29 January 2012

Topic: Love Story of Ruth in Devotional Perspective

Pastor Gabriel shares about a testimonial on a young man who turned to Jesus by going to church instead of leading a life of gangster-hood. Pastor Prince said as long as you give God a chance, He will change things.

Romans 6:14
Once you are under grace, sin does not have dominance over you.

Grace brings you many of God's blessings. It does not promote you to do bad. There are always people who de-promotes grace.

What is the difference between a righteous man and a man?
God did not ordain for man to be free from failures. A righteous man falls but he still gets up. Because of His grace, we can still boast of His greatness. We do not have to be ashamed of ourselves.

A blessed man is always depicted a tree planted in the still waters in the bible. That's how God sees us. He sees us according to the perfection work of Jesus Christ and He never will see our sins greater than His work.

Naomi is a picture of ancient Israel. It talks about a story of many tragedies when she went out of Israel.

Ruth is the modern day Jordan as she is not a Jew (origin: Moabite). She asked not to be called to leave.
Many accounts were against her. She's not a Jew, married and not a virgin, a widow and she also brought along her dead husband's mother.

In bible context, Ruth represents us and the church who were once sinners. She married Boaz, who is represented as a strong man, "in Him is strength", like our heavenly Jesus.

Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God. Do you really believe His word?
God know us because He made us.

We believe in rest because we Christians live a life of rest. God created things by rest. Rest is not when you are resting but with your mind full of worries.

John 6:26-27
Verse 27: God is actually telling us to labour His word.

Pastor shares that when he spends time with God's words, his day is better than days where he does not have time to do so. Many of times when he did, he gets idea for difficult situations.
Jesus himself said that Mary did the right, to listen and spend time with God. You can also do the same by reading His word.

Pastor promotes daily devotional as an example of spending time with God. This devotional idea actually came from Israel. They have a Torah which Israelis will read during the Sabbath.
Modern day Israel does this once a week. Today if you buy a calendar from Israel, it already has readings written for them.

When you are attacked, God will cause you to win back more "land" than you had before. Just like how Israel was attacked on their holiest day, Israel won back more land than before the war.

Pastor shared about the 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster in Israel. Two helicopters' tail hit each other causing a fatal crash. A total of 73 people died in this tragedy. This was prophesied in the bible.
Isaiah 7:3-4
Verse 3: Shear-jashub (Isaiah was actually referring to his son but this was the actual place of the accident)
Verse 4: "Two tails of these smoking firebrands".
Look at the verse above, God actually foresaw the future to prepare Israel from the attack and to give words of comfort. Look at chapter 7 verse 3 which reflected the 73 who died.

The law of kinsman. To be one, he needs to be a relative of the family.
This law is represented by Jesus coming down as a man and His word became flesh. He is able to provide and has shown to us He can supply and still have 12 basketful leftovers.

Ruth 2:1-3
Verse 2: Talks about Ruth wanting to go to the fields to find Jesus.
When you come to Him (his fields), what do you want to find? Go to the bible to find the person who provides. He meets us in this book, Pastor points to the bible.

Ruth 2:4-14
Verse 4: "Reaper" is not a "gleaner".
Flip to Leviticus 23:22 to confirm this is true. The Lord says those that are overlooked, leave it to the poor and the non-jews. Therefore, do not be like the kiasu.

Verse 5: Notice the servant is not named. It refers to the holy spirit. The ministry always points to Jesus.

In the verses above, it relates the church as a field, the pastors are the reapers and we the gleaners. You may say "But Pastor, I just understand bit and pieces of your sermon". Pastor says it's ok, take the bit and pieces that nourishes you back home with you.

You may be so hungry for food and keep wanting to eat, sometimes we actually mistook this hunger for the hunger for Christ. We are made in His breath and we contantly hunger for Him. Only words that are eternal are able to satisfy us.

Verse 8: We are the bride of Christ. Boaz told Ruth not to glean from another field. Just like the devil leading one to smoke to worry-free life, drinking to end sorrows.

Pastor shares about meeting some people and noticed many people identify themselves as what they do. It's a sign of insecurity. What you do is not what you are. Yes you may be a CEO but who you really are? So who are you when you are retrenched?

When you read the bible, you will see your heavenly Boaz. He sure brings you to the living waters. The Lord tells you not to work and just to drink from the waters shown in verse 9.

Verse 10: Now talks about Ruth confessing favour.

Joke:
A man and a woman had a big quarrel. The man says "I don't know why you are so pretty yet so dumb". The woman answered, "God made me pretty so that you will marry me and made me dumb so that I will marry you!".

Pastor asked if God remembers your bad or good? Look at verse 11. Every part Boaz said about Ruth is good. He sees your good and beauty that no one sees it. But what did Ruth do? She just took refuge. Look how good is our God.

Verse 12: The moment you trust Him and the moment you go to Him for refuge, He rewards you! You can be rewarded for taking refuge in Him! When you have a skill, you use it for God, then He bless and rewards you for the gift He first have to you.

Verse 13: "Spoken kindly" means speaking to heart in greek.

Is that all from God? Look to next verse.
Verse 14: Jesus says come near, eat the bread in the vinegar - sour wine. Notice it is the holy communion. He presents you a table before your enemies (heart problems, whatever the name).
"Parched grain" is rich man's food. Back then only the rich ate wheat. Love is giving us the best. Ruth ate till satisfied.
"Kept some back". When the Lord feeds you, there will always be some left for you.

This reminds Pastor of the story of the prodigal son. What made the son come back? After his money ran out.
Look to Luke 15:17. In the father's house, there is bread enough (sufficient to meet our needs) and to spare (plenty left to meet the needs of others)

You read the daily devotional (the reaper) and you glean from it and it brings you to the master (Jesus). There will be a place where He feeds you.

Many of times where you are trying to rid a habit, do you notice it worsens? You may be shy and am trying to speak to a big congregation and find it hard. Pastor says not to try. Instead look to the bible and look for Jesus. While reading and experiencing Him, He will transform you. Just like how Pastor overcame his shyness. He did not even know he was changing while doing so because Jesus transforms you from glory to glory.

Verse 15: Boaz told the young man to allow Ruth to glean from the sheaves and not to reproach her. In the past this was only allowed in the fields. Yet he allowed Ruth to do so.
Verse 16: Boaz asked for the grains to fall purposely for her. See how great our Father is. Notice each time you spend time with Him, His grace still falls on you. It literally means "everyday falls purposely for you!"

Verse 18: Ruth gave those parched grains she kept back.
Verse 19: Then Naomi, the mother-in-law asked how did she get so much today? Then Ruth told her it was Boaz (Yeshua).

Pastor then shares with the church that they always set aside donations to Israel as a act of honoring the mother-in-law.

Verse 20: The people in the bible always praised the Lord for everything. We should learn and be daring enough to say "Praise God" to our friends whenever something great happens. Why be afraid to say that when your friends can easily use vulgarities at you? Be a man. Don't be like an ordinary stone like the world. Be different.

In closing,
Back to verse 20, "one of our close relatives" refers to go'el - kinsman redeemer. It means to buy you back. What was the price He paid? He died for you to redeem you. Look how precious you are. He loves you, He delights in you.