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Ruth--Return to Promise

CONNIE: How can you know whether God is leading in your life? Is it
only when things are going right? Or can He lead through trials as well as
triumphs? Stay tuned as we look for answers in the book of Ruth!

Giving God's trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the
Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I'm Connie Jeffery

LONNIE: And I'm Lonnie Melashenko, welcoming you to the weekend
broadcast of the Voice of Prophecy.

Well, how's it going for you today, Connie?

CONNIE: Well actually today is a good day Lonnie.

LONNIE: Do you ever have "One of those days"--you know what I
mean--when nothing will go right for you?

CONNIE: I had one of those days about three weeks ago Lonnie.

LONNIE: Really

CONNIE: It's actually one of the worst days I've had in a while. So I
took my car, parked it in a parking lot, quite a crowded parking lot went in for
about ten or fifteen minutes. I came back out to get in my car and leave, and
someone had taken a pocket knife and let the air out of all my tires.

LONNIE: Wow

CONNIE: So I had to call the tow truck, you know go buy new tires and
the day sort of disinegrated into one of those days.

LONNIE: We all have days like that from time to time. But, what happens
when things just keep going on from bad to worse.

CONNIE: Year after year, things don't improve.

LONNIE: I know there are some listeners out there today who feel that
that's the way things have been going for them, and if that's you--I hope you'll
stay tuned. We're going to take a look at the lives of two women. One of them
had been through so much grief that she wanted to change her name from
"Delight" to "Bitter." But when she returned to God, she found the light at the
end of the tunnel.

CONNIE: Speaking of women who've had a hard row to hoe, we've got a
segment coming up where Ken Wade speaks with Cheri Peters--she certainly
didn't have an easy beginning to life, but the Lord has turned her bitterness into
delight, and now she's helping others find a better life.

LONNIE: That's right. Cheri has an incredible story of the Lord's leading
From the very pits to the heights. Let's listen to that interview.

KEN: Cheri Peters, so neat to talk with you again. You and I have known
each other now for several years, worked together on a project a few years back, a book as I recall.

CHERI: It's great talking to you Ken. The book "Miracle from the
Streets" is about my life, and I was so scared working on it. That was the first time I had ever told the testimony, and I just have to say that you walked me through that so gently.

KEN: Well, it's a great book. A tremendous story. And Cheri, we're
going to get into that story. I just want to mention that Cheri Peters is with us
today. She is the hostess for the T.V. progam "Teen Pathways" on 3ABN, and the brand new hostess of a radio program as well.

CHERI: Yea, "Morning Talk live"


KEN: The thing about your life Cheri and knowing you is how happy and
vibrant a person you are considering the background you came from

CHERI: That amazes me, and every single day that I turn around and give
it to God, God does something again that delights me. I walk around saying "I
can't believe I've been blessed so much, I can't believe that God has stepped in and taken me from a place that is so dark to actually to actually walking. I smile all the time I feel great all the time."

KEN: Praise the Lord Cheri, and of course our program today is about the
book of Ruth, and Ruth was from a dark environment, from a Baal worshiping
environment a Moabitess she was, and yet when she came with Naomi into the promised land, she found God and a better life. So let's just talk a little bit about your life. As I recall, you did not have an easy life, your parents, living in Los Angeles, very young parents as I recall.

CHERI: Fourteen and Sixteen and I was their second child.

KEN: So by age thirteen, where did you find yourself living?

CHERI: I was homeless by age thirteen after having two kids of my own.

KEN: After having two children of your own by age thirteen.

CHERI: And they died and I ended up living on the streets at age
thirteen.

KEN: What's that like?

CHERI: You know, it's a whole different world. There are a number of
homeless people on the streets, and it was just that every single day you look at
your survival. Am I safe, am I going to eat, do I have place to stay, and you
basically look at survival issues. You are picked up a lot by perpetrators and
addicts that use kids. So I would say that it was incredibly ugly. I can't even
really share in this short period of time the damage that happened on the streets, but it was incredibly ugly.

KEN: Well, in your book "Miracle from the Streets" you tell of being
involved with a motorcycle gang and the terrible, terrible things that happened in that situation and yet somehow you came out of that. What was the begining of the change in your life?

CHERI: Well, you know the beginning, which is strange, is that I decided
I couldn't take it anymore, I didn't want to live anymore. There was nothing in
life. I never felt love, I never felt safe, I never felt there was anybody that was
really truly living what they said they lived. I just was done.

KEN: And this was by about age 21 you were ready to check out.

CHERI: I was twenty-three.

KEN: twenty-three.

CHERI: I was ready to check out. Someone had just threatened to kill
me, and when they threatened to kill me, the only, they had a gun right in my face, the only thing I thought was Thank goodness. I just was done, and I was so thrilled that someone was finally going to end it, and when they didn't kill me, I was in a mess. And at that point there was a number of things that happened, but at that point God, actually I felt not verbally talked to me, but I felt impressed that He said "You know what, I love you, and I can help you change your life. And it was the most amazing thing to feel love for the first time.

KEN: And about that time you met a lady by the name of Donna.

CHERI: Incredible lady by the name of Donna

KEN: And what was different about her?

CHERI: You know at first nothing. At first I was very angry. She said,
"You know what? I love you. She was going to let me do recovery at her house
and what was different was after a few days I realized that she was very genuine. Not perfect, but genuine. When she asked me a question, she really did want to know the answer. When I said something sad, she teared up.

KEN: She teared up? I thought you said cheered up.

CHERI: Oh no teared, she would all of a sudden, I would look at her and
she would have tears in her eyes and I would think Nobody's ever cried for me,
nobody has ever felt sadness for me, and I realized that this woman felt for me, and then she taught me.

KEN: Loved you and accepted you the way you were

CHERI: Exactly and she not only accepted me the way I was, she knew
and I could tell she knew that God could change me.

KEN: So she became kind of a mother to you, kind of like Naomi in the
story of Ruth.

CHERI: Exactly.

KEN: A mother pointing you to God.

CHERI: Pointing me to God, and when Ruth fell in love with Naomi and
fell in love with God I believe that when I read that the first time as I thought you
know what? I understand what kind of love is that there is nothing that Naomi
could have done that would turn Ruth off. Naomi gave her her life, gave her
God.

KEN: Well, and the fantastic thing to me is that now you have a youth
ministry of your own you're opening a ranch, a horse ranch where you take in
troubled youth and help those kids that would otherwise be on the street.

CHERI: Exactly, but the one thing I want to help them see is that we have
a God that can transform lives. We have a God that it doesn't matter where
you're from, or if your parents were addicts, or kids, or abandoned, or you were a drug addict or whatever. God says, "I can give you a life and transform
everything."

KEN: Now if people want to get in contact with you they can do it on the
web at your organization "Truestep.org" or call if they would like to order you
book "Miracle from the Streets" (208) 562-8477. Is that Right?

CHERI: Exactly, or if they jusy need some help, call.

KEN: Cheri, thanks do much for talking with us today. Your story is truly
an inspiration.

CHERI: Thanks Ken

CONNIE: Thanks Ken and Cheri. You know, Lonnie, it's amazing to
think of what Cheri has been through, and yet to have such a positive outlook on life now.

LONNIE: It really makes you think doesn't it--and wonder how well you
would be doing if you'd come out of a background like that.

CONNIE: Life can be hard for us, but through it all, God's grace is
reaching out to us, as Emily Felts Jones reminds us in the song "Life Is Hard, God Is Good."


MUSIC 1: "Life is Hard, God is Good", Emily Felts Jones


CONNIE: That was Emily Felts Jones singing "Life Is Hard, God Is Good." If
you'd like to hear more of her music, check out our web page at www.vop.com,
where you can learn more about all the music and musicians heard on our
program.

That song leaves us with an important question: If God is so good, why is
life so hard for so many people?

LONNIE: Well, Connie, we recognize that we live in a world where God
is in ultimate control, but there's another power at work as well--the power of
Satan, or the power of evil. And Satan is the one who is out there doing all that he can to make life hard.

CONNIE: But that situation won't last forever.

LONNIE: It certainly won't. There's a day coming when sin, evil, Satan,
will all be done away with, once and for all.

CONNIE: The Day Evil Dies just happens to be the title of a new book
that we've never offered on our program before. It tackles some really hard
questions about good and evil, and then takes a careful look at the Bible--
especially the prophecies in the Bible--to reveal just what we can expect for the future.

CONNIE: You can request your free copy of this book by calling our toll-
free request line at 1-800-872-0055. Clifford Goldstein, the author of the book is
on the line with us right now.

CONNIE: Cliff thanks so much for joining us today at Voice of Prophecy.
We're looking at the experience of Naomi and Ruth today, but in your book you
talk about the big picture, just give us a brief overview of that would you.

CLIFF: Well, I think anybody, any serious person could look around and
maybe see some good reasons to believe in God. You know from creation,
whatever and all the time the question that comes back is, If God is so good, if
God is so powerful, why is there evil, and they are valid questions. What I attempt to do with my book is going through the Christian history to retrace of the battle between good and evil. To help give people the big picture to understand that there are reasons for evil, but that God promises us to one day end it in a way that will satisfy all the questions and answer all the struggles that we have.

CONNIE: And good will always win, won't it?

CLIFF: That's the promise that in the end, maybe not now, as we see it
now, but in the end that's the ultimate promise that we have.

CONNIE: Well, quickly before we close Cliff, can you tell us the Billy
Graham quote, I noticed in your book?

CLIFF: Billy Graham was once asked, Are you a optimist or a pessimist?
and he said "Hey I read the last page of the Bible and that's why I'm an optimist, and that says it all.

CONNIE: Thanks so much for joining us Cliff

CLIFF: Okay great Bye Bye

CONNIE: Bye Bye

CONNIE: Thanks Cliff. And just a reminder to our listeners, Cliff's book
The Day Evil Dies is our special offer today. You can receive a copy of the book for free by calling our toll-free request number, 1-800-872-0055. We'll share an address where you can write to us after Lonnie's message today, so you might want to have a pencil and paper at the ready.

In today's message, Lonnie shares a story with us--one that's in the Bible, because it illustrates God's ability to overcome evil with good. Let's listen.


SERMON: LONNIE: Do you remember the classic TV show Father Knows
Best? The plot usually revolved around some mischief or problem the kids got
into, but by the end of the half hour things would have worked out OK because
Father--Robert Young--would have come up with a solution, or the kids would
have learned that they'd have been better off following dad's advice in the first
place.

Today we'd call a show like that "very 50's"--outdated, old-fashioned.
Sitcom fathers don't fare as well at the hands of their script writers these days.
Moms, or even the kids, are usually the ones who "know best."

Well, believe it or not, that's not an entirely new concept. In fact, there's a
book in my Bible that makes that point. A book that makes the women out to be the smart ones in the family--the ones who make the better choices.

If you've been told that the Bible is a male-chauvinistic book where the
men are always in charge and always saving the day, then I challenge you to read the short little book of Ruth. It begins like this:

Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was
a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell
in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the
man was Elimelech

Did you notice: it was Dad--Elimelech--who took his family over to Moab
to live. Things weren't going well in Bethlehem, and word went around that
things were better over on the other side of the Jordan River.

So Elimelech loaded up the family oxcart and took his wife, Naomi, and
the two boys, and headed for Moab. And once the family was settled over on that side of the Jordan, the boys married Moabite women.

It seems like the move was a good idea.

Unless you know your history.

If you understand the history of Israel and Moab, you recognize that
Elimelech got things a bit backward. The man's name means "God is King," but he was moving his family away from Israel, where God was King, to Moab, a place where they worshiped Baal. And when his sons married Moabite women, that wasn't quite the same thing as a Baptist marrying a Presbyterian.

In fact, when Israel was getting ready to move into the promised land, one
of the worst crises they faced came about when Moabite women invited Israelite men to join in their religious festivals. Numbers 25:1 says "the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They [the Moabite women]
invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods."

When Elimelech moved his family from Bethlehem to Moab, he seemed
willing for his family to be assimilated into the Moabite religion and race. He
abandoned his God and his people in favor of Baal and the Moabites.

It didn't prove to be a good choice. Not long after the move, Elimelech
died. And a few years later the two sons died. That left Mom--Naomi--home
alone with two daughters-in-law.

Prospects for three widows in a male-dominated society didn't look good,
and soon Naomi decided to head home--back to the land of her birth, back to the place where her God was worshiped.

Both her daughters-in-law followed her part of the way, but when they
came to a fork in the road, Naomi told them to go back home. One did, but the
other--Ruth--didn't. When Naomi told her to go back to her mother's house and
worship Baal, Ruth responded with those familiar, heart-warming words that we often hear at weddings. They're found in Ruth 1:16-17:

But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you,

or to turn back from following after you;

for wherever you go, I will go;

and wherever 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.

The LORD do so to me, and more also,

if anything but death parts you and me."

What a choice Ruth had to make. It was the same sort of choice Elimelech
had made years earlier. But Ruth made the right decision. Elimelech's decision to abandon the God of Israel in favor of Baal proved disastrous.

But Ruth's choice to leave Moab, to abandon Baal in favor of Israel's God
Yahweh, proved to be right.

And the rest of the story proves just how right it was. For back in
Bethlehem, Ruth met her redeemer.

It wasn't an "instant fix." Oh, no. Things didn't look good at all for the
two women when they first arrived back in Bethlehem, penniless and homeless. Things looked so bad that Naomi, whose name means "delight," told people not to call her that anymore. "I've taken a new name," she said. "Don't call me Delight. Call me Bitter, because the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me."

But things were about to get better for Naomi. She had done the right
thing by coming back to where the Almighty could bless her--could "delight in
her." Because it wasn't long before Ruth, Naomi's Moabite daughter-in-law, met
Boaz.

Boaz just happened to be that "rich uncle" that a woman like Ruth needed
to meet. He was a leading citizen in the town, and better yet, he was a close
relative. Better still, when he saw Ruth, he liked what he saw.

Ruth was a hard worker, She went out into the fields where Boaz's
servants were harvesting barley and began gathering up the few stalks of grain that they left behind. She was faithful--sharing what she gleaned with her mother-in-law. Boaz watched her carefully and decided to become her redeemer.

That word Redeemer is a precious word. It refers to a close relative who
could "bail you out," so to speak, if you got into financial difficulties and had to
sell your land. The redeemer could pay your debts and buy your land back for
you. And that's what Boaz did for Ruth.

He took her place in court as a brother. He stood up for her. He paid her
family's debts. And he reclaimed the inheritance that had originally belonged to
her through marriage.

And then he went a step farther. He married her. He claimed her as his
bride.

He redeemed the poor, penniless, helpless widow, and made her the queen
of his realm. But it gets even better than that. The last few verses of the book
reveal that Ruth and Boaz had a son named Obed, and Obed had a son named Jesse, and Jesse had a son named David--King David, Israel's greatest king.

Ruth was David's great-grandmother!

And so, when Naomi chose to return to the promised land, to return to
worshiping the God of Israel, it turned out to be a VERY right decision.

There's a lesson here in the book of Ruth for all of us, isn't there? Our bad
decisions all-too-often lead to bad results. We wander off into Moab, leaving God behind. But we can come back to Him, and when we do, He is still willing to be our redeemer.

What Boaz did for Ruth reminds us of what Jesus wants to do for us as our
Redeemer.

Friend, are you out in Moab today? Have you wandered away from God,
let other things distract you--maybe you've even become "married" to a false and fruitless way of life. Have things gone bad for you as you've turned your back on
God?

It's not too late for you to make the Naomi choice--to turn back to God
and let Him be your Redeemer. Why not do that right now, as we listen to a song that reflects Naomi's pilgrimage, "He Washed My Eyes With Tears That I Might See."


MUSIC 2: "He Washed My Eyes With Tears", Heritage Singers