Heart-Burn!

As I reviewed in the scriptures the events that occurred on Resurrection Sunday after Jesus arose from the dead, three significant points stuck out to me.  The first is when the women came to the tomb early in the morning so as to attend to Jesus’ body with spices and ointments.  As they neared the tomb they observed that the stone which was securing the grave site had been moved aside.  They entered the cave with great caution and discovered that the body was gone!  Things were getting very confusing when “two men stood by them in shining garments.”  As fear began to come upon them the men asked them a penetrating question saying: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:4-5 NKJV)

The second point goes hand in hand with the first.  It is found a little later in the story when the two disciples who had been on the road to Emmaus excitedly returned to Jerusalem to find the eleven apostles.  They burst into the room where the eleven had gathered shouting: “The Lord has really come back to life and has appeared to Simon.” (Luke 24:34 God’s Word ©)

Men and women through the ages and across the face of the earth have been searching for peace that can only be found through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Most though, do not know this and will seek a multitude of other sources in their search.  Everything from false religions, to drugs and alcohol, to intellectualism, sex, unbiblical relationships and countless other lies are tried but never satisfy the cry of the inner man.  The only One that fully satisfies is Jesus because He is the only One that is alive and brings the seeker the life that they are hungering for.  It is just like the question that the two heavenly beings asked of the women in the tomb on that first Easter Sunday over two thousand years ago: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  Or if you put it directly in line with the thought that I am making here you could say it as: “Why do you seek life from something that has no life in it in the first place?”

That is why sin is so unsatisfying to the Christian.  It may bring a fast high or temporary pleasure but then leaves you with a sense of regret, dissatisfaction and in doubt of your good standing with God.  Sin and wrong doing only works to begin the process of death.  A life focused on and obedient to God always brings life!

The last statement that really brought a zing to my heart was also found in the story of the two disciples who unknowingly met up with Jesus, after His resurrection, while on the road to Emmaus.  After His identity was made known to them and He disappeared, they looked at each other and proclaimed: “Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way?” (Luke 24:32 KJV)

The thought of their hearts burning after being with Jesus flashed back a couple of important memories of special times that I have had while in the presence of the Lord throughout the years of my Christian walk.  The first happened in the year following the time that we left the Baptist church that we had attended for the first eight years of our marriage.  When I first stepped into professional ministry as a Youth Minister in 1975, I must admit that I did not really know a lot about the Word!  I had majored in Recreation Administration in the first college I had attended and had always found it easy to communicate and work with teenagers, but only had come into a personal relationship with Jesus a few months before I accepted the position. (even though my wife and I had been in active leadership while attending the youth and singles groups before we got married)

I am thankful that I have always have had an appetite for learning and I quickly filled my office library with every devotional and planning and activity books I could lay my hands on!  When we left that church and began to attend a small fellowship pastored by a recent graduate of Rhema Bible Training College (where I later attended) that met in a hotel room in an older resort/convention hotel at the end of town, we came in with humble hearts and initially without any leadership responsibilities.  From day one I clearly remember feeling much like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus must have felt as the Word they heard burned in their hearts.  I must have looked like a little kid sitting in a highchair with his mouth wide open waiting for food to be deposited on his tongue!  I would sit in open awe with my heart aflame with the truths and new understanding of the Word that poured forth from the Pastor’s lips.  I always felt that those years were my initial Bible School training.

A little over twenty years later I experienced the same feelings of awe when I finally did attend Bible School.  Even though I had been in active ministry for over twenty years, I still felt like a little kid as I absorbed the Word being brought forth in each of my classes!  My heart simply burned with joy as the greater understanding of the powerful truths resident in God’s Word entered into me.

Is that the way that you feel when you are taught the Word of God?  Does your heart burn so brightly that no temptation can enter in to distract you into an experience that only leads to the beginning of the death process?  I think that this is one of the greater lessons of the resurrection.  Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection brought His life process into the world and thereby available to any individual who desires to enter into a new life in a personal relationship with God Himself.  That relationship should never be stale but should cause your hearts to burn with the revelation, truth and promises that He has made available to us today!

So have a wonderful and meaningful celebration of Resurrection Sunday this weekend.  Let the remembrance of what Jesus did for you reignite that flame inside of you.  Then stoke the fire and burn brightly for Him wherever you go!  Have a great weekend.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What Burning Sensation am I expecting today?”