Months ago I had typed this out and promptly forgot to post
it. J That’s me for sure lol. Our pastor preached on this chapter Resurrection
Sunday and it reminded me I still had this and then 2 of my sweet sisters
mentioned my sporadic blogging and reminded me again tonight. All this has reminded me that I’m grateful
for God showing me His love over and over during every day because obviously, I’m
a “forgetter”. Praying that anyone that
reads this is encouraged. Happy resurrection of our Savior every day!
On the Road to Emmaus
Luke 24:13-35
A couple sisters and I have been getting together diligently
working through a discipleship book called Multiply
by Francis Chan & David Platt.
It is an absolutely amazing tool to use with new and mature Christians. God has used it greatly in our time together
of fellowship to guide us in learning to study God’s word and God’s word has
been ever so faithful to reveal parts of our hearts to us that we didn’t know were
there or were too scared to see.
My affections are so often set only on my own desires and
dreams for right now. I start to live as
if there is no goal past the present and I do it knowing full well that “That
Day” is coming. The day I will stand
before my Father facing eternity and give account of what I have and haven’t
done with the knowledge, time, purpose, and people He has given me. I start to live as if my days are my own
knowing full well that my Jesus paid the highest price for the days I waste in
laziness or with a bad attitude.
This week as I read and prepared for getting together with
the girls (I ended up staying home having a sick day) I was reading Luke 24 and
the verses 13-35 gripped my heart like never before. I found myself completely identifying with
Cleopas and his companion as they met Jesus.
Here they were walking with the Son of God and they didn’t
know it. How often I live my day as if
Jesus isn’t right there with me? They
were conversing with Him about Him and they didn’t know it. How often do I read the word and fail to see
Him in it, to know Him better? They were
questioning everything Jesus went through because it wasn’t what they expected.
Jesus was so compassionate of them that
He walked them all through the scriptures from Moses on all the way through the
prophets to show them that everything that happened was ordained by God and
necessary for God’s glory and their good in verses 25-27. Can you imagine!? God resurrected, in flesh, walking you
through the scriptures about the beginning of time, man’s corruption, God’s
covenant, His birth, death and resurrection and the hope that comes from it!?
It was after they were reminded of the scriptures in their
entirety (the Old Testament and the New Testament make ONE story of God’s
redemption) that they sat down to eat with Jesus, to share in an everyday need
that God opened their eyes to see Him and KNOW Him, verse 31. Though He vanished from their sight, verse 32
made my heart jump and rejoice, “They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts
burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the
scriptures?’”
I struggle so much with getting up to pray. Reading God’s word is a task that is much
easier to accomplish, I can check it off my list and carry on with my day and
even feel good about having done it. Our
time in working through this book has helped to see how bad this attitude
toward God’s word is. Here I have God’s
living breath before me and I would treat it as if it was any old book that I
could pick up or put down at my leisure.
Picking up it with the reverence its worthy of, remembering what it is
has helped me to begin to learn to truly love it, to seek the treasure of God’s
heart in it and to see His complete faithfulness throughout it all. It is teaching me to converse with my Father
in the quiet in the morning and all throughout my day (Luke 24:45). It’s growing my faith! When I stumble, when I fall (all day long), I
know He is with me! Its so beautiful
what God’s word does and it leaves me humbled as I walk on this road with Him.
Reading the scriptures, seeing Him and then seeking Him in
prayer, simple & honest prayer, God is faithful to open our eyes. In scripture we learn more and in prayer, in
fellowship with Him through the day, at waking, at play, at chores, at
everything God opens our eyes to KNOW Him, to be in relationship with Him that
is real.
Let me encourage you to be faithful in this, to read His
word, to pray, and to seek fellowship in enjoying and discussing His word
accurately with other sisters in Christ.
Be faithful to meet to be discipled and also to disciple others. This is the work we are called to do, we can
only do it well as we seek to KNOW Him and we know Him through His living word.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end
of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20 ESV