 21, only few will be saved, and many will be lost, and only those who do the will of the Father can go to Heaven. We read in 1 John 2:4, "He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." "A liar" is pretty strong language. A person is lying to himself and everyone else who says he knows and loves God, but does not keep God's commandments. We know that a liar cannot go to Heaven (Revelation 21:8).

We must do all of God's will, so that we can go to Heaven. There is no other way. We must do all of what God has commanded us. Our Lord says in Matthew 28:20, “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” We must do all things God has commanded us. We cannot pick and choose and take a verse out of context but we must take all of what the Bible says. We cannot be pleasing to God by dreaming up our own plan of salvation as to how God is going to save us. We must follow His plan and only His plan if we expect Him to save us. Our salvation in Heaven is too great to lose, because if we don’t go to Heaven we will spend forever and ever in a burning Hell. Many people don’t really believe this, but they all will one day.

No single condition, that God imposes, can be ignored. God has no non-essential commands. When we don't obey a command of God, we have just broken it. Many people think that God will save them, no matter if they follow God's specific instructions on what they must do to be saved or not. We must obey God by doing what God says to do, when God says to do it, how God says to do it, and for the reason God says to do it. What then is God's will, so that we can go to Heaven and not have to endure eternal punishment forever and ever? We will find the answer in the Bible in the following lessons.


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Questions Lesson 9

Doing God's Will
(click on the button of the answer of your choice)

1) (Matthew 7:21) How do we go to heaven?
By doing our will.

By doing man's will.

By doing God's will.


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2) All who call Jesus their Lord will be saved.


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3) (Matthew 7:21) Those who call Jesus, Lord, Lord

Will all go to heaven.

Many of which will not go to heaven.

Will all be pleasing to the Lord.


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4) On Judgment Day many will be vainly pleading with Jesus to be saved.


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5) (Matthew 7:23) What is the worse thing one can hear on Judgment Day?

Welcome to heaven.

That heaven has no more room.

Depart, I never knew you.


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6) If we haven't done the will of God, we will not go to heaven even if we have done many good works.


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7) (1 John 2:4) If I say I know and love God, but I do not keep His commandments,

I am telling the truth.

I am a liar.

God will overlook it.


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8) One is telling the truth if he says he loves and knows God but does not keep His commandments.

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Bible Study-The Holy Spirit

Our Bible study comes to us as a result of need; many of our friends need health, jobs and resources to make it financially. We pray for each person and family. The real power will come from the Holy Spirit. Please read our lessen, pray on it and Jesus will indeed bless you:

Who Is the Holy Spirit?
Christian tradition starts speaking of the Spirit by saying that the Holy Spirit is God, based on the Bible.

The Spirit has the attributes of God :

eternal, having neither beginning nor end (Hebrews 9:14),
omni-potent, having all power (Luke 1:35);
omni-present, being everywhere at the same time (Psalm 139:7); and
omni-scient, understanding all matters ( 1 Corinthians 2:10,11).


Not only is the Holy Spirit is God, the Spirit is a full person of the Trinity. What is meant by that? (Forgive me for talking strange here, but this is about the Holy Spirit, the One that can least be described by words.) The Spirit can be addressed as 'you' by other 'I's (such as you and me), and can respond as an 'I'. The Spirit is an 'I', able to take action and cause action. The Spirit is able to be a 'we' with other 'I's.

In a Barna survey in 1997, 61% of US residents surveyed agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is "a symbol of God's presence or power, but is not a living entity". Even more : that answer was held by a majority or near-majority of those in most every Christian denominational family, including mainline Protestants and evangelical Christians, and was most common in non-whites and young people. It's not a new view. Back in the days of the early church, some held that the Holy Spirit was an 'emanation' of God the Father, and others thought of the Spirit in the same terms as the Talmudic discussions on the divine Shekinah (Presence), as an expression of what Christians call the 'Father'. Those are not far off, they're just describing part of a larger picture, like speaking of an elephant by describing its ears without reference to its trunk, tusks, or thick legs.

Scripture shows that the Holy Spirit is a person and is God :

the Spirit's work in the Old Testament is closely identified with the Word of YHWH spoken by the prophets (this was affirmed by the early church in 2 Peter 1:21).
the close ties between Jesus' mission and the work of the Spirit (see the work of the Spirit).
the close ties between the mission of the apostles and the work of the Spirit; esp. see 1 Peter 1:12.
The episode with Hananiah (Ananias) in Acts 5, where first, Peter says that Hananiah lied to the Holy Spirit, then later says that he lied not to men but to God.
The trinitarian baptismal formula found in Scripture ( Matt 28:19): "in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". It dates to the church's earliest days.
Jesus made a habit of confronting traditions with "box-breaking" actions. He ate with tax collectors and other scorned people, He turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple, He talked to the woman at the well, He healed the occupier-centurion's daughter. The Holy Spirit does the same kind of thing in Acts, and ever since.


The Holy Spirit As A Person
The Holy Spirit is not a mere symbol of anything. No mere symbol is able to:

communicate ('speak') (Acts 13:2),
intercede (step in on behalf of someone) (Romans 8:26),
testify (John 15:26)
guide (John 16:13),
command (Acts 16:6,7),
appoint (Acts 20:28),
lead (Romans 8:14),
reveal to someone how wrong, foolish, or sinful he/she was (John 16:8).
seal God's promise in believers' hearts (Ephesians 1:13-14)
shape the life of each person and community to Christ's (Romans 8:1-17)
In the Bible, the Holy Spirit has intellect, passions, and will, and can be grieved. In short, the Spirit has a personality.

The key way of giving the Holy Spirit grief is malice, which is shown as bitterness, rage, anger, clamor (making lots of noise and disruption), and slander. Paul follows this description by what makes for a happy Holy Spirit : forgiving others as, in Christ, God forgave you.

The Holy Spirit can act in whatever manner the Spirit wants to act. The Spirit generally acts through the church, but doesn't have to; the Wind blows where it will. The Spirit is free not to always be seriously focused on those purposes; the Spirit can have fun while at work.

This is all stuff that can't be true of a mere (or even 'The') Force. That is how we often experience the Spirit and know of the Spirit's presence, but that is not what the Spirit is. As God, the Holy Spirit is cause, and that cause has effect. Yet, there are those in the Christian churches who reduce the Holy Spirit to a force, or to a collective will or a living memory of the gathered believers, or the force of emotion or conscience within a person. Those people, fine as they may be, are describing a different spirit than the Holy Spirit as viewed by the Christian faith. The Spirit works in all of these ways and more, yet against all of them at times. The Spirit works in whatever ways are needed to do what needs to be done, except in choosing not to take forceable control of people's actions.
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The Spirit In the Old Testament
The Spirit shows up in the Old Testament (OT), especially in the prophets' books.

The OT does not use nephesh (soul of earthly beings) to describe God. It uses ruach.