AbeLog

The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

 

 

Jesus came not to judge, but to save (John 3:17). But the question is: what is Jesus saving us for? What are we saved for? Are we saved for living a miserable life? Are we saved for living under the bondage of Satan? Are we saved so that we can be slave to our work and family? What are we saved for?

 

John 10:10 tells us that we are saved so that we might have life and have it abundantly. Incidentally, I will be preaching on the topic: Life of Abundance, some time next month. I am really thankful that God has given me the Word He wants to speak to His people, and I am now able to begin to work on it.

 

What is life of abundance? Life of abundance can be found in the early Christian church in Acts 2. They lacked nothing, they shared everything, they were filled with awe, they were filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and they were experiencing life in full, in abundance. They have no worries of where their next meal would come from, because they have confident in the Lord that they were be provided as they faithfully contributed all they had.

 

I was trying to imagine living in that church. I would own nothing, as I have given back the ownership to God and entrusted the church and the Christian community to use it for the Kingdom. I would not be worried if there would be a financial crisis, as I would not have any finance to be in the crisis, but at the same time I would not be in need. This would be the life of abundance.

 

In our reform tradition, the life of abundance is interpreted to be spiritual abundance. Surely, I have no doubt about spiritual abundance we will experience when we receive Jesus into our life. We will be spiritually eternal as the God promises us eternal life after death, but what is installed for us on earth before death? Again a good Presbyterian, who embraces reform teaching, will say that we will experience abundance of joy, peace and love while we are still on earth. And again, I have no problem with such explanation, as life includes our emotions and inner soul, and I am one of which goes after such experience of abundance from within my soul and spirit. But is that all?

 

I have been thinking of this question for quite awhile as I am preparing a sermon on it. What does it mean to experience life of abundance with my finance and physical health? I know that I may be accused of being a proponent of prosperity gospel, but I am not. Neither is I a hyper-Charismatic who do not believe that Christian will get sick and all Christians should be always healthy? I do not promote wealth and health gospel. But I strongly believe that we do not need to live in the oppression of poverty and sickness, though I reckon that these are part of our fallen humanity. But I do not believe these are part of the life of abundance Jesus came for.

 

Satan comes to steal away our inner peace, kill our emotional joy and destroy our hope of love; Satan also comes to steal our possessions; kill us by introducing more and more diseases; and destroy our properties by natural disasters. But Satan cannot steal God’s possessions if we have given up the ownership to God; Satan cannot kill our souls and hope if we have experienced God’s healing power and grace; and Satan cannot destroy God’s Kingdom only if we are not only building our houses but God’s house.

 

Are you experiencing life of abundance or life struggling to deal with Satan’s threats? Stop trying to fight Satan alone, submit everything you have to God and He will give you life of abundance. Surely, there will be tension between the life we are living now and the life of abundance Jesus intended for us. But such tension can be good if we recognize our short for and move towards the life of abundance by taking practical steps to surrender our life to God.

 

Start to give more of your finance to your church and see how you are freed from the bondage of finance and how God will use it for His Kingdom and increase in His blessing for you. Give and watch. Start to give more of your love to people around you by going an extra miles for them and see how God can use your kindness and love to draw those people to Himself. Start to give more of your gifts to the ministry of church and see how God can cause you to grow in Him and increase your gifting.

 

You can give because God first gave His Son, Jesus. Jesus came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. Do not live as if you are still in the bondage of Satan. Live a life of abundance. This is what Jesus came for.

 

Life of Abundance. You can have it.

 

 

HHS…

Abel…

 

PS: This will be the last of 40 days with the Son series of devotion. I will be taking a short break for a week or so, as I will be going to Hong Kong for a week of holiday. Then I will start a new series; still do not have any idea yet. You can pray for me that God will lead me to another meaningful season of writing devotion that will be a blessing to others. Meanwhile you can reflect on my other devotion on this series from September 08 onward.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.