ADVENT DAY 6 (I Have Abundant Life): Abundance in Adversity

When we talk about Jesus, we recognize His outrageous love for each of us and His desire to fill us with His Spirit and enable us to live the abundant life. The book of 3rd John describes what you could call "prosperity of soul." It says:
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
3 For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

It's important to have a prosperous soul, and the basis for that is found in the perceding verses. We are called to walk in truth.  The degree to which we experience the abundant life is directly related to how we abide in Christ - the branches drawing strength from the vine.  We grow in Him by making His Word a priority and walking in obedience.  We are to seek Him first in all things, so that His glory may be seen expressed through our lives. 

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We are now on Day 6 of our 25-day spiritual Advent-ure, in the Faith Radio Advent Guide, which communicates to us about what Jesus has done for us, by His love bringing us forgiveness, new life, and so much more. So, we can rejoice in His blessings! Our theme Scripture for today is found in John chapter 10, which says:
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 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.

So, today, we can declare, "I have abundant life!"  That is our theme.

And, the abundant life is not determined by what we have in our bank account or the degree to which we live in desirable circumstances.

That is certainly illustrated by an educator from Virginia, about whom Ryan Bomberger of The Radiance Foundation wrote in a recent column for The Christian Post.  The subject of the article is a young PE teacher in Loudoun County named Tanner Cross - perhaps you're familiar with his story.  Faced with the school board's radical policy, as Bomberger write, Cross "chose to serve God, not a woke and morally broke school board." The column goes on to say:

“I love all my students, but I cannot call a boy a girl and a girl a boy.” Tanner’s words, spoken courageously and graciously, resulted not only in his being suspended but being banned from all school property and events. LCPS demanded that he lie to his students. He refused. So, they tried to make an example of him.

But, the courts restored Cross to his position.  That's not the end of the story, though.

Ryan Bomberger discovered that Tanner and Andrea Cross had been on a decade-long journey to have children. They had entered into the adoption process from foster care, but state officials apparently frowned on having a white family adopt children of a different ethnicity. Ryan calls it like he sees it: "racism." He says, "I’m from a family of 15, where we’re white, black, mixed, Native American, Vietnamese, able and disabled. No child should ever be denied a home because the parents don’t somehow 'match' the child."  He and 9 of his siblings were adopted - he was the first.

Ryan and Bethany Bomberger had created a fund to help adoptive families at the time when God brought the Crosses into their lives.  He writes:

My wife Bethany and I had just created the Henry & Andrea Bomberger Adopted and Loved Fund, to honor the incredible legacy of faith and love of my late father and mother (who is still alive and unleashing purpose in others). They adopted 10 of their 13 kids; I was the first one. Bethany and I are adoptive parents too. It’s why our heart has been to help others experience the transformative power of such an act of compassion, sacrifice, and justice. As I watched Tanner’s news interviews and read more from the couple’s social media posts, I knew they had to be the first recipients of our organization’s adoption fund for Christian families.

The Crosses have a new addition to their family, a baby boy named Josiah; Bomberger writes, "His birthparents selflessly chose the Crosses to be the parents God meant for Tanner and Angela to be. We captured their story-beyond-the-headlines."

Ryan, who has been a guest on The Meeting House, stated this regarding how God works:

I’m thankful for a God who always hears our cries. An adoptee who was once rescued from the violence of abortion was able to play a small role in the miracle God had been orchestrating for their lives.

And it all started with courage. Had Tanner chosen not to speak from his heart, had he chosen not to stand up for his students and for the truth, I never would have heard of him. How many times do we miss out on a miracle because we shy away from doing the hard things?

Jesus has provided us with abundant life.  This is a story that has so many elements and illustrates how He works in our lives and can remind us that He is still at work, even though we may not see it. That can give us great joy.  That can bring fullness to our hearts - that can produce the abundant life; again, it's not always measured through the amount of our resources or the degree to which things always go the way we think they should.  But, even through adversity, the Crosses have experienced abundance.  Ryan Bomberger has experienced the abundant life - even though things could have gone another way, God had his hand on this man's life.  

Our desire should always be to grow in our walk with the Lord, to experience His love and companionship, and to be characterized by devoted obedience.  The Bible relates to us about sowing to the Spirit - if we do so, I believe that we will have an abundance of His fruit, and abundance of His presence, and, yes, we may even see physical, tangible blessings.  But, it starts with our humility before God, to desire to live the life that Jesus has made possible.