EXTRA: 2,000th Post

~ Thanks to All Our Readers ~

Overview  ~  God has been wonderfully gracious toward Abundant Life Now.  What a great God we serve!!

Response  ~  Abundant Life Now has passed the 2,000^th post milestone.  There have been well over 500 comments posted (at various posting locations on the internet).  Your comments have been wonderful and are always appreciated.  It is a continual amazement to me how God brings readers with a wide breadth of background, locations, and interests to this site.

Location of Readers  ~  Abundant Life Now has been read in over 200 countries plus some unidentified ones (a listing is on the right side bar).  It has been translated into more than 110 languages.  Currently the Top 12 countries, as far as number of readers are: USA, Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine, Ital, UK, China, Spain, Canada, Poland, and India. 

God at Work  ~  One aspect which continually amazes me is that the particular blog entries which I personally think will generate multiple comments rarely do.  On the other hand, some of the blogs which I did not expect a comment generated multiple comments! It is evidence that we are only channels and it is the Holy Spirit that causes the stirrings of the human heart.  While Abundant Life Now’s audience is primarily Christian some members of our audience are very diverse.  Comments have been received from Muslims, Buddhists, and others.  Some have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through this ministry.  Praise the Lord! 

If Abundant Life Now has been a blessing to you, please pass the information along to your friends and acquaintances so that more individuals might be blessed by the simple concepts and truths presented here.  May God bless all of you as you seek His face and we seek to minister for Him together in these last days—just before our Lord and Savior returns to take us home to be with Him forever.

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

10 Commandments Today, 3of14

~ No Idols ~

Key Passage  ~    Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

Old Testament Command (#2)  ~  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.  For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6).

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;  you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.  For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Deuteronomy 5:8-10). 

New Testament Responsibility  ~  Jesus said, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13).

Additional Passage  ~  “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Comment  ~  An idol is anything which takes a higher priority in your life, or your thinking, than God.  Careers, bank accounts, automobiles, hobbies, sports, vacations, people are all capable of becoming a higher priority in your life than God. 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

Love, 5of9

~ The Source, Strength, and The Ability To Love ~

Series Scripture  ~  Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another” (John 15:11-17). 

Post Scripture  ~  Enablement to love comes from the Lord. 

“Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.  And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another [fellow Christians] and to all [including unbelievers], just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .