7 Life Essentials, 3

 ~ Basic Need: Food ~ 

Introduction  ~  In this series we will look at the four most basic physical needs for a human to survive, and how Jesus Christ satisfies the parallel spiritual needs.  Then we will look at three additional critical factors related to both our physical and spiritual needs.

 

Physical Needs  ~  According to basic physiological understanding mankind needs four basic elements in order to survive physically: water, air, food, and light.

 

Jesus satisfies the parallel spiritual needs.  Jesus is the Living Water (John 4:10-11, 7:38).  Jesus provides the Breath of Life (Genesis 2:7, Colossians 1:16-17).  Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48).  Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12, 9:5).

 

Key Scriptures  ~  “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). 

 

Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.  This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world’” (John 6:47-51). 

 

Comment  ~  Our spiritual lives are just as much in need of food as the our physical lives. 

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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Ability > Failure > Progress > Success

 ~ Four States of Mankind Regarding Sin ~ 

 

Innocent Man (before The Fall)  ~  “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:15-17).  God gave man clear instructions of what to do and what not to do. 

Adam had the ability to sin, but more importantly the ability not to sin! 

 

Natural Man (after The Fall)  ~  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  The Apostle Paul explained it this way, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.  For what I am doing, I do not understand.  For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.  But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:14-20).  Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden we are not able to not sin!  Fortunately, the believer who is experiencing normal (not average) spiritual growth is sinning less and less as they are in the process of becoming transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  

 

Regenerated Man  ~  “Put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:9b-10).  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).  The Christian is a “new creation” in Christ – not a “makeover.”  As a believer with the indwelling Holy Spirit we are able to not sin!

 

Glorified Man  ~  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:1-3).  Our final stage will be when we are transformed and no longer able to sin! 

 

Comment  ~  These four categorizations are from Augustine of Hippo in “The Bondage of the Will.”  

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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Sabbath, 1of9

 ~ The Reason for The Sabbath ~

 

Introduction  ~  In the Old Testament the Sabbath was established as part of The Law.  The Sabbath is observed from sundown Friday evening through sundown Saturday evening.  In the New Testament the law of God is written on believers’ hearts (Romans 2:12-16) rather than on tablets of stone.  It is the heart’s attitude which now supersedes outward obedience (Romans 10:10).  Following Christ’s resurrection, which occurred on the first day of the week, the Disciples and later the Church have observed their day of rest on Sunday in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 20:7). 

 

Passage  ~  “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). 

 

Comment  ~  God set the pattern for us.  We are made in His image. 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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