Sunday, May 16, 2010

Room Mates, Bad Dates and Soul Mates... MOSAIC – Part 3 Extended Notes

Not certain what happened, but it was brought to my attention today that we had not posted the extended notes for Mosaic - Part 3. Here they are... Sorry for the delay...

Room Mates, Bad Dates and Soul Mates
MOSAIC – Part 3

There are nearly 96 million singles over the age of 18 in America. This represents about 43 percent of the adult population. ~ U.S. Census Bureau.

Almost 53 million households in the U.S. are now maintained by single women or men…
~ U.S. Census Bureau.

Almost 40% (39.2%) of singles over the age of 18 have been married in the past… They’ve experienced the pain and trauma of divorce. The other approximately 60% have always been single… ~ U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS), 2008.

Statistically in the U.S., the number of unmarried adults has steadily increased over the last few decades… In 1970 the number was 36%. In 1980 the number climbed to 39%. In 1990 the number increased to 41%. In 2000 the number hit 44%…

Then, according to one report, in 2005, for the first time in our history, the number of unmarried households in America became the majority of all U.S. households. ~ U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005.


One of the big reasons for the dramatic increase in the number of singles, is that men and women are waiting longer to get married… The median age for men has gone from 23 years of age in 1950 to 27 years of age in 2003, and the median age for women jumped from 20 to 25 in the same time period.

In some ways, the increasing number of singles has reshaped the entire social landscape in our country.

Experts are quick to point out that these stats don’t mean that singles are not “hooking up.” These stats don’t mean that singles are pursuing God, engaging in Bible Study, memorizing proverbs waiting for the day they can be a godly husband or a great wife…

Instead, a report on NPR (April 20, 2006) indicated that 80% of Americans are sexually active by the age of 20, and that only 20% of women will be virgins at the time they marry…

Get this: the number of unmarried people living together increased tenfold between 1960 and 2000. - U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2000.”

Another report indicated that there were 12 times as many couples living together in 2008 as there were in 1960.

In fact, the number of people living together increased 88% in the 17-year period between 1990 and 2007. ~ U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

This is why Ruth is such an important book for us to look at… The main characters in the book are three single adults (Naomi, Ruth and Boaz) who knew how to honor God in their singleness…


Ruth 2:14 (ESV),
And at mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine." So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.


Ruth 2:15-16 (ESV),
When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her."


Ruth 2:17 (ESV), So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.


Ruth 2:18 (ESV), And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.


Ruth 2:19 (ESV), And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you." So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, "The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz."


Ruth 2:20 (ESV),
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!" Naomi also said to her, "The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers."


“Hesed” is “the consistent, ever-faithful, relentless, constantly-pursuing, lavish, extravagant, unrestrained, furious love of our Father God!”

“Hesed” is “driven, not by duty or legal obligation but by a bone-deep commitment – a loyal, selfless love that motivates a person to do voluntarily what no one has a right to expect or ask…” ~ Carolyn Curtis James, The Gospel of Ruth


Ruth 2:20 (ESV), And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!"


Ruth 2:21 (ESV), And Ruth the Moabite said, "Besides, he said to me, 'You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.'"


Ruth 2:22-23 (ESV), And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted." 23 So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

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