Leviticus 20

There are two sources of spiritual power God and Satan – they are not equal, Satan is a created being. Jesus said Satan comes to steal, kill, destroy, whereas Jesus came so that we can have abundant life (John 10:10). Going to mediums is not a bit of harmless fun – God himself will set his face against mediums. The source of power is Satan – If you have been to a medium, repent and get some cleansing prayer from the defilement of evil spiritual power. The church in Ephesus (Acts 19) burnt their occultic paraphernalia. Any spirit that doesn’t acknowledge Jesus is Lord is demonic.

v7 Consecrate yourself – repent of any occult realm activity like visiting a medium, horoscopes etc and allow Jesus to sanctify you v8

Sexual sin is a big deal. The next few paragraphs give case law for sexual sin – adultery, incest, homsexual acts (there is no way you can interpret these clear verses as homosexual rape, rather than any homosexual act), sex during a period and bestiality. Not all sexual sin is considered the same – God is not homphobic, He is sin-phobic! Under grace, we are commanded to be sexual pure too and flee all forms of sexual immorality – that means abstaining from sexual acts outside of marriage of husband and wife.
The Holy Spirit gives us power to be holy. So flee the evil desires, draw near to God and be filled with the Spirit.

Psalm 25

Spurgeon “David is pictured in this Psalm as in a faithful miniature. His holy trust, his many conflicts, his great transgressions, his bitter repentance, and his deep distresses are all here; so that we see the very heart of ‘the man after God's own heart.”

David lifts up his soul to God, as he is yet again troubled by enemies. David so often “encouraged himself in the Lord” in the face of trouble and trial – do you go to God, when times are hard?

Ecclesiastes 3

This probably the most well known section of Ecclesiastes
There are lots of seasons of life, some good and some bad. Each good things is followed by bad – we can’t escape the consequences of living in a sin-sick fallen world.

God has put eternity in our hearts – every culture has redemptive qualities in there somewhere to allow hooks for the Gospel – we just need to find them!

1 Tim 5

Grace has a culture of honour – so exhort rather than rebuke older men – they won’t take kindly to rebuking anyway!

Timothy the young pastor, needs to accept a level of mothering from the older women and by treating younger women as sisters, there won’t be any flirting!

The instructions on handling and looking after the poor widow are helpful – adult kids should help parents (how upside our western culture is!)
Younger widows is Paul talking against the scrounger culture – help those in need, but everyone else should be working to support themselves if they can. Paul wants Timothy to get people of a church “benefit culture” (there was no state benefit system then) and earning their bread if they can.