Page 6 - Fundamentals Ebook Final

PROLOGUE

The Book of Ruth begins with Naomi’s family who started
off in Bethlehem (Bethlehem is translated from the Original Hebrew
as “house of bread”), and because of a famine they left the House of
Bread in order to go to Moab to find bread. They stayed in Moab
ten years, and the record shows that it was a very difficult ten years.
Naomi loses her husband, and she loses her two sons. Then, finally,
in the land of Moab she hears that there is blessing in the House of
Bread. She heard that the Lord had visited His people in Bethlehem.
So when she hears that, her heart is attracted and she begins her trek
back to Bethlehem.

When she came back after ten years, she said: “I went out full, but
the LORD has brought me back empty.” When she left ten years
earlier she did not say, “I am leaving full.” When she left ten years
earlier she said, “I am leaving empty.” I am leaving because there
is no bread in the House of Bread. There is a famine here. But after
ten years she discovered that she had left full at the beginning.

You see, Bethlehem is a picture of Christ, the House of Bread; the
place of fullness. And sometimes, even though we all start out in
Bethlehem, when famine comes or things get a little tough, we leave
fullness (of course, we think it is emptiness) to find fullness. When
you leave fullness to find fullness, you only find emptiness. God
instructed this family for ten years in that truth that there is only
emptiness outside the House of Bread. In the House of Bread,
famine is fullness. Outside the House of Bread, abundance is
poverty.

There is no fullness outside the House of Bread. Fullness is in
Christ. It is not in Moab. It is not in Christian service and it is not
in Christian fellowship. Those things are wonderful in their place,
but they are not fullness. If you look for fullness in Christian or
spiritual gifts, you will only find emptiness. If you look for fullness
in scholarship and academics or even Bible knowledge, you will
only find emptiness. Fullness is in Bethlehem; it is in Christ; it is in