{"id":22269,"date":"2022-07-08T22:00:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T05:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/deuteronomy_17_14-20-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-06-28T17:17:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T00:17:18","slug":"deuteronomy_18_1-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/deuteronomy_18_1-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving Your Church Staff Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deuteronomy 18:1-13\u00a0 \u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Deuteronomy 18:1-13.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 18:1-8 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The priests, who are Levites–indeed the whole tribe of Levi–are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the offerings made to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0by fire, for that is their inheritance.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is their inheritance, as he promised them.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the inner parts.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0for the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the\u00a0LORD’s name always.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the\u00a0LORD\u00a0will choose,
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0he may minister in the name of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the\u00a0LORD.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-8:\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Deuteronomy\u00a018:1-8, Moses tells the Israelites to care for the Levites \u2013 that is, their priestly leaders and those who dedicated their careers to serving in the house of God.\u00a0 He tells them to remember that their priestly leaders have a unique responsibility in life (v1), that they don’t get to enjoy all the privileges that the other Israelites enjoy (v2), that they are dependent on the offerings of the people for their livelihood (v3), that God has chosen them to minister to Him in a way that requires all of their working hours (v5) and thus the other Israelites are to treat them well (v6-8).\u00a0 So Moses tells them to give their priestly leaders the best that they have: “the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep” (v4).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Just as Moses tells the Israelites to treat the Levites well, let\u2019s treat our pastors and church staff well.\u00a0 Go out of your way to encourage them.\u00a0 Pray for them often.\u00a0 Speak well of them to others.\u00a0 Give your tithes and your offerings consistently so that they can be well taken care of.\u00a0 Acknowledge the fact that they make sacrifices and take on unique pressures, responsibilities and work so that the rest of us can benefit.\u00a0 Bear with them in love since only Jesus is perfect.\u00a0 The better you love your pastors and church staff, the more you make it a joy for them to lead you, and the more you enable them to serve your church with power, vision and anointing.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 18:9-13 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When you enter the land the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Anyone who does these things is detestable to the\u00a0LORD, and because of these detestable practices the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God will drive out those nations before you.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You must be blameless before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 9-13: \u00a0Here Moses warns the Israelites not to engage in divination practices like sorcery, witchcraft, fortune telling and other occultic activities that their neighbouring nations regularly practiced.\u00a0 The New Testament similarly warns followers of Jesus not to engage in divination practices.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 What is so dangerous about divination?\u00a0\u00a0Click HERE<\/a>\u00a0to learn 3 dangers of divination.<\/a><\/p>\n

Father, I pray that I and our church family would not take for granted but take good care of our pastors and church staff.\u00a0 I also pray that I and those in my care would do well to avoid divination practices, that we would put our trust in You and You alone.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Deuteronomy 18:1-13.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 18:1-8 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0The priests, who are Levites–indeed the whole tribe of Levi–are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the offerings made to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0by fire, for that is their inheritance.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is their inheritance, as he promised them.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the inner parts.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,
\n5\u00a0\u00a0for the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the\u00a0LORD’s name always.
\n6\u00a0\u00a0If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the\u00a0LORD\u00a0will choose,
\n7\u00a0\u00a0he may minister in the name of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the\u00a0LORD.
\n8\u00a0\u00a0He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-8:\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Deuteronomy\u00a018:1-8, Moses tells the Israelites to care for the Levites \u2013 that is, their priestly leaders and those who dedicated their careers to serving in the house of God.\u00a0 He tells them to remember that their priestly leaders have a unique responsibility in life (v1), that they don’t get to enjoy all the privileges that the other Israelites enjoy (v2), that they are dependent on the offerings of the people for their livelihood (v3), that God has chosen them to minister to Him in a way that requires all of their working hours (v5) and thus the other Israelites are to treat them well (v6-8).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22272,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22269\/revisions\/22272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}