A Woman of Virtue
If we go to the Book of Ruth it says:
“Then he said, “Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter! For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman.”
Christian and moral standards are of the utmost importance in the days in which we are living. It seems that anything goes these days. A woman remaining a virgin before she gets married is almost unheard of and yet it is a Christian requirement. Of course, the same thing applies to a young man. Boas was more impressed by Ruth’s virtue than he was by anything else. It is not so much what we say but rather, who we are that counts in these last days.
I remember it like yesterday, preaching in the City Temple (a very historic church in which William Booth’s wife preached her last sermon) in London, just down the road from St Paul’s Cathedral. I was not even speaking about marriage that night but holiness. At the end of the service my son, Greg Hull, took me by the arm to escort me towards the side door because he saw that I was exhausted. It had been a long campaign in Britain and that Sunday night was our last message.
But, I was grabbed on the other arm by a young man by the name of Johan. He was weeping and said to me: “You cannot go yet you have to marry us first”. I looked up and on his other arm was a beautiful young Croatian girl. She was weeping, her mascara was running, her lipstick was running. We went back into the church and the real service started. Everybody came back into the massive church and that evening we married no less than twelve couples! There was a minister there running around red-faced with marriage contracts, trying to keep up with us. Why? Because a young couple decided that they were going to do it God’s way and not live together any longer and the other couples did the same.
It was one of the highlights of my preaching career. Looking for wedding rings amongst the people there, young people looking starry-eyed and these young couples - the man bowing his knee and asking his girlfriend to marry him. I remember Joe Niemand sitting on a stool playing music that night - He said he had no more skin left on his fingers he played so long. It was an incredible God-event.
We need to lead by example and show the world how God expects Christians to live.
God bless,
Angus and Jill Buchan