[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 23

Wed Feb 23 01:25:46 UTC 2022

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 23

WORD OF WISDOM

The key to godly living begins with biblical thinking.

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DAILY DEVOTION

The Right Weapons

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to
revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6

Imagine an army going into battle armed with cap guns. They might be able to
march impressively and make some noise, but they would have no chance of
victory against an enemy armed with real weapons. That seems like a
ludicrous example, but how often do we try to fight spiritual battles with
earthly weapons? The result is the same-certain defeat. Yet if we use the
spiritual weapons God has provided for us, victory is assured. The battle is
real, but the final outcome is already settled.
George Whitefield said, "Since then Christ is praying for us, whom should we
fear? And since He has promised to make us more than conquerors, of whom
should we be afraid? No, though an host of demons are lined up against us,
let us not be afraid; though the hottest persecution should rise up against
us, yet let us put our trust in God. Even though Satan, and the rest of his
apostate spirits, are powerful, when compared with us; yet, if put in
competition with the Almighty, they are as weak as the smallest worms."
The reason that we yield to temptation and give in to sin is not that is
overpowering, but that we are not using the mighty weapons God has made
available to us. We know that prayer is essential, yet often we set it aside
because we are too busy. We know that the Word of God is our weapon, yet too
often it gathers dust while we focus on other things. When we use God's
weapons, the victory will be ours.
Spiritual battles can never be fought and won with our own resources-we must
use God's weapons.

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DAILY BIBLE READING

Deuteronomy 10-12 New King James Version
The Second Pair of Tablets
10 "At that time the Lord said to me, [a]'Hew for yourself two tablets of
stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an
ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the
first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.'

3 "So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the
first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. 4 And He
wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten
[b]Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the
midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me.
5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the
ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me."

6 (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to
Moserah, where Aaron died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son
ministered as priest in his [c]stead. 7 From there they journeyed to
Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of [d]rivers of water. 8 At
that time the Lord [e]separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the
covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to
bless in His name, to this day. 9 Therefore Levi has no portion nor
inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord
your God promised him.)

10 "As at the first time, I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty
nights; the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to
destroy you. 11 Then the Lord said to me, 'Arise, begin your journey before
the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their
fathers to give them.'

The Essence of the Law
12 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear
the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the
commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your
[f]good? 14 Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your
God, also the earth with all that is in it. 15 The Lord delighted only in
your fathers, to love them; and He chose their [g]descendants after them,
you above all peoples, as it is this day. 16 Therefore circumcise the
foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked[h] no longer. 17 For the Lord
your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and
awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. 18 He administers
justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him
food and clothing. 19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in
the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him,
and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. 21 He is your
praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome
things which your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt with
seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of
heaven in multitude.

Love and Obedience Rewarded
11 "Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His
statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. 2 Know today that I do
not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the
[i]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and
His outstretched arm- 3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of
Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what He did to the
army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of
the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has
destroyed them to this day; 5 what He did for you in the wilderness until
you came to this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of
Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them
up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was [j]in
their possession, in the midst of all Israel- 7 but your eyes have seen
every great [k]act of the Lord which He did.

8 "Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today,
that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over
to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord
[l]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, 'a land
flowing with milk and honey.' 10 For the land which you go to possess is not
like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed
and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you
cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water
from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; the
eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year
to the very end of the year.

13 'And it shall be that if you earnestly [m]obey My commandments which I
command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your
heart and with all your soul, 14 then I[n] will give you the rain for your
land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather
in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your
fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be [o]filled.' 16 Take heed
to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve
other gods and worship them, 17 lest the Lord's anger be aroused against
you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield
no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is
giving you.

18 "Therefore you shall [p]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in
your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children,
speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when
you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the
doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of
your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your
fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

22 "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to
do-to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to
Him- 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and
you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. 24 Every
place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the
wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the
[q]Western Sea, shall be your territory. 25 No man shall be able to stand
[r]against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of
you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

26 "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing,
if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today;
28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God,
but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other
gods which you have not known. 29 Now it shall be, when the Lord your God
has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put
the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not
on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the
Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth
trees of Moreh? 31 For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess
the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and
dwell in it. 32 And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and
judgments which I set before you today.

A Prescribed Place of Worship
12 "These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to
observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to
possess, all[s] the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall utterly
destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served
their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green
tree. 3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and
burn their [t]wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images
of their gods and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not
worship the Lord your God with such things.

5 "But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all
your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling[u] place; and there you shall
go. 6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your
tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your
freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there
you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in [v]all to
which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord
your God has blessed you.

8 "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today-every man doing
whatever is right in his own eyes- 9 for as yet you have not come to the
rest[w] and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But
when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God
is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round
about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where
the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all
that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the
heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to
the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your
sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who
is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13
Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every
place that you see; 14 but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of
your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall
do all that I command you.

15 "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever
your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He
has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and
the deer alike. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on
the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your
grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your
flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings,
or of the [x]heave offering of your hand. 18 But you must eat them before
the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your
son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the
Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your
God in [y]all to which you put your hands. 19 [z]Take heed to yourself that
you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20 "When the Lord your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and
you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as
much meat as your heart desires. 21 If the place where the Lord your God
chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from
your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have
commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart
desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them;
the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do
not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with
the meat. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like
water. 25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your
children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26
Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall
take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. 27 And you shall offer your
burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God;
and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the
Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. 28 Observe and obey all these
words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children
after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the
Lord your God.

Beware of False Gods
29 "When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go
to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30 take heed
to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are
destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods,
saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.'
31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every
[aa]abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for
they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

32 "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to
it nor take away from it.

Footnotes
Deuteronomy 10:1 Cut out
Deuteronomy 10:4 Lit. Words
Deuteronomy 10:6 place
Deuteronomy 10:7 brooks
Deuteronomy 10:8 set apart
Deuteronomy 10:13 benefit or welfare
Deuteronomy 10:15 Lit. seed
Deuteronomy 10:16 rebellious
Deuteronomy 11:2 discipline
Deuteronomy 11:6 at their feet
Deuteronomy 11:7 work
Deuteronomy 11:9 promised
Deuteronomy 11:13 Lit. listen to
Deuteronomy 11:14 So with MT, Tg.; Sam., LXX, Vg. He
Deuteronomy 11:15 satisfied
Deuteronomy 11:18 Lit. put
Deuteronomy 11:24 Mediterranean
Deuteronomy 11:25 before
Deuteronomy 12:1 As long as
Deuteronomy 12:3 Heb. Asherim
Deuteronomy 12:5 home
Deuteronomy 12:7 all that you undertake
Deuteronomy 12:9 Or place of rest
Deuteronomy 12:17 contribution
Deuteronomy 12:18 all your undertakings
Deuteronomy 12:19 Be careful
Deuteronomy 12:31 detestable action