Abundance

A brother with whom I share 2 Fathers recently wrote a little piece to share with his community of believers.  This is a man whom I know to have endured great scarcity as well as moderate abundance.  He has taught me many things.  I wanted to share this insight of his.

ABUNDANCE

As told in the creation stories of Genesis, God created abundance for mankind and charged us with managing it.  Abundance is defined as a great or plentiful amount – more than our current needs.

In John 10:10, Jesus said “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that you may have life and have it abundantly”.

In Matthew 7:7, Jesus said “Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you”. (abundance is available, but you need to go after it)

In Acts 20:35, Paul tells us Jesus said “It is better to give than to receive”.

We give to others from our abundance, but to have that abundance we must produce or accumulate more than we need, and save a portion.  Giving to others without helping them to achieve their own abundance from what God has provided for us all, denies them that same joy of being the giver.

For the Christian, abundance can take many forms.  Material abundance is the most readily identified (often expressed as financial wealth).  Other forms of abundance, such as talents, skills and experience which can be contributed to help others, are valuable gifts.  We can have an abundance of love and compassion to give others without any possibility of endangering the meeting of our own needs.

 

Prayer:  Lord, help us to see the abundance in our lives and share it with others in need.  Help us show others how to achieve abundance in their lives so that they may also know the joy of sharing with others.  We seek to follow Jesus as our guide.  Amen

Thanks to Dave.

His, thus Yours,

Stuart

Prince of Peace

I know I have been missing in action for a while. I got caught up in the flurry of activities while travelling.  Then my body had the audacity to get sick with a severe cold/uri.  Alas....

A friend who is a gift of God to me and a gifted writer recently sent me the following.  For now, I think she prefers to remain anonymous.

One of my favorite names of Jesus as prophesied in Isaiah 9:6 is Prince of Peace. I am recently awakening to deeper layers and truths about what this means - Who this is.  Prince is an important title because it links Jesus to His divinity: He is God's (the King's) son. But peering further, we can also see that a Prince is anyone who is chief of or preeminant in a class or arena. Jesus holds the keys to Peace. In any and all moments of our lives, we can open our hands and receive His peace. All things are His. All good comes from Him. All glory returns to Him. If we live our moments with open hands, acknowledging that they are from Him, through Him, and for Him, then we will experience the peace that transcends our understanding of our circumstances. We will receive the Prince of Peace Himself. And He will receive us....a continuous offering, pleasing and beautiful. Our moments will be transformed and hallowed. And thus our lives will be transformed. It only takes one breath to say "from Him, through Him, for Him."

May this habit of prayer become our overarching reality. ---  Anonymous

As you ponder this remember also what we shared about our peace as a weapon of our warfare.

His, thus Yours,

Stuart