June 14, 2022 LIFE INDEED
1 Timothy 6:18-19 “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the which is life indeed.”
John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”
Matthew 10:39 “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
John 10:10b “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”
Psalm 16:11 “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
There is a path that leads to life, to life indeed. The one who does not know God as Savior can never know or experience life to the fullest-to life as God designed it to be. Someone has rightly said that “There is a God shaped vacuum in every man that only God can fill.” What we must be alert as believers that it is possible for those who know God as Savior not to experience the abundant life that comes from God. It’s a good question: How then does a believer experience this abundant life? Much could be said about this issue, but central to this subject is the fact that we must die to ourselves-even as believers; we must lose our life for His sake before we find life. Matthew 10:39. This is the great battle of mankind: does one live according to his or her own ways, or according to the ways of God. To some, it may sound like a contradiction, but how does one go about the necessities of daily life which may seem so ‘unspiritual,’ and at the same time die to themselves and become focused on the things of God. There is tendency for us to categorize life into what is spiritual, and what is not spiritual. The good news is that there are no categories and no division between what is ‘spiritual’ and what is not. God is to be our life; all evolves around him-even the most mundane-even mowing the grass or washing the dishes! Again, it is a matter of us coming to the end of ourselves and finding our life in Him. We are not bound to live according to the philosophy of the world; we can live as people who have been joined to God, who live according to His ways. The only abundant life is the life experienced in Christ. For sure, a lost person can have material success and can have good days and bad days, and can feel as though life is good; but it is not lasting and it does not fulfill the deepest longings of the heart. May we do the best thing we could ever do-die to our ways and order our lives according to the truth of the gospel. Living according to the ways of God is a matter of the heart and a matter of living according to our new identity in Him; it is not living by rules and regulations. The bottom line is that when we know Christ as our life, we discover a river of life flowing out of us and nothing or no one can stop the flow. He loves us; He came that we might discover who we are in Him in order that we may experience life to the fullest.
John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”
Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Blessings, Buddy
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