We arrive at chapter 3 where Ruth being encouraged by Naomi, lies at the feet of Boaz. This single action was carried out in the hope that he consents, and passes on Elimelech’s (her father-in-law) inheritance to her through marriage.
On the issue of consent, this week we were told by experts that girls ‘aren’t strong enough to say no’ to sexual bullying, and that ‘widespread’ sexual harassment and violence has become acceptable in schools in the UK.
That aside, research shows that most ‘single’ church going Christians are sexually active. Some reports even highlight that singles are more sexually active than married Christians.
Interestingly, most of these casual encounters are with non-Christian acquaintances.
Rather than pretend all is well as its normally the case, how does the church deal with sex and relationships in postmodern times? Bearing in mind that in the time of our Lord, a woman could marry at the age of twelve, and polygamy was part of the social construct to deal with deaths, inheritance, gender ratio imbalances, poverty etc; and the fact that we are living in more prosperous times, in which women have more rights.
So, this Sunday I will be looking at how the Bible defines relationship.
Questions include: what is marriage, what is adultery, what is fornication; and how did Roman Catholicism hijack a neo-Judaistic movement (Christianity), and shifted these definitions to fit with Western and in some cases, pagan values.
This book poses tough questions to the thinking Christian. It also provides ideas for contextualisation of our faith in our time.
So join us on this epic journey into purpose, meaning and destiny.
3:00pm – 4:30pm
The English Room
Bexleyheath Academy,
Woolwich Road,
Bexleyheath,
Kent, DA6 7DA
Healingsprings fellowship 