Disciplined Life, 2

~ The Importance of Discipline ~

 

Series Note ~ A constant reality is that it takes effort to develop and maintain good habits. Unfortunately; we effortlessly develop bad habits.

 

To combat this fact of mankind’s fallen nature requires consistent effort. This is why personal discipline is vitally important. Simply stated the bottom-line is that to fulfill our responsibility to become increasingly Christ-like we must exercise continual discipline.

 

Why is discipline important?

 

Scripture ~ “Bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8-9).

 

Comments ~ Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire.

 

Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful) puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa.

 

Quotes ~ It [discipline] deposes our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead. —John MacArthur

 

“Decision making is easy when your principles are clear.” —Roy Disney [Walt’s brother]

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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God Attribute, 122

God Attribute, 122

 

~ Immutable ~

 

This Series  ~  This series of posts looks at some of the many attributes of God.  Generally, we move in alphabetical order.

 

Introduction  ~  The word immutable is a theological word which simply means unchanging.

 

Scripture  ~  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

 

“Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. The children of Your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before You” (Psalm 102:25-28).

 

Quote  ~  “I have given God countless reasons not to love me.  None of them has been strong enough to change Him.”  Paul Washer 

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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Why Trust God? 91

~ God Provides Guidance ~

 

Introduction  ~  “Abundant Life Now” previously provided a list of Biblical of examples of fearing / reverencing God (217 posts).  In this current series we look at Biblical accounts that demonstrate that we can fully trust God.  Initially we posted seven general reasons for trusting God.  We are currently looking at passages from all 66 books of Scripture which demonstrate a reason for trusting our Creator. 

 

Scripture  ~  “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:1-2). The Holy Spirit of God descended to dwell within believers. Jesus had promised this event.

 

Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:12-15).

 

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (Psalm 32:8).

 

“The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail” (Isaiah 58:11).

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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Memorial Day 2024

~ Have You Forgotten Anything ~

 

Scripture ~ Jesus said, “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” (John 15:12-13).

 

Application:

Thank you, Joe Heller for this reminder!

 

And, thank you service men and women that have paid the ultimate price for us and followed His example.

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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In Jesus We Have… , 66

~ In Jesus We Have Holiness, 1 ~

 

Introduction ~ In this series we look at a few of the verses which state what we have when we are “in Christ.”  Consider our series theme verse: 

 

“God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:4-10).

 

If you are a Christian, God views you as covered with the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is become increasingly like our Savior in our daily life – living an increasingly holy life!

 

Scripture ~ “To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74-75).

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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Promise of God, 20

~ God Is Available To All ~

 

This Series ~ God has made many promises to His people. This series of posts looks at some (100) of the many attributes of God.  It is not an exhaustive list.

 

Key Factor ~ God not only makes promises to His people but He also keeps all of His promises.

 

Scripture ~ “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29).

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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Fool Characteristics, 59

~ Fools Do Not Seek Knowledge ~

 

Series Note  ~  In the first 47 posts in this series we looked at some passages in the Book of Proverbs – wise sayings that are generally true – that describe a “fool” (singular) from God’s perspective.  Now we continue by looking at verses Proverbs which talk about ”fools” (plural).  Some may surprise you. 

 

Scripture  ~  “The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness” (Proverbs 15:14).

 

Important Truth  ~  “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’” (Psalm 53:1a).

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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Disciplined Life, 1

~ The Necessity of Discipline ~

 

Series Note ~ A constant reality is that it takes effort to develop and maintain good habits. Unfortunately; we effortlessly develop bad habits.

 

To combat this fact of mankind’s fallen nature requires consistent effort. This is why personal discipline is vitally important. Simply stated the bottom-line is that to fulfill our responsibility to become increasingly Christ-like we must exercise continual discipline.

 

Scripture ~ “Exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:7b-8).

 

Quote ~ “The purpose of parental discipline is to produce obedience. God disciplines His children to produce holiness, that is spiritual obedience which produces righteousness and conformity to the image of Christ. The Hebrew writer put it this way: “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our own good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10-11). —"GOD’S CHILD: Like a Tree” by Robert Lloyd Russell, eBook ISBN: 978-1393518266. ASIN: B0874CHLD7, or print edition ISBN: 979-8215346204.

 

Questions ~ 1) How would you rate your current physical fitness?

 

2) How would you rate your current spiritual fitness?

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

 

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God Attribute, 121

~ A God of Humor ~

 

This Series  ~  This series of posts looks at some of the many attributes of God.  Generally, we move in alphabetical order.

 

Introduction  ~  We often do, and should, read the Bible with reverence. However, that does not mean we should not appreciate the humor of the Bible—much of which we miss because of cultural changes.

 

Scripture  ~  “Mark 3:16-17 lists rather formally the names of the apostles: ‘And so He appointed the Twelve: Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges or “Sons of Thunder”…’ Can you just picture Jesus actually calling them that? There is a reason for that nickname, though, as in their fervor they are unhappy with a man using Jesus’s name to heal the sick and they zealously try to stop him (Mark 9:38-40; Luke 9:38-39).

 

“They show the same zeal in a passage which soon follows in (Luke 9:53-56), where the brothers want to call down fire upon a Samaritan village for refusing to welcome Jesus. There is a certain innocence about the directness of their apparently youthful response, but the very idea of Jesus hanging such a nickname on them, one rooted well-enough in reality to appear in Scripture, puts Christ in a much more human light than the austere, thoughtful, driven, combative, instructive, and empathetic Christ who dominates the Synoptics and our own concepts of the Lord.” — Charles Kestermeier (Humor in the Bible).

 

Quotes  ~  Consider a few quotes from G.K. Chesterton.

 

“There was one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”

 

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”

 

“If there were no God, there would be no atheists.”

“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.”

 

And Steve Wilkens has written: “As I read theology through the lens of humor,” he writes, “I discovered that I don’t just love God. I like God.”

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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Why Trust God? 90

~ God Sacrificed On Our Behalf ~

 

Introduction  ~  “Abundant Life Now” previously provided a list of Biblical of examples of fearing / reverencing God (217 posts).  In this current series we look at Biblical accounts that demonstrate that we can fully trust God.  Initially we posted seven general reasons for trusting God.  We are currently looking at passages from all 66 books of Scripture which demonstrate a reason for trusting our Creator. 

 

Scripture  ~  Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

 

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:14-21).

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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