[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25

WORD OF WISDOM

It's probably my age that tricks people into thinking I'm an adult.

___

DAILY DEVOTION

Take Your Mountain 


"Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day."
(Joshua 14:12, NKJV)

	 When Caleb was eighty-five years old, forty years after the
negative report of the other ten spies had kept him and the Israelites out
of the Promised Land, he wasn't sitting around feeling sorry for himself.
No, he went back to the same mountain where three giants still lived, the
place where the others had refused to go in, and he said, "Give me this
mountain that God promised me. Give me the dream that's been burning in me
for all these years."
Have you allowed any dreams to get buried in you? At one time you thought
you could do something great, but you had some bad breaks. You have a good
excuse to settle; nobody would blame you if you did. But that dream is still
alive. God is saying to you what he said to Caleb, "Go back and try again.
This is your time. Your destiny is calling out to you. Stir up your gifts,
and go after what I put in your heart."
	 
A Prayer for Today

"Father, thank You that whether Your promise is fulfilled in my life today
or years from now, You will bring it to pass in Your perfect time. Thank You
that I too can say, 'God, give me this mountain.' I declare that every
giant, every obstacle that stands in the way will be conquered. In Jesus'
Name, Amen."

___

DAILY BIBLE READING

Deuteronomy 16-18 New King James Version
The Passover Reviewed

16 “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God,
for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by
night.
2 Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the
flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to put His name.
3 You
shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened
bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the
land
of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of
the land of Egypt all the days of your life.  4 And no leaven shall be seen
among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat
which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until
morning.

5 “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the
Lord your God gives you;  6 but at the place where the Lord your God chooses
to
make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at
the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.  7 And you
shall
roast and eat itin the place which the Lord your God chooses, and in the
morning you shall turn and go to your tents.  8 Six days you shall eat
unleavened
bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a 
[a]
sacred assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks Reviewed

9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks
from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. 10 Then you shall
keep
the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill
offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses
you.
 11 You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your
daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is
within
your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you,
at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.  12 And
you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful
to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Tabernacles Reviewed

13 “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have
gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress.  14 And you
shall
rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant
and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and
the widow, who are within your 
[b]
gates. 15 Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in
the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you
in
all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely
rejoice.

16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God
in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the
Feast
of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before
the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to
the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

Justice Must Be Administered

18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your 
[c]
gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they
shall judge the people with just judgment.  19 You shall not pervert
justice;
you shall not 
[d]
show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise
and 
[e]
twists the words of the righteous. 20 You shall follow what is altogether
just, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is
giving
you.

21 “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a 
[f]
wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your
God. 22 You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

Various Instructions

17 “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has
any 
[g]
blemish or defect, for that is an 
[h]
abomination to the Lord your God.

2 “If there is found among you, within any of your 
[i]
gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been
wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing His covenant,
3 who
has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or
any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it is told you,
and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed
true and certain that such an 
[j]
abomination has been committed in Israel,  5 then you shall bring out to
your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and shall
stone
to death that man or woman with stones.  6 Whoever is deserving of death
shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall
not
be put to death on the testimony of one witness.  7 The hands of the
witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward
the hands
of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

8 “If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of
guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one
punishment
or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise
and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses.  9 And you shall
come
to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and
inquire of them;they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.
10 You shall
do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place
which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that
they
order you. 11 According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct
you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall
not
turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they
pronounce upon you.  12 Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not
heed
the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the
judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel.
13 And
all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Principles Governing Kings

14 “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and
possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the
nations
that are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord
your God chooses; onefrom among your brethren you shall set as king over
you;
you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 But he
shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to
Egypt
to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that
way again.’ 17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart
turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

18 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he
shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the onebefore the
priests,
the Levites. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days
of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to
observe
all the words of this law and these statutes,  20 that his heart may not 
[k]
be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the
commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may 
[l]
prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

18 “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have 
[m]
no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the
Lord made by fire, and His portion. 2 Therefore they shall have no
inheritance
among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.

3 “And this shall be the priest’s due
[n]
 from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or
sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the
stomach.
4 The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the
first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.  5 For the Lord your
God
has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of
the Lord, him and his sons forever.

6 “So if a Levite comes from any of your 
[o]
gates, from where he dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire
of his mind to the place which the Lord chooses, 7 then he may serve in the
name of the Lord his God as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there
before the Lord.  8 They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what
comes
from the sale of his inheritance.

Avoid Wicked Customs

9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you
shall not learn to follow the 
[p]
abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone
who makes his son or his daughter pass
[q]
 through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one
who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,  11 or one who conjures spells, or a
medium,
or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things
are 
[r]
an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your
God drives them out from before you.  13 You shall be 
[s]
blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will
dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord
your
God has not 
[t]
appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your
midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,  16 according to all you
desired
of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me
not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire
anymore,
lest I die.’

17 “And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise
up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My
words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.
19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in
My name,
I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in
My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name
of other gods, that prophet shall die.’  21 And if you say in your heart,
‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a
prophet
speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to
pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has
spoken it
presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Footnotes
list of 20 items
a. 
Deuteronomy 16:8
Lit. restraint 
b. 
Deuteronomy 16:14
towns 
c. 
Deuteronomy 16:18
towns 
d. 
Deuteronomy 16:19
Lit. regard faces 
e. 
Deuteronomy 16:19
perverts 
f. 
Deuteronomy 16:21
Or Asherah 
g. 
Deuteronomy 17:1
Lit. evil thing 
h. 
Deuteronomy 17:1
detestable thing 
i. 
Deuteronomy 17:2
towns 
j. 
Deuteronomy 17:4
detestable thing 
k. 
Deuteronomy 17:20
become proud 
l. 
Deuteronomy 17:20
continue long in his kingdom 
m. 
Deuteronomy 18:1
no portion 
n. 
Deuteronomy 18:3
right 
o. 
Deuteronomy 18:6
towns 
p. 
Deuteronomy 18:9
detestable acts 
q. 
Deuteronomy 18:10
Be burned as an offering to an idol 
r. 
Deuteronomy 18:12
detestable 
s. 
Deuteronomy 18:13
Lit. perfect 
t. 
Deuteronomy 18:14
allowed you to do so