This has of necessity become
longer than a four-part blog. To avoid feeding 6800 words in one post, I am
dividing Weber’s three chapters into the next three blogs, then add my final
two, making six in total rather than four.
-PART ONE -
THE ABUNDANT LIFE
By
-Charles V. Weber-
F O R E W A R D
A
continuous stream of requests has come to me both verbally and written asking
that I publish in book form the series of talks I’ve given on “Living Out of
The Overflow.”
This
series has been given about fifty times now in as many different churches. Each
place the reaction has been the same.
Nothing
would please me more than to comply with these requests and publish the full
series. I have thought about it a good deal, but there is no possible way it
can be done at present. My present schedule of activities is very heavy. Only
through God’s goodness has strength been granted to carry on. Perhaps I should
say it’s the “overflow” I’ve been telling about.
However,
I am hoping to be able to prepare these talks in written form within the next
two or three years. Until that time, I have prepared this small booklet with
the thought that it may partially answer the requests, which have come.
Looking
for the means of distributing it in the quickest manner and with the least effort
I decided to send it out in place of the July and August issues of THE ABUNDANT
LIFE.
The prayer I breathe as it goes
into the hands of the readers is that these messages may acquaint them with the
resources of abundant life and arouse them to live it.
--Charles V. Weber
Chapter One
LIVING OUT OF THE
OVERFLOW
There
is something about this age that has the tendency toward setting up tensions in
individuals. Perhaps it is the unconscious struggle of the idealistic within
man against the evil and error of modern society that results in this tension.
It is more likely to be the struggle between the conscious and unconscious
within man causing a wasted energy and setting up destructive tensions.
Part
of it is caused by the rush and hurry of these pressing times. Many who have
become victims of these times allow a greater emptiness to grow through living
which crowds out prayer, meditation, relaxation and religious reading.
At
any rate, through one cause or another, we find a lot of people who are worn
and tired from endless struggle and fruitless effort. If effort were the
standard of judging, their rating would be excellent. But they know they have
failed and many of them are discouraged with their failure.
There
has been hidden from them the secret which will bring victory and the sense of
abundance to their lives.
In
fact, it was hidden from me for years. I was a Christian and I suppose a
successful minister, but I was struggling. Gifted with a great deal of
condemnation, I struggled until I faced the discouraging future with a broken
body and considerable suffering.
It
was not altogether my fault that I was living by struggle, because it is
definitely the spirit of the age. In Bible College and in my home church, I was
not taught about what God could do, but rather what man had to do. Like most
young fellows, I formed habit patterns conforming to the molding influence of
those days.
This
age has been characterized by the trait of limiting God and giving surprising
credit to man for what he can do. The struggle, which is so common today, is
the direct result of that idea. When you minimize the work that God can do, and
exalt the work that man must do, you cut off the help that God would give and
leave man to struggle alone.
When
my youngest boy was still too young to tie his own shoe laces; he got the idea
that he should do it himself. He insisted we leave him alone and he would tie
them. With great struggle and much grunting, he worked for perhaps ten minutes.
Finally he gave up and asked me to do it for him.
The
Father looks upon us with endless patience as we insist in doing things
ourselves and in our own way. We struggle when it would be so easy for God, but
He lets us struggle if we insist. What a different life it would be if we
sought God’s help.
THE GIFT OF GOD
In
John 4:10 Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that
saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and He would
have given thee living water” (emphasis added).
I
realize there is a certain kind of effort necessary for the development of the
personality and to make us responsible individuals. To refuse to make the
effort in the proper place is a sign of indolence and weakness. It is
important, however, that we clarify what that effort is and where it belongs,
or we may find our energy wasted and failure as a result.
“If
thou knewest the gift of God.” There is a gift from God. It does not come
through struggle or expenditure of human effort. It is not a human attainment;
it is the free gift of God, which He bestows upon us. (It is) The human
essential is our hunger for it and our desire to receive it.
Paul
says in Romans 6:23, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord” (emphasis added). The Word says of Christ, that “In Him was life
and the life was the light of men”; and Jesus said, “I am come that they might
have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”
There
is no doubt but that the primary purpose for Christ’s coming into the world was
to give life. All the other things, His sacrifice and death, His resurrection
and His ascension, which were events in the ministry of Christ, had to be so
that eternal life could be given to men. The GIFT OF GOD is eternal life.
MEN WANT LIFE
Most
of the struggle that is a part of modern life is an attempt to realize a fuller
life. There is a feeling that life is not what it was intended to be and a
great effort is made to correct the trouble.
What
man has struggled so hard to attain, but so frequently has failed to discover,
is the same thing God wants to give as a free gift.
If
you knew the gift of God you wouldn’t continue to be defeated, but would ask of
Him and He would give you living water.
You
notice that the gift of God, which is eternal life, is figuratively expressed
as living water. The word living indicates the idea of a perpetual flow
like a living spring or fountain. The gift of God is a stream flowing from the
heart of God to the heart of man, and it is redemptive and creative.
The
prophet speaking of the coming of Christ in Isaiah 60:5 says, “Thine heart
shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be
converted unto thee.” Also in Isaiah 35, he speaks of “streams in the desert.”
This same idea of living water is shown in these prophecies. They teach that an
inexhaustible supply of God’s grace is ours. God will turn into our lives the
stream of His redemptive love.
The
wonderful part is that it is given to us as a free gift without any effort on
our part. Whatever our part may be is in what we do with the gift after we
receive it.
This
gift of God includes forgiveness for our sins, eternal life, strength for
temptation, and the love of God. The supply is unlimited. Everyone can have as
much as he needs. You can draw upon the source freely and need never live under
the crush of defeat any more.
We
cannot stop at this point though because God wants us to live with an overflow.
Through the gift of God we receive freely and now there must be a release.
In
Acts 2:38 it speaks about the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in John7:38-39 it
says, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they
that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given;
because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”)
The
gift of God is the inflow of his unlimited resources as a stream of living
water. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the releasing of those resources for service
in the out-flow of rivers of living water. Man becomes the channel of God for
His redemptive work.
Man’s
task is not struggle for attainment, but it is surrender for creative
expression. Life does not begin with man, it begins with God. It does not end
with man; it flows out to bless the people and give them life. Man becomes the
channel through which God blesses the world. That is living out of the
overflow.
A
life like that is happy, full and creative. It is so satisfying that the need
for struggle seems to disappear. A man feels that God is expressing himself in
him as he goes about his regular tasks. There is no need to worry. It is not
hard to share because he merely shares what God has done for him.
When
a person once experiences the abundant life, he is satisfied not to sit down
and quit but to launch out and live. He finds it to be a life of thrill and
adventure.
Every
one of you can live out of the overflow and know for yourself what I say is the
truth.
This
is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com;
May
you know God's overflowing presence for yourself . . . J
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