Psalm 107 (21-43)

V 23 - 29

Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters.

Anybody who is on a ship, or who went on a cruise trip knows how it feels like being in the middle of the Ocean.

The waves in the ocean tosses high.It will be fearful.
And guess what! if there is a storm, the effects of the waves will be enormous.

2004 Tsunami highest wave recorded is 100 ft. 

Storms they do come. Not just the storms in oceans,  but even in believers lives, storms come. 
and how do you get deliverance from these storm is 

V 28,29
28 Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.
29 He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.

V 20.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions. 
Your healing comes from the Words that proceeds out of God.

When you are in a storm, it is the Word of God that heals and delivers.

V 33-35

33 He turns rivers into a wilderness,
And the watersprings into dry ground;
34 A fruitful land into barrenness,
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 He turns a wilderness into pools of water,
And dry land into watersprings.


What kind of land is Sodom? Plains, Well Watered.

Genesis 13:
10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. 


Genesis 18:23 - 25


23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

If there is wickedness, God destroys the place.
But first He looks if there is any righteous. God has placed each one of us in different families,  workplaces, and churches. And because we are righteous of God, that family should be blessed, Because of us the Work place should be blessed.

1 Peter 2:9New King James Version (NKJV)

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Psalm 107 - (1-20)

Psalm 107

V 4:
Sin:  They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way;
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,

Chorus:
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

V 11
11 Sin:  Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And despised the counsel of the Most High,

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.

Chorus:
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

Sin:
Fools, because of their transgression,
And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 
19 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.

Chorus:
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

When we see the pattern here.

The Israelite's committed sin and were afflicted and then they cry out to God and God rescued them.


Time and again they committed one sin after another.

1. Rebellion against Word of God.
2. Transgression and Iniquities

Why do we commit these sins again and again.
The root of any sin is : Independence from God.

Lets look at Genesis 1:26

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[b] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 

V 26: God gave to man the authority  over fish, birds, cattle, creeping thing.
They were not afraid of anything.

Today if we see a serpent here, what will you do. you might jump, cry or do all sorts of things. But Eve was not like that. she was speaking to serpent directly face to face. Authority . Where did that authority come from. Dependence on God.

Were they working hard for food? No, God has given every herb. It is only after they were out of the garden - they started working for their food. Till then they were just receiving- Dependence on God.

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
They were naked - there was no ashamed - 

Shamefulness - comes from knowing about what is good and evil.

Now lets go to turning point in the history of man

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Knowing about good and evil:  Independence from God
This food is good for me. 
It will make me wise.
It was pleasant to the eyes.

The moment you are independent from God - with your own knowledge of good and evil.

You will start working things on your own, You will be ashamed. 

As i shared before, i am like a person who goes to God only when it really matters.
I mean if there is headache, cold, i wont depend on God. Why to disturb God even for cold. Then if turns out to be something big, Then i will cry out and say God - Its time You step in. This is going out of my hand.

But your Faith in God starts from depending on God for the smallest of things.
Adam and Eve, for food, for authority - for everything in their life they depended on God.

My mother-in-law, if you speak to her- 
if you ask her, how are you - she will say - Gods grace- i am good.
Aunty the curry is good - she will say its just Gods grace.
Initially i used to think why she always ends with Gods grace.
And when i asked her, her pastor taught her that anything in her life is by Gods grace only. 

Romans 6:14
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Law is about knowing good and evil.
But Grace is all about receiving from God.

The key to live under this grace if 
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Bride of Christ - Part 2 (Ruth)

Body of Christ - Be Alert all the times.
Luke 21: 34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 

Songs of Solomon 5:2
I was asleep but my heart was awake.

I have experienced both.
When you are filled with Word of God and are filled with Holy Spirit , we will not be weighed down with worldliness.

Spirit of Bride of Christ.

1 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-lawgoodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,if even death separates you and me.”

Oprah went - Oprah also liked Naomi, but it is not about liking, but it is about yielding to Will of God.

Thats what the Spirit of Bride of Christ is:

Your people are my people.

Its not about from which region, language, but its about those who do the will of God.

Lots example: If  Lot had stayed with Abraham saying I dont care about my flock, servants, your people are my people, the story would have been different.

Be in the company of the Righteous.

Hebrews 10:25  Don't miss out meeting as 

When Elizah told Elisah , 

1 Kings 2: 2,3,6

2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel.”

But Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

Elijah told Elisha to stay -- but Elisha followed. It is the same spirit in Ruth

Jesus said in Matthew 12:48-50

48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Zealous love for God.

18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

One thing that God always look for in the Bride of Christ is the zealous love for 

God. 

In Revelation He says , you do all things, but where is the Love.

Your Zealousy for God is counted as righteousness.

Numbers 25:

6 Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehasson of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped;

10 The Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal.

Zealousy is because you honor God.

You do things because you honor God and not do things just like that.

Songs of Solomon 2:13
Darling,

Unity

It is for the unity sake that God called us as Body.
The story relates that long before the Beit Hamikdash was built, two brothers lived and farmed on that site. One was married and had a large family, while the other was single. They lived in close proximity to each other, and each worked his land growing wheat. When harvest time arrived, each was blessed with a bountiful crop and piled up his grain for long-term storage. The unmarried brother, observing his good fortune, thought to himself that God had blessed him with more than he needed, whereas his brother, who was blessed with a large family, could surely use more. He arose in the middle of the night and secretly took from his grain and put it in his brother’s pile. Similarly, the married brother thought to himself that he was fortunate to have children who will care for him in his old age, while his brother will depend on what he saved. He, too, arose in the middle of the night and quietly transferred grain from his pile to his brother’s. In the morning, each pondered why there was no noticeable decrease in his own pile, and so they repeated the transfer the next night. These nocturnal activities went on for several nights, until one night the brothers bumped into each other. In that instant, in the dark of night, the glow of brotherly love lit up the mountain sky; they each understood what the other had been doing and fell into each other’s arms in a loving embrace. 

Team play.

Consider others as better than ourselves Phillipians 2:3

Hebrews 11:40
God wants Body of Christ.