Life Abundantly!

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  (NIV)   Other versions have: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Order.  The more I study the Bible... the more I note how important ORDER is.

I had NEVER seen the progress of Steal and Kill and Destroy up front and in my face until fall of 2007.  We were in Brasilia.  There was a major crisis that happened.  Regardless of the particulars of the crisis...  I had never seen the way Satan can get a very small toe hole in and start eating away like a Rabid Cancer until all was destroyed.  Was I just naive to have never really seen it before... or was it more because I was SO CLOSE to the destruction in a way I had never been before?

Since that time... I have seen it several more times... in others lives or events and even in my own life.  Thankfully multiple times I have seen the Cancer stopped...  before it took ALL!  And in other times... it wasn't stopped at all...  and for those involved there was full destruction.  And it never starts that way.........  Nothing quite captures this picture for me like the "Slow Fade" by Casting Crowns.  It's a slow fade when black and white turns to gray.  People never crumble in a day... 

But back to those words....  Steal and Kill and Destroy.  Why not steal,kill, and destroy??  Why the emphasis on steal AND kill AND destroy?  I don't think this is just a translation thing...  I think the Lord was wanting us to see this as NOT ONLY Sequential... but also INDEPENDENT.   Satan can just jump ahead to DESTROY... but more often, I think... he uses the progression.

Just as my pastor says "Satan works what works!"  The Slow Fade works!

BUT... look after that...  "I have come so that they may have LIFE and have it to the Full (or more Abundantly!)."

Why not...  I have come to return, heal, and restore??    Or closer... Psalm 103 (my favorite) says: v3-5  Forgives, Heals, Redeems, Crowns, and Satisfies.

That's a pretty incredible word list!!!

You know... even those words just don't cut it.......  He came to give us HIMSELF!!!!  Nothing can be better than that!!!!  He is LIFE... He is the ANTI-CANCER!

No Other words could be any sweeter... and no other words could provide that depth of COMFORT!

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I just can't leave this post without this:

**DO NOT BELIEVE THE LIE THAT IT CAN'T HAPPEN TO YOU!!  Don't believe that you are immune from destruction... because the one of this world is PLOTTING against you!  And he's crafty.

BUT we know WHO wins!