Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Proverbs 3:13-20

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

This passage beautifully connects divine wisdom with the physical world: "By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place." The same wisdom that governs the universe is available to guide your life. God doesn't ask you to choose between intellectual honesty and spiritual devotion—He invites you to pursue both with integrity. When we study creation with honest curiosity, we're not threatening God's authority; we're honoring His craftsmanship. When we read Scripture with humble hearts, we're not abandoning reason; we're seeking ultimate meaning. Let wisdom hold both books together in your hands. Embrace the complementary nature of God's revelation. Your faith grows stronger, not weaker, when you refuse to pit truth against truth.

In what area of your life do you need God's wisdom to integrate faith and reason?         

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God for wisdom to faithfully integrate truth, faith, and understanding in every area of your life.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Invite God into one area where you’ve separated faith from daily decision-making or intellectual pursuits.
2. Practice seeking wisdom today by pausing before decisions and asking God for guidance first.
   
   

"Deconstruction without reconstruction will always leave you in destruction." — Pastor Tim Moore

Some topics feel too dangerous to bring into a church setting. The relationship between faith and science is one of them. For many people it represents a genuine crisis point, a place where what they were taught and what they later discovered seemed to pull in opposite directions with no clear way to hold both together.

Pastor Tim Moore knows that tension firsthand. He was not approaching this topic as an outside observer when he stepped in to teach during The Tree Church's Reconstruct series. He was speaking from his own story.

Tim grew up in church. He attended Christian school for most of his childhood. He went to Bible college and became a pastor. And somewhere along the way, he found himself sitting with questions that the faith environment he had grown up in did not seem to have room for. Questions about science. Questions about the age of the earth. Questions about how what he was observing in the world around him fit with what he had been taught the Bible said.

For about ten years, he has been working through a process of deconstruction and reconstruction in his own life. Not as someone who walked away from faith, but as someone who wanted a faith strong enough to actually stand on. And it is from that place that he addressed The Tree Church community on the intersection of faith and science.

Tim opens his message by introducing two broad worldviews that sit at the center of this conversation. He is careful to note that these are large categories and that real life is always more nuanced. But understanding them helps explain where the tension comes from.

The first is a theistic worldview. At its core this is the belief that there is a God, a creator, a first cause behind everything that exists. When someone holds a theistic worldview they look at the world around them and see order. The laws of nature. The complexity of the human body. The precision of the cosmos. And when they see order, they infer design. Design points to a designer. And a designer implies intention, purpose, and meaning.

The second is a materialistic worldview. This is the belief that the physical world is all there is. There is nothing outside of the universe. There is nothing supernatural. Everything that exists is the result of natural processes, and whatever meaning life has is meaning that each person assigns for themselves. When someone with this worldview is asked how everything got here, the honest answer is that they do not fully know. The best available explanation involves chance, natural forces, and a great deal of time.

Tim points out something important about these two worldviews. Both can be true at the same time. But they cannot both be right. They are making competing claims about the fundamental nature of reality.

What Pastor Tim wants the congregation to understand is that this divide has not always existed. There was a time when scientists and theologians largely worked together, observing the world and finding that what they saw confirmed what they read.

He points to passages like Psalm 104:5 and Ecclesiastes 1:4-5 as examples of how ancient readers understood the world. The earth was stable. The sun moved across the sky. Both scripture and basic observation seemed to agree. The geocentric model, the idea that the earth sat at the center and everything else moved around it, made sense to both scientists and people of faith.

Then came Nicolaus Copernicus. A mathematician, an astronomer, and a man of deep personal faith, Copernicus studied the heavenly bodies and began to notice that the math did not add up. The numbers kept pointing toward a different conclusion. The earth was not the center. It was moving around the sun.

He knew what this would mean. He released his most famous work, On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, practically on his deathbed in 1543. He had waited because he understood that challenging the prevailing interpretation of scripture, even with careful mathematical evidence, was going to cause a problem.

It did. When Galileo and Johannes Kepler built on Copernicus's work in the following century, the conflict with the Catholic Church became direct and serious. Galileo's work was placed on the forbidden book list. It stayed there for nearly 200 years. It was not until 1822 that the church formally accepted what these scientists had demonstrated.

Pastor Tim describes this moment as a flash point in human history. It was the moment when a divide that had not previously existed began to take shape. And what most people do not realize, he notes, is that the scientific revolution that followed was largely started by people of faith. Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler all believed in God. They were not trying to undermine scripture. They were trying to understand creation.

Rather than presenting the conversation as a simple choice between belief and science, Pastor Tim walks the congregation through a spectrum of creation views. He places them on a continuum running from strongly theistic on one end to strongly materialistic on the other.

Young Earth Creationism holds that God created everything in six consecutive 24-hour days based on a particular reading of Genesis 1 and 2. It calculates the age of the earth using the genealogical record in Genesis and rejects scientific evidence that points to a much older universe.

Old Earth Creationism accepts the scientific dating of the earth at approximately 4.54 billion years old but holds that God was the creator behind it all. It approaches the word translated as day in the Hebrew text of Genesis and notes that it carries multiple meanings, one of which refers to a long period of time rather than a single 24-hour period.

Intelligent Design takes a different approach altogether. Its proponents engage directly with scientific evidence and use it to point toward the existence of an intelligent designer. They do not rely on scripture to make their case. They work within the language and methodology of science to argue that the order and complexity of the universe points to intentional design.

The Literary Framework view holds that Genesis 1 was never meant to be a detailed scientific account of how creation happened. It was meant to answer who created and why, not how. On the question of how, proponents of this view are largely comfortable with whatever science concludes.

Evolutionary Creationism, sometimes called theistic evolution, holds that God created through the mechanism of evolution. God was not absent from the process but actively involved in bringing about his intended purposes through it.

Scientific Materialism sits at the far end of the spectrum. It holds that there is no God, that science is the only source of truth, and that evolution is sufficient to explain what exists. Pastor Tim notes that this is a philosophical position, not simply a scientific one. It involves a prior commitment to a particular conclusion regardless of where the evidence points.

Having laid out the full spectrum, Pastor Tim makes an observation that is both simple and clarifying. The conflict between faith and science does not live across the whole spectrum. It lives at the edges.

Young Earth Creationism and Scientific Materialism are both positions that require rejecting large portions of what the other side has observed and concluded. Everything in between, the four views that occupy the middle of the spectrum, represents space where science and scripture can actually coexist. Where a person can hold to both without having to pretend that one does not exist.

Pastor Tim goes further. He does not just argue for compatibility. He argues that without both science and scripture, something important is missed. He draws on the theologian Augustine, who spoke of God revealing himself through two books. The book of scripture and the book of nature. Both are genuine revelation. Both tell us something true about who God is.

To ignore the book of nature, Pastor Tim argues, is to miss the glory of God. He reads from Psalm 19:1-4, where the psalmist declares that the heavens pour forth speech day after day, that they reveal knowledge night after night, that their voice goes out into all the earth without a single word being spoken. Creation itself is communicating something about its creator.

Pastor Tim speaks from genuine wonder here. The more he has learned about the natural world, the more in awe of God he has become. He reflects on the power required for something to exist rather than nothing. The eternality implied by the fact that someone outside of time had to initiate time itself. The intelligence evident in the complexity of DNA, which surpasses anything human beings have ever programmed. The creativity on display in a world that contains somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 species of beetles alone.

All of that, he notes, can be known without ever opening a Bible.

But to ignore the book of scripture is to miss the person and the purpose of God. This is the other side of the argument, and Pastor Tim holds it just as firmly.

Scripture is not simply a record of ancient ideas about God. It is the account of God actively revealing himself to human beings. God appearing to Abraham. God speaking to the prophets. God walking in the garden with Adam and Eve. God performing miracles that archaeology has repeatedly upheld. And ultimately, God sending his son Jesus into the world, not because he had to, but because he cares about the people he created.

Pastor Tim speaks personally here. He has seen God heal. He has seen God restore. He has seen God provide in ways that have no natural explanation. The laws of nature began somewhere, he says, and the God who created them can also suspend them when he chooses.

The mountain of evidence surrounding Jesus, his life, his teachings, his death, his burial, and his resurrection, exists so that people can know that God is real. Pastor Tim does not want to miss that. And that, he says, is exactly why he refuses to be pushed to either extreme.

Pastor Tim closes with an illustration that is almost disarmingly simple. If you see a tea kettle whistling, how do you make sense of it? A scientist would explain the process of heat transfer, molecular movement, evaporation, and steam pressure. Someone else would say the kettle is boiling because they were thirsty and wanted tea. Both answers are right. They are just answering different questions.

Science asks what, when, where, and how. Scripture asks who and why. When those two frameworks are confused, conflict follows. When they are understood as answering different questions, something else becomes possible.

For some people in the room, Pastor Tim acknowledges, this way of thinking could be genuinely freeing. They have been wrestling. They have been carrying a weight that they did not know how to put down. For others, depending on where they land on the spectrum, it might feel unsettling. Pastor Tim is not trying to disturb anyone's convictions. He is trying to open a door.

The hardest part of deconstruction and reconstruction, he says, is being willing to take the things you have always been told and actually wrestle with them. To study them. To open your heart and say honestly, God, I trust you more than I trust an interpretation I have been given. Help me discover what is real.

When Pastor Tim has done that, the burden has lifted. And his faith has grown stronger.

If this message stirred something in you and you are looking for a church community in central Ohio, The Tree Church would love to have you. With two campuses in Lancaster, Ohio and Logan, Ohio, there is a place for you to belong, ask hard questions, and grow in your faith alongside others who are on the same journey.

Sunday services are held at both locations at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. Whether you are new to faith, returning after time away, or simply looking for a church in Lancaster or a church in Logan that takes the hard questions seriously, the doors are open and you are welcome.

"I think if you go and you have conversations, if a professor introduces something to you that is challenging and maybe kind of rocks your foundation, well, go have a conversation with someone that you trust." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

In a culture that increasingly treats truth as something personal and self-defined, the claim that Jesus is the only way to God can feel uncomfortable, even offensive. But what if that discomfort says more about the cultural moment than it does about the claim itself?

In this episode of The Branch Podcast, Pastor Chris Reed sits down with Pastor Matthew Johnson for a wide-ranging conversation about truth, relativism, exclusivity, and what it looks like to hold deep conviction while engaging others with humility and genuine love. It is a conversation that does not shy away from hard questions and does not offer easy answers. What it does offer is a grounded, honest framework for navigating one of the most pressing tensions in the life of a Christian today.

The episode opens with both Pastor Chris and Pastor Matthew reflecting on the Reconstruct series and the response it has generated across The Tree Church community. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and Pastor Matthew believes that is because the series is doing something the church does not always do well: giving people permission to ask hard questions.

Pastor Matthew describes one of the disservices the Christian community has sometimes done throughout the years as failing to allow people to wrestle with their faith. When questions are met with shame or suspicion rather than openness, people do not stop wrestling. They just wrestle alone. And wrestling alone, he notes, is when people are most vulnerable.

The image he uses is a striking one. When a lion takes down its prey, it does not go after the animal in the middle of the herd. It goes after the one on the edge. A church that creates space for honest conversation is, in part, a church that keeps people from wandering to the edge.

Pastor Chris steers the conversation toward relativism and how truth is understood in the current cultural climate. Pastor Matthew describes the present moment as genuinely strange. Throughout history, as knowledge increased, there was a growing certainty around things that could be observed and tested. Now, he notes, the culture has moved in the opposite direction, retreating from things that are broadly understood to be true because acknowledging them might feel offensive to someone.

The result is a climate where holding a firm position on truth can make a person seem arrogant or close-minded, even when that position is well-reasoned and sincerely held.

Pastor Matthew points to the way this plays out at funerals as a simple but revealing example. Regardless of how a person lived, the default cultural response is to assume they are in a better place. It is not a theological conclusion. It is a reflex, a way of creating whatever standard feels most comfortable in the moment and applying it without examination.

When Pastor Chris asks how anyone can confidently claim that their belief system reflects objective truth, Pastor Matthew gives an answer that holds two things together rather than choosing between them.

He argues that Christianity was always meant to be both intellectual and experiential. The intellectual dimension matters. There is evidence. There is history. There are ancient writings from people whose lives were radically changed by an encounter with the risen Jesus. Pastor Matthew points to Paul as a particularly compelling example. Here was an educated, deeply convicted man who had dedicated his life to shutting down the early church. Then he met the resurrected Christ, and everything changed. He went on to endure physical violence, public humiliation, and the loss of his reputation because he was so convinced that what he had experienced was real.

That kind of intellectual and historical grounding matters. But Pastor Matthew is clear that it is only the starting point. What sustains faith over time, especially when intellectual challenges arise, is the experiential dimension. The ongoing, personal relationship with God that confirms over and over again that he is real.

He shares a simple story from his own week. Pressed for time and wrestling with how to structure an upcoming message, he paused, prayed, and waited. In a moment of stillness, the arrangement came together clearly in his mind. It was a small thing, but it was the kind of thing that, repeated across years, builds a foundation that does not crumble when someone asks a hard question.

One of the more clarifying moments in the conversation comes when Pastor Chris raises the topic of exclusivity. The charge that Christianity is arrogant or narrow-minded for claiming that Jesus is the only way is a familiar one. Pastor Matthew addresses it directly.

Every belief system, he argues, makes an exclusivity claim. The person who says all paths lead to the same place is making a claim. The person who says truth is whatever you decide it is for yourself is making a claim. Pointing out the exclusivity of Christianity while treating other systems as somehow more open is, he suggests, intellectually inconsistent.

But Pastor Matthew goes further than simply defending the claim. He reframes it. Exclusivity is only a problem, he explains, when there is a better option being withheld. Jesus is not restricting. He is offering the best possible way to live. His commands are not arbitrary rules. They are grounded in how human beings are actually designed to flourish. It is better to forgive than to hold a grudge. It is better to be generous than to be selfish. Try it out, Pastor Matthew says. Jesus is not insecure about the comparison.

The conversation turns practical when Pastor Chris asks how Christians should actually engage people of other faiths and backgrounds. Pastor Matthew is clear that there is no single method that works for everyone. Jesus himself spoke differently to different groups in different contexts. Paul adapted his approach depending on who he was speaking to and what common ground he could find.

What Pastor Matthew consistently returns to is the importance of relational equity. Before declaring something that might be offensive, build the relationship. Be curious. Ask questions. Find out what someone actually believes and why it matters to them. Share your own story. If someone asks you directly whether you think their way is wrong, do not lie. But speak from a place of genuine love rather than a desire to win an argument.

The story of CS Lewis surfaces here as a model. Lewis came to faith not through a debate he lost but through a community of friends who loved him, honored his interests, engaged his questions seriously, and gave him time. His friend Tolkien helped him see that the story of Christianity was not just another myth. It was the myth that turned out to be true. That kind of long, patient, relational investment is, in Pastor Matthew's view, the norm the church should be working toward, not the exception.

Both Pastor Chris and Pastor Matthew speak from personal experience when the conversation moves to deconstruction. Pastor Chris shares a season from his time working at a summer camp where his foundation was genuinely shaken and he found himself wrestling with questions he had not expected. Pastor Matthew describes a moment more recently where something he encountered on social media challenged a part of his belief system in a way that initially just made him annoyed. It was only a conversation with Chris, who offered a broader theological perspective, that allowed him to hold the tension without feeling like everything else he believed was at risk.

The lesson both draw from these experiences is the same. Do not wrestle alone. Find a community that is safe enough to ask questions and grounded enough to help you navigate the answers. Deconstruction is not the problem. Deconstruction without community is.

For anyone heading into an environment like college or higher education where their foundation may be challenged for the first time, Pastor Matthew's counsel is straightforward. Do not abandon your convictions by living recklessly. But do engage the questions with intentionality. Find people you trust. Study. Think. And give Jesus a fair chance, because in his experience, when people actually try to live the way Jesus taught, it holds up.

The episode closes with a conversation about denominational differences and what actually defines Christianity across its many expressions. Pastor Matthew and Pastor Chris land on the idea that the historic creeds of the church, the Nicene Creed and others, represent the essential core that all branches of Christianity share. The divinity and humanity of Christ. The triune nature of God. The death and resurrection of Jesus for the reconciliation of humanity. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Everything outside of those essentials, Pastor Matthew suggests, is an area where the church can and should extend grace. Different communities worship differently. Different traditions emphasize different things. That is not a problem. The problem comes when any one expression claims to be the only valid one.

The famous principle both reach for, though neither can pin down its original author, captures it well. In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, grace. And in all things, charity.

Have a question you would like Pastor Chris and Pastor Matthew to discuss on a future episode of The Branch? Send it to info@thetree.church. 

"I can't judge Naomi because I can have the same tendencies where I'm like, God's not moving fast enough. So I'm gonna take matters into my own hands." — Pastor Stacey Crawford

The book of Ruth is often described as one of the most beautiful stories in all of scripture. And it is. But chapter three makes sure you do not get too comfortable. In this episode of The Tree Church Bible Study, hosts Pastor Stacey Crawford, Pastor Chris Reed, and Pastor Anthony Lombardi sit down to work through Ruth 3:1–9, one of the most talked-about and debated passages in the entire book. What Naomi tells Ruth to do raises real questions. The text does not answer all of them. And that, the hosts argue, is part of the point.

The passage opens with Naomi speaking to Ruth with what feels like urgency. She tells Ruth that it is time to find her a permanent home. Boaz is a close relative. He has been generous. He will be at the threshing floor that night. Naomi's instructions are specific: clean up, put on your best clothes, wait until he has finished eating and drinking, notice where he lies down, go uncover his feet, and lie down. Then wait and see what he says.

Pastor Stacey was straightforward about her first reaction to the passage. It feels sketchy. It raises questions about Ruth's safety. It raises questions about Ruth's reputation. And it raises a bigger question about what exactly Naomi is trying to accomplish here.

Pastor Anthony pointed out that the text itself seems to be aware of the tension. It presents the situation as risky, then pulls back slightly, then presents it as risky again. The author is not resolving the ambiguity for the reader. That tension is intentional.

One of the central discussions in this episode is what Naomi actually had in mind when she sent Ruth to the threshing floor. The hosts were careful not to assign motives the text does not give.

Pastor Anthony noted that the ESV rendering of verse one is worth paying attention to. Naomi asks whether she should not seek rest for Ruth, and the word translated as rest carries the meaning of security. That framing matters. Naomi is not simply trying to maneuver a situation. She seems to genuinely want Ruth to have a stable and protected future.

At the same time, Pastor Chris raised the point that God working something good out of a situation does not mean the path taken to get there was entirely above reproach. The text puts these characters in a morally complicated place. That is not the same as the text endorsing every decision made along the way.

Pastor Stacey brought it closer to home. She described the tension she felt reading Naomi's actions as something familiar. There are moments when it feels like God is not moving quickly enough and the temptation is to take matters into your own hands and find a way to make something happen. Naomi may have been acting out of genuine love for Ruth while also nudging things forward in a way that carried real risk.

Pastor Chris summarized it simply. Naomi likely had mixed motives. Most people do. And God was working through all of it regardless.

Before moving into the second half of the passage, Pastor Stacey asked the group a question worth sitting with. Why did Ruth choose to do what Naomi told her? And was it wise?

Pastor Chris pointed to Ruth's established pattern. From the moment she committed herself to Naomi, Ruth has consistently placed herself under Naomi's guidance and protection. This moment is not an exception. It is an extension of who she has already shown herself to be.

Pastor Anthony added the layer of cultural context. Ruth is a Moabite woman trusting the wisdom of an older Israelite woman in a setting that is not her own. The willingness to follow that guidance, even without full clarity on the outcome, reflects the kind of trust that builds over time when someone has consistently shown that they want what is best for you.

There is also something to be said for what Ruth does when she actually gets to the threshing floor. Naomi told her to go, uncover his feet, lie down, and let Boaz take it from there. Ruth does all of that. But then she goes further. When Boaz wakes up startled and asks who is there, Ruth does not wait for him to figure it out. She identifies herself and makes her request clear. She asks him to spread the corner of his covering over her because he is her family redeemer.

The language Ruth uses is layered with meaning. The image of spreading a covering over someone is the same language used elsewhere in scripture to describe God spreading his wings of protection over his people. Ruth is not simply asking for a favor. She is asking Boaz to be her protector and provider. She is, in effect, proposing.

Pastor Anthony noted just how countercultural that moment is. A woman proposing to a man. A Moabite woman proposing to an Israelite man. A poor woman proposing to a wealthy man. Every layer of the situation runs against the grain of what would have been expected.

And she goes beyond what Naomi told her to do. Naomi said to let Boaz direct the next step. Ruth does not wait. She names what she is asking for. Pastor Anthony suggested there may be a very human reason for that. She may have been nervous about how he would interpret the situation. By identifying herself and stating clearly why she was there, she was removing any possibility of misunderstanding. She was saying, in effect, do not read this the wrong way. I am here because I want you to be the one who redeems us.

"What she's even communicating here, not only in humility, but basically saying this is not something I feel entitled to. At the end of the day, I'm your servant. You can choose to do what you want, but I want you to know this would be my desire." — Pastor Anthony Lombardi

Pastor Chris closed out the discussion with a reflection that tied the passage to something larger. He connected the dynamic between Ruth and Boaz at the threshing floor to the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. In both cases, a morally ambiguous situation becomes a moment where character is put on display. The disciples came back and found Jesus alone with a woman. It could have looked like many things. What it actually was is one of the most significant conversations in the gospels.

The point is not that you can place yourself in any situation and assume your motives will carry you through. Scripture is clear that there is wisdom in avoiding temptation. But there are times when you find yourself in a complicated place without having chosen it. In those moments, the question is not how you got there. The question is how you respond.

Ruth responded with clarity, humility, and honesty. Boaz will respond, as the next episode will show, with integrity and even joy. Their character does not disappear because the situation is uncomfortable. It shows up more clearly because of it.

"Character is tested in precarious moments and there can be situations that we find ourselves in that don't look well but can still be enacted in ways of character." — Pastor Chris Reed

This episode covers Ruth 3:1–9. The next episode will pick up with Boaz's response and what happens next. If you have been following along, you already know that this story continues to reward close attention. Every chapter adds something new to the picture of who these people are and how God is working through their lives.

 Watch the full episode here.

If you are searching for a church in Lancaster, Ohio, or looking for a church in Logan, Ohio, The Tree Church would love for you to join us. We gather every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at both of our campuses.

Lancaster Campus
721 N. Memorial Drive, Lancaster, OH 43130  
Sundays at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM

Logan Campus
36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138
Sundays at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM

Whether you are new to faith, coming back after a long time away, or just looking for a place to grow, you are welcome here.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: John 1:1-14

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

While the Book of Nature reveals God's power and creativity, only the Book of Scripture reveals His heart and purpose. The eternal Word—through whom all things were made—entered our physical universe as Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate intersection of the material and the divine. Science can explain how your body functions, but only God can tell you why you exist. Jesus didn't come to condemn our curiosity or intellectual pursuit; He came to reveal the Father's love and reconcile us to our Creator. In Christ, we see that God is not distant or detached from His creation but intimately involved, even entering it Himself. Today, thank God for revealing not just His power through creation, but His person through Christ.

How does knowing that the Creator entered His creation change your perspective on both science and faith?    

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Thank Jesus for stepping into creation to reveal God’s heart and ask Him to help you know Him more personally.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Spend time meditating on John 1:14 and reflect on what it means that God became flesh.
2. Thank God specifically today not only for what He created, but for how He chose to enter into His creation through Jesus.
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Psalm 104:1–9, 24–30

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

The psalmist describes God as the architect of creation, setting the earth on its foundations and establishing the boundaries of the seas. These poetic descriptions aren't scientific textbooks—they're worship songs celebrating God's sovereign power over all creation. When our interpretations of Scripture conflict with observable reality, we must humbly reconsider our understanding rather than reject truth. God invites us into honest inquiry, not fearful rigidity. Your faith doesn't need to be threatened by scientific discovery; instead, let it expand your understanding of God's magnificent design. The same God who "makes winds his messengers" and "flames of fire his servants" invites you to explore His creation with wonder and reverence. Truth is never the enemy of faith. 

Where might God be inviting you to reconsider your understanding without compromising your faith?     

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God for humility, wisdom, and confidence to pursue truth while remaining rooted in faith.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one area where you’ve struggled to reconcile faith and understanding, and bring it honestly before God in prayer.
2. Read or learn something new about creation this week and allow it to lead you into worship rather than fear.
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Psalm 19:1–6

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

God speaks to us through two magnificent books—Scripture and Nature. Today's psalm reminds us that creation itself is a divine testimony, constantly proclaiming God's glory without uttering a single word. When you look at the night sky, observe the intricacy of a flower, or marvel at the complexity of your own body, you're reading from God's Book of Nature. This revelation is available to everyone, everywhere, at all times. Take time today to step outside and truly observe creation. What does it tell you about God's power, creativity, and care? Let nature's testimony deepen your worship. Science doesn't diminish God's glory—it magnifies it, revealing the extraordinary intelligence and intentionality behind everything that exists.  

What aspect of nature most clearly reveals God's character to you?   

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God to open your eyes to His glory through creation and deepen your sense of wonder and worship.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Spend intentional time outside today observing creation and thanking God for specific details that reveal His character.
2. Write down one way nature reminds you of God’s creativity, power, or care and reflect on it throughout the day.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Romans 12:9–21; Ephesians 4:25–32

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Culture offers an easy path when the church hurts you: cancel, leave, quit, repeat. But Jesus offers a harder, better way—one that keeps hearts soft and relationships strong. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Outdo one another in showing honor. Put others' needs above your own, not because they deserve it, but because Jesus did this for you. Being hurt by fellow believers is inevitable, but your response is your choice. Will you become jaded and toxic, or will you become more like Jesus? The world's method makes everyone a victim. Jesus' method gives everyone hope. Today, commit to Jesus' way: stay engaged, love earnestly, pursue reconciliation, and trust that God is building something supernatural through imperfect people—including you.   

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God to help you respond to hurt in a way that reflects Jesus and protects unity within the church.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Evaluate your heart for any bitterness or cynicism toward church community and surrender it to God.
2. Make one intentional choice this week to stay engaged in community rather than withdrawing.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Matthew 5:21–26; Matthew 18:15–20

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Jesus gives clear instruction when hurt happens: go directly to the person. Don't post about it, don't gather allies, don't let bitterness fester—go. Whether you've been offended or you've offended someone else, Jesus says the same thing: pursue reconciliation immediately. This requires fighting FOR the relationship rather than fighting to WIN the argument. Listen to understand their heart, not to prepare your rebuttal. Speak to honor, not to wound. View their faults through the lens of grace God has shown you. Reconciliation isn't optional for followers of Jesus—it's commanded. Is there someone you need to approach today? Don't wait until it feels comfortable. Leave your gift at the altar and go.   

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God for courage, humility, and wisdom to pursue peace and reconciliation in your relationships.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one unresolved conflict or tension in your life and pray specifically about taking the next step toward reconciliation.
2. Reach out to that person in a respectful and honest way, seeking peace over being “right.”

"God placing us and other people at the right place at the right time - that's just what this whole story feels like to me." - Pastor Stacey Crawford

The Tree Church Bible Study returned this week to the book of Ruth, with Pastor Stacey Crawford hosting Pastor Chris Reed and Pastor Anthony Lombardi for a continued walk through chapter 2. The episode picked up at verse 14 - a moment that, on the surface, reads simply as a lunch invitation. In context, it carries far more weight than that.

Boaz calls Ruth over during the midday meal and invites her to eat with his workers - to dip her bread in the sour wine and share in the food he has provided. Pastor Chris explained that table fellowship in the ancient world was not a casual gesture. To share a meal with someone was to extend to them a measure of social standing and belonging. Boaz was not merely feeding a hungry woman. He was bringing her into the circle of his household.
And he did so without hesitation.

From the meal, the passage moves quickly to what Boaz said to his workers when Ruth returned to the field. He instructed them not only to leave her alone, but to pull heads of grain from the bundles deliberately and drop them where she could find them. He told them not to give her a hard time. He made it easy for her.

Pastor Chris noted that Ruth had no social standing to demand any of this. As a Moabite widow in Israel, she was vulnerable on multiple levels. Boaz was under no obligation to do more than permit her to glean at the edges. Instead, he went in the opposite direction entirely - protecting her, providing for her, and setting the standard for how his entire workforce would treat her.

Pastor Anthony connected this to character. Boaz was not performing generosity for an audience. He was expressing who he was. The same faithfulness Ruth had shown in staying with Naomi, the same faithfulness Boaz was now showing toward Ruth, reflected the deeper faithfulness of God working through ordinary people in ordinary moments.
When Ruth returned to Naomi that evening, she carried roughly 21 to 22 pounds of grain - enough to provide for them for a week, far beyond what a day of gleaning was ever expected to produce.

The abundance Ruth brought home opened a natural conversation among the pastors about generosity and how to receive it well. Pastor Anthony acknowledged that sustained blessing can quietly shift into expectation. What begins as gratitude for something undeserved can drift, over time, into a sense of entitlement - an assumption that this is simply how things work now.

The correction, he said, is a regular return to both thankfulness and confession. Thankfulness keeps a person aware of what they have been given. Confession keeps them honest about what they deserve. Together, the two postures hold a person in the kind of humility that allows generosity to land as grace rather than as something owed.

Pastor Anthony also pointed out something particular to the American context. Receiving help from others does not come naturally. There is a vulnerability in it, a kind of power dynamic that makes people uneasy. But the culture of God's people, he argued, runs in both directions. There are seasons to receive and seasons to give, and both require a willingness to be known in need. The goal is not a transaction but a community where generosity flows because it has been received.

Pastor Stacey put it simply: every time someone has been generous with her, it has compelled her to ask who she can go and bless next.

When Ruth told Naomi where she had been working and who had shown her such favor, Naomi's reaction shifted immediately. She recognized the name Boaz. She knew what it meant. And for the first time since returning to Bethlehem empty and bitter, something in her changed.

Pastor Stacey reflected on what that moment must have felt like for Naomi - watching Ruth go out each day, come back with more than expected, and slowly begin to understand that God had not forgotten them. Earlier in the story, Naomi had asked to be called Mara, meaning bitter. Now, through Boaz's field and Boaz's table and Boaz's instructions to his workers, the hand of God was becoming visible again.

Naomi told Ruth to stay with Boaz's workers through the entire harvest. What had begun as a daily uncertainty was becoming a long-term provision. Pastor Chris noted that the passage covers both the barley and the wheat harvest, suggesting the arrangement extended across a full year. The short-term crisis was addressed. And the longer story was beginning to take shape.

The episode introduced one of the book's central concepts: the kinsman redeemer. When Naomi told Ruth that Boaz was one of their family redeemers, she was naming a specific role with specific responsibilities under Israel's covenant law.

Pastor Chris explained that the kinsman redeemer was the family member appointed to step in when something had gone wrong - to buy back land that had been sold in desperation, to restore a family member from indentured servitude, to pursue justice when a wrong had been done. The role carried real cost. It was not symbolic. Taking on the obligations of a family redeemer meant using personal resources to correct a broken situation that was not of your own making.

Pastor Anthony connected this directly to the New Testament. The same picture that shapes Boaz's role in Ruth's story shapes the way Scripture speaks of Jesus as redeemer - the one who steps into a broken situation at great personal cost, restores what was lost, and brings the vulnerable back into the household.

Boaz did not yet know how fully he would be called to fulfill that role. But his character throughout chapter 2 - his generosity at the table, his protection in the field, his instructions to his workers - was already giving Naomi every reason to hope.

Pastor Stacey closed the episode with the observation that had stayed with her throughout the study: God places people at the right time and in the right place. Ruth ended up in Boaz's field. Boaz happened to be a man of integrity and a family redeemer. Naomi happened to recognize what it meant. None of it looked like a divine plan from the outside. It looked like a widow going to glean grain and coming home with more than expected.

But the pastors returned again to the theme that has run through every episode of this study: God's faithfulness is present even when it is not visible. It moves through the decisions of ordinary people - a woman who chose to stay with her mother-in-law, a man who chose to go beyond what was required, a family system designed to make sure no one was left without recourse.

The book of Ruth does not present a God who announces himself dramatically. It presents a God who shows up in fields and at meal tables and in the quiet recognition on an old woman's face when she hears a name she knows.

The Tree Church meets every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at two Ohio locations - one in Lancaster and one in Logan. If you are looking for a church in Lancaster, Ohio or a church in Logan, Ohio where you can ask real questions, study scripture together, and grow in genuine community, we would love to have you join us.

Lancaster Campus
Logan Campus

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: 1 Peter 4:7–11

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." This doesn't mean hiding abuse or serious sin—it means refusing to magnify every offense. Love doesn't make every awkward comment, immaturity, or failure into a war. It chooses patience over constant outrage. In communities under pressure, we often turn on each other, but love protects unity by preventing bitterness, gossip, and revenge from spreading. Ask yourself: Am I keeping score of offenses or moving toward forgiveness? Am I exposing every flaw or choosing to absorb minor offenses? Biblical love addresses sin redemptively, not destructively. Today, practice covering someone's minor offense with grace instead of criticism.   

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God for a patient and gracious heart that is quick to forgive and slow to take offense.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Choose to let go of one minor offense instead of dwelling on it or talking about it with others.
2. Speak encouragement over someone today rather than focusing on their shortcomings.

"God's plan is that he uses broken people to love broken people." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

Church hurt is one of the most talked-about topics in Christian culture right now. It shows up on social media. It drives people away from faith. And it is real. In this message, Pastor Matthew Johnson of The Tree Church addresses it directly, honestly, and without flinching. He does not minimize the pain. He does not explain it away. And he does not pretend it is not happening. What he does is walk through what the Bible actually says about how the church is supposed to work and what to do when it does not.

Before diving into the broader topic, Pastor Matthew paused to draw an important and necessary line. He was not talking about abuse. That is a different conversation entirely, and he wanted to say so plainly.

He read a statement directly. Abuse is evil. It is especially evil when it is carried out by people who were entrusted to love, protect, shepherd, and care for others. Churches and leaders who abuse people should be confronted, held accountable, and face consequences. The answer to abuse is never silence, protecting platforms, or pretending it did not happen. It should always be addressed with truth, justice, and care for those who were harmed.

With that established, Pastor Matthew turned to the reality that most people in a church community will face at some point. Relational hurt. The kind that happens not because of evil intent but because broken people are in relationship with other broken people.

Pastor Matthew identified four distinct levels of hurt that exist inside every Christian community. The first and most visible is church leadership failing the members. This is what fills social media feeds when someone hashtags church hurt. A pastor, a staff member, or a leader disappointed someone, wounded them, or handled something poorly.

But he did not stop there. The second level is members hurting church leadership. Pastors are leaving full-time ministry at record numbers, and Pastor Matthew was direct about why. It is not the world pushing them out. It is people inside the church. Gossip, vindictiveness, selfishness, and cruelty from the very people a pastor pours his life into.

The third level is church members hurting each other. People who are supposed to be friends, supposed to love one another, failing to do so. And the fourth is church leaders hurting each other. Pastors fighting elders. Staff turning on staff.

He summarized it plainly. The leadership hurts the people, the people hurt the leadership, the people hurt each other, and the leaders hurt each other. That is the full picture of what church hurt actually looks like.

Pastor Matthew then walked through four ways people typically respond to that reality.
The first is to go find the perfect church. He smiled at that one. The moment you find it and join it, it is no longer perfect. More importantly, that is not God's plan. God uses broken people to love broken people. A perfect church was never the goal.

The second response is to church hop. Go until something hurts you, leave, find another one, repeat. In his experience, this does not work. After two or three churches, most people just quit going altogether. And the ones who keep hopping often become some of the most wounded and toxic people in any congregation they land in.

The third response is to quit church entirely. This breaks into two paths. The first is the person who says it is now just me and Jesus. Pastor Matthew was gentle but clear. The Bible does not support that concept. You cannot find anywhere in scripture, Old Testament or New Testament, a relationship with God that exists outside of community. The second path is the person who gives up on Jesus altogether. He named this as a significant driver of the deconstruction movement. And the problem, he said, is obvious. You give up on the most important person and thing you need in your life.

That leaves the fourth option. And it is the one the entire message is built around.

The fourth option is that everyone, leadership and members alike, treats the church the way Jesus actually intended it to be.

Pastor Matthew turned to 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, where Paul describes the church as a human body. One body made up of many different and individual parts, all working together for one purpose. He then read further in the passage where Paul names the kinds of people Jesus brought together in this body. Jews and Greeks. Slaves and free. Two groups that despised each other, that were confused by each other, that were racist toward each other. And Jesus said they were going to become like family.

Pastor Matthew paused on that. He talked about the connect groups at The Tree Church and how he will sometimes stop a staff conversation and ask someone to list out who is in a particular group. And when they do, his response is always the same. Where else in the world would you get that group of people together and they would be friends? Only in church. Only because of Jesus.

He read a longer statement to capture the full picture. The church was meant to be a group of people with different backgrounds, values, experiences, personalities, beliefs, goals, desires, resources, strengths, and weaknesses being brought together by Christ into a community so deeply connected and committed to one another that they function like a single human body.

The church was never meant to be a collection of like-minded consumers. It was meant to be the supernatural joining together of radically different people into a committed community so united in love and sacrifice and mutual dependence that scripture describes them as one body.

The problem, Pastor Matthew explained, is that we have been trained by consumer culture to view ourselves as customers. We walk into every organization with resources in hand and expectations attached. The more we invest, the higher our expectations. And we do this with church without anyone ever having to teach us. We attend and expect. We serve and expect more. We give financially and expect even more in return.

Members begin to view the church as a service provider. A person or organization that exists primarily to meet their needs, preferences, and demands. And when those expectations go unmet, they take their resources somewhere else.

Leadership falls into the same trap from a different angle. The vision begins in a healthy place, genuinely seeking what God wants. But over time, people start to be viewed as organizational assets rather than as people. A means to an end. And when that happens on both sides, hurt is almost inevitable.

Pastor Matthew moved from calling to action. And the action Jesus calls his people to is found in John 13:34, spoken on the night he was betrayed, after washing every disciple's feet including Judas who would betray him and Peter who would deny him.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Pastor Matthew was careful to explain what love means here. This is not the American version of love, connected to feelings and fondness. This is agape love. A mental commitment to better someone else's life. It has very little to do with emotion and everything to do with choice.

He referenced the platinum rule, a phrase he borrowed from another pastor. Everyone knows the golden rule: do for others as you would have them do for you. The platinum rule is this: do for others as Jesus has already done for you.

He also shared something personal. One of the highest priorities he carries as lead pastor is to serve his staff. He prays for each of them by name. He keeps notes on what is happening in their lives so he can follow up. He wants to love them because he knows that love will trickle down through everyone they lead and out into the entire church.

Paul puts it another way in Romans 12:10. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Make it a competition. Raise each other's value. Stop asking what the church can give you and start asking what you can give to the people around you.

Even when people understand the calling and choose the action, hurt will still happen. Pastor Matthew did not pretend otherwise. Inevitably, someone will offend you. Inevitably, you will offend someone else. The question is not whether it will happen. The question is how you respond when it does.

He made one reframe that matters. When a Christian community lets you down, it is not church hurt. It is relational hurt. Someone has let you down. And Jesus tells us exactly what to do when a person lets us down.

He turned to 1 Peter 4:8. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. He pointed out who is speaking. This is Peter. The same Peter who rebuked Jesus at the last supper when he tried to wash his feet. The same Peter who fell asleep three times when Jesus needed him most. The same Peter who swung a sword at a man's head and then denied Jesus three times before morning. All in one night. Peter knows what it means to be covered by love. And he is the one saying love first.

When love comes first, Pastor Matthew explained, it changes how you listen and how you speak. When you are trying to win an argument, you listen to destroy. You look for weak points. You speak to put the other person on the defensive. But when you are trying to win the relationship, you listen to hear what is wounded. You speak to lessen the distance. You create safety so the other person can come toward you.

"To win an argument and to lose a relationship is a net loss. There nobody wins when one person wins an argument." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

Jesus makes the path clear in Matthew 18:15. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Go in love. Speak in love. Listen in love. And when that happens, reconciliation becomes possible.

Pastor Matthew closed with a vision worth holding onto. When Christians fight for the health of the church, when they own their calling, choose love as their action, and go to one another in reconciliation rather than cancel culture, something changes. The church becomes what Jesus always intended it to be. An unstoppable force. A safe place to grow, to be encouraged, and to become more like Jesus.

The world's method makes everyone the victim and everyone hurt. Jesus's method gives everyone hope again.

If you are looking for a church in Lancaster, Ohio or a church in Logan, Ohio, we would love to have you join us at The Tree Church. We meet every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at both of our campuses.

Lancaster Campus 
721 N. Memorial Drive, Lancaster, OH 43130 | Sundays at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM

Logan Campus
36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138 | Sundays at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM

No matter where you are coming from or what you have been through, there is a place for you here.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: John 13:1–17, 34–35

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Jesus gave us a "new commandment" the night before His crucifixion: love one another as He loved us. This isn't the Golden Rule (treat others as you want to be treated)—it's the Platinum Rule: love others as Jesus loved you. He washed feet knowing Judas would betray Him, knowing Peter would deny Him, knowing all would abandon Him. Yet He served anyway. How can we commit to love imperfect people? Because Jesus committed to love us while we were still sinners. Love isn't a feeling; it's a choice to pursue someone else's betterment regardless of their response. This week, identify one person in your church community who's difficult to love, and choose one action that demonstrates Christ's love toward them.   

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask Jesus to help you love others with the same grace, patience, and humility He has shown you.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one person you’ve struggled to love well and intentionally bless or serve them this week.
2. Practice one act of humble service today without expecting recognition in return.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12–27

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

The church isn't a collection of consumers gathering for services—it's a supernatural body where radically different people become interdependent through Christ. Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, all backgrounds and personalities, united not by similarity but by the Spirit. This calling challenges our cultural instincts. We naturally gravitate toward people like us, but Jesus calls us to something deeper: covenant community. Bodies fight for health; amputation is always a last resort. Today, consider: Are you treating your church family as expendable, or are you committed to the health of the whole body? Your presence, gifts, and love aren't optional—they're essential to the body's function.   

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God to help you see your church community as family and show you how your gifts can strengthen the body of Christ.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Reach out to someone in your church this week to encourage or connect with them intentionally.
2. Reflect on one gift or strength God has given you and find a way to use it to serve others.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Matthew 7:13–14, 21–23; Matthew 28:18–20

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

The gate is narrow, but the invitation is universal. Jesus doesn't exclude people; people exclude themselves by choosing the wide, easy path that leads to destruction. The narrow way isn't difficult because God is restrictive—it's difficult because it requires surrendering our self-constructed paths. Many will say "Lord, Lord," but not everyone who claims His name truly knows Him. The difference? Obedience. Doing the Father's will. Christianity's exclusivity isn't about who's invited (everyone), but about who's willing to enter on God's terms rather than their own. Today, ask yourself: am I truly entering through the narrow gate, or am I trying to create my own entrance? Jesus is both the only way and the best way—not because He limits you, but because He alone can save you.

Are you walking the narrow path of obedience, or have you created a wider, more comfortable version of Christianity?      

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God to help you walk faithfully on the narrow path and surrender any area where you’ve chosen comfort over obedience.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Evaluate one area of your life where following Jesus has felt challenging, and recommit that area to Him.
2. Take one intentional step of obedience this week, even if it requires discomfort or sacrifice.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Acts 3:1–16; Acts 4:8–12

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Peter had no silver or gold, but he possessed something infinitely more valuable: the name of Jesus. That name healed the lame beggar, and that same name brings salvation to all who call upon it. When threatened by religious authorities who demanded silence, Peter boldly proclaimed that salvation exists in no other name. This wasn't religious superiority; it was witnessed reality. Peter had seen Jesus crucified, buried, and resurrected. He had experienced transformation that no other philosophy or religion could provide. The exclusivity of Jesus isn't about limiting options—it's about proclaiming the only solution that actually works. Today, consider: have you experienced the power of Jesus' name in your own life? Your testimony becomes your boldness.

What transformation has Jesus accomplished in your life that gives you confidence to proclaim Him as the only way?        

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Thank Jesus for the work He has done in your life and ask for boldness to share His name with others.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Write down one way Jesus has transformed your life as a reminder of His faithfulness.
2. Share your testimony or invite someone to church, small group, or a faith conversation this week.

"When you're a person of faith and you're a person of generosity, you will also be a person of blessing because God always rewards that because that's his economy." - Pastor Matthew Johnson

Ruth did not walk into Boaz's field expecting much. She was a foreigner, a widow, and by every social measure of her time, someone without standing or claim. She came hoping to gather what the harvesters left behind. What she received instead was an invitation, a protection, a provision, and a word of blessing that changed everything about how she understood her place in this new land and among these new people. In Ruth 2:8-12, the story of Ruth and Naomi takes another quiet but significant turn - and the pastors of the Tree Church Bible Study are right there in the text to help listeners see exactly what God is doing in it.

In this episode, Pastors Stacey Crawford, Matthew Johnson, and Chris Reed continue their verse-by-verse study of the book of Ruth, unpacking one of the most warmhearted exchanges in the entire narrative and drawing out themes of generosity, provision, and the character of a God who consistently does more than what anyone expected.

When Boaz approaches Ruth in the field, the first thing he does is call her daughter. That single word carries more weight than it might appear to at first. The foreman who introduced Ruth to Boaz had called her the Moabitess - a label that marked her as an outsider, a foreigner, someone from the wrong side of the border. Boaz does not use that label. He replaces it with something else entirely. Pastor Chris noted that from this point forward in the passage, nothing but an elevation of Ruth's status is taking place. She arrives as a foreigner. She leaves as family.

What Boaz offers her goes far beyond what gleaning law required. He tells her to stay close to his female workers, not to wander into other fields, and to help herself to the water his workers had already drawn from the well. Pastor Stacey identified three specific gifts in that offer - companionship, protection, and provision. For a widowed woman in a foreign land with no social network and no guarantee of safety, each of those three things was genuinely significant. He also tells her directly that he has warned the young men not to treat her roughly. That kind of explicit protection would not have been standard. Boaz was going out of his way, and everyone present would have known it.

Pastor Matthew observed that Boaz's generosity in this moment did not happen in a vacuum. Ruth's reputation had preceded her. The foreman had told Boaz who she was - the woman who came back with Naomi, the one who had left her own family and her own land to stay with her mother-in-law after the death of her husband. Boaz already knew her character before he ever spoke a word to her. Two people of genuine character had found each other, and Pastor Matthew noted that is exactly how God works. When you walk in obedience and live according to the standards of God, God draws people of like character into your life.

The passage opened up a wide and personal conversation about what it actually feels like to trust God with things that feel urgent and uncertain. All three pastors shared moments from their own lives where God's provision showed up in ways they could not have engineered or predicted.

Pastor Matthew spoke about a season during the opening of the Logan campus when the financial demands of finishing a building felt like they were outpacing the resources coming in. There was a week when the church needed a significant sum of money in a very short window of time. Rather than moving toward fear or trying to manipulate the situation, Pastor Matthew made a deliberate choice to bring it to God and wait. That same day, a bill the church had expected to owe came back at a fraction of the amount they had anticipated - not reduced slightly, but reduced to roughly a tenth of what they had been told. He was clear that he could not explain it apart from God. And from that point on, through the entire process of opening the campus, the church never missed a bill or a deadline.

Pastor Chris shared a season early in his marriage when his wife Cassie needed a medical procedure after using all of her available leave following the birth of their son Elijah. Their income at the time was not enough to cover their bills without her working, and the prospect of additional unpaid time off felt financially impossible. Pastor Chris described a quiet sense of God telling him to simply keep doing what he was doing. They did. Cassie healed. And when the bills came due, they never missed one - not by going into debt, not by borrowing, but by a margin of provision that Pastor Chris could only attribute to God showing up when they needed him.

Pastor Matthew added a second story about the birth of his son Cole. He and Mary had known going in that they would owe several thousand dollars in medical costs. They waited for the bill. It never came. When they followed up - first with the hospital, then with the doctor - both told them there was nothing owed. No explanation. Just a bill that was simply not there.

What all three stories pointed toward was the same underlying truth. God's timing is almost never the timing we would have chosen. Pastor Matthew noted that he is hard-pressed to think of a single moment where he set a timeline in his mind and God matched it exactly. And yet looking back, the timing that felt delayed or confusing consistently turned out to be exactly right. The invitation of the story of Ruth - and the invitation of those personal moments - is to hold timelines loosely, to say with James that what you're planning will happen if the Lord wills, and to live in the open-handed posture that allows God to work in ways you could not have anticipated.

In Ruth 2:10-12, Ruth falls at Boaz's feet and asks why he is showing her such kindness when she is only a foreigner. Boaz's answer is straightforward. He has heard about everything she did - leaving her family, her land, her people to stay with Naomi. And then he offers her a blessing: may the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings she has come to take refuge, reward her fully for what she has done.

Pastor Stacey reflected on what that moment would have felt like from Ruth's perspective. She woke up that morning in uncertainty - a stranger in a new land with no security, no guarantee of safety, and no clear path forward. By the end of that same day, she had been given a place among Boaz's people, protection, provision, and a word of blessing that named her as someone under the care of the God of Israel. The fear and unknowing of the morning had been replaced by something completely different.

Pastor Chris observed something theologically significant in Boaz's blessing. The language of verse 12 - coming under the wings of the God of Israel - is not just pastoral comfort. It functions almost as a conversion statement. Ruth has not simply found refuge with a kind landowner. She has found refuge under the God that landowner serves. In that sense, the practical and the spiritual are overlapping in exactly the way they consistently do throughout this story. God provides practical things, and in doing so, he demonstrates something far larger about his nature and his relationship with the people who trust him.

Pastor Stacey introduced generosity as one of the two central themes she saw running through the passage - the other being faithfulness - and the conversation that followed was one of the richest in the episode.

What struck Pastor Stacey was that the generosity in this story is not one-directional. Ruth has been generous to Naomi - giving up the life she knew, committing herself to a woman she was not obligated to stay with, going out into the fields to provide food for both of them. Boaz is generous to Ruth - a foreigner with nothing to offer him in return. And underneath both of those acts of generosity is a God who is generous to everyone in the story. Pastor Matthew connected this to a principle he returns to consistently: you will never hear him talk about generosity without also talking about blessing, because the two are inseparable in God's economy. He rewards those who give. He blesses those who are faithful. This is not just a principle - it is a pattern woven all the way through scripture and on full display in the story of Ruth.

Pastor Chris added that generosity also properly orients the heart. When people understand that everything they have is a gift from God and not simply a result of their own effort, it removes the sense of entitlement that can quietly take root. Ruth's response to Boaz - her immediate humility, her gratitude, her recognition that she has been given something she did not deserve - is the response of someone who is properly oriented. She is not claiming what she earned. She is receiving what she was given. And that posture, Pastor Chris noted, is exactly the posture God invites every person into.

Pastor Stacey brought the conversation to its theological high point by asking the question directly: how is Boaz's generosity similar to the generosity of Jesus?

Pastor Matthew walked through it clearly. Jesus entered a world where the prevailing assumption was that suffering or hardship indicated divine punishment - that if someone was in a difficult state, they must have done something to deserve it. Jesus consistently and radically rejected that framework. His way of treating everyone in need was dramatically different from the culture around him. The Beatitudes begin by declaring the kingdom of God available to exactly the kinds of people who would have felt disqualified by the standards of the world. That is what Boaz is doing with Ruth. She comes to him feeling like a foreigner who does not belong, expecting at best to be tolerated. Boaz does not just tolerate her. He seeks her out, elevates her, blesses her, and provides for her in ways she never asked for.

Pastor Chris identified this as what biblical scholars call a typology - a person or event in the Old Testament that prefigures and points toward Christ. Boaz is a typology of Jesus. He acts the way Jesus acts. He gives what Jesus gives. He sees people the way Jesus sees people. And the response Ruth has to Boaz - that falling at his feet, that warmth of thanks, that sense of being genuinely overwhelmed by a kindness she did not earn - is a picture of what happens in the heart of anyone who truly understands what Jesus has done for them.

What the pastors kept returning to throughout the episode is a rhythm that runs through the entire book of Ruth and through the life of faith more broadly. Faithfulness leads to provision. Generosity leads to blessing. Obedience leads to a life where God's hand becomes visible in the details. Ruth walked in faithfulness without knowing where it would lead. Boaz walked in generosity without calculating what he would receive in return. And God, who sees all of it, was already orchestrating something neither of them could see from where they were standing.

That is the invitation this passage extends to every reader. Be a person of character. Be a person of generosity. Trust God with the timeline. And watch what God does with the ordinary faithfulness of an ordinary day.

The Tree Church Bible Study is a ministry of The Tree Church, with campuses in Lancaster and Logan, Ohio. Sunday services are held at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at both locations. If you are searching for a church in Lancaster, Ohio or a church in Logan, Ohio where the Bible is taught deeply and community is taken seriously, we would love to have you join us.

Lancaster Campus: 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130, USA
Logan Campus: 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138, USA

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: John 14:15–24; 1 John 2:3–6

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Love without obedience is merely sentiment. Jesus repeatedly connects loving Him with keeping His commands—not as legalistic burden, but as relational reality. When you love someone, you naturally align your life with theirs. Obedience becomes the language of love. This challenges our culture's definition of love as unconditional acceptance without transformation. God's love is unconditional, but relationship with Him requires response. Today, identify one area where you call Jesus "Lord" but haven't surrendered control. Examine behaviors you've tolerated—gossip, unforgiveness, sexual immorality, greed—that contradict your confession. True discipleship means walking as Jesus walked. Obedience isn't what earns His love; it's what demonstrates you've received it.

What "tolerated sin" in your life reveals a gap between your confession and your obedience?        

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God to reveal areas where your actions don’t align with your confession and to help you walk in obedience.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one area of disobedience or compromise and confess it honestly to God.
2. Take one practical step this week to align your actions with what Jesus is calling you to do.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: John 14:1–6

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Thomas's honest confusion reveals our own: "How can we know the way?" Jesus' response is stunningly clear—He doesn't merely show the way; He is the way. This exclusivity isn't arrogance but reality. When Jesus claims to be the only path to the Father, He's revealing that relationship with God isn't achieved through religious systems, moral effort, or spiritual exploration. It's found in a Person. The narrow gate isn't restrictive; it's protective. God prepared a place for you and provided the only bridge to reach it. Today, examine whether you're trusting Jesus as the way, or simply acknowledging Him as a way among many. Exclusive trust leads to exclusive peace.

Are you truly trusting Jesus as the only way, or are you hedging your bets with other belief systems?        

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God to strengthen your trust in Jesus as your only source of truth, peace, and salvation.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Reflect on any areas where you’ve been relying on your own understanding instead of fully trusting Jesus.
2. Read John 14:6 again and meditate on what it means for your daily life.

"It is exclusive. But hear me, everyone's invited. It doesn't matter your past. It doesn't matter the evil that you've done." - Pastor Matthew Johnson

The Tree Church's ongoing sermon series, Reconstruct, is not designed to protect people from hard questions. It is designed to face them. Pastor Matthew Johnson opened this Mother's Day message by returning to the premise that has driven the series from the beginning: there are things in the Christian faith that are genuinely difficult, and avoiding them does more damage than addressing them head-on.

The imagery he returned to was that of a home inspector. An inspector's job is not to condemn a house - it is to find what is weak so it can be made stronger. That is the posture of Reconstruct. Not deconstruction for its own sake, but honest examination in service of a stronger faith.

With that foundation in place, Pastor Matthew turned to one of the most contested claims in all of Christianity.

Before reading a single verse, Pastor Matthew took a moment to name what was about to happen in the room. On a Sunday with guests, baptisms, and first-time visitors, he chose not to soften the topic he had prepared. He chose to go further into it.

The subject was exclusivity - the Christian conviction that Jesus is the only way to salvation, eternal life, and relationship with God. Not one way among many. Not the best of several options. The only way.

Pastor Matthew acknowledged plainly that this claim would land on some people in the room as arrogance, as narrow-mindedness, and as judgment. He did not dismiss that reaction. He asked only that people stay with him long enough to understand why Christians believe what they believe.

The sermon moved into Scripture with John 10:10, where Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd whose sheep know his voice. Everything that sets itself against him - any system, any voice, any alternative - exists, Jesus says, only to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus alone came to bring life, and to bring it abundantly.

From there, Pastor Matthew turned to John 14 and the account of the Last Supper. Jesus, preparing his disciples for his departure, speaks words of comfort - but the comfort he offers is anchored in an exclusive claim. "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Pastor Matthew did not treat this as one theological position among several. He treated it as Jesus's own direct statement about reality. Every other religion, every other pathway, every other system - according to Jesus himself - does not lead to life. It leads to destruction.

The exclusivity Pastor Matthew described did not stop at belief. He pushed further, making the case from multiple passages in John's Gospel that genuine faith in Jesus produces obedience. Claiming Jesus as Lord while living in open defiance of his teaching is, according to Scripture, no claim at all.

Pastor Matthew was careful to distinguish between perfection and direction. Christians are not called to be perfect. But when sin is recognized as sin, the response is confession, repentance, and a fight against it - not permission to remain in it. He worked through a direct and practical list: how followers of Jesus use their words, how they treat their enemies, how they conduct themselves financially and sexually, how they serve. The exclusivity of following Jesus, he argued, reaches into every area of life.

This was not presented as burden. It was presented as the shape of a surrendered life.

Before moving into Acts, Pastor Matthew paused to address the resistance that exclusive claims naturally produce. He identified two sources. The first is simple human rebellion - the refusal to be told what to do, a quality he acknowledged freely in himself. The second is cultural: a world that has trained people to believe they have the right to create their own truth. When someone arrives and says that truth is not self-made, the reaction is sharp.

But Pastor Matthew offered a reframe. Exclusivity is not inherently a problem. Two plus two equals four - exclusively. Interstate 75 south leads to Florida - exclusively. Nobody objects to those claims because they are simply true and there is no better alternative. Exclusivity only becomes a problem when it shuts out a different and better way. The question the sermon was building toward was whether Jesus is, in fact, the only and best way.

To answer that question, Pastor Matthew moved to Acts 3 and 4. Peter and John, walking to the temple in Jerusalem, encounter a man who has been crippled from birth. He has spent his life begging at the gate. Peter stops, tells him plainly that he has no silver or gold, and then speaks healing over him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The man leaps to his feet.

The miracle draws a crowd. Peter addresses them, making clear that the healing did not come from him or John - it came from Jesus, the same Jesus the crowd had rejected and crucified, the same Jesus God raised from the dead. The same Jesus whose power was now standing a formerly crippled man on his feet in front of all of them.

The religious leaders had Peter and John arrested. The next morning, they demanded an explanation. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, gave them one - directly and without hesitation. It was Jesus. The stone the builders rejected had become the cornerstone. And then the line that became the anchor of the entire sermon: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

The sermon closed with the question Pastor Matthew had been building toward the entire time. Is Jesus the only and best way? He answered it not with argument alone but with witness. The disciples who stood before the religious leaders that morning were the same men who had spent three years with Jesus. They had watched him serve. They had watched him heal. They had watched him die. And they had watched him come back to life - touched his hands, seen his wounds, spoken with him.

These were not men protecting a system or holding onto power. They were men who had seen something real and could not stop talking about it, even when threatened with death. And most of them died for it.

Pastor Matthew's closing appeal was both clear and open-handed. The way is exclusive. That is simply what Jesus declared, what his disciples confirmed, and what Christians believe. But the invitation attached to that exclusive way belongs to everyone - regardless of background, history, family, nationality, or education. No one earns it. No one qualifies for it on their own. It is offered to anyone willing to trust Jesus and surrender their life to him.
That, Pastor Matthew said, is not arrogance. That is the most generous offer ever made.

The Tree Church is a multi-campus church with locations in Lancaster, Ohio and Logan, Ohio, gathering every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. Whether you are exploring faith for the first time or looking for a church home in the Lancaster or Logan area, you are welcome here.

Learn more and plan your visit at thetreechurch.com.

"It is everything it claims to be. It's human. It's this human document that has this divine inspiration to it." - Pastor Chris Reed

For many people, the journey of faith does not fall apart because of a single dramatic moment. It unravels slowly, often through questions about the Bible itself. Questions about its reliability, its history, its apparent contradictions, and the ways it has been used to harm people can quietly erode a person's confidence in scripture long before they ever use the word deconstruction.

In this episode of The Branch Podcast, Pastors Matthew Johnson, Chris Reed, and Anthony Lombardi sit down to address those questions directly. As part of the ongoing Reconstruct series, the conversation works through five common tensions people bring to scripture and five personal distorters that shape the way people read it. What makes this conversation different is who is having it. All three pastors describe themselves as skeptics. None of them arrived at their convictions without doing the hard intellectual and spiritual work of wrestling with these questions personally.

One of the most clarifying moments in the episode comes when Pastor Chris Reed reflects on what his graduate studies revealed about how scripture was formed. Learning about the human processes behind the Bible - how it took shape over centuries, how manuscripts were copied and transmitted, how the canon was confirmed - was, as he describes it, unsettling at first.

But that process led him somewhere important. Rather than undermining his confidence in scripture, it gave him a more honest and durable framework for understanding what the Bible actually is. It is not a document that fell from heaven in its final form. It is a human document shaped by human history, language, and culture - and it carries within it the divine inspiration of God.

Pastor Anthony Lombardi makes a similar point when he describes what he calls the condescension of God. Because God is infinite and humanity is finite and time-bound, God consistently steps into human context to make himself known. He uses human language. He works within human culture. The Bible is, in that sense, exactly what God intended it to be - a revelation of himself delivered through the means his people could receive and understand.

Pastor Anthony Lombardi recaps the Sunday message that prompted this episode, walking through several of the most common reasons people struggle to trust the Bible.

The first is the reality that Christians have used the same Bible to justify vastly different beliefs and behaviors - including racism, abuse, and the defense of slavery. Pastor Anthony Lombardi is clear that this is a genuine problem, rooted in the fact that every reader brings a cultural lens to the text. The answer is not to abandon the effort of interpretation but to do the hard work of understanding what the original authors intended and what the overall narrative of scripture reveals about the heart of God. Lazy interpretation has caused enormous harm throughout history. Careful, humble, community-shaped interpretation is what the text requires.

The second tension involves cultural practices in scripture that appear immoral or outdated. Here, Pastor Anthony Lombardi points to what theologians call progressive revelation - the idea that God has been working within broken human cultures across history, not endorsing every cultural norm he worked within, but consistently pointing toward his design for human flourishing. The trajectory of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals a God who is always moving toward restoration.

The third tension is one Pastor Chris Reed addresses with striking honesty. He acknowledges directly that the Bible has, in fact, been changed over time - that textual variants exist, that manuscripts differ, and that translations have been adjusted as earlier documents have been discovered. But the key point is that none of these changes touch the theological core of the faith. Scholars estimate approximately 99% accuracy of the original manuscripts, and every significant variant is documented in the footnotes of responsible translations. The same God who inspired scripture has also overseen its preservation.

The fourth tension - the apparent difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament - is one Pastor Anthony Lombardi calls a widely assumed but ultimately unsupported idea. Read carefully and completely, the Old Testament reveals a God of remarkable patience. Pastor Matthew Johnson adds that even the exile of Israel, often cited as evidence of divine harshness, was a measured and merciful response to 490 years of repeated rebellion. The God who disciplines in love throughout the Old Testament is the same God who invites repentance and offers forgiveness in the New.

The fifth tension concerns apparent conflicts between scripture and science or history. Pastor Anthony Lombardi's response is direct: the Bible was not written to answer the questions modern readers bring to it. It is not a science textbook. It is not a history book. It is primarily a book of theology - God revealing himself, his character, and his purposes to the world. When readers demand that scripture answer questions it was never intended to address, confusion is the predictable result.

The second half of the conversation turns from common objections to personal distorters - lenses through which people read the Bible that have less to do with the text itself and more to do with the reader.

Pastor Chris Reed speaks to the distorting effect of personal pain, church hurt, and disappointment. His insight is precise: people often go to the Bible looking for intellectual answers to emotional wounds, and when those answers do not satisfy, they conclude the Bible has failed them. The real need, he suggests, is emotional healing alongside intellectual understanding. The Bible does not always provide the silver bullet verse for a person's specific pain, but it consistently confirms that the pain is real, that God is present in it, and that he will one day bring it to an end.

Pastor Anthony Lombardi addresses the distorting effect of modern culture. Every person reads scripture through a lens shaped by family, ethnicity, nationality, and lived experience. The danger comes when that cultural lens becomes the standard by which God himself is judged. When a reader decides that the Bible is acceptable only where it agrees with their existing moral framework, they have effectively placed themselves in the position of highest authority. Scripture, Pastor Anthony Lombardi argues, is meant to shape culture - not the other way around.

The third distorter is rebellion - the simple human resistance to being told what to do. Pastor Matthew Johnson connects this to Judges 21:25, where everyone doing what is right in their own eyes leads not to freedom but to chaos. The distorter here is not primarily intellectual. It is a posture of the heart.

The fourth distorter is social media and shallow information. Pastor Anthony Lombardi draws a pointed distinction between sincere doubters who genuinely want to engage with hard questions and people who have adopted lazy intellectual arguments without examining them. TikTok clips and social media posts that claim the Bible has been corrupted beyond recognition are not evidence. They are noise. And mistaking noise for evidence prevents the kind of serious engagement that could actually lead somewhere.

The fifth distorter is the failure of Christian representatives. Pastor Anthony Lombardi's point here is one of the most important in the episode. People's choices do not equal God's intent. The hypocrisy, legalism, and abuse that have characterized some expressions of Christianity throughout history are not what Jesus taught, and they are not what scripture endorses. In fact, Jesus himself confronted the religious leaders of his day for precisely these failures. The same people that skeptics point to as reasons to reject the Bible - Jesus pointed to as well.

What holds the entire conversation together is the posture all three pastors share. Pastor Anthony Lombardi describes an encounter with Jesus that preceded his intellectual investigation of scripture - and then a determination to follow the evidence wherever it led, without assuming the conclusion in advance. Pastor Chris Reed describes a graduate-level education that raised more questions than it answered, and a faith that grew more honest and more resilient through the process.

Pastor Matthew Johnson puts it this way: his faith is not ultimately founded on the Bible. It is founded on a personal relationship with Jesus. The Bible is not the source of salvation. Christ crucified and risen is. The Bible is the record and the revelation of that reality, and it is a trustworthy one - but the center of faith is the person of Jesus, not the document alone.
For anyone who has found themselves asking whether the Bible can actually be trusted, this conversation is an honest and substantive place to begin.

If this conversation has stirred something in you and you are looking for a community where questions are welcomed, and faith is explored with honesty and depth, The Tree Church would love to have you.

The Tree Church gathers every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at two locations in central Ohio. Whether you are in the Lancaster area or closer to Logan, there is a campus near you.

• Lancaster Campus: 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130, USA
• Logan Campus: 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138, USA

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: John 10:7–10

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Jesus declares Himself not just as a way, but as the door to abundant life. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy—offering counterfeits that promise fulfillment but deliver emptiness. Christ offers something radically different: life to the fullest. This isn't merely existence, but a richness of purpose, peace, and eternal hope. Today, reflect on areas where you've settled for less than God's abundance. Are you pursuing life through other "doors"—success, relationships, comfort—only to find yourself depleted? Jesus stands as the exclusive entrance because He alone provides what your soul truly needs. Surrender your pursuit of counterfeits and walk through the door that leads to genuine, overflowing life.

What "thieves" have been stealing your joy and distracting you from abundant life in Christ?

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask Jesus to reveal anything stealing your peace or distracting you from the fullness of life found in Him.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one area where you’ve been seeking fulfillment outside of Christ and intentionally surrender it to God.
2. Replace one unhealthy distraction this week with intentional time in prayer, worship, or Scripture.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Romans 6:20-23

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Our world is broken. Sin's wages are death, but God's gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ. This is the big picture: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. At the cross, we see both God's justice against sin and His mercy toward sinners—mysteries that our finite minds cannot fully reconcile. You may encounter passages that confuse or frustrate you. You might not understand every detail of God's ways or your own experiences. But you can trust the God who loved you enough to die for you. Progressive revelation means God unfolds His truth over time, with Jesus as the ultimate clarity. Today, surrender your need to understand everything. Instead, fix your eyes on the cross—where God's character is most clearly displayed.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask God to help you trust Him in the areas where you lack understanding and to anchor your faith in the truth of the cross.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Surrender one unanswered question or frustration to God in prayer today.
2. Spend time reflecting on the cross and remind yourself of what it reveals about God’s love, justice, and mercy.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Luke 4:14-21

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Jesus announced His mission: proclaiming good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and liberation for the oppressed. This is Scripture's ultimate purpose—not to control or harm, but to heal and restore. Yes, the Bible has been misused to justify terrible things, but that reflects human sin, not God's intent. The same Scriptures that hypocrites twisted were also the foundation for hospitals, schools, abolition, and civil rights movements. Jesus Himself rebuked those who weaponized Scripture while missing its heart. Today, examine how you're using God's Word. Are you wielding it as a weapon to judge others, or as medicine to bring healing? Let Christ's compassionate mission shape your interpretation.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Ask Jesus to help you reflect His heart by using Scripture to bring healing, truth, and hope to others.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Evaluate how you typically use Scripture—ask yourself if it is drawing people toward grace and truth.
2. Share an encouraging or life-giving Scripture with someone who may need hope this week.

"God cares about the little details of our lives. God cares about the big things, the small things. And that really encourages me." - Pastor Stacey Crawford

There are moments in scripture that feel ordinary on the surface. A woman walks into a field. A landowner arrives to check on his workers. A foreman gives a brief report. And yet underneath the simplicity of those details, something far larger is taking shape. In Ruth 2:1-7, the story of Ruth and Naomi takes a turn that will change everything - and it begins with a single step into a grain field that Ruth had no particular reason to choose.

In this episode of the Tree Church Bible Study, Pastors Stacey Crawford, Matthew Johnson, and Chris Reed continue their verse-by-verse study of the book of Ruth, introducing Boaz and exploring what his arrival in the story reveals about God's character, God's provision, and God's quiet but unmistakable presence in the details of everyday life.

The episode opens with the introduction of one of the most important figures in the entire book. Ruth 2:1 describes Boaz as a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem - and a relative of Naomi's late husband. Pastor Chris noted that the name Boaz carries a degree of ambiguity in the original Hebrew. It points toward strength, status, and influence, but leaves the specific nature of that status open. Is he physically powerful? Wealthy? Morally upright? The answer, as the text unfolds, turns out to be all of the above - but the writer of Ruth is not simply handing that to the reader. The question being raised from the very first verse of this chapter is whether Boaz will live up to his name.

Pastor Chris also connected Boaz to the period of the judges, noting that commentaries tie his lineage to that era of great warriors and leaders. But what stood out most in the conversation was the detail Pastor Stacey surfaced about his mother. Boaz was the son of Rahab - the woman from Jericho who hid the Israelite spies and whose faith led to her rescue and welcome into God's people. That background matters. Boaz did not come from a purely privileged line. He came from a woman who was an outsider, who was consistently referred to throughout scripture by a label that defined her past rather than her future, and who nonetheless became part of the lineage of Christ.

Pastor Matthew reflected on what that pattern reveals. God does not require people to be born into the right circumstances in order to use them. Anyone who is open, anyone who trusts, can be taken into God's story and used redemptively. Rahab's story sets the stage for Ruth's story. And both of them, in different ways, point forward to something much larger.

Before Ruth can encounter Boaz directly, she has to get to his field. And the way she gets there involves a practice that modern readers might find surprising. In Ruth 2:2, Ruth asks Naomi if she can go into the harvest fields to pick up grain left behind by the harvesters. Naomi gives her blessing, and Ruth goes.

Pastor Matthew took time to explain what gleaning actually was and why it mattered. In an agricultural society, God had commanded landowners not to harvest their fields completely. The edges of the field and whatever the harvesters left behind were to remain - not simply as charity handed out to those in need, but as a system that allowed the poor, the widowed, and the vulnerable to come and work for their own provision. The dignity of that distinction is significant. Gleaning was not a handout. It was an invitation to participate, to work, to gather what God had built into the system for exactly that purpose.

Pastor Matthew connected this to the broader principle of first fruits - the idea that surrendering a portion of what you have in faith is not a loss but an act of trust that invites God's blessing on the remainder. For a community just emerging from a famine, leaving the edges of a field unharvested was a genuinely costly act. And yet it was exactly what God had asked. Pastor Chris added that gleaning did not just meet a physical need. It restored dignity to people who had no other means of caring for themselves. Ruth and Naomi were not recipients of someone else's leftovers. They were participants in a God-designed system of provision.

Ruth 2:3 contains a phrase that the pastors returned to more than once during the conversation. The NLT reads that Ruth "found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz." The language feels almost casual - as it happened, she ended up there. But Pastor Matthew was clear that the text is not describing coincidence. It is describing providence.

Ruth had made a genuine commitment in the previous chapter. She had told Naomi that Naomi's people would be her people and Naomi's God would be her God. That was not a casual statement. It was a conversion - a genuine turning toward the God of Israel. And from that point on, the story shows God quietly guiding her steps. She did not know whose field she was entering. She did not know that Boaz was a relative of Naomi's husband or that his arrival in her life would change the entire trajectory of her story. She simply walked in faithfulness and found herself exactly where God intended her to be.

Pastor Chris framed it this way - throughout the story of Ruth, God is always underlying everything. He is not speaking through prophets in this narrative. He is not appearing in visions or performing visible miracles. And yet you cannot read the story without seeing his hand at work in every detail. The characters who act in godly ways are representing God in those moments. Ruth's faithfulness reflects God's faithfulness. Boaz's generosity will reflect God's generosity. The story is a picture of how God moves through ordinary people living ordinary days when they choose to honor him.

Pastor Stacey noted how much that truth encourages her personally. God knows how many hairs are on your head. He knows the person you need at the right time and the words you need in the right moment. The same God who led Ruth to Boaz's field without her knowing it is the same God who is present in the details of every life that is oriented toward him.

The conversation naturally turned personal as the pastors reflected on moments in their own lives where the phrase "as it happened" could just as easily apply. Pastor Chris described how he came to be in Lancaster at all - through his marriage to Cassie, which brought him to a city he otherwise would never have lived in. He also mentioned a season when he and his wife were prepared to move away and their house sat on the market for an entire year without a single showing. At the time it felt like an obstacle. Looking back, it reads like God keeping him exactly where he was supposed to be.


Pastor Matthew shared a similar reflection. His presence in Lancaster traces back through a chain of relationships that he could not have engineered on his own. And what both pastors pointed to was not a sense of everything always going smoothly, but rather the peace that comes from knowing God can redeem even the detours. There have been seasons of walking in the wrong direction, of making decisions without seeking God first. What scripture consistently shows, Pastor Matthew said, is that God is gracious enough to redeem even those moments. He might have stepped off what was best for him, but God redeems it. That is what stories like Ruth's make plain.

Pastor Stacey reflected on her own journey - meeting her husband online, moving to the Logan area, joining the Tree Church as a volunteer, eventually coming on staff, and being led into pastoral ministry through a series of steps that, taken individually, each seemed small. Together they add up to something she could not have planned. Psalm 139, which Pastor Chris referenced during the conversation, puts language to that experience - God not only forms us but forms our days, creating us for a specific calling and creating specific moments for us to walk into.

Before closing, Pastor Matthew offered a brief but meaningful encouragement directed specifically at anyone who is single and hoping for a godly relationship. The story of Ruth and Boaz, he suggested, is a genuinely good passage for that season of life. Ruth did not pursue Boaz. She honored God in her lifestyle, trusted him with her situation, and found herself in the right place at the right time. Pastor Matthew's encouragement was simple - if you want God to bring a godly person into your life, then be godly. Honor God. Live in a way that makes it so that God would joyfully bring someone he loves to you, and you to them.

What Ruth 2:1-7 ultimately shows is that faithfulness is never wasted. Ruth did not know what her decision to follow Naomi would lead to. She did not know that a single morning of walking into a field to gather leftover grain would become the beginning of a story that would bless generations. She simply did the next faithful thing. And God, who is always working even when he is not visibly present in the narrative, was already several steps ahead.

That is the invitation the book of Ruth extends to every reader. You may not be able to see what God is doing in your current season. The details may feel random or the circumstances may feel discouraging. But for the person of faith, "as it happened" is never the whole story. Behind it, always, is a God who cares about the big things and the small things - and who is quietly, purposefully at work in both.

The Tree Church meets every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at two Ohio locations - one in Lancaster and one in Logan. If you are looking for a church in Lancaster, Ohio or a church in Logan, Ohio where you can ask real questions, study scripture together, and grow in genuine community, we would love to have you join us.

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