Mid-Week Thought!

I really don't want this to become an unwelcome interruption of your study this week, but rather an encouragement.  While nothing would delight me more than expounding on this, rather I choose to offer it up as succinctly as possible that you might also take pause in your busy day and give it some thought.

This morning I was reading Luke 24.  Jesus, at this point, had already been crucified and laid in a tomb. But now, the tomb was empty. Verse 13 opens with Cleopas and another man, walking away from Jerusalem on the very day the tomb was found empty, already 7 miles out, and talking about these events as they walked the road to Emmaus.

Luke 24:15-16 "While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began travelling with them.  But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him."
Don't fall for the lie that much talking and discussing of the events surrounding Jesus is the same as recognizing Him with spiritually opened eyes.  Jesus Himself may have already approached and begun travelling with us, but our eyes can still be prevented from recognizing Him.

Luke 24:25  "And He said to them, "O, foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!"
As we study the Book of Revelation it is always good to have a healthy dose of Old Testament revelation liberally administered throughout!  This is why a timeline, tying in the prophecies of the Old Testament with the fulfillment and prophesies of the New Testament, is so beneficial.  It's crucial in my own study disciplines as I remember that just as we, on this side of the cross, are being forewarned about all that will soon transpire.  So were they, on that side of the cross, forewarned about what would transpire.  I then take a look at my present day belief in light of His Word and whether I am truly living in the Light of it.

Luke 24:27  "Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."
Human intellect and reasoning can only take us so far!  Spiritual understanding comes only One Way.  Only Jesus, by His Holy Spirit and through His Word, can explain to us the things concerning Himself in all  the Scriptures... and that includes the Book of Revelation!

Luke 24:28-30  "And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther.  But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.  So He went in to stay with them.  
These verses are powerful!  Up to this point, in their eyes, Jesus was just some man that had joined them on their journey, opening up the Scriptures to them in such a way that was compelling.  When it looked as if He was going to keep walking when they were now stopping, their invitation, extended to Him, says so much to us today... "stay with us, for it is getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over."  Their invitation was, in all probability given out of a desire to hear more of what He had to say concerning the Scriptures, concerning Jesus!  However, when I looked at this, I saw an invitation that today acknowledges the time and place we occupy on the kingdom calendar and my great need of the presence of Jesus, by His Spirit and through His Word, for He is The Word!  "Come and stay with me, for it is getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over."  How grateful I am that the latter part of that verse is true in my life, which when I personalize it reads, "so He came in to stay with me."
God's Word with me!

When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.   Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight."
I took this verse and also personalized it.  Now that Jesus has come to stay within me He has taken The Broken and Blessed Bread, which is Himself and given it to me to eat.  The Bread is The Word of God, we can never separate the Bread from The Word from Jesus from God.  It is in the receiving of The Word of God that our eyes are opened and we recognize Him.  He may have vanished from physical, fleshly eyes, yet with spiritually opened eyes we recognize Him by His Spirit, in His Word!

When He vanished from their sight, "They said to one another, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
There is nothing, NOTHING! like when Jesus speaks to us, by His Spirit and through His Word, while we tread these dusty roads of planet earth, explaining the Scriptures to us, revealing Himself to us through His Word.  The impact of it causes our hearts to burn within us!

In that very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, to share with the 11 and others what had happened to them, and while they were mid-sentence, Jesus appears in the midst of them all.  You can read the rest of the account for yourself, but it is this statement that Jesus made that I want to highlight for you here... "These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.  Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures..."

Girls, as we enter into these next months of study, you need to know this... JESUS HIMSELF CAN AND WILL OPEN YOUR MINDS TO UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES!

Don't believe the lie that the affairs and activities of your life leave you too little time, that you've already fallen behind in your homework and will never catch up, that you are not scholarly by nature and just can't do it!  Don't allow yourself to be robbed of the joy of letting Jesus Himself lead you into all truth by His Spirit!

Hangeth thou in there!  You will never, ever, regret the time that you have invested in the partaking of His Word!

with much love,