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Click on provided link below each photo, for various licensing names,/details/tags

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Daily Devotional, Year 3 – July 31

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Finding Perfect Peace, Pt. 9, “Living By God’s Precious Promises”

To read Part 1, click here… Today’s Devotional – March 6th (How To Find Perfect Peace!)

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“Whereby are given unto us

exceeding great and precious promises:

that by these ye might be partakers

of the divine nature,

having escaped the corruption

that is in the world through lust.”

2nd Peter 1:4

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There is a current wave of popularity on the do-it-yourself channels, in which old houses are given a dramatic and beautiful make-over.

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And it’s truly remarkable how many of those old houses take on a brand-new appearance after some clever techniques are employed to give them a completely new look!

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House Fixer-upper in Eureka Cal. – Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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Well, how is my house? Does it have a brand-new look?

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Oh no, not my literal house! No, but how is my spiritual house? Does my spiritual house have a brand-new look about it?

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Or is my spiritual house looking rather old and out-of-date?

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

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PEACE WHICH PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING?

Philippians 4:7

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In other words, is my life filled with turmoil and unrest? Do I react to disappointing news with great consternation and even anger at times? Do I cuss when something wrong occurs.

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Do I often suspect that God is purposely working against me, intentionally trying to undermine my joy?

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Well then, it’s obvious that I have not yet achieved that perfect peace which God promises to all who implicitly place their trust in Him…“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:” Isaiah 26:3, 4

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Here is a precious promise for perfect peace: to keep our trusting eyes upon Jesus’ Word!

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Hair pulling stress – frustration – cropped image – Wikimedia – Share-alike License

Human worry & stress & depression – by Becky Wetherington for Wikimedia – cropped image – Share-alike License

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“MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE”

Hosea 4:6

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There is a children’s song which goes like this…“How can you stand on the promises of God, if you don’t know what they are?”

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The Bible is literally teeming with “great and precious promises” which the Lord has given to strengthen our faith in Him.

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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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“HEARTS OVERCHARGED…WITH CARES OF THIS LIFE, AND SO THAT DAY COME UPON YOU UNAWARES!”

Luke 21:34

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Unfortunately we are living in a day when the Church, to a great extent, has become so busy with the affairs of this life, that most church-goers are too busy to sit down with their Bible and hide those precious promises in their hearts!

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And then there is another class which know their Bible to a certain extent, and yet have cluttered their hearts and minds with so many worldly ideas  and maxims, that God’s Word has been literally pushed aside.

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All such cannot stand upon God’s promises because they have allowed the ways of Mankind to take precedence over the ways of Heaven!

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Multitask – Wikimedia – C.C. Share-alike License

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And so, today’s devotional is an encouragement to all of us, to begin to do some real house-cleaning, renovating, and redecorating of our spiritual house! A spiritual make-over of sorts!

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Exclamation Mark – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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“PURIFY YOUR HEARTS, YE DOUBLE MINDED!”

Philippians 4:8

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The very first task in giving our heart its much-needed spiritual make-over, is to begin to engage in some real house-cleaning!

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Yes, we have allowed so many of the ungodly influences of the world to clutter our spiritual house to the point that we’re unable to even walk around without stumbling over some earthly maxim or worldly wisdom!

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Lego mess – Wikipedia – Creative Commons License

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“BE NOT DECEIVED! EVIL COMMUNICATIONS CORRUPTS GOOD MANNERS”

1st Corinthians 15:33

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For instance, there are many Christians who regularly watch television, not realizing that we are yoking ourselves up with unbelievers, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?…Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2nd Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18

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Here is another great and precious promise which lets us know how we can have God treat us as His own children: by coming out from among our secular associations, and separating ourselves from ungodly influences, as far as possible.

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“I WILL SET NO WICKED THING BEFORE MINE EYES!”

Psalm 101:3

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This is how we begin to clean up our spiritual house from all the worldly clutter which has become a great source of stumbling.

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And clearing out all the rotten timbers caused by yoking up with television, radio, social media, magazines, novels, sensual music (even sensual “Christian” music) is a great place to begin such a house-renovation project!

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Graffiti on walls – Bodeguita del Medio, Havana – cropped image – Wikimedia – Share-alike License

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“THROUGH WISDOM, A HOUSE IS BUILDED”

Proverbs 24:3

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The second part of giving our house its spiritual make-over is to replace all that accumulated worldly wisdom with heavenly wisdom. And let’s face it! We have all grown up in this Babylonish world. The faithless ways of this world have become second nature to us! But Heaven’s ways are drastically different than Man’s ways!

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And 2nd Peter 1:4, speaks of, “the exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, ye may be able to escape the corruption of the world…”.

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Yes, we need to plead with God to allow us to begin hiding His Word in our hearts.

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And like “pictures of gold in settings of silver”, God’s promises should be hanging on the walls and corridors of our heart!

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“THY WORD HAVE I HID IN MY HEART”

Psalm 119:11

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And the very Good News is, that God is graciously allowing us enough time to get things corrected and right! And considering the lateness of the hour, let’s each begin to allow His Word to fill our hearts with light and truth, that we no more walk in the faithless ways of the world!

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US Navy – Chaplain Lt. Jason Gregory reads Bible on weather deck – Wikimedia – US Govt. Public Domain

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OUR DAILY BATTLE

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Perhaps at the end of each day (and all through the day), we need to spend much time, maybe while lying down in bed, thinking back on how we might have overcome that big or little attack by the Devil. Just what “exceeding great and precious promises” could have been employed, which would have given us the victory over the temptations which assailed us in our daily warfare?

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Listen…Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2nd Peter 1:4)

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Constant learning and hiding of the many Bible promises into our hearts is a critically important part of our daily walk in the Lord! 

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The armor of God – theheavensdeclare.net -use by permission only

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TO READ PART 10, GO HERE… August 18 (Finding Perfect Peace, Part 10, “World’s Most Unpopular Antidepressant!”)

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TODAY’S PRAYER…

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“Dear Lord, Slow me down, so that I take time each day to hide Thy precious promises in my heart. I know that I don’t have the memory sufficient for this. But I know that by faithfully lingering upon these promises, You will be faithful to remind me of them, at just the time when they are needed…

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READ MORE…

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To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Orion the Soldier (Armor of God)”

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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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FLOWER OF THE FIELD CONSTELLATION…

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LOCATING THIS CONSTELLATION…

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This constellation group can best be seen in spring through summer in the southern sky just above the horizon. Like all constellations, it slowly moves westward through the months, appearing a little earlier each night. It also appears to move through the sky westward each night. It can be easily seen under any degree of darkness.

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In other words, you don’t need a very dark night. In the sketch to the right, the ‘Flower of the Field’ Constellation `is in the lower part of the screen, directly under the Cross/Scepter Constellation. The sketches in this site are approximate, and not 100% accurate. The individual stars have different brightness than seen here. But these sketches are close enough in order to find them in the night sky.

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This constellation presents one of the most beautiful verses in Scripture. And yet that Scripture presents one of the most repugnant concepts (which unsaved Mankind has tried to elude for millenniums). And that concept is, that Mankind is like the grass that withers, and his glory as the wildflower that fades away. But God’s Word and those that love it will go on forever and ever!

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READ MORE…

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To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Flower of the Field Constellation”

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TOMORROW:

August 1 (Eternal Torment? Part 29: “What & Where is Hell?”)

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Those who are interested in using photos on this page may click on provided link below each photo, to get to Wikimedia Commons for various licensing names, details, and tags, and all other necessary info on any particular photo. Most tall, narrow photos have been cropped or reduced by this website to make them a better fit on phone screens.