Daily Devotional, Year 2 – DECEMBER 1 (Apostle Paul’s Fun & Recreation, Part 2: “How Should I Unwind?”)
By admin On January 20th, 2016.
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Daily Devotional, Year 2 -DECEMBER 1
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Apostle Paul’s Fun & Recreation,
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Part 2:
“How Should I Unwind?”
To read Part 1, click here…April 4th (Apostle Paul’s Fun & Recreation)
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“Quench not the Spirit…
“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance
that thou stir up the gift of God,
which is in thee…“
1st Thessalonians 5:19 & 2nd Timothy 1:6
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Have you, dear Christian, ever felt overwhelmed with the Christian life? Have you ever felt that you needed something from this world to help you escape the Christian warfare?
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Maybe I thought that I needed a glass of wine, so that I can unwind from all the stress of the day?
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Or maybe a secular novel, or TV show to forget my troubles?
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Maybe I thought of taking up some hobby to help me to clear out my clogged brain?
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Or maybe a night on the town to provide some change of scenery?
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Of course, most all of us have had these thoughts and desires. Well perhaps God’s Salvation plan isn’t complete and needs to be complimented with some extracurricular activities to rejuvenate the spirit!
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Offering a toast with sparkling wine flutes – cropped image – Wikimedia – Share-alike license
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BORN IN BABYLON!
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One of the big problems is, that we have been born into, and have grown up within this Babylonian world, which is the kingdom of Satan.
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And we have learned to do things the way the citizens of his world do things!
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And so, it is as easy and natural as falling off the proverbial log, to do things the way the world does things!
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People on Times Square – cropped image – Wikimedia Commons – Share-Alike License
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CALLED OUT
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But God has called us out of the world. And God has given us His Book, to teach us the ways of Heaven.
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Yes, God wants the world to return to Heaven’s way of doing things!
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And Heaven’s ways all seem so vastly different from the ways of the world, and yet they are an infinitely better way of doing things!
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THE IMITATION OF CHRIST?
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So how did Jesus unwind? After all, Jesus is our Divine “role-model”.
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So how can we imitate Christ, yet still relax, renew, and unwind?
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Question Marks – At a loss – svg – Wikimedia Commons – Share-Alike License
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“THEY SHALL MOUNT UP WITH WINGS AS EAGLES…”
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Listen…“the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary…He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:28-31
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Here is a great revelation as to how the Christian is to become renewed in spirit. It is the Lord that renews the strength of His weary people.
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And it is a heart renewal from the indwelling Holy Spirit, so great and so wonderful, that God actually compares it to an eagle taking flight…”they shall mount up with wings as eagles…” Isaiah 40:31
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REST UNTO YOUR SOULS
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Jesus calls to all Mankind who are weary and heavy-laden, to enter into His, “rest unto your souls”!
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Listen to Jesus…“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
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Okay, so here is a “rest unto your souls”! You will never find such a rest as this at the bottom of a wine glass! Nor will you find it at the end of an action thriller or a romantic novel! These diversions are only temporary, followed by a return to the grim realities of this fallen world.
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ABOVE PICTURE – winter – Orion the Good Shepherd – www.signsofheaven.org
TV icon novela svg. – Wikimedia –
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“TAKE MY YOKE…AND LEARN OF ME…”
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No, this rest unto your soul that Jesus offers, is found when the weary one begins to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His life-giving words and to His heavenly wisdom: the wisdom that is found only in the pages of the Bible!
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And the more we know about Jesus, the more wonderful will be our rest, like an ever-flowing fount of peaceful waters! Of course, this kind of peace can only be supernaturally provided by the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ.
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DAY-BY-DAY GROWTH
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Listen…“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon lin
e, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing:” Isaiah 28:10-12
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Yes, as this above passage seems to poetically say, it is from a day-by-day, month-by-month study of God’s Word, that our spiritual rest grows deeper and wider!
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Oh yes, we only seem to grow very little each day.
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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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AS THE GROWTH OF A TREE
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And even though we only seem to grow very little each day, the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months, and our spiritual growth will eventually be noticed.
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And oh so imperceptibly, like the growth of a tree, we grow strong and upright like the great tree, climbing ever-upward to Heaven!
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And combined with unceasing prayer, the day-by-day study of God’s Word will become like a deep, peaceful river, flowing within our soul, ever-cleansing, ever-refreshing our body, and our mind, and our heart, and our soul!
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Willow by J D Forester – cropped image – Wikipedia
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BROKEN CISTERNS of THE WORLD
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But those who turn to wine for refreshment, will wake up in the morning with a bit of a bad temperament (like this hung-over likeness of a city magistrate, whose browbeaten construction employees mockingly fashioned his grouchy “morning-after” likeness onto the side of a new building.)
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And those who while-away the night-hours over some TV show or intriguing book, will eventually find those earthy images and that worldly wisdom has all but choked out the pure words of God, that once graced the walls of their heart!
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BABYLON IN OUR MIND
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And so, O Child of Heaven, we must come out of Babylon in our thinking.
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We must finally cease from the selfish ways of the world, and seek for the renewal of our mind, in the knowledge of Heaven’s ways!
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We must go with our Savior into the Garden of Prayer, pleading with Him each morning and night!
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We must seek for renewal and refreshment as Jesus did, and not as the world does!
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And we must cling to the following promise from Isaiah 40:31…
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“But they that wait upon the LORD
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shall renew their strength;
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they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
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they shall run, and not be weary;
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and they shall walk, and not faint.”
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TODAY’S PRAYER…
“Dear Lord, Fill me with Thy Holy Spirit, that I may also have joy in all matters of Heaven…
Woman Praying – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Running The Christian Race (Part 3, Sensual Music)” or you can also read… “July 8th (Go Ye Into All Your Heart!)”
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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THE END
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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN
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REVELATION 12 WOMAN
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WOMAN ROTATES THROUGH THE SEASONS…
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This page is about the Big Dipper, also called the Great Bear constellation (Ursa Major ). However, the ancient pagan cultures did not see this constellation as God intended it to be seen. It is actually a headless woman in childbirth. This is seen in springtime. It is seen in the northern skies.
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But as the seasons progress, this travailing woman flips upside down, now appearing as a woman with upraised arms like eagle wings who is running (eventually flying, as shown in sketch on right) into the wilderness (westward). The single star representing her birth-child (Christ) now becomes her head (“Christ is the head of the church.” Ephesians 5:23
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The 7 Stars (Big Dipper) is easy to see with its very bright 7 stars. But the Revelation 12 Woman (Ursa Major) must be seen on a dark starry night, away from city lights.
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These are star charts from Wikipedia, with sketches of the Woman added.
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… Woman of Revelation 12 (Flees to the Wilderness)
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TOMORROW:
DECEMBER 2 (Apocalypse NOW! Part 11: “Pre-Trib Rapture, The Ultimate ‘House of Cards!’”)
House Of Cards Bridge – wikipedia – public domain
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EXCERPTS FROM THE OPEN FORUM 
QUESTION/ANSWER RADIO TALK-SHOW…
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ALL ‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) are invited to listen to this Open Forum #19, a small 30 minute sampling of the late Harold Camping’s nearly 50 year long series of 90 minute nightly talk shows…
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ABOVE PICTURE: Holy bible – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons lic.
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Click on image credit links below each photo, for licensing names, details, and tags, etc….
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