2023-12-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As the Holy Spirit continues to give me what He wants me to write on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, from GA 5: 22-23, it seems that He is taking me into every corner of this compelling subject. He wants us to completely understand what these gifts really mean to us—love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, humility (gentleness), and self-control. When a person has these gifts and demonstrates them in his life, he is truly given and often receives extravagant compassion. This doesn’t mean he never has challenges, illnesses, losses, and other kinds of trouble in his life. It just means that the Holy Spirit has given him the tools he needs to live righteously and with deeply abiding faith in the Lord.
Today I have been commanded by the Holy Spirit to highlight faithfulness. There are times when it is very difficult for humans to conceive of a God with remarkable supernatural abilities. One of the places in the Scriptures where this is outlined is in the story of two men, Cleopas and his unnamed companion who are grieving as they make the seven mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Grief is a very human emotion, and no one still living has communicated with a person whose soul has gone to heaven or hell. So, the matter of an afterlife must be understood by faith. There was so much heated discussion between groups of Jews in Christ’s time that the two major groups had a sort of schism, with the Pharisees believing in an afterlife and the Sadducees, a somewhat smaller group, denying its existence. In any event Cleopas and his pal were used to having their Lord Jesus available to them as a living Leader in their lives. Now, He had been crucified.
LK 24: 1-36 tells the story of their walk to Emmaus. They were chatting with each other about the events of the day. Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing Who He was. He asked them what they were discussing, and they looked up at Him with sad faces telling Him that it was about Jesus of Nazareth, Who was “a wise Prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.” These two had hoped that He was the One Who would redeem Israel. The chief priests had handed their Rabbi to be sentenced to death and crucified three days beforehand. Some of the women had come to His burial place and discovered the heavy round stone door to it rolled back and His body missing. The ladies had seen a vision of angels, who said Jesus is alive. Christ said in vs. 25-26, “How Foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” Then Christ explained all the prophecies about Himself since the words of Moses. The two friends were uplifted by what they were hearing and wanted to continue as they urged Him to remain with them. But they had arrived at the village of Emmaus and sat down for a meal. Jesus took the bread, broke it, and began saying the blessing over it. Suddenly they recognized Who He is, and He disappeared. One said to the other, “Weren’t our hearts burning when He opened the Scriptures to us?” At once, they got up and left for Jerusalem where they found the Lord’s followers, including the eleven remaining disciples. Jesus Himself stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
In musing over this story, we need to ask, “What are the lessons in it for us?” Obviously, we can always learn valuable lessons from going over history, and carefully studying the Scriptures. My own life has been richly blessed by my habit of spending time every day with them. But we must also ask ourselves how these lessons can enrich our present and future as well. It is so satisfying to know that the Lord Jesus sees and knows about everything in our lives and wants us to have His perspective and a close relationship with Him. Moreover, in His infinite wisdom, God has not told us every detail while we are still on earth, but just enough to cause us to have that all important choice of whether we will walk through that door marked FAITH. Can we understand and accept that God has supernatural qualities that are not limited by Newtonian physics and Einsteinian relativity? Cleopas and his pal needed to hear the Scriptures and recognize Christ’s voice than initially to come to this understanding. We need to examine our own understanding of these things and their value to our lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, no human has supernatural qualities or fully understands them as You do. Out of Your wisdom, You have chosen not to give us every detail of them, or each story told in the Bible. Instead, You leave some matters, both tangible and intangible, unexpressed, so that we are called upon to have faith in Your Word. We are left to ponder over those unsaid things and to have faith that the Scriptures are God’s truth [HE 4: 12-13]. Faith isn’t matured in a day or even a year. That gives us room for growth and development of a real relationship with our Lord. That is what He wants us to have. We can’t be separated from His love, nor can the huge benefits from an ever-closer relationship with Him escape us. For those of us who pray, study the Scriptures, and serve Him in obediently faithful ways, we will gain eternal life with Him. What better way to live can there be than that? We offer You thanks, loyalty, faith, praise, and glory, as they are what You deserve. In the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The gift of faithfulness comes from the Holy Spirit, and it has tremendous ramifications in our lives. Next week, He commands me to write more about faithfulness and our relationship with God. These things can help us to better further not only our relationship vertically with God but also our horizontal relationships with other human beings, animals, plants, and our environment. So, these will be the topics for next week.
When a person advances in age on earth, he must adjust to the loss of human parents, close relatives and especially the most painful of all losses –one’s spouse. Now matter what one’s experience with these events, our Lord Jesus is always with us. He never abandons us [PS 9: 9-10]. How lovely it is that we don’t have to suffer abandonment as we age! He loves us and will help us if we have the wisdom to seek Him out. If we are to believe Him, it is logical to assume that we will one day be reunited with our righteous loved ones who have gone to heaven before us. Let me close with a favorite passage of mine: JER 29: 11-13, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you not to bring disaster, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me, and you will find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2023. All Rights Reserved.
<-- Back to Archives