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Click credit links below each pic, for licensing names/details/tags/etc.. Most pics cropped/reduced in size

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Daily Devotional, Year 2 – APRIL 12

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Seagulls & ‘No-Fear’ Teachers

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Seagulls exist in just about anywhere that water is present. Hot or cold climates matters not to these hardiest of all birds!

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And as with all things in nature, gulls are among our many teachers…

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Listen… “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?” Job 12:7-9

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As this passage from Job reveals, all nature was designed to teach mankind lessons about good and about evil.

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Black-headed Gull – St_James Park London – Wikimedia – GNU Free Doc. License

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ME FIRST!

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If you have ever attempted to feed a gull, you have no doubt been accosted by many other gulls, pushing and shoving to be first in line to steal away with the biggest morsel!

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Seagulls fighting for a fish – Wikipedia – Public Domain

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PROUD, PROUD, PROUD!!!

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And gulls are a proud bunch! They know just who is the biggest and baddest gull; and that chief gull makes sure he gets the proper respect from the others!

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He will even go up and down the assembly, pecking at the other gulls, making the others tuck in their heads, as an act of submission to his authority!

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Sea Gulls – Trouble in the air! – Wikimedia – Creative Commons License

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GOD’S CLEAN-UP CREW

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Gulls are on a constant search for anything edible, even the least little bit!

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They have an incredible digestive system, and are God’s appointed clean-up crew around the world. 

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Seagulls – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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So what else can we learn about ourselves from these, our little bold and fearless friends?

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Question Marks – At a loss – svg – Wikimedia Commons – Share-Alike License

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PUSHING AND SHOVING

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Well, as we watch them selfishly fighting over every scrap and morsel on the beach, we can see how we humans often appear in the eyes of our Heavenly Father!

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Yes, God sees our selfishness and faithlessness as we so often scramble to get “our due and just reward”.

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He sees how we are willing to shove our way through a crowd, to get first-grabs at a garage sale!

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He sees how we take the biggest and best, without regard for others who aren’t as quick or as strong as we are!

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He takes note that we are willing to step over our fellow employees, to get that job promotion.

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Or how we buy that needlessly expensive house or car or motor-home, instead of sending out the Gospel to starving souls in third-world nations, via faithful ministries.

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Seagull feeding frenzy – Wikimedia 

Black Friday Frenzy – by Powhusku – Wikimedia – Share-alike License

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BOLD IS SO BEAUTIFUL?

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But this devotional isn’t about the selfishness of gulls and people. Not directly, anyway.

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No, the focus of today’s devotional is about the “No-Fear” quality of sea gulls!

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Yes, these fearless and bold ones remind us of how we sometimes behave in the house of God.

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As a matter of fact, being bold and fearless is usually considered to be a virtue in today’s world!

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Sunday preaching – Wikipedia – US Public Domain

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MEEK AND LOWLY IN HEART

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But Scripture says… “Thus saith the LORD…to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word.” Isaiah 66:1, 2

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Yes, God loves a meek and lowly Christian who fears His Word, and fears His wrath!

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But this doesn’t really describe the current state of most Bible teachers, does it? For some reason, we Bible teachers get the notion that unless we exert all the authority and confidence of the Apostle Paul, we will somehow lose our following!

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And so, there exists a dogmatism in the church-world among Bible teachers which rubs off on parishioners too!

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David Playing Harp – www.thebiblerevival.com – US public domain

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STIFF-NECKED US

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Consequently, the greater part of Christendom has become hard-headed and unbending in our supposed knowledge.

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But this isn’t anything new! After all, even back in the days of the meekest of all men, Moses, God complained… “And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:” Exodus 32:9.

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Yes, when God wrote the Old Testament, He also wrote it for us… “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1st Corinthians 10:11

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And so, when we read of those hard-headed rebels back in the Old Testament, we must realize that God is speaking to us too!

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HARD TO UNDERSTAND

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Now if the Bible was written to be easily understood, then there might be an excuse for our foolish dogmatism.

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But God purposely wrote the Bible to be hard to understand… “As also in all his (Paul’s) epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” 2nd Peter 3:16

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So here it is revealed that the Bible is a difficult book.

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And yet, when we hear all the dogmatism coming from “No-Fear” Bible teachers, you would think such teachers to be infallible popish authoritarians!

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Paul the Apostle – Artist – Valentin de Boulogne or Nicolas Tournier – circa 1500s – Wikipedia – public domain

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MANY VERSES SPEAK OF DEATH

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Take for instance, this old church doctrine referred to as “Eternal Torment”.

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The fact is, there is a plethora of Bible texts which speak of Hell as… “the wages of sin is death”, or “The soul that sinneth shall die”.

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And yet, with all the boldness of an infallible authority, Bible teachers self-confidently step on the backs of these verses, loudly proclaiming that God is going to mercilessly torment every unbeliever for all time and eternity!

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Devil – Hans Memling – Wikimedia – US Public Domain

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IGNORING IMPORTANT PASSAGES

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And just because they have been told that the “Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus” is the last word on the nature of Hell, they simply ignore all the many other passages which speak of Hell as the grave and as death…

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For instance, what about this passage… “For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.” Job 3:13

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When these “No-Fear” Bible teachers are questioned about this above passage they simply deny it is Bible doctrine! “Oh Job was merely on a rant”, they confidently say, “This is not trustworthy doctrine!”, they secretly imply!

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What an incredibly heretical statement!

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“COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE”

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No, there is absolutely no reason for any Bible teacher to get dogmatic about so-called “Eternal Torment”.

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There are simply too many passages which teach otherwise.

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And so, it is no wonder that God is calling His meek ones to join the current end-time exodus out from Spiritual Sodom & Egypt (the apostate churches!)

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Listen… “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her (Babylon), My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4.

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Tissot – The Flight of the Prisoners – Wikipedia – US Public Domain 

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A TIME TO BE DOGMATIC

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Now there are many Bible truths which we can boldly proclaim: Christ’s deity, His great Atonement, Judgment to come, etc..

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These truths and many more, God has made perfectly clear in Scripture.

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And we can certainly quote with boldness, various Bible verses concerning easy as well as difficult doctrines. We need not be afraid to quote any Bible verse!

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But never should we proclaim anything that the Bible never says, such as “Eternal Torment”.

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Oh yes, we can boldly say, “the smoke of their torment ascends up, for ever and ever…” That’s a Bible verse.

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And yes, we can boldly recite the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. That’s a passage from the Bible. We are merely quoting the Bible.

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But neither of these passages necessarily prove the church-doctrine named by theologians, “Eternal Torment”. And considering all the other Bible passages which contradict this long-held traditional catholic church-doctrine, these forbid us from making such a theological leap! 

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NO REPENTANCE! NO REMORSE!

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There is no repentance from this proud and arrogant so-called “orthodoxy” which rules over today’s Christendom!

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And since they refuse to give up their Babylonish doctrines, there is hope in only one direction: “Come out of her My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues!”

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PICTURE – Constellation- Woman of Revelation 12 flees to the mountains Mark 13:14 This is not a star-chart, but merely a concept picture

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FLEE TO THE MOUNTAINS

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“But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:” Mark 13:14

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When God’s people finally come out of spiritual Babylon, they will be delighted to find that there are rivers and streams of living waters upon the blessed high hills and mountains, in that day when the towers fall.

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“But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.” Ezekiel 7:16  

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TODAY’S PRAYER…

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“Dear Lord, Give me the spirit of meekness, as I attempt to discern the Word of truth…

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READ MORE…

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To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “April 1 (Jeremiah & the Smooth Prophets)“, or you can also read… “March 1st (A Designer Jesus!)” 

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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THE END

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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN

Info & pics of constellations on this site from Wikipedia & International Astronomical Union (click here)

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“But they that escape of them shall escape,

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and shall be on the mountains

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like doves of the valleys,

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all of them mourning,

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every one for his iniquity.”

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Ezekiel 7:16

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LOCATING THIS CONSTELLATION

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THE TWO TURTLE-DOVES CONSTELLATION… This constellation appears in early spring in the south. It moves from east to west during the night and slowly moves to the western horizon by fall. It is commonly known as Sagittarius. (The three stars at the top of the 2nd Turtle-dove are not shown in some Sagittarius Star-charts, but are in others.)

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Sagittarius Constellation star-chart from a wikipedia. Editor of this site has sketched in the Turtle-Doves. Star-chart is under Share-alike license

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ABOVE STAR-CHART (with doves drawn in by this website: Summer Constellation – Two Turtledoves (aka: Sagittarius) – Wikipedia Star-chart

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READ MORE…

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To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “What is the Meaning of the Two Turtledoves Constellation?”

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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TOMORROW…

“APRIL 13 (Perfect Peace: Alternative To Television) “

Garbage-Hollygrove1-TV-Typewriter-CurbTrash-Wikimedia-share-alike-license-300×223

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