Steve Webb 0:00 We can't manipulate God. Steve Webb 0:03 It's the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. I am your OG Godcaster, the guy that still has a cold Steve Webb, it's the law Monday and we'll read Deuteronomy 13 through 15. The website is Lifespringmedia.com. and contact information will be as always at the end of today's show. Hey, the promise pictures and videos of our Alaska trip are now up on the show notes page A Lifespringmedia.com slash s 13 e 315. Check them out. Before we read, let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank You for Your word. Thank you for revealing yourself through it so that we can know you. Bless this time teach us in touch our hearts Lord, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, are you ready? Let's begin. Steve Webb 0:53 Deuteronomy chapter 13. Now if a prophet or a dream interpreter appears among you, and performs a sign or wonder for you, and the sign or wonder that was spoken actually occurs, if he says, Come on, we should follow other gods. Once you have an experienced, and we should worship them. You must not listen to that prophets or dream interpreters words, because the Lord your God is testing you to see if you love the Lord your God with all your mind and with all your being. You must follow the Lord your God alone, revere Him, follow His commandments, obey his voice, worship Him, cling to him, no other. That prophet or dream interpreter must be executed, because he encouraged you to turn away from the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, who redeemed you from the house of slavery, they tried to lead you away from the path the Lord your God commanded you to take, remove such evil from your community. Similarly, if one of your relatives, even one of your own siblings, or your own son, or daughter, or your dear spouse, or best friend entices you secretly, if someone like that says, Come on, we should follow and worship other gods ones that neither you nor your ancestors have experienced gods from all the neighboring peoples, whether nearby or far away from one end of the earth to the other, don't give into them, don't obey them, don't have any mercy on them, don't have compassion on them, and don't protect them. Instead, you must execute them, your own hand must be against them from the beginning of the execution, the hand of all the people will be involved at the end, stone them until they are dead, because they desire to lead you away from the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, all Israel will hear about this and be afraid, they won't do that sort of evil thing among you again. Or if you hear about one of your towns, the Lord your God has given you to inhabit that certain wicked people have gone out from your community. and they've led the citizens of their town astray by saying, Come on, we should follow and worship other gods ones you haven't experienced before. At that point, you must look into this situation very carefully to see if it's true. and if it's definitely true that this detestable thing was done in your community, you must completely strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword, place it and all that is in it under the ban, put its animals to the sword, gather all the plunder into the middle of the town square, then burn the city and all of its plunder as an entirely burned offering to the Lord your God. It must remain a heap of rubble forever. It must not be rebuilt. Don't hold on to any of the banned items. This will ensure that the Lord turns from his great anger and is compassionate to you, showing you mercy and multiplying you just like he swore to your ancestors. You must definitely obey the Lord, you're God's voice, keeping all His commandments that I'm giving you right now, by doing what is right in the Lord your God's eyes. Steve Webb 3:58 Deuteronomy chapter 14. People of Israel you are the Lord's children. So when you mourn for the dead, you must not cut yourselves or shave your forehead. Out of all the nations on this earth, the Lord your God chose you to be His own. You belong to the Lord, so don't behave like those who worship other gods. Don't eat any disgusting animals. You may eat the meat of cattle, sheep and goats, wild sheep and goats and gazelles, antelopes, and all kinds of deer. It is alright to eat meat from any animals that have divided hooves and also to the cod. But don't eat camels, rabbits and rock Badgers, these animals to the cod, but do not have divided whose you must treat them as unclean and don't eat pork since pigs have divided hooves but they do not chew their cod. Don't even touch a dead pig. You can eat any fish that has fins and scales, but there are other creatures that live in the water and if they do not have fins and scales, you must not eat them, treat them as unclean. You can eat any clean bird, but don't eat the meat of any of the following birds, eagles, vultures, falcons, kites, ravens, ostriches, owls, seagulls, hawks, pelicans, Ospreys, cormorants, storks, herons and hippos. You must not eat bats. swarming insects are unclean, so don't eat them. However, you are allowed to eat certain kinds of winged insects. You belong to the Lord your God. So if you happen to find a dead animal, don't eat its meat, you may give it to foreigners who live in your town or sell it to foreigners who are visiting your town. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk. People of Israel every year you must set aside 10% of your grain harvest. Also set aside 10% of your wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of every cow, sheep and goat. Take these to the place where the Lord chooses to be worshipped and eat them there. This will teach you to always respect the Lord your God. But suppose you can't carry that 10% of your harvest to the place where the Lord chooses to be worshipped. If you live too far away, or if the Lord gives you a big harvest, then sell this part in take the money there instead, when you and your family arrive, spend the money on food for a big celebration. Buy cattle, sheep, goats, wine, beer, and if there are any other kinds of foods that you want, buy those two. and since people have the Levi tribe don't own any land for growing crops, remember to ask the Levites to celebrate with you. Every third year instead of using the 10% of your harvest for a big celebration, bring it into town and put it in a community storehouse. The Levites have no land of their own, so you must give them food from the storehouse. You must also give food to the poor who live in your town including orphans, widows and foreigners. If they have enough to eat, then the Lord your God will be pleased and make you successful in everything you do. Steve Webb 7:02 Deuteronomy chapter 15. At the end of every seventh year you are to cancel the debts of those who owe you money. This is how it has to be done. Each of you who has lent money to any Israelite is to cancel the debt. You must not try to collect the money. The Lord Himself has declared the debt canceled. You may collect what a foreigner owes you but you must not collect what any of your own people owe you. The Lord your God will bless you in the land that he is giving you. Not one of your people will be poor if you obey Him and carefully observe everything that I command you today. The Lord will bless you as he is promised. You will lend money to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any. You will have control over many nations but no nation will have control over you. If they in any of the towns in the land that the Lord your God is giving you there are Israelites in need, then do not be selfish and refuse to help them. Instead, be generous and lend them as much as they need. Do not refuse to lend them something just because the year when debts are canceled is near. Do not let such an evil thought enter your mind. If you refuse to make the loan, they will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be held guilty. Give to them freely and unselfishly and the Lord will bless you in everything you do. There will always be some Israelites who are poor and in need. and so I commend you to be generous to them. If any Israelites male or female sell themselves to you as slaves, you are to release them after they have served you for six years. When the seventh year comes you must let them go free. When you set them free. Do not send them away empty handed. Give to them generously from what the Lord has blessed you with sheep grain and wine. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God set you free. That is why I am now giving you this command. But your slave may not want to leave. He may love you and your family and be content to stay. Then take him to the door of your house and they're pierced his ear. He will then be your slave for life. Treat your female slave in the same way. Do not be resentful when you set slaves free. After all, they have served you for six years at half the cost of hired servants. Do this in the Lord your God will bless you and all that you do. Set aside for the Lord your God all the firstborn males of your cattle and sheep. Don't use any of these cattle for work and don't share any of the sheep. Each year you and your family are to eat them in the Lord's presence at the one place of worship. If there is anything wrong with the animals if they are crippled or blind or have any other serious defect, you must not sacrifice them to the Lord your God. You made such animals at home. All of you whether ritually clean or unclean may eat them just as you eat deer or antelope but do not use their blood for food. Instead, you must pour it on the ground like water. Steve Webb 9:58 Have you ever heard someone make a statement like you should give without any expectation of receiving anything in return. I'm sure you probably have. and in general, I agree with that statement as it relates to our attitude toward people. We shouldn't give with the expectation of receiving something back from them. If we do get something back, great, but we don't give with the motivation of getting something back. Do you agree with that? It seems like a good way to avoid being disappointed if they don't reciprocate, doesn't it? and if we only give to those who have the ability to give something back to us, we probably won't be giving to people who really need the help. So there's that. But in Deuteronomy 15, today, the people were told to be generous to those in need, because God would bless them for it. So doesn't it seem to you it does to me anyway, that it's okay for us to be generous with the expectation that there will be a blessing for us from God. and of course, this is not the only place that this principle is spoken of in the Bible. In Luke 638, for example, Jesus says, Give in it will be given to you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with a measure you use, it will be measured to you. Well, to tell you the truth, I would much rather receive a blessing from God than from man, how about you, then here's something else, because God has made it clear that he will bless us when we give. I don't think it's bad that we expect a blessing from him. But we need to remember that we can't manipulate God, he will never be beholden to us. We can't obligate him, this promise of His that we've been talking about does not give us license to say, Okay, God, I gave $1,000 to such and such. So you have to give $1,000 back to me. Well, it doesn't work that way. In my opinion. God blesses us in ways that we might not see until we see Him in heaven. Sure, sometimes he does bless us materially, but not always. He might bless us with good health or the friendship of someone or keeping something we own from breaking. The possibilities are endless. and sometimes it might just be the satisfaction of knowing that we did something good for somebody. The point I'm trying to make here is this. Don't be mercenary and you're giving give cheerfully and generously out of the goodness of your heart. and as a plus, I believe that's when God is most generous in returning a blessing. Now, one more thing, in Deuteronomy 15. Here, God spoke about slaves. Well, these days, the subject of slavery is triggering for some people. and I've spoken about it a few times here on the show, so I won't address it today. But I will have a link to one of the shows I did on the show notes page.. If you haven't heard what I have to say about slavery, if you think that God condones slavery, or if you're just curious to see what I had to say, go to the show notes page, find that link, and listen to that show. Tell me what you think. Send a Boostagram or call the Lifespring family hotline or go to the comments page or write an email. I'll tell you how, at the end of today's show, tomorrow will be history Tuesday, and we'll read Ezra one through five. Jingle 13:16 What do you think? What do you think? Tell Steve. Steve Webb 13:19 Well, on yesterday's show, Kevin deals was an executive producer for the first time. and it wasn't until after I published the show that I saw that Kevin had sent a separate email. Well, here's what he said. Dear Steve, I'm so glad that you and Leanne had such a great time on your cruise in Alaska. I was lucky enough to take an Alaskan cruise. Also with Princess with my family when I was a teenager. That was my third cruise. and since then, I've been on 12 more. Oh, come on, Kevin, you're gonna be one of those braggers too. That's fantastic. He says, all but one of those were pre COVID. and I was really put off by the restrictions that the cruise lines put on passengers during the lock downs, but they seem to have returned to normal for now. Yeah, that's kind of the key, isn't it for now, for anyone who's looking to go on vacation. I highly recommend the cruise but I'm a bit biased. Yeah, I wouldn't say the same thing. Kevin. We had a lot of fun. and I actually did look very closely at if they still had any of those COVID restrictions before we booked that cruise about, oh gosh, eight or nine months ago, when we found out that they had no COVID restrictions. I thought okay, we can do this. So anyway, Kevin continues. The reason I'm sending this note is because I just set up a monthly donation. For a long time I was streaming SATs while I listened to the podcast, but earlier this year, the app I was using for my lightning wallet made some changes. and now I can't access any of those funds. Oh my goodness, that's terrible. I hope you didn't have a lot in there. Kevin says long story but this podcasting 2.0 stuff seems still to be in beta. So I decided a good old recurring PayPal donation would be the simplest way to continue sending value back to you. I hope that's okay. Well, of course, that's okay. I appreciate any donation coming in any way possible. and I'm really sorry about what happened to you with the app. Yeah, a lot of this stuff is still in beta, they do still have growing pains. and they, I think most of them still tell you that, before you put anything in your lightning wallet, you could lose all this. So I know you didn't go in with your eyes closed. So anyway, Kevin says thanks to you and the Lifespring family for all that you do. I have come a long way in my faith, and I have a long way to go. So does everybody Kevin, he continues, but you all continue to inspire me to move my life in the right direction towards God. I'd especially like to thank Brittaney for the thought she puts into the newsletter. So often, there's an insight in there that gives me a boost that I can take with me through the week. I agree with you, boy, Brittany does such a great job on that newsletter, doesn't she? She's just great. I really am so thankful for her. and then Kevin shares a prayer request that we will be covering on Wednesday show, Kevin says Sorry for the long note. God bless you and the Lifespring family. Well, thank you, Kevin, and God bless you. I appreciate your note, and I'm sorry, I didn't see it until after the show was published yesterday. and then Lifespring family Berean brother Paul of Seattle sent this note and he said, Hi, Steve, at church today The sermon was on First Kings 19 where Elijah flees from Jezebel because Jezebel vows to kill him after the Mount Carmel situation. You guys probably remember that. That's where a Elijah and the prophets of bale kind of had a shoot off. He he let them go first. and he said, you have your gods burn up this offering. and you know, they waited and waited and nothing ever happened. and the prophets wailed, and they cried, and they prayed and you know, Bale God whenever they called him. Here's your offering. and of course, nothing happened. and then Elijah came in there, and he put his offering on the altar. and he proceeded to douse it with water, he made sure that it was completely wet. After he did that, of course, God consumed it with fire, and it proved that God is God in the gods of Baylor and not, Paul says, one of the takeaways was that even great people of faith can go into a time of doubt, or disorientation or discouragement. Yeah, after God showed himself in this miraculous way, Elijah did go into a time of depression when Jezebel vowed to kill him, he ran and you remember that anyway. Paul says the Elijah in that moment asked God to kill him because he had determined he is no better than his ancestors. and he says, The guest preacher said that the statement no better than his ancestors has been debated over the centuries. But he thinks it means essentially, I Elijah came to the people. I was a prophet for God, the people partially repented. But ultimately, the people were going to continue doing what they're doing, and I'm going to be killed. So what is the point to continue living? Paul says, this seems like a reasonable extrapolation of that sentence. and it got me to thinking about Ecclesiastes, and how you, Steve, remind us all at the beginning of the Ecclesiastes episodes to just hang on, the end does get better sidenote, and you made this point in the commentary for last week's Ecclesiastes reading that life is kind of pointless unless you're working for God's purpose. Now, there's more of that thought he says, but I'll leave it there. At the end of first Kings 19. Paul says God tells Elijah that he has saved 7000 people to carry on God's plan, and put Elijah on a path to go night and new king and do some stuff to continue God's plan. The guest preacher made the point that even though we may not see any progress and or the world just continues to repeat or get worse, God is using those who go along with his plan to set the seeds and the stage for the next generation. It's not pointless. It's basically the ultimate reason for living. This I think ties nicely into Ecclesiastes with the same thought, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Sure. But if you're in God's plan, it's all for a purpose. and remembering this when things get discouraging or when we need to stand for God is something we need to ask God to write on our heart. Anyway, back to yard work on this Sunday afternoon. Well, thank you for sharing that, Paul. Good stuff. I hope you got two yard work done. For me yard work is a kind of a love hate thing. Leanne does all the gardening type stuff. I just don't get a kick out of planting and taking care of flowers and things like that. But Leanne loves it. So that's kind of what she does. My job is taking care of the lawns. I can't say I enjoy mowing the lawn but it's sort of therapeutic for me. It kind of gets my mind off everything else. It's physical. I get a workout and it's good to look at it when it's finished. It gives me a nice sense of accomplishment. Steve Webb 20:02 A 500 sat Boostagram came in from user 2558 with the message. Thank you. Well, 2558 You're welcome. and thank you. God bless you Steve Webb 20:21 Our next time a prayer will be Wednesday. Do let me know how we can pray for you. Okay, details are right here. Let me hear from you. The best way is with a Boostagram using a modern podcast app from podcastapps.com. The next best way is to call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511. If you'd like to go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com and put your prayer request or praise report in there, that's awesome. Or if you've got a comment or a question, you can go to comment.lifespringmedia.com or my email address is steve@lifespringmedia.com. Thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner Scott Snider, Jason Paschall who did today show our Thank you Jason, and Sister Brittaney, who just sent out a newsletter. Be sure you get it. If you're not signed up, go to news dot Lifespringmedia.com and you can start getting all this good stuff from SR Brittaney as well. I'm so glad we can be together again today. I can't wait for tomorrow. Until then, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye Announcer 21:21 the Lifespring media family of programs are made possible by the generous support of listeners like you. Thank you Transcribed by https://otter.ai