Dear People Who Keep Company With God,

There are many books written about and by various religions, but the Bible is the only one that claims to be the actual words of God. The Bible says more than 3,000 times “thus saith the Lord.” It claims that the words that follow are quotes from God.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned this year is that God is committed to His word, not our interpretation or application of His word. He is committed to both the written word of God and the revealed word of God.

This is illustrated in Luke 24 in the conversation Jesus had with the two men on the road to Emmaus.  In verse 7, Jesus asked them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” We should note Jesus pointed out that they are sad. Emotions follow believing. If you believe the wrong thing your emotions will get off.  What did they believe that was wrong? Jesus answers that for us in verses 25-27.

Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

It was the suffering. Because they did not rightly believe the Christ must suffer it caused them to wrongly interpret the greatest event that happened in human history. Jesus began to remedy this wrong belief by explaining the Scriptures concerning Himself to them. I think today suffering is one of our biggest stumbling blocks. We do not really understand the heart of the Father concerning suffering and we get messed up, like these guys, in our hearts.

There was something else that was needed to go along with the explanation of the Scriptures. “Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:30-32

They realized who Jesus was only after He drew their attention to the cross; the broken bread speaks of His broken body. We will never truly know the Lord, be able to understand and rightly apply the Scriptures or rightly interpret the circumstances of this life apart from the cross. The cross must be central. We are resurrection people, but we must never forget it is the cross that brings us into new life. Jesus is the Lamb of God who was slain, but lives. There is no resurrection without the cross. 

May the Lord speak the Scriptures to us in a way that cause our hearts to burn for Him and may the cross always be central to who we are and all we do.

Many Blessings, BW

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