“Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:32-33 NKJV

Oh, what joy it is to be able to celebrate Christ’s victory over sin this Easter Sunday. “O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory”.

The temple veil was split on Good Friday giving us direct access to God and Christ’s resurrection assure us of our own resurrection. What more do we need to be full of Joy as we meet together each Sunday and at other times to rejoice in this sacrificial gift and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

This past year, however has been a bit different and perhaps we have not been able to worship with the same enthusiasm. Our previous security has been shattered and everything is different, why did this virus have to interrupt our lives, doesn’t God care about us, couldn’t he have stopped all this?

Well, that is a big question(s). I was drawn to study the book of Job many years ago and as a result I am able to put the present circumstances into perspective. God has allowed this to happen and is using it for His purpose and our benefit (read the book).

In the western world we are incredibly good at ‘toeing the line’ and conforming to the structure, which certainly makes life easier, but is that what God wants within His church. Each Sunday we meet follows the same pattern, the same for midweek meetings and nothing surprising in between. There is nothing wrong with order but where is the spontaneity driven by the Holy Spirit and the revelation from deep bible study? (I am being deliberately provocative here.) So, let us look at this a bit differently.

When we fill in a questioner these days, it is all tick boxes to keep the computers happy and often there is not a tick box for our particular answer, so we compromise. The computer requires a yes/no answer and in fact we prefer to have a yes/no question as there are so many decisions required of us in life. Do we carry this principle over into our Christian walk? Are we looking for simple answers in our bible reading or do we study and compare scripture to find out what God is really saying? The rabbis made the mistake of giving a black and white answer for every situation and ended up by suffocating their people by so many laws that it was impossible to keep them and Jesus had a word for them “brood of vipers”, whereas Jesus died upon the cross to set us free and to write His laws upon our hearts. No longer do we need a professional scribe to guide us on our walk with God, for if we have truly been ‘born again’, we have the Holy Spirit within us.

On the Road to Emmaus the two disciples were depressed as all they could see of the previous week was in black and white and provided no answers to them. Everything was lost. The mood was so dark that they did not recognise Jesus walking with them. However, when Jesus explained the scriptures to them, they were able to see it in a new light and “did not our heart burn within us” and when Jesus broke bread they were able to recognise Him because the scriptures now made sense to them. They Believed and Saw.

Does your heart burn within you when you are worshipping and studying the bible? Fantastic you must be allowing the Holy Spirit to teach you and guide you. If this is not the case and your worship is just part of everyday life, then I venture to say that God has a better way for you. Search the bible not just for answers, as for principles. Stop looking for things to do as to hear His voice speaking to you. Believe God and step out in faith and you will see God at work in your life.