A Change in Name

[0:00] Well, good evening everyone. It's good to be back with you. Second week in succession. I usually go to most churches twice. Once to apologise. Really it's a privilege to be here with you.

[0:19] Trying to jiggle all my bits of things on here. Get this right. And over 30 years ago, our family moved to Nigeria to live among a community of people, some 60,000 strong, known locally as the Jarawa.

[0:39] They're particularly famous for their skills in dancing. We lived in a village about 18 miles from the city of Joss, in a mud-walled house without electricity and running water, with our children who were then aged three and one.

[0:57] Our purpose in living there was to write down the language these people spoke. It's a language called Izeri. We were writing it down for the first time. And that involves spending time with the speakers of the language, transcribing the language, and then launching a reading programme in preparation for the translation of the New Testament in this particular language.

[1:22] When you learn a language like this without any books or any grammars or anything like this, you begin usually with important phrases. So the most important phrase is, how do you greet people?

[1:34] And in this particular language, if you greet someone, it's a long, complicated process, a bit like a table tennis match when you go backwards and forwards. You can't just say hello and nod your head. You know, you...

[1:44] So the first thing you say normally is, Ikoza cháange? Which means literally, did you sleep cold? Because that's a good thing, sleeping cold in a hot clavet.

[1:55] And the answer is, ee chang, ee yokyo. You then learn other things, useful things. So here's one from the reading book. Aniene means, who are you?

[2:07] And this boy says, na'ama. I'm ama. But often, as you begin to explore a new language, you discover under the surface, there are lots of much more complex things going on below the surface.

[2:24] And as you understand the culture, some interesting things come out. So we discovered after a time that people, if you ask them what your name is, they would give you their name, but they also had other names, or I suppose we call them nicknames, which were given to people to describe their names and their character.

[2:48] And after we'd been living there for some time, we discovered that I had been given a name. Now, sometimes this is not the kind of thing you want to know, because you ask in trepidation, so what is the name that you've chosen for me?

[3:03] And I discovered that the name they'd chosen for me was Itzer. And Itzer is the word for a flying termite. Now, I was asking my wife, why did they call me Itzer?

[3:18] And she said, well, I think it's because you're always buzzing around doing things manically and activity-wise. Maybe so. Maybe, though, I fondly imagined it was because it also reflected my creative skills, as flying termites are the ones that build those incredible termite mounds up to five meters high, in which they live in a colony.

[3:43] However, termites are also known for something less appealing, their ability to eat through and destroy almost anything. Here's a fine commentary on Colossians and Philemon by a well-known professor from of old, H.C.G.

[4:01] Mould. David will tell you about it if you want to know any more details. There's a picture of it there. And the termites just love this book. So I thought you might like to see what it looks like when a termite's been through a book.

[4:18] They devoured almost every word of this learned and godly book. So was I really happy with my new name?

[4:29] It's Sam. I kind of got mixed feelings about it, to be honest. You may wonder where this is going. All right. Today I want to focus on the person in the Bible that we're going to be studying.

[4:41] We began last week in the book of Ruth. We're going to, if you want to title for this a summary, what the opening chapter of Ruth is about. It's about a change of name. And it's the story of Naomi from the book of Ruth.

[4:54] And so what we need to do first of all is turn in the Bible to Ruth chapter 1. We're going to read the opening chapter. And then we're going to talk about this great theme about name changing.

[5:08] Okay. Here we go. We looked at the opening verses last week, but I think for the context it will help to read them again. Okay. If you have a Bible. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.

[5:23] So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech.

[5:34] His wife's name was Naomi. The name of his two sons were Marlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

[5:47] Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth. After they'd lived there about 10 years, both Marlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

[6:07] When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

[6:18] With her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she'd been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother's house.

[6:32] May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness, to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant, each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.

[6:44] Then she kissed them goodbye, and they wept aloud and said to her, We'll go back with you to your people. But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters. Why should you come with me?

[6:55] Would you come with me? Am I going to have more sons who would become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I'm too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons, would you wait until they grew up?

[7:11] Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It's more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has turned against me. At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

[7:27] Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her. But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.

[7:38] Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried.

[7:48] May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

[8:02] So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women exclaimed, Can this be Naomi?

[8:13] Don't call me Naomi, she told them. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.

[8:24] Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

[8:42] This is God's word. As we saw last week, there are some things in time and culture that you need to understand. The background bit, this story can be echoed in many other parts of the world today.

[8:56] It's a story of economic migration. It's a story of family tragedy, as we saw last week. 3,000 years ago, a bit of a review for those who weren't here last week, 3,000 years ago, the people of Israel were living in hard times.

[9:13] They were hard times politically. The opening verse tells us the story happened when the judges ruled. It's a time of political instability with a succession of rulers, of up and down cycles, of straying from God, crying out to God for help, being oppressed by enemies.

[9:35] God answers in, and then the same thing happens again and again. And we saw last week that the last book of the preceding, the book preceding Ruth, the book of Judges in our Bibles, ends with these words.

[9:47] In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit. Literally, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. I think of somewhere like Libya or Yemen today, and you probably get a pretty good idea of the kind of things that were going on.

[10:03] Allied with this, there were also hard times economically. There was a famine in the land. And so a man named Elimelech from the little town of Bethlehem in southern Israel took his wife Naomi and their two sons, Marlon and Kilion, crossed the border into the neighboring country of Moab.

[10:24] A man from Bethlehem and Judah together with his wife and two sons went to live for a while in the country of Moab. We saw last week it was intended to be just for a while, a period of sojourning, until things got better but they became settled there.

[10:39] The little while became a long while and for three of the party there was no return. So Naomi discovered these were hard times not only politically, economically, these were hard times personally.

[10:55] Look what it says. Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband died and she was left with her two sons. They married Moab women, one named Oprah, the other named Ruth. After they'd lived there about ten years, both Marlon and Kilion died also and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband along with her two Moabite daughters-in-law who had married her two sons and were also now widowed.

[11:18] And then news came from over the border that the famine was over, food was now plentiful, so Naomi sets off. It's a beautiful picture, is it not? Naomi sets off on the road going back across the border back to Bethlehem with her two daughters, one called Orpah, the other one called Ruth.

[11:37] The name Orpah has not really been a popular name. Other than the case, you may know this, just a piece of trite information, other than a teenage mother in America who decided to call her daughter Orpah and everyone mispronounced it as Oprah and that is the origin of that name.

[11:56] I don't know if you knew that, but it doesn't help you in any way, but it's just interesting. The other name, of course, is much better known, the name of Ruth who insisted on staying with her mother-in-law and returning back to Judah and to Bethlehem.

[12:11] And so, ten years later, Naomi returns to Bethlehem, a very different person to the one who had left with her husband and sons. So much so, the whole town asks, can this be Naomi?

[12:23] So, notice Naomi's answer and the change of name, our theme. Naomi answered, trying to read the thing here, I should go in a little bit, sorry.

[12:34] Naomi answered, don't call me Naomi, she told them, call me Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.

[12:45] Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me, the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. So, notice here the change of name. From Naomi, a word which means in Hebrew pleasant, something like that, to Mara, a word which means bitter.

[13:04] She now asks that people call her not Naomi, but Mara. Like my book, her life, it's a good illustration really, like my book, her life has been consumed by bitterness.

[13:20] Eaten away with bitterness at what has happened to me. So much so, that even the cover, her face, and her appearance is affected as well. She's almost unrecognizable.

[13:32] The people in the town, probably not a big town, well-known family maybe, everyone is asking, have you seen her? Can this really be Naomi? Naomi? So, let's look first of all then at this change of name from Naomi to Mara.

[13:48] What I want to do this evening is to focus on two things. First of all, on the root of bitterness as we look at Naomi's story. Because it is a story that is sadly mirrored in the experience of many people and maybe even the experience of some of us here this evening.

[14:05] Let me try and give a definition of what bitterness is. Bitterness is a negative emotional response to unpleasant circumstances expressed in feelings such as resentment, disappointment, anger, and even envy.

[14:26] No wonder Naomi's bitter, you may say. No wonder she says, call me Mara. She's lost everything. She held dear. She's lost her husband. She's lost her two sins.

[14:37] She says, I went away full. I've come back empty. Now, let's move forward 3,000 years and think about ourselves. All of us, if you've lived any length of time, experience unpleasant circumstances in our lives.

[14:56] Some of us have lost children. Others have lost a spouse. Not only through death, but even worse, through desertion.

[15:08] Some of us have lost our health, our homes, our jobs, our happiness, or a whole host of adverse circumstances which affect us deeply.

[15:21] And not surprisingly, many people in these circumstances become embittered by what they've experienced. bitterness is a problem for many people.

[15:32] But I want to say this evening that bitterness is or can be a particular problem for many believers. You see, faced with adversity or difficulty or tragedy, the unbeliever can only blame bad luck or fate.

[15:52] Though, is it not surprising how many self-proclaimed atheists blame the God they don't believe in when things go wrong? But for the believer, for the person who believes in God, such things create a theological difficulty as we see in the story of Naomi.

[16:12] Naomi's bitterness is caused by unpleasant circumstances which she acknowledges are brought about by the Lord. In theological terms, Naomi acknowledges that in the circumstance of her life that God is sovereign.

[16:28] God is in control. Notice her words to her daughters-in-law showing that she recognises not only the Lord can bring blessing, can bring prosperity.

[16:40] She says to him, go back each of you to your mother's home, maybe a little change. No, she didn't say that if you look at the text. May the Lord show you kindness as you've shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me.

[16:53] May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband. She also acknowledges in her contrasting circumstances that the Lord is sovereign than adversity.

[17:06] She says, it is more bitter for me than for you. Why? Because my luck has turned. Things are really bad. No, she says, it is more bitter for me than for you.

[17:17] Because the Lord's hand has turned against me. And notice carefully when the people in Bethlehem ask what's happened, she doesn't say, well, just things just turned out badly.

[17:28] No, she says, not what she says. Call me Mara. Notice the words highlighted. Because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.

[17:40] Why call me near me? The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. She doesn't blame bad luck, blind fate.

[17:52] No, she has issues, issues addressed to God. She says, why is the Almighty, the word there is El Shaddai. It's a word that first, I think, occurs in Genesis 17 when God appears to Abraham who's childless and says, I am the Lord, El Shaddai.

[18:08] It probably means the God of all power. Why is the God of all power, the Lord, who has entered into a special relationship with his covenant people Israel, of which Ruth, Naomi is a part, why has he brought such terrible circumstances into the lives of one of his people, one of his children?

[18:27] You see, it's a problem which is the problem of suffering, but I simply want to say the problem of suffering is a far more acute problem for the believer than for the unbeliever.

[18:39] It's a particular dilemma. If you know the Bible, the Psalms are full of the question, why? And the book of Job, a long book with lots of chapters, is full of questions.

[18:51] It's an extended treatise on the subject of suffering. As a man called Job, who is described, notice, as blameless, upright, who fears God and shuns evil, wrestles with terrible adversity and the platitudes of his so-called comforters, three times in Job 7, 11, 10, 1, 27, 2, we are told that he cries out to God in bitterness of soul.

[19:18] So bitterness can be a problem for the believer and for any Christian. Now you might say, oh, you don't know Brentsville Evangelical Church, we're all Christians here.

[19:29] But bitterness is a problem for Christians. Why else would the Apostle Paul write as he does to the Christians in Ephesus and say, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander along with every form of malice if it were not possible for such things to be part of a church?

[19:46] Why does the writer of the letter to the Hebrews warn Christians, see to it, he says, that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and to defile many?

[20:00] You see, the bitter person, and I speak from experience, of many years of pastoral experience, the bitter person is a problem in any church. For bitterness is infectious.

[20:13] The word defile there is a word use of coloured dye, which if you touch it, it stains. And you will find that a bitter person infects other people with their bitterness.

[20:26] So my experiences, and maybe here, within God's family and our churches are Christians who wrestle with unresolved bitterness. Now, it may be hidden behind a smile or even a song, but open the cover and you will discover a bitter person.

[20:49] And eventually, it even begins to show on the colour on the cover and the outward appearance of the bitter person. You discover a person consumed by bitterness.

[21:04] It's a strange experience, isn't it? And sometimes, it just erupts. You talk to someone and suddenly, something bursts out and you think, so Naomi, Mrs. Pleasant, has become Mara, Mrs. Bitter.

[21:18] That is her change of name. And the root of her bitterness, the root of bitterness lies in her relationship with the Lord. And I simply want to say to you, and stay with me because we don't end here, thankfully, I simply want to stay with you that if you are a bitter person, if you have resentment within your heart about things that have happened in the past year, your problem is with the Lord.

[21:42] For thankfully, chapter 1 is not the final chapter of the book of Ruth. Now, I'm not going to do too many spoilers for those who are following me and doing the rest of the series, but I do need to say something following on from this.

[21:54] As we read on in the story of Ruth, and I'm just going to touch on it in outline and the basic principles, we discover, as the story unfolds, there is a change of name from Mara, Bitter, back to Naomi.

[22:09] If you know the Bible, you may recall that there is a story in the Bible about when the people of Israel are passing, leaving Egypt, across the Red Sea, three days later, they're desperately thirsty and they come to a place where they find some water, but when they taste the water, it is bitter.

[22:30] Some people think it's part of the bitter lakes in that region. The water tastes bitter and they're desperately disappointed. They cry out to the Lord and Moses, the man of God, the leader, throws some wood into the water and the water turns sweet and they're able to drink it.

[22:47] So, is there a balm for bitterness? Can a bitter believer be made sweet again? Thankfully, yes. Just as the root of bitterness lies in our relationship with the Lord, so does the remedy for bitterness.

[23:04] So, let me suggest from the story, chapter one and then a little bit further on, but in broad principle, let me suggest what the remedy for bitterness is. Let me mention three things.

[23:15] Three important steps we need to take from the example and story of Nemi. Okay, here's the first one. You need to return to the right place.

[23:26] You need to return to the right place. Now, we talked last week, the writer of Ruth passes no judgment on the decision of Elimelech to take his family to Moab and I suggested that it wasn't a very good move, really.

[23:39] Moab had a pretty dubious reputation not a good place for anyone to take his family and whether Nemi was complicit in the decision to go to Moab we don't know.

[23:49] Suggested that in a patriarchal society the husband probably took the lead and the wife had to go along with it as happens even today in many situations. But what Nemi did decide was to return home.

[24:05] When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

[24:17] Here's the first step to return home. See, the road home is the road of repentance and he's turning right about and heading home. We looked at the lovely story last week of the prodigal son and think about the prodigal son in the parable.

[24:33] Probably in rags. Been living in a pigsty, probably didn't smell great and he's stumbling along the road home but he determines that he will return home. He reasons within himself how many of my father's men have hired hands, have bread enough to eat.

[24:48] Here I am starving. I'd be better off there even if I go back as a servant, as a slave. And so he sets out on that road. He doesn't just sit there commiserating about his bad circumstances.

[25:01] And whatever circumstance you're in, the first thing you need to do is to return home to the road home. You need to set up home because only there will you be in the right place to receive the bread of life.

[25:17] Maybe, I don't know, a few of you here, maybe God has brought you here even this evening that you might return in this place to God. You don't literally need to walk in through the door of the church but you need spiritually to turn, to repent, to turn back and to return.

[25:34] So, Naomi returns and notice the words, it's a lovely story or beautifully told. So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

[25:49] She returns home to Bethlehem, the house of bread and the barley harvest was beginning. That's the first thing. Here's the second thing return to the right place.

[26:04] Secondly, talk to the right person. You see, bitterness bottled up will often explode and erupt in an unprovoked way so that the injured victim, as I said before, wonders, where did that come from?

[26:21] And it may be helpful to talk to someone about your bitterness and experience, pastor, a wise counselor. But there is one wonderful counselor to whom you can express your deepest feelings and pain.

[26:35] You see, the worst thing you can do in your bitterness is to decide, I remember someone trying to help someone in a situation like this as a pastor, and the person said, I'm not talking to God at the moment.

[26:48] And I understood why, but I tried to say gently and kindly, that's the worst thing you can do. You need to speak to the right person.

[27:01] There is a wonderful counselor to whom you can express your deepest feelings and pain. I don't think Nehemiah's given up on God. She recognizes we saw his sovereignty and so must we.

[27:15] And as Job did, you need to pour out your bitterness to him. And more than Job or Nehemi, you can come to him through his son Jesus.

[27:29] You may say, what does Jesus know of my grief and suffering? And I say, he's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You may say, I didn't deserve this to happen to me.

[27:40] And I say, he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. You may have unanswered questions, but here is a question which puts all of them and all our suffering into perspective.

[27:57] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As the old spiritual puts it, nobody knows the trouble I see. Nobody knows but Jesus.

[28:11] And that same Jesus who died and rose again is now ascended. The Bible says he ever lives to make intercession for us. We can come to him.

[28:23] We can approach God's throne, the throne of grace, not merit, not what we deserve. So here's these wonderful words from the book of Hebrews. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

[28:42] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin.

[28:54] Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. If you have a need, return to the right place.

[29:08] Talk to the right person. And finally, just in that line, you need to, thirdly, wait for the right time. Wait for the right time. You see, Nemi comes home to the right place and she begins to prove God's provision as her daughter-in-law, Ruth, gleans in the fields of a man named Boaz.

[29:29] The tradition was that the law of the Lord said you weren't to go, when you gleaned your crops, you weren't supposed to go back for a second time and pick up the leftovers, you were to leave them for the poor and the widowed and people like Nemi and Ruth.

[29:42] And so, she just happens to choose this field of a man named Boaz who is a close relative. What some would see as a coincidence, I read a lovely definition of coincidence.

[29:55] Coincidence is God acting anonymously. Well, think about that. She recognizes God's providence and slowly, Nemi, her spiritual senses begin to awaken and she discerns that the Lord is at work in all this as it unfolds in ways that she, Nemi, or Ruth would never have dreamt.

[30:22] We're not going to read it all because you're going to be hearing on it the next few weeks but maybe you're not going to be here then so let me give you a spoiler and tell you at the end of it. The end of it is that Mrs. Bitter becomes Mrs. Pleasant again.

[30:35] It's chapter 4. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he went to her the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Nemi, Praise be to the Lord who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer.

[30:51] May you become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth.

[31:03] And they all lived happily ever after. So the question is this. Is this what we are all promised in our adverse circumstances?

[31:17] Are we promised a happy ending? Well, for the answer you need to read on a bit first in the book of Ruth and then further on in the Bible to get the whole story. Notice the continuation of the story.

[31:28] Then Nemi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said Nemi has a son and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David, Israel's greatest king.

[31:41] Then we need to read on beyond the book of Ruth, beyond the Old Testament, the old covenant that God made with his people Israel, to a better covenant, the New Testament, which begins a thousand years later.

[31:52] Here are the opening words of the New Testament, which introduced the culmination of the story. This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

[32:04] And as you read down this list of names, suddenly as you get down, it's a bit like a television program, who do you think you are? You suddenly get some unexpected people there. And there you find, of all things, a Moabite woman.

[32:21] Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Said last week, the people of Moab were banned from worship of the Lord to the tenth generation. But here's God's grace intervening, setting aside the principle.

[32:34] Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed, the father of Jesse. Jesse, the father of King David. And the genealogy goes on and on. And finally, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.

[32:48] And Mary was the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah. Isn't it a wonderful thing how God unfolds the storyline to bring to fulfillment his amazing plan through an embittered woman who proves God's grace?

[33:02] and the Moabite daughter-in-law. And Jesus, the promised Messiah, our Redeemer, who lived the perfect life, who died for our sins, was raised to give us life, who finally ascended into heaven, and those who saw him leave were promised.

[33:17] Here is the conclusion of the story. This same Jesus, said the two men, the angels, this same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you've seen him go into heaven.

[33:29] Now, friends, this is the happy ending. And here is the final timetable. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God, the dead in Christ will rise first.

[33:46] After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

[34:02] To the gravesite in Edinburgh two or three weeks ago. One of my eldest wives, a godly lady. And we read these verses as we committed our body to the ground, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.

[34:16] So let me ask you, are you looking forward to that? Is that your story? Are you part of this story? If someone was to do your genealogy, would it reflect that you're part of the family of God?

[34:37] Wonderful thing is you can be included in the genealogy of Jesus, a member of God's family as you receive him as your Lord and Savior. So maybe if you're not a Christian here this evening, maybe things have happened in your life, maybe you're bitter, maybe you've got unanswered questions.

[34:54] Here's what the Gospel of John says. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

[35:12] Nemi's story ended happily in this life. Now, we are not all promised that in a fallen world. But I'm almost finished.

[35:24] Let me say this as strongly as I can. Though we may have to live with our circumstances, we do not have to live with our bitterness. Though we may have to live with our circumstances, we do not have to live with our bitterness.

[35:41] See, I began with my termite-eaten book. You see, that termite-eaten book can actually be replaced with a perfect copy.

[35:59] We discovered one of the same editions with the same cover that the termites hadn't got to. I wonder, if we were to open the cover of your life and open the book, what kind of person would we find in what your name is?

[36:20] God, help you help us. Let's just pray. And in the quietness, let's just take a few moments to reflect on what God has said to us. Maybe you have unresolved hurts in your life.

[36:33] maybe even bitterness about things that have happened. Here in this place, speak to the one who alone can help you and pour the balm of his grace into your bitterness.

[36:54] His transforming grace. Maybe you're not a Christian and you don't have that hope. Again, speak to him and admit your need. Turn from going your own way and put your trust in the one who can save.

[37:09] Our Father in heaven, thank you for your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who entered into our world with all its pain and anguish, a fallen, desperate world, to reach us people who were living without hope and without God in the world.

[37:26] For those of us who know that, help us again to appreciate it and that this life is not the end of the story that we're looking forward, the best is yet to be.

[37:38] We're looking forward to that day when Christ shall return. And so with your people down the generations, we cry, Maranatha, even so. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

[37:50] May we be found longing for his appearing, waiting for him, because you're the one who's able to keep us from falling and to present us before your glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

[38:04] So to you, the only wise God, be glory and honour. ko joining where he and from the father words