–Zane Grey  (Robbers’ Roost)

       “For in him we live and move and exist…”  

                    –Acts 17:28 (NLT)
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How many times have I written–Life is living?  Jesus wants us to live our lives to the fullest; live it abundantly.  “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.”  (John 10:9-10, NKJV)  To live the abundant life is to live in Christ and for Christ.
       “Useful work, expanded interests, the delights of shared experience, inward spiritual resources, and a worthy purpose at life’s center–such unselfish things as these are of the very substance of a joyful and abundant life.” (H.E. Fosdick)  When we give ourselves completely to the Lord Jesus Christ we find that our horizons begin to widen.  We are not caught in trying to please ourselves, but to please others and most of all to please Jesus.  We get so caught up in our own feelings.  Depression, fear, joy, happiness, sorrow, gladness–not that they are not real but they revolve around us.  Even in our worship much of the time it seems it is how we “feel” instead of focusing on the Lord.
       I came across a little prayer, that if we would contemplate the depth of these words much of our selfish desires would flee from us.  “O God, Author of the world’s joy, Bearer of the world’s pain, make us glad that we are men and we have inherited the earth’s burden; deliver us from the luxury of cheap melancholy; and, at the heart of our trouble and sorrow, let unconquerable gladness dwell…” (Henry S. Nash)  Yes, we are in the world, we are faced with the world’s problem of sin, but as believers we are no longer of the world.  Yes, we have our own burdens, but we now have One who helps us carry them.  And here, I would say, do not selfishly hold on to your burdens; the Lord is more than willing to share the load.
       Fosdick says, “If you wish blessedness, head for service; if you wish the crown of joy, take up the cross of sacrifice; if life is to be yours, lose your life in other lives and in causes that have won your love.”  The words of Jesus ring out here, put aside self.  “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'” (Matthew 16:24, NKJV)  Are you living life to the fullest in Jesus Christ?  I remember as a youth being challenged with the above charge.  But then, the preacher, stopped and solemnly spoke, “Many say they would die for the cause of Christ, but how many will be willing to live for Him?  “Men find it easier to die for a cause in a crisis than to live for it in ordinary hours.” (Fosdick)  They do not really believe that self-realization through self-surrender is a universal law of life.  The words of Jesus should sober us–“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  (John 12:25, NKJV)

                    –Major Mitchell  (Poverty Flat)

       “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.”

                    –2 Timothy 4:6 (NKJV)
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          “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.”
                             –Romans 12:1 (Amplified)

Many people want the “abundant life,” but I wonder, do they really?  To have that abundant life is to forsake the world and the things in it, forsake yourself and pick up your cross daily to follow Jesus.  That is the only “reasonable, rational, and intelligent service and spiritual worship.”  Abundance, having whatever you want is not living an abundant life.  The having of things is not what Jesus meant.  Having more of the Spirit is to live an abundant life.  
       If the abundant life consists of “things,” then what happens when all is lost?  What happens when the storm rages and it is all washed away?  What happens when the enemy attacks and the battle is fierce and the wounds severe?  Paul understood the reality of giving his life to Christ; happiness was not having things, but knowing that he had spiritual resources within himself whether shipwrecked or in a Roman prison.
       Pascal said, “The man who lives only for himself hates nothing so much as being alone with himself.”  When days of sorrow sweep in like a whirlwind, when suffering buffets us with the winds of adversity, where will your strength lie?  If it is in “things,” if it is within yourself, then you are for sure in deep trouble.  Our lives are not our own, we are given them for a while to worship the Lord.  And what does He want?  For us to have more possession–no, but to have more of Him.  That cannot happen unless we empty ourselves of our humanistic tendencies and become rooted in Jesus, rooted and grounded in love.  “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height–to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  (Ephesians 3:14-19, NKJV)
       To thrive in this world, get rid of the baggage that you are carrying and do not pick up any more.  Live in the fullness of Christ.  Make the sacrifice on the altar and get rid of self by being a “living, sacrifice” that is holy and “well pleasing to God.”  May the words of the hymnist, Thoro Harris, bring this truth closer to our hearts.

               “Are you trusting Jesus, all along the way?
               Does He grow more precious to your heart each day?
               Are you His disciple?  Test His Word and see,
               He will give the Spirit more abundantly.

               Come to Him believing, hearken to His call;
               All from His receiving, yield to Him your all;
               Jesus will accept you when to Him you flee;
               He will grant His blessings more abundantly.”

                    –1 Chronicles 29:11 (NKJV)
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I like the way Steven Lawson introduces Psalm 104, “It is against this black backdrop of the world’s prevailing darkness that Psalm 104 shines so brightly.”  When the humanists and evolutionists cry out aloud, here is the answer to their arrogance.  Nature amazes me, the handiwork of God is magnificent.  He has created “with stunning genius, precise detail, and brilliant order.” (Lawson)  God did not have to think about what and how to create, He simply spoke it into existence.

          1 — Bless the LORD, O my soul!  O LORD my God, You are very great:  You are clothed with honor and majesty,
          2 — Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.
          3 — He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds His chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind,
          4 — Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.
          5 — You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever,
          6 — You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
          7 — At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.
          8 — They went up over the mountains; they went down into the valleys, to the place which You founded for them.
          9 — You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth.
        10 — He sends the springs into the valleys; they flow among the hills.
        11 — They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
        12 — By them the birds of the heavens have their home; they sing among the branches.  (NKJV)

       Do not take creation for granted.  Keep your focus on the things of the Lord.  The New Living Translation puts verse 1 this way, “Praise the LORD, I tell myself…”  If we are not careful we start to go through this life not recognizing the hand of God in creation.  Look at this Psalm and then try to imagine the majesty of God’s creation.  How can a person actually believe it all just happened?  Poof, there it was in complete working order–the cycles of nature, gravity, all the laws of physics–they all just happened by pure chance.  It takes a fool or a person with extreme faith to believe that.  Read these verses again and wonder in awe of the mighty works of God.
       Take time to contemplate each verse this morning and see the glory of God in it.  If your heart ever becomes dull with life.  If the everyday things of life begin to get you down, or if you seem in constant pain of one sort or another go back–focus on the majesty of God’s creation.  Maybe you have to remind yourself to praise the Lord for His mighty works of creation.  “If He does such wonders in hanging universes and worlds in place–will He not also perform His creative work in living flesh like yours?” (George O. Wood)
       He clothes Himself in a garment of light, but He has also made sure that the whole cosmos is appropriately attired as well.  He cares for the flowers that bloom and knows when the sparrow falls.  He set this mighty universe in motion by His word that His children–humankind–may enjoy it.  And as He clothed the universe He is also preparing a garment for those who believe in Him–the garment of righteousness of Jesus which we will wear at His table in heaven.

               “O tell of his might, O sing of his grace,
               Whose robe in the light, whose canopy space.
               His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
               And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.”
                         –Robert Grant

                    –Kenneth Pratt  (The Wolves of Windsor Ridge)

       “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them…  And there was great joy in that city.”

                    –Acts 8:5,8 (NKJV)
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Another month gone by, or is it another month started?  Hard to believe that it’s already September.  Goodness, the year is whirling by, summer is almost over and fall will soon be upon us.  On this first day of September, I want to focus on joy.  “If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart.” (Joseph D. Carlson)
       Robert Louis Stevenson said, “A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five pound note.  He or she is a radiating focus of good will; and their entrance into a room is as though another candle has been lighted.”  Paul exhorts us to “rejoice in the Lord always…” (Philippians 4:4).  Have you known those with whom it is a delight to be in their presence because of the joy that comes from within their being?  Joy, like doom and gloom, is contagious.  It is an attitude that can spread hope to those around in the midst of trying circumstances.
       Joy (Greek–“chara”) — “delight, gladness of heart; cheerfulness; calmy happy.”  Webster says that joy is an “emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires; a source or cause of delight.”  We must remember that joy, or the lack of it, is associated with life.  H.E. Fosdick writes, “Joy is the tingling sense of being fully alive, and that cannot come to narrow minds, absorbed by selfish concerns.”  Someone else has said, “Happiness was born a twin.”  I will say here that being happy is not the same as being joyful.  Oh, they can coincide, but a person cannot be happy in sorrow, while a person with genuine joy in their heart can “rejoice.”  Happiness normally takes an event or special circumstance whereas joy is a condition of the heart.
       No matter the situation we need to heed the words of Paul and rejoice.  The Prophet said, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:18)  The early English Pentecostal writer, Donald Gee says that “Such a joy becomes independent of outward circumstances, and even of inward blessings.  It rejoices in a certain and sure possession of the Blesser.”  We have joy in knowing God.  He is our Father, and we can depend upon Him throughout this journey called life–that should bring joy to our souls.
       We have the joy of salvation–of sins forgiven.  There is a sense of relief from the intolerable burden of sin.  We can exhale a joyous sigh because our sins are gone.  We can be joyful of a spiritual hunger that is now satisfied.  I’ve had a craving for steak, and on Wednesday night I prepared steak for Annie and me for supper.  I was happy looking at the steak, I was enjoying the aroma as I fried it, but when I consumed it, my inward parts were now joyful, the hunger was abated and also the craving was gone.  I sat there with a joyful “aahhh”.  Joy is an inward satisfaction of knowing who God is and what He has done for us.  Truly we have

               “…found the joy no tongue can tell,
               How its waves of glory roll!
               It is like a great o’er-flowing-well,
               Springing up within my soul.

                    It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,
                    Full of glory, full of glory;
                    It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,
                    Oh, the half has never yet been told.”
                              –B.E. Warren