Deuteronomy 18:9-13

Israel was surrounded by nations that were into the occult, all kinds of dark spiritual sins. Canaanites did detestable practices like sacrificing children in the fire, witchcraft, soothsaying, interpreting omens, sorcery, conjuring spells, being a medium, being a spiritual and calling up the dead. These evil practices were the reason the Lord was going to drive the Canaanites out of the land vs12. These practices led the people away from knowing, trusting, and obeying God alone. Lord promised to judge them for their sins.

In the New Testament, Acts 19:18_20, shows that the magic and other dark arts still go against the Lord’s commands. when the people who heard about Jesus, understood that evil spirits were behind their occult practices and only Jesus deserved their loyalthy, they gathered their magic books and burnt them. People into dark arts voluntarily took that step Wnen they realised they needed to stop sinning and obey God.

But today people are still fascinated by horoscopes, fortune telling, witch crafts. They are interested to know their future and control the future. The information offers by occult practices are distracted or completely false. So we donot need to go for occult sources for faulty information but ask the holy spirit to guide us.

Cynthia Sathiaraj
Chennai

🥥 In a Nutshell 🥥

🌹 Matter of Giving 🌹
There are plenty of verses in Bible that relate to hand. God uses hands to drive home simple, vital truths. Some of them for our meditation are as follows:

🖐️ Empty-handed 🖐️
God commanded man not to appear before Him empty-handed.

📖 No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed. Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord has blessed you (Deu 16:16, 17).

God is the best Giver. He gave His only Son Jesus Christ for us. He wants His people to be liberal givers like Him. The only formula to receive is by giving.

Perhaps this is what made the poor widow to give away her only two very small copper coins to God (Lk 21:1-4). How much we give to God reflects our love, gratitude and reverence for Him.

God told that a Hebrew servant freed after six years of service should not be relieved empty-handed. But he should be given liberally as the Lord your God has blessed you (Deu 15:12-14). The way one treats his servant reflects his Christian attitude, nature and maturity.

🤛 Tightfisted 🤜
God doesn’t want any of us to be tightfisted.

📖 Do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother (Deu 15:7).

Poor are always in the land. Our God is the God of the poor and the less privileged. He has a special concern, care and love for them. He wants His people to treat them kindly and give them generously. Giving and treating are related. A kind heart gives, whereas a hard heart is tightfisted.

✋ Openhanded 🤚
God taught the people the right method for giving.

📖 Rather be open-handed and freely lend him whatever he needs (Deu 15:8).

Giving has to be done with a generous heart and not grudgingly. Moreover giving and lending should be done liberally with an open hand.

With this background Jesus Christ taught the people more on giving. He told:

📖 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Mt 6:3, 4).

Dear ones in Christ, our giving must be in accordance with God’s rules. God wants us to be careful, wise and cautious about our money. At the same time He wants us to give to the right people for the right cause. Pray and seek His guidance in the matters of giving.

The promise for such giving is:
📖 Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hands to (Deu 15:10).

Give and it will be given. Give and you will be blessed. God bless us to be channels of givers.

Mrs Sheela Jebakumar ✍️
25-08-2020