T.G.I.F. and It's the 13th!

T.G.I.F., Thank God I'm Forgiven, and it's Friday, the 13th again! Oh, is the 13th an an unlucky number for you? Many people are running from black cats, avoiding ladders, tossing salt over their shoulders, and clinging to their lucky rabbit's feet, crystals, and good luck charms today in hopes of avoiding spells, voodoo hexes, and curses. You may not realize this, but church-going people are more superstitious than you might think. And many, particularly the young and new believers, are engaging in occult practices like never before.

Believe it or not, whenever you forward an e-mail, be it a prayer or what have you, to a specified number of people in order to obtain a "special blessing," you have just engaged in a form magic. And whenever people of God rely heavily on prophets and prophetesses for personal prophecies, instead of on the Word of God for objective truth, they are engaging in a form of witchcraft. And when Christians let their children play popular card games with witches and wizards and where demon-like characters and monsters cast spells, they are out of the will of God and are subjecting their children and their households to demonic attack.

Magic, spells, voodoo, witchcraft and divination belong to the set of practices known as "the occult." Occult practices include visiting palm readers and fortune tellers, and participating in seances and rituals as a means to contact dead, spirit beings, and obtain supernatural knowledge. God hates these things. The Bible says, "And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord (Deuteronomy 18:10b-12a, NLT).

Don't be afraid of witchcraft, wizards, spells and unlucky days. The Ancient of Days is all you need. He is much more powerful than any black cat, satanist, psychic, or magician. The powers of Pharaoh's magicians couldn't match God's powers (Exodus 8:19, 9:11), and the King's magicians couldn't interpret his dreams when Daniel could through God's revelation (Daniel 1L20, 2:27, 4:7ff, 5:7-30). Acts 19:19 describes how the people who had done magic gave it up after then trusted Jesus, "And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone" (NASB).

If you'd like a FREE ESV New Testament Holy Bible, e-mail me at jesussaves838@ yahoo.com and I will send it to you, no strings attached, while supplies last.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!