Learn From Gideon, 15

~ God Sent An Angel To Minister and Guide Gideon ~

The Biblical account of the life of Gideon provides for one of the most interesting character studies in all of Scripture.  In this series we will discover practical lessons for living the Christian life today.  

Scripture  ~  “So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour.  The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them.  The Angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’  And he did so.  Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread.  And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.  Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord.  So Gideon said, ‘Alas, O Lord God!  For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face’” (Judges 6:19-22).

Learn From Gideon  ~  God is over all of creation, including both angels, and mankind.  If God calls you He will provide what you need for the job He has given you. 

1. In the Old Testament angels sometimes appeared to God’s people. 
2. In this event an angel came and ministered to Gideon.
3. Today, when God sends angels we are usually unaware of God’s provision and protection.  “Let brotherly love continue.  Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Hebrews 13:1-2).

concluding comment  ~  We learn about Gideon primarily from Judges 6-8, but also Isaiah 9:1-7, and Hebrews 11:1-3, 32-34.

~ 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, 5of14

~ Keep The Sabbath Day Holy ~

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 (#4)  ~  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).

“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.  In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.  And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). 

New Testament Responsibility  ~  Jesus said, “Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’  But He said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?’  And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath’” (Mark 2:23-28).

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  ~  God knows man needs rest.  We are created “in His image” (Genesis 1:27, 5:1).  God, the Creator, rested on the seventh day following the six days of His work of creation (Genesis 2:2-3).  We are to be “imitators of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). 

~ 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, 7of9

~ Another Command 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  ~  Christians are to live and intentional orderly life in harmony with other believers.

“Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.  For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.  Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.  “But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia.  But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing” (1 Thessalonians 4:1-12).  

~ 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/ .