Many unsaved people practice astrology (i.e., horoscopes) and other unscriptural use of the signs in the heavens. Believers should reject these practices.
Throughout man’s sordid history, people have mocked, rejected, and forsaken the Lord. They have chosen to look to gods that cannot save or help.
No man is to be respected above another person in a form of unrighteous judgment. However, does not infer nondiscrimination in every matter.
God provided Israel with qualities they should desire in a king. In short, when the king ceased to be right with God, he ceased to be right for the people.
World leaders constantly claim that they hold the solution for how to rid the world of poverty. Yet, the Lord stated that mankind would always have a problem with poverty, at least until the millennium. Believers should be willing to help the poor but must keep in mind that they will never eliminate world poverty. According to Deuteronomy 15:11, “the poor shall never cease out of the land.” In other words, regardless of man’s efforts to give and help, there will always be a group of people who struggle financially. With this in mind, believers should not ignore the physical needs of the poor but should be most concerned with offering the poor spiritual help (Acts 3:6).
The Bible is not meant to be read merely for the sake of reading. God intends for the Bible to be read with a deliberate purpose! Sometimes that purpose may be learning, while at other times it may be for purification. There will be times when one might not know the purpose for reading, but there can be no doubt that the Lord has a purpose. In Deuteronomy 17:18-19, the Lord states that His king should spend time in the law of God so that “he may learn to fear the LORD his God” and “keep all the words of” God’s law “to do them.” In Ephesians 5:26, the Lord describes one of these purposes when He speaks of “the washing of water by the word.” God’s purposes may be missed when one indiscriminately hastens through the scriptures.
Every person cannot give the same amount, but every person can give. According to our passage, “Every man shall give as he is able.” Because some people might use this as an excuse not to give, the Lord further states that giving should be “according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.” The New Testament repeats this same principle in 1 Corinthians 16:2. Every man is to give “as God hath prospered him.” The book of Acts gives a practical example. In Acts 11:29, the disciples sent relief to their brethren and every man did so “according to his ability.” Each believer should give to the Lord corresponding to how the Lord has prospered him.
