Psalms 103:1-13
(Basic outline is
not my original but adopted and modified)


Psalm 103:1-5 give us a basis to think of 5 kernels to praise God for.
1. The Forgiveness Kernel
Verse 3 (a) who forgives all your sins
We are reminded that our sins are forgiven at the time of accepting the Lord into our hearts.
From this verse we understand that we are forgiven on a daily basis.
God forgives all our sins whenever we seek HIS forgiveness for the sins committed.
Forgiveness is the promise of the Father and provided by our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The Healing Kernel
Verse 3 (b) who heals all your diseases
It is hard to understand that God heals all our diseases when we have so much pain and suffering around us.
God does not heal all our diseases.
So what does this mean?
All recovery from sickness or injury or surgery is the result of God’s healing process.
The focus is not much on the physical but on the spiritual being of the person.
God the Father cleanses purges and purifies our soul from all diseases.
Healing is a part of salvation God designed in HIS infinite plan.
3. The Redemption Kernel
4 (a) who redeems your life from the pit
He gave His very life to redeem the human soul from the pit of hell.
The Lord not only saved our souls from hell, but also redeems our lives from the clutches of the devil. 
Satan is always looking for the redeemed and finding opportunities to destroy our lives.
4. The Love and Compassion Kernel
Verse 4 (b) and crowns you with love and compassion
Always the Lord’s loving kindness and tender mercies accompany our lives every day.
God’s love and compassion has no boundaries or limits.
God is compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.
5. The Satisfaction and Renewal Kernel 
Verse 5: “…who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
As long as we draw from the living water of our Lord Jesus, we will grow strong.
We blossom like a beautiful flower with full of fragrance as the days and years go by.
God also will renew our youth like the eagles.
The eagle is known for three things: size, strength, and longevity. 
Even in our spiritual life these three things reflect as a result of living a fulfilled, satisfied, spiritual life.
So we are constantly being renewed, refreshed, and revived in our soul as the HOLY SPIRIT works in each and everyone’s life daily.
So let us say, “Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—“

 

Luke 17:11-19
Lord Jesus heals ten men of leprosy and only one returned to thank Him. 
In this healing miracle we can learn some valuable spiritual principles.
In ancient times, leprosy was terminal and was attributed to some curse of God.
That person becomes an outcast and had to live outside of the community till death.
There was no cure for leprosy in those days.
For all purposes Lepers were beggars and “walking dead” people.
1. THEIR CRY FOR MERCY
First three verses we observe how ten lepers cry out for mercy from a distance.
Because they heard about the healing miracles the Lord had performed.
They cannot come close to people because they are outcasts in society.
They are suffering with a physical leprosy where as many today suffer with spiritual leprosy.
Many do not admit that they have a leprosy called sin in their heart.
For them the message of the Gospel seems to be ridiculous and ludicrous.
2. THEY STEPPED OUT IN FAITH
Verse 14 tells us that the Lord never used the word healing but asked them to show to the priest.
Leviticus 13 has some very detailed regulations about how a Jewish priest could declare a person to be clean or unclean. 
These lepers knew what it means to show it to the priest.
That means to be declared as clean from leprosy.
They simply obeyed HIS words and never doubted nor questioned HIM.
They stepped out in faith and proceeded towards the temple.
They faced a moment of crisis in their faith.
As they were going, they were healed.
That’s the way faith works. 
Faith is obeying and trusting God and walking on the Word of God.
3. ONLY ONE CAME BACK TO THANK
But we know from the Lord’s response only one of them did the right thing. 
He turned and ran back to Lord Jesus and fell at His feet to give Him thanks.
He wanted to thank the Lord for his healing before he goes to the priest to be declared as clean.
Falling at the Lord’s feet is a picture of submission and worship.
What a way to express his gratitude and thanks.
4. WHO CAME BACK TO THANK WAS A FOREIGNER
All the ten men were exposed to God’s healing power, but only one sought a personal relationship with Him.
Nine of the men were content to receive the blessing of God, but only one of them had the deisre to turn back to the source of the blessing to express his thanks and worship God.
God’s blessings are poured out on everyone. 
Lord Jesus said God makes it rain on the just and unjust alike.
But only few people do return to God with grateful hearts.
Lord Jesus pointed out that the one man who returned was a Samaritan–a foreigner.
We as believers in the Lord are always in the minority about the way we act and think.
We can never feel at home in this world, and we shouldn’t.
We are always citizens of heaven and so travelers thru this world.
A REAL RELATIONSHIP WITH LORD JESUS MAKES US A FOREIGNER
19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
The word means to “be made complete or whole.” 
Lord Jesus didn’t come to earth to heal people of diseases but to seek and to save the lost. 
He came to make people whole again and to cure the leprosy of sin in human heart
Those of us who are cured of the spiritual leprosy let us be thankful to the LORD always for this wonderful gift of salvation.
Those who are still rejecting the Gospel message, may hearng the compelling voice of the Lord to come to HIM to be cured permanently.


 

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15
The Book of Ecclesiastes represents a human struggle to find meaning in ife.
Even our limited view of human life we conclude that God has created an ordered and
beautiful universe we call it planet earth.
Remember God controls the creator order and He alone orchestrates the events.
A uman cannot discover the purpose of his or her life apart from God.
Those who think they know everything is sadly mistaken and deceived. It is the discovery of faith in the Creator provides handles to this life on earth.
I. LIFE WITHOUT  GOD
No matter how good or big life can become to an individual, it boils down to one hard fact.
The present American life reflects money syndrome, work to spend, spend to work.
For many especially the youth feel life is boring.
Surprisingly God designed it that way.
No matter how much we have in life, we are not satisfied.
No matter how much knowledge we have, we still act like stupid.
You know why, God has created a vacuum in every human heart that triggers these feelings.
Nothing satisfies a person because of this vacuum in heart.
Because only God can fill that vacuum
People without God are living a profitless, purposeless, boring existence.
So the Wiseman says it profits nothing or it has no gain.
So it isa big ZERO without God in one’s life.
We need to learn to live contently and let God control His world.
II. LIFE WITH GOD
Life with God is always reflected in simple pleasures as gifts of God.
When God steps into a person’s life HE changes  everything.
From sheer boredom to excitement, meaningless to meaning, directionless to direction and despair to deliverance
The only people who really enjoy life ever moment are believers. WHY?
Only God grants us HIS favor to possess an attitude and outlook and hope regardless of our circumstances in ife.
III. LIFE IN GOD
King Solomon varied between frustration and faith.
In the midst of all his philosophical pursuits and scheme of things, Solomon had come to this conclusion that always God is in charge and what HE does is right.
We learn to wait to realize the purpose and will of God in our ife.
Life in God is supernatural power not a force imited to this time frame.
John 15:4-6, 10-11
These few verses explain everything a believer has to abide by.
We have to be in Christ so that our joy in this life is complete.
A BELIEVER IN THE Lord should never think that life is boring and monotonous.
It can be exciting, enjoyable and entertaining as long as we live in HIM and for HIM.


 

Ephesians 2:1-10
Multitude of people live their lives under old management which is the world we live in.
But a believer in the Lord lives under new management.
The truth is that all who are forgiven sinners, saved by HIS grace come under new management.
Anybody who never accepted the Lord as Lord and Savior is under old management.
The old management of this world is always ruled by Satan.
When we come under HIS grace and mercy, we come under His new management and His Lordship and we become God’s handiwork.
Apostle Paul writes these powerful words for the benefit of the Ephesian Church.
THE DARKNESS OF OUR PAST
First three verses Paul remind clearly our past life before we accepted the Lord.
We all have different kinds of past lives from which we became believers.
But everyone was under old management of Satan.
Our past was so dreadful, dark and doomed.
THE BRIGHTNESS OF OUR PRESENT
Apostle Paul says we are now under new management now.
Under new management some things change.
Once we were dead in sin, now we are alive with Christ.
God loved us so much and showed His mercy and by His grace we are saved from sin.
Not only that God raised us up with Christ and seated us with HIM in haven.
Verse 8 important: It is purely the gift of God.
THE PURPOSE OF OUR  PRESENT
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Paul says we have been re-created "for good works." 
The emphasis here is on holy living, the exact opposite of how we lived in the past.
God is continuously working on us, bringing us up in maturity, shaping our hearts, and growing our faith.
In our Christian walk we grow day by day, we mature in HIS Word day by day.
We are God’s special workmanship in Lord Jesus.
His handiwork is not completed till our death.
God is always at work in our lives day after day to shape us in the image of our Lord.
Let us allow the Lord to work with our heart, our life to shape into a beautiful handiwork fit for the eternal kingdom.