Hearts Ablaze, Motivation for and from the Word

Luke 24:25-27,32

Jesus said to them, "How unwise and slow are you to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Did the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?" Then begnning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all of Scriptures.
...So they said to each other, "Weren't our hearts ablaze within us while Jesus was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?"

Many people will tell you that the Bible is important to read day in and out, and I couldn't agree more. But as you and I both know - there are times when it is hard to pick up and read, and even to really get into. Now, one could talk much on how to study the word, but my intention isn't to go into that right now. You can learn more about that here. I simply want to make the observation from Scripture that it is meant to set our hearts ablaze for action and the Glorification of the LORD.

Basially, these two disciples were traveling after hearing that Jesus was no longer in the tomb on the third day. Upon traveling, Jesus encountered them but was disguised and posed a question regarding their thoughts on the tomb. They wanted to believe that Jesus was the Messiah but didn't really know how to react or feel. Still In disguise, Jesus explained "his view" on all the scriptures regarding Himself over their time walking. Once Jesus revealed to them (v31) whom He was, he disappeared from their sight.

Now, they take the time to recollect how passionate they were regarding Jesus and the scriptures as they heard and discussed.

• Daily we should share about Jesus, the scriptures, and our walks with the Lord with each other and those who don't know whether we are working, traveling, or simply at home with our friends and family. The Word of God brings life, motivation, and power through the Spirit giving us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the things not of this world.
  

During this time they were discussing scriptures with Jesus, not knowing it was Him, their hearts were ablaze.

• Even though we are not experiencing Jesus' physical presence in our life, we know by faith that He is with us. Let us be spurred on by His presence though it's not empirically provided that He is there. You have assurance of Him through salvation by grace through faith. The Word was provided as power to those who believe.

Following their time recollecting their discussion with Jesus about the scriptures and the Glory that Jesus's sufferings brought about, they acted in faith to share with the other disciples in Jerusalem.

• With your heart ablaze from the Word, an action is provoked. Through the scriptures and personal opportunities to Glorify God, we are lead and empowered by the Spirit to act. (Eph 2:10)

This scripture was refreshing for me to read and I am thankful that through the Spirit it was revealed to me to write on this topic and remember the power of the Scripture. I am praying for those of you that read this that the Spirit will lead you to specific action and desire for the Word. As well as that you would experience the presence of the LORD though you cannot see Him.

Believing, But Not Seeing, John 20:29

The Christian life is based off of decisions by faith. "Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, and the assurance of what is not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). People refute faith based on science, but by definition faith does not fall under the law of science because it proves itself. It is absolute assurance. The LORD honors faith. "Jesus said, 'Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed'" (John 20:26). Faith can only be realized through experience that happens following the act of believing by faith. That experience only comes by believing whole-heartedly and living expectant of the Lord to fulfill his promise of faith. At first this seems a bit of a paradox. This passages identifies to camps people can be a part of:

First, the man who lives by sight, or feelings - "because you have seen Me...". Specifically, before this verse Thomas touched the wounds of Christ and because of this of this he was able to believe that Jesus was LORD. Now, thankfully for Thomas, Jesus knew that was what Thomas needed in order to believe and be saved. Many times, we need to our feelings to match our beliefs in order to make a heart-level commitment to things. However, there is a second category that is brought up.

This second category is described as "those who believe without seeing". Jesus declared that they are blessed. Why? Because through that which is not scientifically proven, they can believe and make a heart-level commitment to the promises in the Bible. After understanding this, the natural question to ask is where does faith come from, and how does this apply to us?

Well, because Jesus is not walking as a man on this earth today offering "feelings-based" proofs of his existence and lordship, we must take the second avenue to belief that was described and provided by God. So, we are meant to be "those who believe without seeing". God desires to bless us in these things. So where does faith come from? Some would say it comes from us, but Ephesians 2:8,9 states that "You are saved by grace, through faith - and this is a gift from God, not of yourselves so that no one can boast." -- HOW Humbling. We do not have the faith to give. Do you remember how Jesus knew that in order for Thomas to believe, he had to offered up his hands and his pierced side so that Thomas could see and believe? Well, in the same way - God knows that because of our doubts, our lack of faith, and the darkness around us - we cannot in our own strength believe in Him. Therefore, faith is a gift of God provided for us to believe, and not only to believe, but to be blessed according to John 20:29! Praise the LORD for faith, and that we can live by it. Living by faith does just stop here though.

As a basis for faith in our lives, God has offered up an entire Bible full of faith-filled stories that encourage us, spur us on, and allow us to Glorify Him with our actions. Believing in Jesus is just step one of your walk of faith. I would encourage you to know that the direction and empowerment (being filled) by the Holy Spirit is also an initial and extremely important faith step in your walk with Christ. We also pray by faith, expectant that God will answer those things which are according to his will. The list goes on of how we offer up a life of faith to God!

Be encouraged my friends, and live by faith, for faith pleases God and He blesses those who live by the gift of faith that He has provided for us. John finishes off these thoughts on believing by faith by saying, "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:30,31).

Reflection:

• Do I live and make decision based on feelings and what I see, or faith?
• If I don't depend on feelings as much, there are still areas where I do. How can I surrender those to the LORD in order to live faith-filled, directed and empowered by the Spirit?
• Who is someone I can share this with who God wants enabled to live a life faith-filled and believing in Jesus?

Additional Resource: Faith is not a Feeling <- I highly recommend reading this too :)

When I First Experienced the Adventure of Giving

Between my sophomore year in college and my junior year in college, I was living off campus subleasing in a CRU house at the time. During that summer, one of the housemates invited a staff member named Josh over to our house for dinner and told the rest of the house mates they were welcome to come to the dinner. At that dinner, Josh talked a little bit about ministry he was doing with Campus Crusade - at the time, he was going to be heading to East Asia to do a 1 year STINT (Short Term International Mission Trip) which turned into many years (they are still there 6 years later).

After the dinner he took some time to talk to me (I knew him a little, but we had never really talked before), and he asked if I understood everything he was talking about. After that, Josh invited me to join his ministry team to help fulfill the great commission. When he asked me to join his team, he said that I could give x amount of $$/mo while he was doing ministry abroad. This was the first time I can ever remember being asked to support someone other than seeing a collection basket go around at church. This was the first time I was ever challenged to think about investing my finances in eternal things. This was the first time that I had ever even realized that God wanted me to use my money for missions just like anything else. I was taken aback when Josh asked me that question but I played it cool with a simple "Well, Hey Josh... that sounds really cool - I will pray about it."...

... Instead of praying, I abruptly went to look my checking account to see what existed (or didn't exist for that matter). At the time, I was paying for all my school and my parents were not able to help me. After thoroughly thinking about it for 5 minutes, I made the decision: I could not have what I needed to support Josh's ministry.

Before I got a chance to hear back from Josh (He said he'd call me a couple days later), I asked one of the guys I was living with if he was going to give to Josh's ministry. He replied the he would even though he wasn't making a lot -- apparently this is typical in the college world, who knew? I said the same thing, I mentioned that I wasn't making much and had to pay for school. But then, this roommate of mine explained something I had never heard before. He said "Even though you don't think you have enough money, I think that you will find when you sincerely trust God with your finances that you will not come up lacking what you need."

I pondered on this for the following hours that evening and decided that I wanted to give an amount to Josh's ministry each month. I couldn't decide though how much... if I did $10/mo, I felt like I wasn't really trusting God with my finances. $50 a month seemed ridiculously high for me as a college student and I knew I couldn't feel right doing that. I wanted to be a good "steward" of my finances... After praying about it and waking up the next morning.. I found the happy medium and decided on $35/mo. Josh called that night and I told him my decision. This was when I first discovered the adventure of giving. From that day on, I have absolutely been blessed to learn that I enjoy blessing others, as well as being hospitable. God has shown me that he knows more about my finances than I did, even as a college student who felt like he had nothing to offer... who knew? So even though my decision 2 nights before was "I could not have what I needed to support Josh's ministry". I quickly came to learn that "God had what I needed and enough more than that to use me to support Josh's ministry".

God is greater than our limited resources; He is greater than our limited philosophies and sciences; He is greater than our biggest sin.

God is greater than...

Additional Resource: How You Can Experience the Adventure of Giving or Listen Here