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In John 10:10, Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Throughout Scripture we find Jesus often speaking about the abundant life that He offers to all who follow Him. But this begs the question, what exactly is the abundant life? Is it more money? More possessions? More vacations? More status?
Just last night I was speaking to my brother about the Lord and he was saying that the world tells you to go to school, get a good paying job, save your money for retirement and then retire. But what about after retirement? What do you do then? The world never discusses life after death and what we should do to prepare. Of course, this is based largely on the fact that the world does not know God and is not concerned with the things of God (Romans 1). But this still does not change the fact that the one thing all of us are going to experience regardless of age, stature, or success is death. Yet, we spend so little time preparing. So much of Jesus’ teachings were based on the kingdom of God and designed to get men and women thinking about things of eternal value versus temporal value. God tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that He has set eternity in the hearts of men. But, so often we push the things of eternal value to the back burner even as Christians, don’t we?
When Jesus gave His most profound sermon in Matthew chapter 5, He spoke of a way of life that was counter intuitive to the world’s system. The selfless principles He outlined that pictured the kingdom of God were too difficult for many to comprehend as He begins each point by naming a group of people normally thought to be unblessable and pronounces them blessed because of the presence and availability of the abundant life in God's kingdom to everyone, everywhere, regardless of status, circumstances, or condition. And this is the key. It is not based on what you have or don’t have or who your parents are but on a person – Jesus Christ. To further underscore this critical spiritual reality, Jesus told us in John 14:6 that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one comes to the Father but by Him.”
The abundant life Jesus is offering is attained on the inside not the outside. He is extending to us an internal peace that it is not found anywhere else. This is why the Christian is able to live above his/her circumstances because the focus is on the One who has overcome the world and ensures us we will too (John 16:33). Man is preoccupied with circumstances, God is preoccupied with character. And it is within the person of Jesus Christ that we are able to cast off the old man and put on the new man in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Eternal life as opposed to this life is not determined by duration but by a relationship with God. This is why the Scripture tell us that once a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and personal Savior that he/she possesses eternal life already (1 John 5:11-13), though not, of course, in its fullness. For you see a Christian's life revolves around “growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). This teaches us that the abundant life is a continual process of learning, practicing, and maturing, as well as failing, recovering, adjusting, enduring, and overcoming, because, in our present state, “we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror” (1 Corinthians 13:12). One day we will see God face to face, and we will know Him completely as we will be known completely (1 Corinthians 13:12). We will no longer struggle with sin and doubt. This will be the ultimately fulfilled abundant life.
The true abundant life will display the fruits produced by the Holy Spirit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), not an abundance of “stuff.” It consists of life that is eternal, and, therefore, our interest is in the eternal, not the temporal.
If you do not know the Lord, it is my hope and prayer that you will spend some time exploring the abundant life that Jesus is offering right now. His Word tells us that “today is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) And Romans 10:9-10 tells us how to be saved, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Showing posts with label abundant life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abundant life. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
Friday, December 3, 2010
Precious Things Are Saved Only by Sacrifice
During the past two years the Lord has taught me much about sacrifice. Sadly, in today’s “me first” society, sacrifice has lost its true meaning. Most think of it only in terms of sacrificing one thing in order to attain something bigger or better. We gladly sacrifice a little here or a little there as long as we are sure the outcome will be in our favor. But true sacrifice, the kind that fuels the passion of the soul, has no such expectations.
The abundant life that Jesus offers is one that is based on sacrifice, but of course this message is not one that today’s world wants to hear much less live by. Jesus said that you would know His disciples by their love one toward another. He continually admonished His followers to love their neighbor as themselves and to even love their enemies. He lived the life of a servant and told His disciples when they asked Him who would be the greatest in His kingdom that “if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35).
So, it is no wonder that the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. We can conclude then that the key to spiritual victory is not getting all you can get, but giving all you have. Many people flock into churches and seek spiritual experiences to get more of God when the issue is not what they need to GET but what they need to GIVE.
I don’t pretend that this is easy but as John MacArthur has skillfully said, “This [presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice] is absolutely necessary if we are ever to know the fullness of the blessing of God and be able to render to him the service that is due to Him and bring Him glory. Most Christians never really come to that place fully. They flirt with the world, they flirt with the flesh. They flirt with their own personal indulgences and desires. They become victims of the philosophy and psychology of the world around them. They buy into the world's bag. They entertain themselves with the world's mode of entertainment. They think along the lines the world thinks. And so they never really come to the place of total commitment that is discussed in these two verses and therefore they forfeit the fullness of the blessing that God would have for them.”
I think for many of us we meet a need here or help someone over there and we feel pretty good but God is asking for our mind, body, and soul. When He is in possession of us than we are most suited to serve others as He did and experience His full blessing in our lives. In other words, if our vertical relationship with God is where it should be than our horizontal relationships with others will also be in harmony.
I think so often we have this backwards. We work on our horizontal relationships in our own power and then feel like a failure and wonder why our walk has become a burden when the key from the start is to fill up on God and let his power flow through us. Of course, this takes much sacrifice, doesn’t it? It means turning off the TV, the radio, the computer, and communing with the Living God in His Word and in prayer.
What is even more frustrating is that when I have truly committed myself to the Lord my Christian life feels effortless and full of joy but soon, for whatever reason, I revert back to doing things myself and in my own power and soon the drudgery resurfaces.
I think it is important as we seek to know God more and to glorify Him within our lives to remember that anything worth having, anything that truly endures is always attained by sacrifice and the Lord is asking us to be a living sacrifice unto Him. Surely, this is not too much to ask by the One who sacrificed His own life for us so we may obtain eternal life.
“The Christian life is never measured in success but in sacrifice.” – Leonard Ravenhill
The abundant life that Jesus offers is one that is based on sacrifice, but of course this message is not one that today’s world wants to hear much less live by. Jesus said that you would know His disciples by their love one toward another. He continually admonished His followers to love their neighbor as themselves and to even love their enemies. He lived the life of a servant and told His disciples when they asked Him who would be the greatest in His kingdom that “if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35).
So, it is no wonder that the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. We can conclude then that the key to spiritual victory is not getting all you can get, but giving all you have. Many people flock into churches and seek spiritual experiences to get more of God when the issue is not what they need to GET but what they need to GIVE.
I don’t pretend that this is easy but as John MacArthur has skillfully said, “This [presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice] is absolutely necessary if we are ever to know the fullness of the blessing of God and be able to render to him the service that is due to Him and bring Him glory. Most Christians never really come to that place fully. They flirt with the world, they flirt with the flesh. They flirt with their own personal indulgences and desires. They become victims of the philosophy and psychology of the world around them. They buy into the world's bag. They entertain themselves with the world's mode of entertainment. They think along the lines the world thinks. And so they never really come to the place of total commitment that is discussed in these two verses and therefore they forfeit the fullness of the blessing that God would have for them.”
I think for many of us we meet a need here or help someone over there and we feel pretty good but God is asking for our mind, body, and soul. When He is in possession of us than we are most suited to serve others as He did and experience His full blessing in our lives. In other words, if our vertical relationship with God is where it should be than our horizontal relationships with others will also be in harmony.
I think so often we have this backwards. We work on our horizontal relationships in our own power and then feel like a failure and wonder why our walk has become a burden when the key from the start is to fill up on God and let his power flow through us. Of course, this takes much sacrifice, doesn’t it? It means turning off the TV, the radio, the computer, and communing with the Living God in His Word and in prayer.
What is even more frustrating is that when I have truly committed myself to the Lord my Christian life feels effortless and full of joy but soon, for whatever reason, I revert back to doing things myself and in my own power and soon the drudgery resurfaces.
I think it is important as we seek to know God more and to glorify Him within our lives to remember that anything worth having, anything that truly endures is always attained by sacrifice and the Lord is asking us to be a living sacrifice unto Him. Surely, this is not too much to ask by the One who sacrificed His own life for us so we may obtain eternal life.
“The Christian life is never measured in success but in sacrifice.” – Leonard Ravenhill
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Abundant Life on Display
My last couple of blogs have dealt with the subject of serving others and how this principle is the key to the abundant that Jesus promised would be ours if our lives were lost in Him. But what does such a life look like?
In his book, The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn details the life of William Borden, an American missionary who lived in the late 1800’s. Borden was a Yale graduate and heir to great wealth but he rejected a life of ease in order to bring the gospel to Muslims. Alcorn goes to say that Borden refused to even buy himself a car as he gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. After only four months of ministry in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died at the tender age of 25. Alcorn recounts his visit to Borden’s grave site, “I dusted off the epitaph…after describing his love and sacrifices for the kingdom of God and for Muslim people , the inscription ended with a phrase I have never forgotten: ‘Apart from faith in Christ, there is explanation for such a life.’”
Alcorn then describes his subsequent visit to King Tut’s tomb, the boy king who died at age 17. Tut was buried with gold chariots and thousands of gold artifacts as the Egyptians believed erroneously that one could take his possessions with him to the afterlife. Alcorn remembers, “I was struck by the contrast of these two graves. Borden’s was obscure, dusty, and hidden off the back alley of a street littered with garbage. Tut’s tomb glittered with unimaginable wealth. Yet, where are these two young men now? One, who lived in opulence and called himself king, is in the misery of a Christless eternity. The other, who lived a modest life on earth in service of the one true King, is enjoying his everlasting reward in the presence of his Lord.”
William Borden is one who possessed the abundant life. I do not mean to suggest that one needs to give away or sell all his/her possessions to attain the abundant life but a life that is truly lost in Christ only views his station in life as a means by which to serve others by giving them the one thing they truly need – Jesus Christ. I really believe that when Christians stand before Jesus, all of us will wish we had given everything while we were here on earth as everything we possess is given from above for the purpose of the kingdom. It is here in this realm of servitude that we find true fulfillment and purpose.
This principle of service is underscored throughout the Bible. Jesus Himself tells us what our life will look like when we abide in Him, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)
As I have stated previously, the American culture is the very antithesis of self-sacrifice. The land of opportunity has morphed over the past few decades into the land of me, myself, and I. We champion those who scratch and claw their way to the top no matter who they trample over to get there.
As long as the Dow Jones remains our barometer for judging success, we will never see the life Jesus is offering to those who love and serve Him. And really, when you boil it all down, we are all searching for the same thing, but outside of Christ our efforts are futile and leave us empty. William Borden understood this which is why when he was presented with the chance to have a life of luxury in this life, he traded it in for a life with the Lord in the next.
Where are you storing your treasures?
"What is it to me to bear the title well-born when I am born again to Christ? What is it to me to have the title Lord, when I desire to be the servant of Christ? What is it to be called Your Grace when I have need of God's grace? All these vanities I will do away with and all else I will lay at the feet of my dear Lord Jesus." - Baron von Weltz (son of Austrian nobility who renounced his title, his estates and his revenues in order to serve as a missionary to British Guyana)
"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." - Jesus Christ (John 10:9-10)
In his book, The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn details the life of William Borden, an American missionary who lived in the late 1800’s. Borden was a Yale graduate and heir to great wealth but he rejected a life of ease in order to bring the gospel to Muslims. Alcorn goes to say that Borden refused to even buy himself a car as he gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. After only four months of ministry in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died at the tender age of 25. Alcorn recounts his visit to Borden’s grave site, “I dusted off the epitaph…after describing his love and sacrifices for the kingdom of God and for Muslim people , the inscription ended with a phrase I have never forgotten: ‘Apart from faith in Christ, there is explanation for such a life.’”
Alcorn then describes his subsequent visit to King Tut’s tomb, the boy king who died at age 17. Tut was buried with gold chariots and thousands of gold artifacts as the Egyptians believed erroneously that one could take his possessions with him to the afterlife. Alcorn remembers, “I was struck by the contrast of these two graves. Borden’s was obscure, dusty, and hidden off the back alley of a street littered with garbage. Tut’s tomb glittered with unimaginable wealth. Yet, where are these two young men now? One, who lived in opulence and called himself king, is in the misery of a Christless eternity. The other, who lived a modest life on earth in service of the one true King, is enjoying his everlasting reward in the presence of his Lord.”
William Borden is one who possessed the abundant life. I do not mean to suggest that one needs to give away or sell all his/her possessions to attain the abundant life but a life that is truly lost in Christ only views his station in life as a means by which to serve others by giving them the one thing they truly need – Jesus Christ. I really believe that when Christians stand before Jesus, all of us will wish we had given everything while we were here on earth as everything we possess is given from above for the purpose of the kingdom. It is here in this realm of servitude that we find true fulfillment and purpose.
This principle of service is underscored throughout the Bible. Jesus Himself tells us what our life will look like when we abide in Him, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)
As I have stated previously, the American culture is the very antithesis of self-sacrifice. The land of opportunity has morphed over the past few decades into the land of me, myself, and I. We champion those who scratch and claw their way to the top no matter who they trample over to get there.
As long as the Dow Jones remains our barometer for judging success, we will never see the life Jesus is offering to those who love and serve Him. And really, when you boil it all down, we are all searching for the same thing, but outside of Christ our efforts are futile and leave us empty. William Borden understood this which is why when he was presented with the chance to have a life of luxury in this life, he traded it in for a life with the Lord in the next.
Where are you storing your treasures?
"What is it to me to bear the title well-born when I am born again to Christ? What is it to me to have the title Lord, when I desire to be the servant of Christ? What is it to be called Your Grace when I have need of God's grace? All these vanities I will do away with and all else I will lay at the feet of my dear Lord Jesus." - Baron von Weltz (son of Austrian nobility who renounced his title, his estates and his revenues in order to serve as a missionary to British Guyana)
"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." - Jesus Christ (John 10:9-10)
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