About a year ago I bought a new Bible. The one that I had been using was fifteen years old, written in, highlighted excessively and worn out. Honestly, I hated to move on to a new Bible. The old one had been my help and companion over some amazing and difficult days.

God had used His Word powerfully in my life.

But I moved on.

I am now into a new Bible, a new translation with clean pages that are free of highlightings, underlinings and notes in the margins. It is a delight to see the Scriptures through fresh eyes (and yes, I am making new notes, underlinings and highlights).

In the back of my "old" Bible I found a sheet that I had looked at and lived by every day for over fifteen years. It was a "Life Rule" that I had drafted—a list of ten things that were non-negotiables for me in my spiritual life—my life with Christ.

It had been a year since I had looked at the sheet and I was stunned as I reflected on the fifteen years that I lived according to my "Life Rule". In retrospect I could see that God used it for good. He blessed my family and the work of my hands. I have no regrets. I grew in my life with Christ. This quote came to my mind:

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
                                        — Søren Kierkegaard.

Are you living forwards for the Lord, or just letting life happen? A "Life Rule" is a way to establish a guide and some helps in your life to ensure that you are in a green and growing place in your walk with Jesus Christ. It is all about the day by day, step by step, abiding life with the Lord. Are you inviting Jesus to be "with" you? If you are, you will one day look back and exclaim, wow!

Let's live forward for the Lord. A "Life Rule" will help you do that. Here is the video link to the teaching session on, "Developing a Life Rule":

By perseverance the snail reached the ark. – Charles Spurgeon

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, NIV)

Perseverance means more than endurance— more than simply holding on until the end. … Faith is the supreme effort of your life— throwing yourself with abandon and total confidence upon God. — Oswald Chambers

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV)

We are weary of the success and happiness school. We need holy men of God who are in touch with Headquarters, who remind us of another world than this.

                                                                        — Vance Havner

One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat. She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. (2 Kings 4:8-9, NLT)

Men return again and again to the few who have mastered the spiritual secret, whose life has been hid with Christ in God. These are of the old time religion, hung to the nails of the Cross. —Robert Murray McCheyne

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13, NIV)

We can never stop growing toward God. Holiness is a dynamic thing, a matter of motion. There is no static balance in the spiritual life. We’re either moving toward God or away from Him. — David Roper

If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13, NLT)

Lazy people sleep soundly, but idleness leaves them hungry. (Proverbs 19:15, NLT)

When the soul does not direct its efforts to higher things . . . it stoops to concern itself with low desires. — St. Gregory

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. … I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. (Philippians 3:10, 12, NLT)

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (Revelation 3:1, ESV)

She who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. (1 Timothy 5:6, NIV)

The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:22-24, ESV)

Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. (Romans 6:13, NLT)

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. (John 11:25, KJV)

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV)

'Tis hard for man to rouse his spirit up—
It is the human creative agony,
Though but to hold the heart an empty cup,
Or tighten on the team the rigid rein.
Many will rather lie among the slain
Than creep through narrow ways the light to gain—
Than wake the will, and be born bitterly.
But he who would be born again indeed,
Must wake his soul unnumbered times a day,
And urge himself to life with holy greed;
Now ope his bosom to the Wind's free play;
And now, with patience forceful, hard, lie still,
Submiss and ready to the making will,
Athirst and empty, for God's breath to fill. — George MacDonald

Hell has many gates, though Heaven has but one. — C.H. Spurgeon

Jesus said, “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.” (John 10:9, NLT)