And Here Cometh the Joy of an Abundant Life!

 

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Joh 10:10  

And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Joh 16:20 

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psa 30:5

It is something that immediately strikes you, the way Scripture juxtaposes sorrow and joy, weeping and joy, sackcloth and gladness - as if joy is something that travels a long way before it bursts out in the open – and so the psalmist would sing (and joy always flares up in a song, doesn’t it?), ‘And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD’ (Psa 40:3). And immediately it becomes an expression of deep contentment, deep appreciation and deep satisfaction, so that, joy by design, can only come from God. Some days though it is too deep for words that it can be mistaken for pain…

And that has always been the form and trajectory of the Christian joy. It broke out suddenly in the world in the middle of the night, where some were asleep while others made merry, and nearby, a woman soiled with blood, and her pain being followed by a star, poetry and gifts, she cuddled her new born joy ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger’. And so joy became ‘God with us’, as ‘a multitude of the heavenly host’ broke out in praises…‘saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ This is the cup of ‘mercy promised to our fathers’ … It is the ‘knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins’, and it is the light promised ‘to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death’ - and who is become the guider of ‘our feet into the way of peace.’ So count the mercies, count the love, count the benefits, and count the promises… ‘But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’ (Joh 4:14). And truly there is no one who can exhaust this cup! And finally isn’t this the joy which the whole world sings at the end of every year? ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.’ And this, in summation, is the source of our abundant life in Christ Jesus…and whose abundance continues up to this day finding expression in the many Bible Schools, Colleges, Universities and Seminaries, and in the various missionary works, churches, in the faith based schools and hospitals, in the faith based NGO’s and in the faith based media (Radio, TV, magazines, newspapers and book publishing).

The rest of the abundances in the world are chiefly measured in pleasure…and which is a poor substitute for joy…and this is where Satan excels in lying, stealing, killing and destroying peoples’ lives… like how the prodigal, in his quest for joy and an abundant life, would end up in bondage instead. But in contrast, his elder brother (even while being home at his father’s place!) misses his new song… and he turns out to be more lost than his prodigal brother…and while to the outside world the elder’s life might look like an abundant life…but in reality his loneliness is staggering… And so our prayer this evening is that God may open our eyes to see the differences in these things, and that our own lives might abound even more in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that, in him, our labour is not in vain.