My All in All..

Jesus said

"I am come to give them life,

and life more abundant."

If Jesus came to give us abundant

life, then it surely must

mean that we can

"run through and leap over"

(Psalm 18:28)

every obstacle

on the giant obstacle course

of life.

Living the abundant life

Jesus came to give

surely means that even now, 

on this side of eternity, we can live

 life with joyful abandon

no matter how many disappointments we have

from those who once walked with us in Truth

or over those who presented Truth outwardly but did

not know Him truly...

This abundant life means that we have all the Power needed

to remain calm and count our blessings in the midst 

of a trying morning where you are tired and your

scholar boy isn't having the desire needed to be 

industrious...

or when you are stunned by someone's blatant

disregard for the precious simplicity that is in Christ,

trading it up for a more complicated doctrine

laced with falsehood and denying the one,

True God you love and adore...

or when squabbling over non~essentials

is more important than serving one another...

(fill in the blank if I missed something!)

This abundant life must mean that we can keep our opinions

to ourselves if they are not edifying or are selfish.

This abundant life must mean that we can communicate 

with others without hurling accusations and rude remarks

and that we are swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.

This abundant life must mean, then, that God's children who truly

know the Lord Jesus Christ will make every effort to follow

the Jesus they profess...

obeying Him every single day, consistently.

This abundant life means that daughters and sons are

wanted and nurtured and raised up in the Lord.

This abundant life means that we lay down our lives for our friends.

No pride of will or lust of station allowed to pass through from 

temptation to thought and action.

The reason this is so is because

JESUS is 

who He says He is and 

does what He says He will do.

Life is so not about me.

It is about Him.

So therefore, nothing my old flesh feels

is of any value when put up against

the new life of Christ,

the one that denies me and says

YES to bringing Him glory.

The abundant life, with the rivers of living water

flowing out of our innermost beings

simply cannot be reality for us if

we hold onto what He asked us to give away...

It cannot happen in our life if we

refuse to truly commit ourselves wholly to Him.

Just suppose that all the bad things 

you ever experienced

in your life:

parental neglect, sexual abuse, the brunt of mockery,

falsely accused, misunderstood, demeaned in any way,

gossiped about, rudely spoken to, beaten, slapped around

by those who were supposed to be there to nurture you,

orphaned and neglected by society, etc

can be used for good if you love God and 
can bring Him glory if we commit ourselves wholly to Him?

Just suppose we deny Him that glory by refusing to believe His

promises and by refusing to give ourselves wholly over to Him?

We miss out.

But He misses out even more.

As for me, I have not regretted for one minute

the choice I made to give myself 
wholly to Him.

And the more I give Him,
 the more contented and trusting 

I become, willing to sorrow for what is unrighteous and lost

but serene and standing firmly on Christ, the solid Rock.

Arise, then and live that abundant LIFE...

What fire would stir in both our own hearts

and spread to others whose hearts also need to be stirred.

The beginning of the verse I quoted
 from John 10

says that the enemy comes
seeking to kill, steal and destroy...

To be wary of that enemy every single day,

to hide under the shadow of the wings
of the Almighty

and to choose Jesus every day is to 

defy that enemy and to deny the flesh that naturally

serves the enemy.

What lies we let the enemy tell us...

Lies like

helping us to fear that we will lose our true self

if we give ourselves completely to Him.

Lies that help us to stay stuck

because we don't believe that He has

abundant life for us,

only hardship and dullness.

THIS IS NOT TRUE!

Life in Christ is never ever dull.

It is beautiful,

peaceful,

and full of light,

to say the least!

I know that I need to climb still higher in this

abundant living,

being changed from glory to glory

as I walk thru this dark, old sinful world

on my way Home.

And as I told someone recently,

I am determined to live my life for Jesus

with purpose

intensely

and no matter what obstacles I face.

He is worthy...

In Christ Alone